Pat Roche
the man
An Irish Dancing Legend
Pat Roche was born on March 24,
1905 to the family of Patrick and Brigid Roche in the small village of Doonaha,
near Carrigagaholt, County Clare, Ireland. He was one of 10 children and
remembers his childhood with helping out on the family farm, cutting turf and
dancing at the crossroads and in a local out of use creamery which had been
converted into a dance hall. His father, as well as farming the land, also ran
a shop that sold fresh baked goods. For a time his father also ran a public
house but Pat says he began to like it too well and his mother was soon to
disapprove.
If it were not for the fact
that a man named Michael Hennessey walked into Doonaha when he was 12 years
old, we may never have heard of Pat. But walk in he did and fortunately for us
Michael was a teacher of Irish dance who, in the tradition of the bards
of old, wandered from town to town, settled down for a while to teach and then
move on again. Young Pat found Michael a place to stay and became a student of
the master. He stayed in Doonaha for 12 years and during that time taught Pat
all kinds of Irish dance including Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes.
During this same period Pat
was involved in Ireland’s war of Independence acting as a dispatcher for the
Irish Republican Army. He tells the story of one occasion when carrying
such a document coming upon a British Army checkpoint. He hid the
dispatch in the horse’s mane and on being ordered to dismount, a British
soldier held the reins of the horse while he was searched. Nothing was found
and he continued on his way. If the dispatch had been found he would almost
certainly have been shot.
Eventually
Pat gathered enough money to pay for his passage to America and in 1925
wearing a new suit and with a small package of provisions he made the six day
journey to New York. He stayed there, living with his sisters who had earlier
made the same journey. In 1930 he moved to Chicago. He began a small
door-to-door grocery business there and at the same time began teaching Irish
dancing, opening his “Harp and Shamrock School of Traditional
Dance.”
He organized and M.C.’d
shows at the “Irish Village” at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934. he
danced, he told stories and organized the Harp and Shamrock Ceili Band,
America’s first ceili band. The band was approached to make a record for
Decca. This 78 r.p.m. record featured the sound of Pat dancing to the music of
“Boys of Blue Hill” and Stack of Wheat played by the band and sold all
around the world.
Pat
Roche perfected a unique style of teaching Irish Dance using a system where
steps are counted as in a musical score. His daughter Peggy went to Ireland to
study Irish dancing with the famous Ida Cadwell bringing her father’s system
with her. The system so impressed Cadwell that she made the trip to Chicago to
learn the system herself from Pat.
Many have been influenced by
Pat’s teaching, not least Michael Flatley of “Lord of the Dance” fame.
He was taught by a protégé of Pat, Margie Denehy. She has become a master
and teacher of Irish Dance in her own right as have many of his students.
Thanks to Pat, Irish Dance has
flourished in the Midwest. We cannot thank him enough and wish to honor this
great man by including his name in the title of our club.
We would like to thank and credit www.chicagopatrochefeis.com
for this biographical information on Pat Roche.
