Help me pick out a name!

Hey everyone, in troupe we're picking out Irish names for ourselves for when we're dressed up in the settler costumes. I've got mine narrowed down to two, and I need help deciding!

• Muireann Ni Mhanacháin
pronounced roughly "Muirien nee Vonnachann."
If anglicized, it becomes Muireann O'Monaghan.

• Muireann Ni Mhaille
pronounced roughly "Muirien nee Valla"
Anglicized as Muireann O'Malley.

Although I really like the lilt on the first one, the second one just seems to fit me, I don't know why... I still can't decide though. Any opinions? Random thoughts?

Sunset

Night is falling________________
dusk is dawning______________
and the setting Sun___________
__________throws its__________
_______________flames________
____________________to the sky

with the glorious appeal______
of God’s majesty,_____________
it is__________________________
__________a prism____________
_______________of____________
_________________dazzling fire

____and then_________________
__________it grows____________
________________deeper_______
_____________________darker__
__________________________until

the glowing red embers_______
_________________give way to the stars.

A different sort of quiz-like thing

Have you ever...

[] Swam with wild dolphins.
[x Lol, sort of a "mountain" today and halfway up a real one] Climbed a mountain.
[] Taken a Ferrari for a test drive.
[] Been inside the Great Pyramid.
[x] Held a tarantula.
[x] Said I love you and meant it.
[lol no unless I'm climbing it] Hugged a tree.
[] Bungee jumped.
[] Visited Paris.
[No but I'd love to someday] Watched a lightning storm at sea.
[] Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise.
[x] Seen the Northern Lights.
[x] Gone to a huge sports game.
[x... not all by myself, but with Mom and Hannah yes, a long time ago] Grown and eaten your own vegetables.
[] Touched an iceberg.
[I've always wanted to] Slept under the stars.
[x] Changed a baby's diaper.
[] Taken a trip in a hot air balloon.
[x] The best one in a hundred years, a meteor storm! Plus many more...] Watched a meteor shower.
[Um, well, it depends on what it means by "afford"] Given more than you can afford to charity.
[x Oh yes!!] Looked up at the night sky through a telescope.
[x] Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
[Sort of] Had a food fight.
[] Taken a sick day when youre not ill.
[Yeah I'm sure you all could just really see me doing this, haha] Asked out a stranger.
[x] Too many to count] Had a snowball fight.
[x] Oh yeah.] Screamed as loudly as you possibly can.
[] Held a lamb.
[x] Taken an ice cold bath.
[] Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar.
[x] Seen a total eclipse.
[] Ridden a roller coaster.
[x] Hit a home run.
[Sometimes it's felt like it] Fit three weeks miraculously into three days.
[x] Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking.
[] Adopted an accent for an entire day.
[I want to go to Scotland so bad] Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
[x] Actually felt happy about your life.
[] Visited all 50 states.
[x Money doesn't make me satisfied, lol] Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
[x!!!!!!!!!!!!] Had amazing friends.
[x If you would call the little girls in Mexico strangers... well they were at first I guess] Danced with a stranger in a foreign country.
[No but I want to] Watched wild whales.
[] Stolen a sign.
[] Backpacked in Europe.
[x] Taken a road-trip.
[x] Rock climbing.
[Not quite midnight, but it was dark and the stars were out] Midnight walk on the beach.
[] Sky diving.
[I wish!] Visited Ireland.
[] In a restaurant, sat at a strangers table and had a meal with them.
[] Visited Japan.
[x! All I can say is: The Spiderman Dance. Haha, Sara, Lora and Hannah!!] Pretended to be a superhero.
[x] Sung karaoke.
[x] Lounged around in bed all day.
[] Scuba diving.
[x] Played in the mud.
[x] Played in the rain.
[] Gone to a drive-in theater.
[I'm sure it's happened] Done something you should regret, but dont regret it.
[x] Toured ancient sites.
[I wish] Taken a martial arts class.
[Sorry but since I'm a woman myself that would be kinda weird] Swordfought for the honor of a woman.
[Oh yeah, of course... lol] Gotten married.
[x Yes, ones that we've created] Been in a movie.
[x yeah I tend to do that, hehe] Crashed a party.
[Yeah, that too...] Gotten divorced.
[] Gone without food for 5 days.
[x] Made cookies from scratch.
[] Ridden a gondola in Venice.
[] Gotten a tattoo.
[Not really, but I've been on an old-time ferry across it] Rafted the Snake River.
[x Yes! CIY! I love it!] Got flowers for no reason.
[x Lol... only half a billion times!!] Performed on stage.
[x not professionally of course, but yes] Recorded music.
[] Eaten shark.
[Of course... y'all have seen me with my lightsabers, hehe] Been in a combat situation.
[] Been on a cruise ship.
[I wouldn't call it fluently] Spoken more than one language fluently.
[] Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone.
[x Of course!] Created and named your own constellation of stars.
[x] Found out something significant that your ancestors did.
[] Called or written your Congress person.
[x, though I don't know if it was really "starting over"] Picked up and moved to another city to just start over.
[x] More than once? - More than thrice?
[] Walked the Golden Gate Bridge.
[x Especially with my friends, lol] Sang loudly in the car, and didnt stop when you knew someone was looking.
[NO WAY] Had plastic surgery.
[I don't think so....] Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
[Not really large, but I wrote a poem that got put in some book] Wrote articles for a large publication.
[] Patted a stingray.
[I'd hope not... but if I'm honest, I know I have. :( ] Broken someones heart.
[No THANK GOD!!!] Helped an animal give birth.
[] Broken a bone.
[] Ridden a motorcycle.
[] Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph.
[Um I might have, I can't remember for certain] Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild.
[x Many times] Ridden a horse.
[x] Had major surgery.
[] Had a snake as a pet.
[] Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
[] Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing.
[x Yep after my surgery] Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours.
[x Oh, Mexico!] Visited foreign countries other than the states.
[] Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days.
[] Eaten kangaroo meat.
[x] Had your picture in the newspaper.
[I don't know...] Changed someones mind about something you care deeply about.
[] Parasailed.
[No thanks, I liked José Bob at a distance] Petted a cockroach.
[] Eaten fried green tomatoes.
[x... Well, an abridged version I think] Read The Iliad.
[x Art and hammered dulcimer... oh yes and the strange art of being me] Taught yourself an art from scratch.
[] Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
[x Yay! Mexico... numerous stories on that!] Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language.
[x] Thought to yourself that you're living your dream.
[x with the trad. music association] Had a booth at a fair.
[] Dyed your hair.

