In my Discover New York Class on Monday, February 26th, 2007, we had an Irish musician come in to speak to us. Each semester my professor, Dr. Heidi Upton, chooses a different culture for the class to study. Although we are supposed to be "discovering" New York, Dr. Upton is a musician, and so, she teaches how the people of that specific culture immigrated to New York and brought along their musical and cultural backgrounds as well. The Irish musician, Ben, spoke to us about why the Irish immigrated to New York City, and also various instruments they brought along with them. For example, we were introduced to the Bodhran, a handmade drum, and the Uillean Pipes, which is considered a God-like instrument because of its complexity to play. As a class, we were individually given a Bodhran which we all played for a while. Ben also showed us clips of a group that we will be going to see in concert on Saturday, March 24th. When it came to the dancing segment, Ben showed us movie clips of various people dancing, including the River Dance, and he even demonstrated his own talents for us. He is a "sean nos" (a traditional Irish dancer). Looking at Ben dance brought me back to my high school years, where one of my friends, Elizabeth Ong, was considered the "Irish Dancer" of our entire school. However, she sadly passed away last November.