The earliest known reference to Irish step dancing in America occurred in Philadelphia in 1789, when dancing master John Durang is said to have demonstrated a reel, a jig, and a hornpipe. Other early accounts include the entertainer Barney Williams, a native of Cork, who performed jigs on and off stages across America, as well as Francis Hennessy who taught step dancing in New York City before the turn of the century. However, the more concrete roots of Irish step dancing in the United States today date back to the late 1890’s, when Irish immigrants began to be influenced by the tenets of the Gaelic Revival movement emanating from Ireland. During this time, important dancing schools were established in New York by James McKenna and Tommy Hill. Both of these men were from Ireland’s province of Munster, which was renowned for its traveling dancing masters in the nineteenth century.  

New York City was an early hotspot for competitive Irish dancing in North America, and conducted a feis as early as 1911. The “Great 1919 Feis,” which was held at Hunt’s Point and included competitions for the hornpipe, double jig, slip jig, set pieces, as well as three-hands, four-hands, six-hands, and eight-hand reels. During this early period, the most known and undefeated champion in all of the American men’s competitions was Tommy Hill (born 1890), who had emigrated from Cork in 1911. As the competitive scene began to grow,  New York hosted a “United States Championship” competition as early as 1927. Soon after, the United Irish Counties Association of New York held more than eighty annual feiseanna at Wingate Field in Brooklyn, starting in 1933. From 1941 onwards, the feis was held on the grounds of Fordham University, located in the Bronx. Around this time period, the profile of Irish Dancing as an art form was elevated by the exhibition of James McKenna’s students at the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in New York. At the same time, in 1939 Tomas O’Faircheallaigh demonstrated Irish step dancing on the CBS radio network’s “Major Bowe’s Program”, which was later broadcasted again by CBS in 1945 to become the very first televised appearance of Irish step dancers.

The Munster style of Irish step dancing that dominated North America between 1890 and 1950 was known for its fast, strong, and battering rhythms made close to the floor. The trend gradually shifted to the Ulster style dancing, which was performed at a slower speed, allowing for more complicated steps. In New York City, that style became synonymous with teachers Peter and Cyril McNiff, along with their sister Joan, who had emigrated to New York in 1948. Many popular national television programs showcased the McNiff dancers in recognition of Irish step dancing as an entertainment commodity. As more teachers who represented this new style emigrated from Ireland in the 1950’s, young American dancers such as Peter Smith and Patsy Early changed to schools teaching this new style, and by the late 1950’s they themselves were teaching only the Ulster style.

Traditionally, Irish Dancing is an art form learned orally and by demonstration, which is passed down in genealogical fashion from teacher to student. An interesting lineage for Irish dancing in North America is that of the famous traveling dance master Jerry Molyneaux, who emigrated to New York from County Kerry in 1903 and set up a legendary dance school in New York City in 1910. Jerry Molyneaux was the teacher of James McKenna (1885-1977), who produced an assistant named Jerry Mulvihill (b.1923), who later opened up his own dance school in 1951. Donny Golden (b.1953), who in 1970 became the first North American dancer ever to place in the top three at the World Championships, learned his first steps at that school and later changed to learn the Ulster style from Jimmy Irwin, who was a former pupil of Cyril McNIff.