Heartstopping music and dance WITHOUT the ego!!

Okay, so now that I posted those two video clips from Feet of Flames and gave my little rant about Michael Flatley, I decided I'd better give you some video clips that better reflect Irish dancing! So here are two of my all-time favorites (and no Michael Flatley to be seen!).

1. This is the Trinity Irish Dance Company. They are a really famous Irish dance company that tours the world. They sometimes seem a lot more traditional than Riverdance, but from what I see they do some very modern innovative and cool stuff! This gives you a taste of what their show is like. Amazing AMAZING dancing... wow. Nothing bad or suggestive in this clip, no Vegas-like stuff. Most of what you'll see is Irish dancing (though there is some other stuff here and there... maybe some sort of African dancing?). I love this and I really want to see them live sometime!!
http://premierespeakers.com/262/video.cfm?quality=high

2. I LOVE this clip!! It really gives you a look into the world of Irish dancing today. It's basically a mini-documentary (maybe 3-5 minutes long). You "meet" the Healy Irish Dance Studio, get a look at what goes on in a championship class, follow one of the champion dancers to an important feis (an Irish dance competition), and see a lot of just plain amazing normal Irish dancing without the glitz and added forms of dance found in an Irish dancing show such as Riverdance, Trinity or Michael Flatley's shows.
http://www.kqed.org/.stream/real/tv/productions/spark/artists-orgs/healy.rm.ram

Yay! It makes me so happy that I don't have to give any warnings for these!

