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I created this dance in 2022 to celebrate Bilberry Sunday – a day of celebration that was traditionally held on the 31st July to welcome Lughnasa and the start of the harvest season. The celebration eventually moved to the last Sunday of July to avoid the 31st July falling on a weekday and delaying the busy harvest work.
Detailed instructions for the full set are available here and also at the end of this page.
Filmed at the pump at Effrinagh Crossroads, Co. Leitrim on 10 April 2025 – the location of the annual crossroads dance on bonefire night.
Musician – Aaron Glancy, accordion, from Geevagh, Co. Sligo
A few months prior to creating this set, Jonny Dillon at the National Folklore Collection brought to my attention the documentation of an event by Máire MacNeill in her book Festivals of Lughnasa. It was a description by an elderly man of Ballinaglera, Co. Leitrim about the celebrations on the last Sunday of July, 1917 above on Sliabh an Iarainn.
“Sometimes as many as two thousand people were said to be gathered there ‘as thick as they could stand.’ They made the ascent in the early afternoon and stayed on the mountain for several hours. The old went, as well as the young. Fiddlers and flute players were there to play for the dancers. As at other mountain-assemblies the dancing was not the kind that all joined in but rather performances by small numbers of gifted dancers. There was keen competition and appreciation. The dances were mainly eight-hand reels, four. hand reels and ‘ single-turns.’ The people of Glengevlin were accounted the best, but dancers from all the surrounding parishes took part, and fame was assured after a good performance on the Playbank. The last big gathering is said to have been held about 1917. One of the old men who gave information to our correspondent said that the reason the people went up the hill was ‘to give the last salute to the summer’, and from him too came the interesting item that the people on leaving the mountain gave a loud cheer.”
from Festivals of Lughnasa / Máire McNeill
It was this piece of text that inspired me to create this Lughnasa dance with the hope that it will be someday danced on the Playbank of a sunny Bilberry Sunday in Co. Leitrim.
I created each figure based on the farming traditions and folklore associated with Lughnasa.
The first figure – The Harvesting – is based on the movements of the scythe and the farmer working that scythe in rows over and back the fields.
The second figure – The Stack of Barley – features the 7s and timpeall an tí (around the house) movements of the traditional two hand dance that would have been danced at the crossroads or barn dance following a successful harvest. A farming meitheal would take place on each farm in the community – neighbours coming together help cut, save and bring home the crop. As a reward for their help and labour, the farmer of that land would host a barn dance that night with music, song, dance, food and drink for all. It was also a popular scene for courting.
The third and final figure – The Last Sheaf – is based on the folklore surrounding the cutting of the last sheaf left standing in the field. The farmers would gather round it and let out a roar to run the hare from it. The hare being the messenger for the good people, often seen as a changling and referred to as the Cailleach (the witch), was thought to be hiding in this last sheaf. The shouts of the farmers was said to run it on to the next farmer that hadn’t began harvesting yet. And whoever cut the last sheaf in the field was said to be the next to be married. This last sheaf was then plaited and hung in the farmers kitchen to bring safety and good luck for the year to the people of the house and all their animals.
The harvest knot movement also features in this figure. Harvest knots were made by the workers to wear on the lapels of their jackets or in their hats to display at winter fair days to show their availability for work. Others say that young people made them as a courtship gesture for someone they had their eye on.
Like all my dance creations it began by the full set and movements being imagined and danced out in my head until I was happy with it. I then wrote it out and moved onto my trusty kitchen table dancers to verify all movements would work.
Followed by dancing it with the real deal!
The Harvest Dance Set [comp. Edwina Guckian]
The harvesting, jigs, first figure of The Harvest Dance Set [comp. Edwina Guckian].
The stack of barley, hornpipes, second figure of The Harvest Dance [comp. Edwina Guckian]
The last sheaf, polkas, third figure of The Harvest Dance [comp. Edwina Guckian]
ITMA would like to thank Edwina Guckian, Aaron Glancy and the dancers for their permission to make this material available on the ITMA website.
