Out on the \u201cwily, windy moors\u201d of Fairview Park, Dublin, more than 250 \u201cCathys\u201d from across Ireland gathered on Saturday.<\/p>\n
There were there for the for the annual Wuthering Heights Day fundraiser in support of Women\u2019s Aid. <\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to find your wife is like \u2018Where\u2019s Wally?\u2019,\u201d one bemused husband said as the red-clad Cathys rehearsed the choreography, inspired by Kate Bush\u2019s dance moves in the video for her 1978 single Wuthering Heights, before a group performance in the park. <\/p>\n
Organiser Joey Kavanagh, an avid Kate Bush fan himself, said: \u201cThis is the 10th year of us doing it in Dublin, but actually the event dates back to 2013. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was done by a group called Shambush in the UK. They did a flash mob at the Brighton Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI happened upon one of the events in London that was happening, and thought it\u2019d be a nice thing to bring back to Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n
The first Irish Wuthering Heights Day took place in Dublin in 2017 and more people have joined in as the years have passed. Dancers dress up like Kate Bush\u2019s portrayal of the ghostly character Cathy from Emily Bronte\u2019s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights.<\/p>\n
In Dublin on Saturday, 250 people performed the dramatic Wuthering Heights choreography in sunshine and 22-degree heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really big crowd the first year we did it after Covid because I think people were delighted to be able to come back together,\u201d Kavanagh said, saying he thought Saturday\u2019s crowd might have come close in terms of numbers. <\/p>\n
Sarah Benson, chief executive of Women\u2019s Aid, said: \u201cI just love it because it\u2019s just one of the most joyful events to be a part of.\u201d The event raised more than \u20ac3,500 for the charity. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s such brilliant diversity. Cathys of all shapes and sizes and genders,\u201d Benson said. \u201cIt\u2019s for a serious cause, but the whole message is everyone deserves a bit of joy, and you know everyone deserves a healthy relationship, no matter who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those attending, the dress code was interpreted vibrantly, if not loosely \u2013 some Cathys chose to don Cork jerseys and Captain Morgan hats. <\/p>\n
Leading the way in accuracy with reference to Bush\u2019s music video was Roseanna Tighe from Cabra, Dublin, whose mother made her dress. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe tried to make it as similar to the dress Kate Bush had on,\u201d Tighe said, pointing out the attention to detail in the zigzag pattern at the hem. <\/p>\n
Tighe attended the first Wuthering Heights Day in Ireland 10 years ago and has come back to the event most years since. She was accompanied by friend Linda O\u2019Sullivan from Clonakility, Co Cork, who drove three-and-a-half hours to make it to the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe love a dance,\u201d the pair said. \u201cWe\u2019re not saying we\u2019re capable of doing it, but we love to dance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, three generations of Heneghan women were also in attendance, enjoying ice-creams in the shade between rehearsing the dance. <\/p>\n
Enda Heneghan and her daughters Ciara and Orla all said it was a \u201creal feminist type of event\u201d. Her granddaughters S\u00edomha and Laoise were also there to join in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to be out in these numbers, and know that so many people are thinking of the women who have to go to Women\u2019s Aid,\u201d Ciara N\u00ed h\u00c9anach\u00e1in said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really nice that it\u2019s on during the day too, and that it\u2019s not an alcohol-centred event as well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her sister Orla said: \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to see all the men here. We were here two years ago and there weren\u2019t as many here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Among the 40 or so men participating were Gavin and his friends Michael, Nick, Niall and Patrick, who said they had attended for the first time last year, but came back because they had so much fun. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it would be quite fun just to go, you know, lose our inhibitions, throw on a dress and join the games for a great cause as well,\u201d Gavin said. \u201cWe decided to come again this year, and accessorise even better this time.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also spoke of the sense of community and camaraderie they had felt last year. <\/p>\n
Perhaps the best exemplars of this sense of community were the unlikely trio of Devin Rocks, Mary Bailey and Gail Lynch, who had not arrived together but spent the day in each other\u2019s company. <\/p>\n
\u201cI met these two today because I came on my own,\u201d Rocks said. \u201cI had some friends cancel on me, and they very kindly said come over and join us\u201d. <\/p>\n
The trio had been discussing Kate Bush, who wrote the song Wuthering Heights when she was aged just 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer voice is incredible. She was just doing her own thing musically,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wasn\u2019t afraid to just be herself. It was all kind of like punk and different things, and she was just there doing her own spin on things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Out on the \u201cwily, windy moors\u201d of Fairview Park, Dublin, more than 250 \u201cCathys\u201d from across Ireland gathered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[615,54992,93,65022,61,60,86887],"class_list":["post-558416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dublin","tag-emily-bronte","tag-entertainment","tag-fairview-park","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kate-bush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}