The Siege of Limerick

The Siege of Limerick is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1695 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 20 bars.

Playford writes:
The 1. man cast off below the 2. man, and go above the 2. wo. into the 2. man's plae, the 1. co. cast off below the 2. wo. and go above the 2. man into the 2. wo. place, then cast up and back to back again and so cast off.
Note: The fist Strain is to be played twice over; and the second Strain once through, and so far as from the Repeat over the Note again.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

A11-4M1 cast below M2, between 2s, clockwise around W2 into M2's place (M2 moves up)
A21-4W1 cast below W2, counter-clockwise around M1 into W2's place (W2 moves up)
B1-21s cast up as 2s lead down
3-4All partner back to back
5-8Four changes of rights and lefts starting with partner
9-101s lead down and back
11-121s cast down as 2s lead up

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheSiegeOfLimerick

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.