Concerning heartstopping music and dance... and an ego

The ego part is, of course, Michael Flatley. For those of you who don't know, Michael Flatley is a MAJOR celebrity in the Irish dancing world. He was the first to star in Riverdance (actually he choreographed quite a bit of it!), and he went on to create his own shows which have been almost as popular, if not more so (Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames). However, I feel like taking the opportunity to rant. My apologies to anyone who likes Michael Flatley. SO...

Michael Flatley... where do I start? He is quite a character. I will say this: Irish dancing would not be where it is today without him. But the fact is, he knows it. Very well. Halfway through the first Riverdance tour, he got mad and walked out because he didn't get everything his way. Mere weeks later, he was already working on his own show, Lord of the Dance. Riverdance and Lord of the Dance are like apples and oranges. I LOVE Riverdance, but Lord of the Dance, and Feet of Flames both... to sum it up: girls doing moves that... um... make Irish dancing something it was never supposed to be, lots of gaudy costumes showing lots of skin (occasionally being thrown off to reveal a costume showing MORE skin), and a dancer who's full of himself strutting around on stage. Now don't get me wrong, lots of people love Lord of the Dance and Feet of Flames, and I can see why: the dancers are very good, the music is incredible (I actually like a lot of it more than Riverdance's music!), and so on. But I really have a problem with a lot of the stuff in it. With the attitude that it's all about Michael Flatley, and he gets what he wants, and that girls are just things to play around with pretty much. I also have a major problem with the fact that he took a hymn about the true Lord of the dance and made a show about himself as the lord of the dance.

Another thing: I have to say I don't admire his dancing much. Sure it's incredible... he's in the Guinness Book of World Records for getting the most taps per second. He's incredibly talented. But I have never really liked all the "look-at-me" arm movements he does in his solos. And sometimes, when I look at him doing one of his solos, it looks more like prancing around on a stage with a few Irish moves mixed in. I know that that's not really true, and I'm no expert on any of this, not at all, but that's just how it looks to me sometimes. He also seems to add in a lot of tap-like moves (which I'm definitely no expert on either, but still that's what it looks like). I MUCH prefer Colin Dunne or the like.

I have a video clip for you all to check out. It's the second dance in one of the Feet of Flames shows. I personally LOVE this clip... mainly because of the music. It's INCREDIBLE music. And mixed with the troupe dancing together, a lot of it reminds me of the ceilis I think we'll have in Heaven. There are some parts I don't like, though, namely a lot of Michael Flatley's solo. And everything he does in general (seriously, what's the deal with the crawling across the stage?!?). Here's where you can see an illustration of what I was talking about earlier. Also, I don't like the jester person much. I don't know what she's doing but it's not Irish.

WARNING especially for the guys: At the very end, when everyone gets into one line, put another window on top or something so you can still hear the music but not see the video. Let's just say the girls shake their hips, a lot, and the ending pose reflects the whole of Michael Flatley's shows all too well. Watch that at your own risk... it makes a beautiful thing sickening.

Hehe, if I didn't scare you off too much, here's the clip: http://james.theirishdanceplace.com/video/fof1.wmv

Oh one more thing, sorry guys but it's in Windows Media (grr...), and it was taken (legally) by an audience member at one of the shows, so the quality is very poor. If you make the window smaller it will be clearer, but it will be... smaller. :D

Edit: If you want to see more, here's a clip that I like just as much, from the same show. This one's a duel between two groups of girls. The music is amazing!!!! It really gets good when the brunettes come out (not that I'm prejudiced or anything... hehe). And the dancing... awesomeness!!! When it's Irish that is... basically if they move their upper body or shake their hips (which thankfully they don't do as much of on this clip), that's not Irish, hehe. I do think the arm movements are kind of cute here, though.

Another WARNING for the guys: Let's see... um, VERY short costumes, the occasional suggestive move scattered here and there (okay, well, a few times more than occasional), the ending pose where the two lead girls pose like models, yeah it's really weird and out of place.

But anyway, here's the clip:
http://james.theirishdanceplace.com/video/fof10.wmv

Change

"The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

- C.S. Lewis, from "The Problem of Pain"