| Bridget O'Mahony |  | | | | Bridget Horan O'Mahony was born in 1919, in the townland of Caherbarnagh, Count Kerry, Ireland. The eldest of ten children, she received little or no formal schooling since the survival demands of a household in a remote Irish farm meant days of child-minding and field nurturing. Her father, Frances Horan, was a seanchaí or storyteller and she grew up steeped in the rich music and language of her ancestry.
The highlight of her youth was the outdoor platform by Caherbarnagh Lake where young men and women met on Sunday evenings to dance and share each other's company. This was no ordinary kind of dancing. A frenetic square that had its roots in France (Quadrille), it developed in rural parts of Ireland with the return of soldiers from the Napoleonic wars. It was a pagan encounter that was danced at Bealtaine, Samhain, the solstices and on the full moon. Bridget was a lively participant during its heyday. She has made her life in County Cork with her husband Jack, from where she watched some of her children disperse to the four corners of the earth. | |
| | | Titles by Author |  | | | Pagan Dances of Caherbarnagh | | | | Pagan Dances of Caherbarnagh is not just another book about leaving Ireland. It is a searching expose into the dark complexities and emotional struggles that result when a person makes a choice ...more about this title. |
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