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I started writing this book when I was working in the School of Communications at Dublin City University but it was only following retirement in 2011 that I found time to finish it. So it was substantially the intellectual environment provided by colleagues both within and outside the School that informed my work during those twentyfive years. I would particularly like to thank Farrell Corcoran, who in his leadership role as Head of School was instrumental in creating a supportive intellectual environment in which to conduct research. The intellectual generosity and enthusiasm of other colleagues is equally appreciated. Stimulating conversations with Stephanie McBride, Michael Cronin, Luke Gibbons, Des McGuinness and Paschal Preston in pubs and parties as well as the pulpits of the academy have been an enriching source of my thinking about Irish cultural history and politics. In this capacity too I would like to thank postgraduate researchers Teresa Breathnach and Sean O Seanchair, as well as Eamonn Slater and Stephanie Rains, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. I would like to pay a special tribute to Bill Dorris for his collegiality and friendship as well as for praxis – that judicious combination of theory and practice. Not only was he ever ready to discuss theory but was also more than willing to repair to the corridor outside our adjacent offices to practice reel steps. As we hoofed and whooped the bemused passers-by may well have been prompted to ponder the sanity of academics. The experience of the dancers themselves has made an invaluable contribution to this book. Indeed, it would not have been possible to write without their voices. Thanks to the set dancers, step dancers and Acknowledgements ix ballroom dancers who shared so generously their thoughts and feelings with me. I hope I have done them justice on the page. While their names have been changed to respect anonymity I owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. I would like to acknowledge, too, specific help from a number of colleagues, Pat Brereton, John Horgan and Colum Kenny for helpful suggestions or references; Dave Coleman, Senior Press Officer, Office of the Revenue Commissioners for information on the ‘dance tax’; Teresa Breathnach for sharing her grandfather’s newspaper article on jazz; Timothy G. McMahon, Marquette University for useful leads on early Oireachtas competitions (leads not yet pursued, I’m afraid!) and Harvey O’Brien, University College Dublin for information on the Mars ballroom. I have also been the beneficiary of involvement with a dance research community, Dance Research Forum Ireland (DRFI) based in the University of Limerick whose members at the time, Catherine Foley, Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Olive Beecher, Victoria O’Brien, and Matts Melin were actively involved in developing a public profile for dance research in Ireland and who made me feel very welcome. I am, likewise, indebted to dance ethnographers Helena Wulff and Frank Hall for their writing and conversations on dance. My gratitude to colleague and friend Elisabeth Klaus, Department of Communication, University of Salzburg, for the opportunity to teach at the University and to share ideas on dance with staff and students there. My thanks to the staff of DCU library and to the Irish Traditional Music Archive for their efficiency and helpfulness over the years. I am especially grateful to the staff of Cork University Press, particularly Maria O’Donovan, for their tireless professional efforts in bringing this book to publication. Thanks to my friends Jonathan Bell for constant encouragement and for sourcing the cover image, Ann Connolly for checking image sources and some relatively unsuccessful ‘assertiveness training’, and my sister Lorna for chasing those last elusive references. Finally, my gratitude to all my family and friends for their love and support. x Acknowledgements ...

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