About The Booley House Show

What can I expect when I go to see The Booley House?
The Booley House Show is proud to present the very best of Irish music, song and dance. Resident Seanachaí James Lenane is a well known personality, All-Ireland winner in his field, and is sure to have you laughing as he regales times past. The Booley House also includes the Michael Ryan School of Irish Dance, which encompass a wonderful range of original step dancing routines that always generate enthusiastic audience response. A number of former Booley House dancers from this school have continued to have successful careers performing in Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, and other well-known shows.

Local Set Dance teachers, Tom Hyland and Ciara Dunne, will have their dancers doing Irish sets, often exciting audience members to dance in the aisles. A recent innovation to the show is the introduction of brush dancers, which have proved to be a showstopper.

The musicians provide a unique sound performing on traditional instruments, which has been the hallmark of the Booley House since the start. Our musicians currently include nationally renowned artists Tony Dunne, John Nugent, Brendan Clancy, Claire Fennell, Thomas Ahern & Clodagh Kelly. We are proud to have singers Becky & Ellen McCloskey to complete our cast. As always, you can expect a guest spot or two from an invited artist to ensure the variety and entertainment that epitomises the Booley House.

From Booley House to Riverdance and beyond
We are proud that many former Booley House performers have gone on to have successful full time careers in dance and music. Some of our previous dance members include Abigail Browne, Donnchadh Howard, Paula Goulding, Michael Donegan and Catherine O’Brien. All of whom have spent years in the service of Riverdance and similar shows. Paula Goulding and Michael Donegan are recently well-known for their parts in the hit RTE series “Jigs n Reels”. It’s also been our great fortune to have had performances from internationally renowned musicians such as Ciarán Galvin (Danú), Donnchadh Goff (Danú), Donal Clancy (Danú), Benny McCarthy (Danú), Mick McCauley (Solas), David Power (uileann pipes), Marie O’Reilly (Cherish The Ladies), Gerry Harrington (fiddle), Eoin O’Suilleabháin (accordion and flute). We continue to invite guest appearances from such artists every Summer.

And where do the profits go?
The show is not intended to be a commercial venture, instead all profits are invested directly back into the local traditional music and dance scene. Profits earned go towards the promotion of local classes at highly discounted prices. They are also spent on the purchase of expensive instruments which are then hired out to students as they begin their classes. In the past aided by local fund-raising, we have been lucky enough to receive state of the art lighting and sound systems for the hall. As the talents of the students progress, they are then given the opportunity to perform in The Booley House and showcase their skills. Everyone involved will tell you that taking part in Booley House is about the craic and the love of their art.

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