Fermoy man dances on St Patrick’s Day across the world
Cairde, an Irish dance group and viral sensation, took to screens across the world on St Patrick’s Day appearing on RTÉ, ITV’s ‘This Morning’ with Phillip and Holly and on ‘Good Morning America’.
The team of seven experienced dancers shot to fame through the TikTok app, securing their first viral video within a month of setting up an account and among them is Fermoy local, Seamus Morrison.
Speaking with The Avondhu, Seamus said that the Irish dancing influence came from his father Jim (Jimmy) Morrison, who carried the skill of Trad music through to the family.
“My father used to teach Trad music in all the schools, he plays the pipes and the accordion. I play the fiddle and my brothers play instruments as well,” Seamus said.
At a young age, Seamus began taking Irish dance classes at Gaelscoil de hÍde in Fermoy.
“At the start, I just wanted to play soccer and GAA. I was big into the GAA and played with Castlelyons. I started to do competitions (in Irish dance) and I had a lot of success from a young age, so then I started performing in shows,” Seamus added.
Through competing, the seven members who are now collectively known as Cairde, became well known to each other.
Seamus Morrison, Brian Culligan, Stephan McGuinness, Ethan Quinton and Francis Fallon were all the same age and have competed against one another in the Irish dance scene for years, and while Ronan O’Connell and Dara Kelly were in slightly younger age groups, they had all been good friends for the last 15 years.
AN AUDIENCE OF MILLIONS
With Covid-19 taking hold of the country, Seamus told The Avondhu that with the Irish Dance World Championships cancelled in 2020, there was little else to do, and hence, Cairde was born.
“We had nothing else to do really so we decided to make a TikTok and we started to choreograph dances to new, modern and contemporary music.
“We made the account on July 1, and our end goal was 1,000 followers but we have completely surpassed that and we had our first viral video, Banjo Beats, by August 1,” Seamus told TheAvondhu.
Cairde’s TikTok account now boasts almost 2 million followers, with each video averaging about 100,000 views, while one of their most popular videos is almost at 90 million views.
By combining the traditional art of Irish Dance with modern mainstream music, Cairde is now the biggest Irish Dance crew on social media and have taken the world by storm.
Despite their homeplaces being dotted around the country, the group now live together in County Clare and continue to choreograph and upload videos regularly.
“TikTok is practically our jobs at this stage. After ‘ Banjo Beats’ we had 50,000 followers and it just kept going up and up. It really pushed our account and then our Instagram started growing too,” Seamus said.
The group have since had their videos shared and reposted online by household Irish names such as singer and musician Dermot Kennedy and comedian, Tadgh Fleming.
“The biggest name to have shared our videos was Shakira when we choreographed a dance to ‘Waka Waka’. That was just unbelievable,” Seamus added.
Having shot to viral fame in a matter of months and during a time when the country was completely locked down, Seamus said that his family were ‘shocked’.
“Mam is getting very excited about it, she thinks she’ll be touring with us and Dad thinks he’ll be driving the tour bus!” Seamus joked.
FLOODING IN
Cairde’s newfound viral fame meant that e- mails, interviews and brand deals came flooding in so the group began looking for management and eventually found a Dublin-based company that understood the Irish Dance scene.
Receiving news that Cairde had been invited to appear on ‘Good Morning America’ came as a shock to the group, according to Seamus.
“Greg sent a text into the group chat asking if we would like to go on ‘Good Morning America’, and we all thought he was messing. We were absolutely starstruck.
“One of our biggest moments was when we were on The Late Late Show last year, and I thought that would be our peak,” Seamus said.
However, now Cairde has been screened to households all over the world, not only via social media, but through national television, as they danced on St Patrick’s Day for Ireland, Britain and the United States - all from the Cliffs of Moher.
As Cairde is now bringing Irish Dance to the world through new and modern music, Seamus noted the impact that Cairde could have on the traditional art form.
“Irish dancing isn’t a mainstream activity. I think a lot more people might be going into it because of Cairde. It’s intriguing people and modernising Irish Dancing,” Seamus concluded.