Irish Set Dancing

Famous quotes containing the words irish, set and/or dancing:

    O Paddy dear, an’ did ye hear the news that’s goin’ round?
    The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground!
    No more Saint Patrick’s Day we’ll keep, his colour can’t be seen,
    For there’s a cruel law agin the wearin’ o’ the Green!
    —Unknown. The Wearing of the Green (l. 37–40)

    I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman ... I would know him, that would refuse to set his hand to a rope, but I know there is not any such here.
    Francis, Sir Drake (1540–1596)

    We have dancing ... from soon after sundown until a few minutes after nine o’clock.... Occasionally the boys who play the female partners in the dances exercise their ingenuity in dressing to look as girlish as possible. In the absence of lady duds they use leaves, and the leaf-clad beauties often look very pretty and always odd enough.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)