ceilidh

An informal social gathering, especially one where traditional Irish or Scottish folk music is played, with dancing and storytelling.

The fire in the centre of the room was almost a necessity of the good old Ceilidh days. When the people congregated in the evening, the circle could be extended to the full capacity of the room, and occasionally it became necessary to have a circle within a circle. […] The circle became extended by merely pushing back the seats, and this arrangement became absolutely necessary in the houses which were most celebrated as the great Ceilidh centres of the district. The Ceilidh rendezvous is the house in which all the Folk-lore of the country, all the old sgculachdan or stories, the ancient poetry known to the bards or Seanachaidhean, and old riddles and proverbs are recited from night to night by old and young.

[A]ll the details of it are recited with minute exactness around the fireside during the winter ceilidhean.

Ellipsis of ceilidh dance.

Looking for the Possible Dance [by Alison Louise Kennedy] sets up the 'dance', the ceilidh, as a site of personal and possibly national salvation, but one plagued by insecurities.

'Traditional' British dance is a rather woolly genre; its bounds drawn without much discrimination and inclusive of folk dancing, ceilidh, country dancing and pretty much anything pre-20ᵗʰ century that didn't involve a tutu.

To attend a ceilidh (noun noun sense 1).

Captain Mac was certainly making the most of his enforced stay at safe anchorage. He had told Fergus he would ceilidh the night away with the help of Tam McKinnon's home-brewed malt whisky. From the sound of it one half of the ceilidh was on board ship, the other half no doubt in Tam McKinnon's cottage.

Some nights we went ceilidhing to the home of Danny and Paddy. Their mother was a beautiful singer and she taught many of us how to dance while Danny played the accordion. There were nights when we all sat around the hearth fire singing the old Irish songs and locally composed ballads which are long since forgotten.

To dance a ceilidh dance.

Nightly the scratch of fiddles and the thud of a reel-set staccatoed the timbers [of the ship sailing from Londonderry to Boston], as the peasant Irish ceilidhed their way to 'Amerikay'.