The interesting story of how Spain and Co Kerry influenced Riverdance

Riverdance celebrated a historic anniversary this week, marking 30 years since Michael Flatley and Jean Butler changed Irish dancing forever during the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin.

The seven-minute performance was years in the making. Producers Moya Doherty and John McColgan and composer Bill Whelan had created something completely new, drawing in influences from all over Ireland - and further afield.

In 1992, Whelan was commissioned by the Irish government to create original music for Expo 92 in Seville, Spain.

Always thinking outside of the box, the Co Limerick native asked Spanish Flamenco dancer María Pagés and Irish producer Fr Pat Ahern to choreograph a dance together to go along with what became The Seville Suite.

"I found a story in my father's library that related to Red Hugh O'Donnell after the Battle of Kinsale and how he went down to Spain and tried to raise more troops to fight the British. I decided to just take that journey and that was the inspiration of the piece," Whelan previously said in a discussion with former Irish minister Jimmy Deenihan.

"Here was a real connection between Ireland and Spain and we thought if we had a dance at the end of it that took Irish traditional step dancing together with Spanish flamenco and wrote a piece of music that rhythmically connected the two. That's what connected me to Fr Pat Ahern."

Ahern started gaining attention in the 1960s when he was assigned to be a parish priest in Tralee, Co Kerry. While there he began experimenting in folk theatre with local Irish dancers and musicians, who later became known as Siamsóirí na Ríochta.

The group gained national attention and the movement later became Siamsa Tíre, or The National Folk Theatre of Ireland, in 1974.

The company opened two centres in Co Kerry in 1974 and 1975 and did a tour of the US across seven cities the following year. More success followed, eventually leading Whelan to approach Ahern for The Seville Suite.

Whelan was also introduced to Maria through a mutual acquaintance around the same time, and she flew to Co Kerry to work with Ahern. They meshed Flamenco and Irish dance to rave reviews.

"What we saw there was the international response to Irish and Spanish dance coming together. Each performance we gave got a tremendous standing ovation," Whelan said.

"It gave both John McColgan, who directed it for television, and myself the notion that this could really work on a larger scale."

The Spanish music and dance from that project was still floating around his head when Moya Doherty approached him about the Eurovision Song Contest two years later.

"When Moya Doherty came to me to write what became Riverdance, I again incorporated those Spanish rhythms in the music," he said.

"Then when we went to do the full two hour show we reached back to Maria in Spain and worked the Spanish flamenco into Riverdance: The Show and that became very much a signature of the music and choreography of Riverdance."

Decades later, Whelan still praises Ahern and the National Folk Theatre of Ireland for their influence on Riverdance.

He said: "That early connection with Siamsa Tíre was essential in making that first connection which actually gave us the inspiration, ultimately for what became Riverdance."

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