BSS News 2. 5. 2017
John Cullinane will come to BSS 2017
The magic number seven at the end of the number line representing this year marks an anniversary relating to Irish dancing in the Czech Republic, or in Czechoslovakia. We as the organisers of the Summer School have decided to commemorate this anniversary, not only on our website. In the course of the Summer School and especially at the Final Evening, we would like to welcome persons related to the above-mentioned anniversary.
In July 2017, exactly 50 years will have passed since the eldest event, which relates to Irish dancing and Irish music. Those, who are at least a little interested in the history of Irish dancing in the Czech Republic, surely do not need to be reminded, what event this was. In July 1967, the first cultural delegation of Irish dancers and musicians flew to Prague from Ireland, and after a brief stop in Prague, they moved to Ostrava. At the local house of culture (which still stands and serves for cultural events), they had a performance. Afterwards, the entire group went on to Myjava, where they performed at a local folklore festival. This cultural delegation was led by the then twenty-eight-year-old John Cullinane and Brenda Springer Doylan. John mentioned this visit in his book entitled Aspects of the History of Irish Céilí Dancing 1897 – 1997, including photographs from the performance. When visiting his archive at University College Cork, we were able to acquaint ourselves with further documents relating to this visit. We were actually also able to see these during John’s visit to BSS 2013. We have managed to acquire further documents from Ms Svatava Bohúšová, who was a member of the Opavica dance group at that time. Opavica, which was then led by the parents of Ms Svatava, was the host of the Irish dancers and musicians.
In the photograph, Brenda Springer Doylan is in the middle and John Cullinane is the third one from the left.
When preparing the upcoming Summer School, we contacted John and invited him to this year’s Summer School. John has a very cordial relation to our country, he has welcomed our invitation and promised to teach participants one Irish dance at the Final Evening.
John is still an active member of the CLRG, having reached the highest qualification title, SDCRG, the “examiner” qualification. In addition to this, he remains active in Irish dancing, he founded the Cullinane Archive Collection and has published 11 publications relating to the history of Irish dancing worldwide. He has also contributed a number of articles on the history of Irish dancing to various books, publications and other printed documents. I have by far not exhausted all of John’s activities with this list yet, but I endeavoured to mention especially those related to the above-mentioned anniversary.
Participants at the Summer School will be able to meet John in the course of the Summer School, too, and if they order one of his books in advance from us (a binding order by July 31), they will not only be able to buy it at the Summer School, but also to get it signed by the author himself.
Václav Bernard
