Caroline Boyce
A London Irish Story as told to Anna Johnston
“I grew up in North London but we were always back and forth to Ireland on our holidays. My dad is from Donegal, and it is one of my favourite places to visit. I love to spend time there every year during my summers off from teaching. My mum is from Meath, just outside Dublin, so I always stop off there when I’m back in Ireland. I would wholeheartedly consider myself to be Irish, but I have unfortunately experienced people arguing with me that I’m not Irish because of my accent. This happened in Australia when I went travelling out there, the Irish couldn’t accept this. I used to find it quite frustrating because growing up in London I would never call myself English. I think it is more the younger generations that don’t think of the Irish abroad as truly Irish. Luckily, I do have many fond memories of Irish people being very accepting and lovely towards me, so I've experienced both sides!
North London has a very close-knit Irish community and growing up we were really thrown into the Irish culture. My brothers both learnt how to play Irish music and I went to Irish dancing lessons.
Our local Catholic church also had a big Irish community attached to it, so Irishness was really infused into the way we were brought up. I went to both a catholic primary and secondary schools which meant that a lot of the children were of Irish decent too. It felt normal to do a lot of Irish extracurricular activities because a lot of my friends were doing the same. We were very lucky to have all the opportunities we did growing up and I am always so grateful for this. Now, from what I see in my own and other Irish dance schools it is quite different. Of course, there are still children who come from Irish families but there are children with no relationship to Ireland which shows how popular a form of dance it has become.
When we were a bit older, we all went with friends to Irish pubs in north London where a lot of people from Irish heritage would all go. It was the place to be. I have a lot of Irish friends and they are always saying how I’m so much more Irish than them even though I was born and grew up in London. I love hearing this!!
My dad first took me along to Irish dance classes at the age of 5 years old. I started winning high level competitions quite young from local championships to those up the country. At my first Great Britain Championships I placed second, narrowly getting beaten by 1 point. From there on in, the competitive bug had got me.
When considering University’s, I even decided to stay in London to really fulfil my potential competitively. Irish dancing was my life. After winning titles such as the All Scotland Championships, Manchester Nationals and placing 4th at the World Championships, it was a natural progression to do auditions for shows. I was mesmerised when I first saw Riverdance on the Eurovision song contest and knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. Riverdance definitely put the world of Irish dancing on the map. I auditioned for both Lord of the Dance The show and Riverdance and got into both leaving me with a huge dilemma of which one to choose. My first taste of performing professionally was with Lord of the Dance for four weeks over the Christmas period in Disneyland Paris which was such a fun experience. The show was off to South Africa for 12 weeks and this swayed my choice of which show to join. I had the most amazing experience with Lord and being apart of the newly formed Troupe 4. One fond memory I have was having to do 6 standing ovations at our opening show in Milan when Michael Flatley was in to watch, this was such an unbelievable high! After a few years with Lord of the Dance, I decided to jump ship and join Riverdance who were still eager to have me on board. I toured for total of 7 years both full and part time and got to travel all over the world. I also got to dance alongside legends such as Lionel Richie, Johnny Logan and Andrea Bocelli to name a few. I am very proud to have been apart of such shows.
Although I loved performing in the shows, what I would do next was always in the back of my mind. I was always very sporty at school and always loved PE so this was a very natural progression for me and decided to do my teacher training qualification in PE. I was very lucky to be doing this alongside flying squad gigs with Riverdance which kept my toes in the world of performing.
I set up my own dance school about 10 years ago now. Being able to teach such a unique form of dance is very exciting and to see my dancer’s progress is precious and very rewarding. I am always trying to build on numbers at my classes and encourage all children of all ages to get involved. It is a fun activity which builds discipline, coordination and friendships for life. Through popular demand, I now also teach adult classes in Crouch End which are so much fun. I would encourage everyone to give Irish dancing a go no matter your age or experience, you won’t regret it! ”
You can find more information by visiting Caroline’s Facebook pages: Everyone is welcome!!
https://facebook.com/Irishdancingnorthlondon (Caroline Boyce School of Dancing)
https://www.facebook.com/fit2jig (Adult Irish Dance classes)
