Sir James Irvine's Jig

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Sir James Irvine's Jig (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Lewis N Derrick 2023

1-2 With hands joined on sidelines, the 1st and 2nd couples set
3-4 The 1st couple cast off one place on own sides while, giving nearer hands briefly, the 2nd couple dance up to top place
5-8 The 1st couple cross over giving right hands and cast around their first corners to end with the 1st woman between the 2nd couple facing down and the 1st man between the 3rd couple facing up
9-10 The 1st couple turn three-quarters by the right hand to end facing out on opposite sides in second place
11-16 The 1st couple dance reels of three on opposite sidelines, giving left shoulders to their second corners to begin and ending with the 1st woman between the 2nd couple all facing down and the 1st man between the 3rd couple all facing up
17-24 The 2nd, 1st and 3rd couples dance six hands round and back, at the end the 2nd man and 3rd woman face in while the 1st and 2nd women face down and the 1st and 3rd men face up
25-32 The 1st couple dance a diagonal reel of four with the 2nd woman and 3rd man, to begin the 1st couple pass left shoulders in centre and give right shoulders to their own second corners who dance down and up the sidelines slightly, the 1st couple end in second place on own sides

Repeat having passed a couple

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick 2023)

Dance Information

This was devised by Lewis Derrick to commemorate the organic chemist Sir James Colquhoun Irvine (1877-1952), Principle and Vice Chancellor of St Andrews University (1921-1952), who was considered by some to be no less than the institution's 'second founder'.

His wife, Lady Mabel Irvine, was the first Chairman of the St Andrews Branch of the RSCDS (see Lady Irvine's Jig, RSCDS St Andrews Branch, 75 Years of Dancing in St Andrews, 2013)

Suggested tune: Denis Don't Be Threatening.

Devised 1988, first published electronically 2023.

(Dance information from The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets #59, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)

Sir James Colquhoun Irvine KBE JP PhD (Leipzig) DL DSc BSc FRS FRSE FEIS (1877-1952) was a British organic chemist and Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of St Andrews from 1921 until his death.

As a research chemist, Irvine worked on the application of methylation techniques to carbohydrates, and isolated the first methylated sugars, trimethyl and tetramethyl glucose.

Irvine married Mabel Violet Williams in 1905.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1917 and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of London in 1918 also being awarded its Davy Medal. He served as Vice-President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1922 to 1925 and won the society's Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize for 1936-1940.

Irvine was also Willard Gibbs Medallist of the American Chemical Society, Elliot Cressan Medallist of the Franklin Institute, Longstaff Medallist of the Chemical Society of London.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1920 and knighted in 1925 and was awarded the Freedom of St Andrews.

Sir James Colquhoun Irvine National Chemical Landmark, Blue Plaque, College Gate, St Andrews, 2016

Published in The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets, Collection 6, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick.
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original James Irvine Chemist article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Millerdl, Creative Commons Licence 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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