AURORA - Deirdre Mc- Carthy's “An Imaginary Trip to Ireland” sent her audience off to the Land of Eire with traditional stories, music and Irish step-dancing at the Aurora Free Library Saturday morning.

The family audience of about 50 included 20 children seated in the building's opera house.

This program is among four supported by a $1,870 grant to the library from the New York State Council for the Arts Decentralization Program, librarian Sandy Groth said.

Born and raised in Limerick, Ireland, McCarthy, now of Central Square, has been sharing Irish lore and culture with all who would listen for 12 years.

A member of the Central New York Irish-American Cultural Institute and a former member of AmeriCorps, she has been bringing her little piece of Irish turf to schools, libraries, and festivals all across New York state, hoping it will take root.

Her “imaginary trip” began in Gaelic. “I just do that to catch everybody's attention,” she told the audience.

Using a toy Aer Lingus jet, Diedre guided the audience on board in Boston for a 3,000-mile flight to Ireland's Shannon Airport.

In flight, she told them the “love-at-first sight” story of how she met her husband, Jim, a tourist in her family's pub in Limerick.

“He sang to me and that was it,” she said. “Now, whenever I'm mad at him, I say 'sing to me,' and it works.”

Dollops of Irish humor and Irish duets with Jim, who also played the guitar, kept the audience entertained.

On “landing,” Deidre described Ireland's hills, stone fields, little dots morphing into cows, sheep, and horses, and castle ruins with round towers. At touchdown, they were 12 miles away from Limerick.

She pulled out a little green double-decker bus and cautioned children not to be forgotten if they took the winding stair to the upper deck.

“We drive on the correct (left) side of the road in Ireland,” she said,

The bus stopped at Dirty Nellie's Pub and Restaurant, once an old castle. There a banquet was spread before a big, open fireplace. Jerry the butler threw a patron into the dungeon, where he banged on the gate and was forced to sing to get out.

Then McCarthy broke into a sad, Irish love song. “Tourists” also received a lesson in Gaelic numbers from ahayen (one) to fiheh (20). A mini vocabulary lesson followed, with Irish terms for potato chips (crisps), sneakers (trainers), and friend (cara).

Dierdre read a poem that she and Jim wrote, “Michelene Emmett O'Shea,” a young girl duped by a leprechaun. She finds a friend, Sinead Fanoula O'Brien, instead of gold.

“Whether you're young, or whether you're old, a good friend is always better than gold,” it ends. McCarthy briefly explained hurling, where Irish boys throw a ball, like lacrosse, with a spoon-shaped bat into the air,

Deirdre's concertina, a penny whistle, spoons, bones, and a goatskin-covered drum called a boron, filled the room with music.

She then danced a reel and a jig in her gillies (soft shoes).

“Do your gillies have holes in them?” she asked the audience. When they said no, she said, “Well they should. You should practice more.” Next, on went her hard shoes for a little step-dancing,

Deirdre and Jim sang the “Connemara Cradle Song” with the classic refrain, “Hear the wind blow.”

It was time to leave Ireland, so the audience turned their watches back to eastern standard time.

“Siochan,” peace to you,“ McCarthy said. ”May the wind be always at your back. It was a privilege for me to be here today.“

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net