The first, and most important thing Sally and Joe Harney want people to know is this: They’re not going anywhere and will not be disappearing from the face of the Earth.

The Walpole couple has been a mainstay of Boston’s Irish set dance community for nigh on four decades now, Sally as teacher and Joe as much-valued assistant at gatherings of Boston’s Reynolds-Hanafin-Cooley branch of the Irish cultural organization Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. But recently, they announced they had decided to step back from this longstanding commitment.  

Don’t think you’ve seen the last of them, though.

“We’ll still be around,” says Sally. “We love it too much to stop altogether.”

“It’s just that now we won’t feel obligated to go,” adds Joe, with a laugh. “That’s kind of important when it’s cold and snowy out.”

In recognition of the Harneys’ dedication and service, Reynolds-Hanafin-Cooley CCÉ will hold an appreciation dinner on Sept. 22 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Dorchester’s Florian Hall. Tickets are $25 per person, and are available from Barbara Boyd (BarbaraMBoyd@comcast.net), Cait Bracken (cait.bracken@gmail.com), and Michael Hickey (treasurer@cceboston.org). 

In every sizeable group of people who enjoy gathering for an ongoing activity, there must be those few who ensure that all the fine details – not just the larger ones – are seen to, that the hall is booked, that word gets out, and that the basic elements are there for everyone to have a good time.

The Harneys have played that kind of vital role for the set dancing classes, which were first organized in 1986 by Sally and the late Terry McCarthy. Every Tuesday evening, except during the months of July and August, plus one or two Sunday afternoons a month, Sally and Joe have been at the Canadian American Club in Watertown to pass along one of the more popular, and most loved, features of Irish tradition. 

Sally, as both an accomplished dancer and distinguished teacher, has had the primary task of instructing the participants. But while Joe quips that his job has been to “to push the button” – operate the audio equipment that provides recorded music for the dancing – others note that he also has helped guide new recruits through the basics, and his general good nature can aid in defusing potential frustrations or tensions. 

“Sally and Joe are proud Irish people who have promoted Irish traditional heritage and culture by being the best ambassadors anyone could ever ask for,” says Reynolds-Hanafin-Cooley Branch Chairperson Tara Lynch. “They have been both in the forefront as well as working in the background to make things happen and come true – not just for Comhaltas but the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston and other local Irish organizations in the Boston area. They also are known far and wide for their personalities and set dancing across the US and Canada through the annual Comhaltas conventions.”   

The Harneys, who have been married for 62 years, are the parents of Liam, who founded the Harney Academy of Irish Dance (now affiliated with the Pender Keady Academy in Connecticut), Margaret McCarthy, and Michael. Their son Joseph P. Harney Sr. died in 2021. 

A conversation with Sally and Joe is a window onto a time well before Irish music and dance became a global entertainment phenomenon featured in concert hall-sized venues and on TV and other electronic media. For them and their contemporaries, the music and dance were far more of a social event, enjoyed with family, friends and neighbors in whatever space – a parlor, a kitchen, a barn – was available. 

“I was lucky to have musicians and dancers in my family,” says Sally, who grew up in Donegal. “My grandmother on my mother’s side used to do the ‘old’ solo dances, like ‘The Turf Dance’ or ‘The Brush Dance,’ and my mother was a great lilter as well as a dancer. Both of them taught us kids – there were 10 of us – the tunes and the barn dances, like ‘Stack of Barley’ or ‘The Highland Fling,’ and the solo dances, too. My grandfather and uncle played accordion, and sometimes my mother’s cousin would come and bring his fiddle, and he’d teach dances – playing and dancing at the same time. You’d have house parties, people dancing in the kitchen, or maybe out in the barn: singing, storytelling, and dancing sets like ‘Donegal Lancers’ or ‘Kerry Lancers.’

“We didn’t have much, but there were no regrets. It was a simple life, but never sad.”

Joe, a native of Roscommon, recalls the Mummers tradition at Christmas time, and going around the neighborhood in disguise performing songs and recitations of the season. 

“Part of the fun was trying to guess who was behind the masks and costumes,” he says. It was a tradition he and Sally kept up when they had their own family, and daughter Margaret seemed to have a good knack for the disguise part. “One year, she was all in black, and at the celebration she sat off at a table by herself. It must’ve been a half-hour before we realized it was her. She still talks about it.”

The Harneys’ story also is part of a larger narrative of the Irish experience in America, and Boston in particular – notably the period of the 1940s to mid-1960s, a time often described as a “golden age” of Irish music and dance in the city. The two were among the many young Irish who immigrated to Boston following World War II, frequenting the great dance halls in Roxbury, especially Dudley Square, to enjoy the traditional music of home but also the popular styles that had taken root in America.

Sally was all of 17, she recalls, when her aunt “brought me out” to Boston to earn money doing housework. She adapted to her new home, and her new life, and Thursday became her favorite day of the week.

“Thursday was ‘the maids’ night out,’” she explains. “All of us girls would dress up, get the bus or the train to Dudley Square, and go to places like the Hibernian, the Colonial, and the Rose Croix.”

Thursday night also was a fine time for a young guy like Joe, who worked at Stop & Shop and drove a blue convertible. “You’d usually go with a group of friends. There was great music in the halls, and you’d do ceili dancing, but also quicksteps, waltzes, jitterbugs, all kinds of dances. It was lots of fun.”

Joe and Sally met through a mutual friend, and between the Thursday night outings, “would talk on the phone forever,” she says. They were married about two years after being introduced.

“She finally put the hook into me,” laughs Joe.

The dance hall era wound down as the 1960s wore on, but many of the relationships and acquaintances formed would endure, as the local Irish and Irish American community found new places and opportunities to socialize and enjoy their music and culture, such as through the establishment of the local Comhaltas branch, which held many events in the Canadian American Club. 

“We were all lucky to be in the company of Larry Reynolds,” says Sally of the late musician and one of the namesakes for the Reynolds-Hanafin-Cooley branch. “I’d heard him in Dudley Street, and I just loved the guy, as did many others. He had a way of making things happen. So, when I asked about whether we might be able to have set dancing classes, sure enough, he made it happen.”

Reynolds had invited a Dublin step dancing master, Donncha O’Muineachain, to come once a year and teach sets. It became obvious that a more regular schedule of classes was needed, so Sally and Terry McCarthy took up the mantle and continued on for years until Sally, along with Joe, gradually assumed the full responsibility.

 Sally is a member of the CCÉ Northeast Region Hall of Fame and winner of a Gradam award for service to Comhaltas. She’s also been a teacher and assistant director of choreography for the Harney Academy, and in recent years has been giving parents of Harney students some instruction in dance.

“Liam asked if I would give them some basics, and they love it,” she says. “It really helps them connect with and understand what their kids are doing.”

If another example of Joe and Sally’s love for and commitment to Irish dance is needed, look no further than the small barn they had built next to their house, complete with dance floor. Its presence ensures that no matter the time of the year, no matter the weather, people can dance at the Harneys. 

“There’s always something happening out in the barn,” laughs Joe.