The case of the two Irish Jigs

Abstract

Irish and Scottish migration to Australia included the transportation of traditional arts, including dance. Dance competitions were popular community activities, but the presence of an Irish Jig in the canon of Scottish Highland dance and its imputed association with the vaudeville ‘stage Irish’ provoked anger among Irish migrants. This is because it threatened their notions of the representation of Irish identity through dance. The controversy surrounding the Irish Jig in the nineteenth century was perceived by Irish dancers as illustrating the wider socio-cultural circumstances of Irish immigrants in Australia.