In Southern Ireland, there was an anti-Catholic man named Marcus Keane who owned all the property in a little village. The Catholics in the village had no place to worship, and because Marcus owned the land, he objected to any church being built. The people of the town decided to make a little arc on wheels and roll it out into the ocean so they could have mass. The congregation included my great-grandmother and her family. They used to line the shore and the priest would walk out into the ocean and say the mass.
Irish dancing is a continuing tradition in our family.
Katherine Jugler had five of her six children Maureen, Brian, Patricia, Brendan, and Nancy all take Irish dancing lessons. Kathleen Mulkerin was a family friend who established the first Irish dancing school in CT in Stamford, where one of her first students was, ironically, my mother s aunt, Joan Hagan. Kathleen s father and Daniel Devine were longtime friends. Daniel encouraged her to add a studio in Danbury. Because of the wonderful dancing taught by Kathleen, my father, Brendan, won a State Junior Championship title in Irish dancing.