Luck of the Irish takes over Jorgensen

The luck of the Irish took over Jorgensen on Friday and Saturday night bringing along a colorful show that told a lot of history of the Emerald Isle. 

The show kicked off with traditional Irish music dancers as they step dance along to the music and showed off their brilliant colored dresses. A fiddler, banjo player and a guitarist took over as they played Irish tunes that filled the Jorgensen theater and had audience members clapping to the beat. Three male and three female singers took stage, singing songs that told stories of Irish tradition including potatoes and cabbage. 

A lot of the traditional songs were focused on immigration to the United States and missing the homeland. Some of the songs even talked about the hardships that many Irish people had to face whether it was in the U.S or how poor Ireland had been. The fiddler played a solo piece that showed his half Irish side and also his French heritage. During the performance, he showed the contrast between the two cultures and their different music. While the French stuck to more classical sounding music, the Irish showed a wilder side for the fiddler. Switching back and forth to the different tunes, he was eventually joined on stage with the banjo player and the guitarist before their epic conclusion. 

A lone musician took the stage in order to play the traditional pastoral pipes similar to the bagpipes however the player has to squeeze air into the instrument in order to create a tune rather than blowing into it. Strobe lights and colorful lighting effects were used throughout the show in order to create a sense of drama when the step dancers took the stage. The singers also had very unique lighting in order to create a dramatic effect for their passionate songs of the homeland and the suffering that Irish people had to face when immigrating. 

“I’m third generation Irish American and my family came just like they [the singers] are describing out of Cork,” said Noreen Cullen of Glastonbury. “They went to Waterbury, Conn. since the English wanted to arrest my great, great grandfather and the English had also taken their property in order to lease it back to them.”

The show continued with the singers walking around into the audience and engaging them to sing along to familiar Irish tunes such as “Danny Boy,” “Whiskey in a Jar” and even Van Morrison’s “Brown Eye Girl.” During the show lead male vocal, Derek Moloney, made jokes referencing Irish drinking habits that eventually led to singing “Whisky in a Jar.” The show ended with the performers greeting the audience in the lobby of Jorgensen.   

“I’m having a great time,” said Lin Klein of Storrs/Mansfield. “It’s a great way to spend a snowy Friday night and it’s a lot of fun.”   

“Tonight was another example of Jorgensen bringing entertainment to the center of campus,” said Waldo Klein of Storrs/Mansfield.