Everyone was Irish on Monday evening at the annual Ceili Dance, a freewill benefit for the Loaves and Fishes Community held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Superior Street.
Though he said he is Scandinavian, Troy Carlson dyed his beard green. “I’m just having fun with the kids,” he said has he left to swing his redheaded daughter, Annalise, 6, in a dance move. Troy’s wife, Alyssa, is the daughter of Kate Crowley, who was wearing a green dress and a Celtic knot necklace. Kate said she had been attending the annual Ceili Dance for years.
Triangle flags of green, white and orange decorated the ceiling of the hall. Many wore green shirts some wore green skirts and some wore plaid kilts. Two young men from with a group from Harbor City International School, Hyland Garvey and Sage DeGaia, both 16, wore sashes over their shirts to go with their kilts, and the rest in their party wore plaids.
Terrance Smith’s voice grew hoarse as he continued to cheerfully give dance directions: “And forward, and forward, and back, and back, make the arch and go under the arch.”
“Is everybody happy?” Smith asked. The crowd of dancers cheered and clapped.
“Look at the other couple and smile at them,” Smith directed.
More than 150 people filled the hall and about $1,500 was raised.
“It had great energy! Everyone was having fun. It was a great celebration of community and of St. Patrick,” Joel Kilgour told the Budgeteer.
Kilgour is a member of the Loaves and Fishes Community.
And after a workday of co-workers making up their own special Irish names, this skeptical photojournalist learned that even though some at the dance were just pretending to be Irish, that if someone told you his last name was Maloney, it probably wasn’t a bunch of Malarkey.
Tom Maloney, the guitar player for the Zenith City Band showed off his Maloney Family Reunion 2013 T-shirt as proof to his surname.
