A Little Bit of Ireland Can Be Lived at UCI: Music, Stories, Jigs

For Americans visiting Dublin, Jury’s Hotel has become a one-stop spot to sample a variety of Irish cultural traditions, home of a cabaret-style show that has served up Irish music, dance and storytelling to sellout, tourist-heavy crowds since 1964.

“We do get quite a lot of American visitors,” said Tony Kenny, a tenor and one of the show’s stars. For Americans who can’t make it to Dublin, Jury’s Irish Cabaret has hit the road in a tour that stops tonight at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

“It’s an all-around Irish evening,” said Kenny in a phone interview in his hotel room in Tempe, Ariz. During the Dublin show’s off-season--October to April--it takes to the road. By a bit of scheduling luck, the current three-month tour through the United States and Canada--the show’s first in five years--passes through Southern California during the week of St. Patrick’s Day.

Kenny serves as emcee for part of the show and gets a solo spot in the second half. He sings traditional Irish ballads and takes some requests from the audience. “We can’t go a night without singing ‘Danny Boy,’ ” Kenny said. “They might also ask for ‘Galway Bay’ or ‘Little Bit of Heaven.’ ”

The show also includes dancers performing traditional jigs and reels, Irish harpists and a storyteller, Chris Curran. An Irish storyteller is a little like a stand-up comedian, but not quite: “It’s not exactly a joke but a humorous story,” Kenny explained. “The big thing is not the punch line, but the relating of the story.”

Also on the bill is Moonshine, a five-piece traditional Irish folk music group. Founder Colm Mooney plays the bodhran (the Irish drum) and the other instruments are fiddle, tenor banjo, Irish whistle and guitar. All the members sing. The group has been part of the cabaret for four years and has also recorded and toured on its own. It came to the United States in 1986.

American audiences respond well to Irish traditional music, Mooney said by phone. “They associate it with bluegrass,” he said.

Folk music falls in and out of fashion in the United States. In Ireland the trappings of traditional culture--especially music and dance--hold a steady sway. “It’s always been there,” Kenny said. “It’s not an entertainment in Ireland. It’s a way of life,” Mooney added. “That’s why it never goes away.”

Jury’s Irish Cabaret offers an evening of music, dance and storytelling at 8 p.m. in the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine, Campus Drive and Bridge Street, Irvine. Tickets: $15. Information: (714) 856-5000.