October 1, 1998

From Lively Jigs to Chat Rooms, Web Is a Host for Irish Culture

By J.D. BIERSDORFER

rish culture is, of course, far more than green beer every March 17.

	Joan Marcus / Riverdance
	Riverdance, the traveling Irish dance troupe, has a home on the Internet.

For many, the entree into the Celtic musical traditions is "Riverdance," that loud, brash Broadway-style stage show that has thumped its way back to New York for a run at Radio City Music Hall until Oct, 11. Not surprisingly, the show has its own Web site, based in Dublin. In addition to dispensing ticket and tour information, the official site caters to fans who just can't get enough by including cast biographies, multimedia clips and rehearsal photos. The site also has message boards for fans around the world to exchange greetings and news.

For those wanting to learn more about traditional Irish culture, there are plenty of places on the Web in which to tarry. A site called Ceolas says it has the "largest online collection of information on Celtic music" with a multitude of links to sites related to the topic. (Celtic dance has its own section here, but links to anything remotely connected to Celtic music dominate the site. ("Celtic" refers to, for the most part, the cultures of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.) Particularly enticing is an area with a bulging index of musical notation for traditional tunes, which are available for printing or downloading in a variety of file formats, including Adobe Acrobat PDF and GIF, a photo format easily handled by most Web browsers.

With its penny whistles and mournful pipes, the best-selling soundtrack for "Titanic" recently brought new exposure for Celtic music. But National Public Radio was there first with its renowned weekly program "The Thistle and Shamrock," which has run for 15 years and also has its own official Web site. The radio show, with Fiona Ritchie as host, presents a lively mix of musical material from Scotland, Ireland and North America.

The site offers basic information about the show, like national station listings and forthcoming programs. A Features section provides background about artists heard on the show, and the Exchange/Feedback page lets users post and respond to a discussion board. For current news from the old sod, there's The Irish Times Online, which provides a link to its weekly news supplement written in the Irish language. If that inspires you to learn more about the language, try the Gaelic and Gaelic Culture site, which offers plenty of information on the topic. The Gaelic Software Digest page provides links to all kinds of Gaelic language programs, including dictionaries, spreadsheets and desktop-publishing tools.

Gaelic is an English word for a group of languages that include Irish.

If live chat is more to your taste, drop in at the Virtual Irish Pub after a long day of surfing. It offers chat areas for both guests and regulars, plus many Web links to the Emerald Isle -- but you'll have to bring your own Guinness.

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Related Sites
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• Riverdance

• Ceolas

• The Thistle and Shamrock

• Irish Times Online

• Gaelic and Gaelic Culture

• Gaelic Software Digest Page

• Virtual Irish Pub