Saugus chemistry teacher brings home honors from Irish dance competition

SAUGUS – Saugus High School chemistry teacher Kathleen Mahoney may be an expert with a beaker and test tube, but students may not know about her long-cherished past time: Irish dance.Mahoney is fresh back from the regional Irish dance competition in Rhode Island, where her team from Fagan Ceilli Academy in Lynn took home third place in the eight-hand category, and second and third place in a pair of four-hand dances.?Eight-hand is four couples and four-hand is two couples,” said Mahoney. “We all dance in ladies because we don?t have any gents dancing.”Mahoney said she?s been doing Irish dance since she was in the first grade,?I started with Rita O?Shea when I was a kid then I stopped dancing, but came back to it as an adult and starting dancing with the Brener School of Irish Dance in Salem,” said Mahoney. “One of our teammates, Eileen Fagan, went and got her teaching license and opened up her own school.”After the school stopped offering adult classes, Mahoney said she and her fellow teammates went to the Fagan Academy, where they practice on Tuesday nights at the Hibernian Hall in Lynn.Mahoney credits her Irish family with getting her started when she was little.?My mother is right off the boat from Ireland,” said Mahoney. “When we were kids, my sisters and I, she said if you?re going to dance you?re going to take Irish dance, and I just continued it as an adult. It?s just relaxing and a lot of fun, and we have an amazing time together. We have really good relationships together.”Mahoney also competed in the national competition last year in Chicago and this year the nationals will be held in Anaheim, Calif. on July 4.Mahoney said the team members mostly pay their own way when it comes to travel costs, but the team also holds fundraisers to help out.?Last year we did some fundraising and had enough to pay for our hotel room, so that was good, and we just did some fundraising for our regional competition which went toward new dresses,” said Mahoney.Mahoney said Irish dance is all about skill, technique and the ability to work as a team, noting group dance teams generally use their arms, unlike solo dancers.?The competitions can be fierce,” said Mahoney. “In Ceilli dancing, which is the competition I am in, we do use our arms because we dance as a team as partners.”Mahoney, who has been teaching at Saugus High for six years, said her students know about her dance competitions and have even helped her raise money.?Last year we had a fundraiser and had a little talent show where I dance,” said Mahoney. “They see my pictures of me with my team on podiums from previous dancing awards. I tell them about it and how my competitions go and how intense it can be.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].