Milly McCarthy and the Irish Dancing Disaster

By Leona Forde and Karen Harte

'A delightful new heroine for kids' Sarah Breen, co-author of the Aisling series
Milly wants to win a medal for Irish dancing, just like her neighbour Abbie Horgan. But Irish dancing takes talent, and Milly's skills are in short supply. No matter – a second-hand wig, a fancy frock and a pair of poodle socks ensure she at least looks the part.
But if there's trouble to be found, Milly will find it – and when she's subbed into a dance group at short notice, there's only one way things can go … disastrously!
From sick students to sprained ankles, it's quite the performance from Milly and co. The feis is turning into a fiasco … and they'll be lucky to get home in one piece, let alone with any medals!
'Set to be a firm favourite' Irish Examiner
'Highly recommended' Irish Independent

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gill Books
• Release date: Sep 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781804580592

Leona Forde

Leona Forde is a teacher from Bandon, County Cork, and the author of the Milly McCarthy series. She wrote Milly McCarthy for her daughter, who wanted a Wimpy Kid style story set in Ireland.

Book preview

Chapter 1

If we have already met, then you will know that my name is Emily Maureen McCarthy, but my family call me I’m only ever called Emily if I’m in trouble, which is pretty much most of the time.

I am 10 and a half, which is almost 11. My birthday is 24 JUNE, which is actually THE BEST date to have a birthday because I only ever have to wait six months for a present, what with Christmas being six months later. My poor cousin Molly was born in December, how UNLUCKY!

She lives in Cork City, which is really cool but completely different to where I live in Ballybrogin. It’s in the countryside, so there are lots of tractors.

A view of the countryside showing a house amidst mountains surrounded by long trees in the background and a man driving a tractor in the foreground.

I go to SCOIL EOIN, which is a Gaelscoil, and I have the best class in the world – even the boys are cool enough, but don’t tell them I said that.

Milly’s family photo showing her father, mother, her brothers, Ryan and Zack, and her baby sister Izzy.

I live with my mam and dad, my two brothers, Ryan and Zack, and my baby sister Izzy. I am the eldest and, according to my dad,

I’m a TOTAL

DISASTER.

He says that if there’s trouble to be found, I’ll find it. He says it’s to be expected, what with my fiery red hair and me being born in Cork and all.

Sure, don’t I have

REBEL BLOOD?

Milly wearing a cape and standing furiously holding a traditional plough.

And really, I don’t mean to get into so much trouble, it’s just as Mam always tells our nosey neighbour, Gloria Jones,

‘In Milly’s defence, her intentions were good.’

Milly drawing skull-and-crossbones on Ellie’s arm using a permanent marker.

Which is totally true about the time I gave her daughter Ellie a temporary tattoo with a permanent marker. Or the time I decided to weed Gloria’s garden – who could have known that those spikey yellow plants were her prized dahlias and not dandelions, like I thought?

Gloria shockingly looking out through a window at Milly. Milly stands in the garden wearing gloves and holding a shovel in one hand and a bunch of dahlias in the other. She proudly shows it to Gloria. A text near Gloria reads noooooo.

And now that I think about it, it is also definitely 100 per cent true about the time I got the whole class banned from

Two monkeys sitting on the branches of a tree furiously throwing stones at Milly as she runs away in fear. A label at the top reads Fota Wildlife.

And it’s ESPECIALLY true about what happened at the Feis Erin Irish Dancing Competition in Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare. You see, it really ISN’T my fault that Ms Katherine De Búrca will never be able to judge a competition again, not with post-traumatic stress disorder.

And it’s also not my fault that from now on there needs to be a minimum distance of five metres between the judging panel and the contestants at all times.

An illustration showing a canoe and a guitar. The heading above reads how big 5 metres is. A text pointing at the length of the canoe reads a canoe 5 metres. A text pointing at the length of the guitar reads 5 guitars 1 metre.

And it’s totally, one billion per cent not my fault all wigs now need to be checked to make sure that they meet EU safety standards.

Let me explain …

Chapter 2

Mam says that if Abbie Horgan down the road decided to jump off a bridge, I’d want to do it too. Of course, that’s totally untrue – I mean, who goes around wanting to jump off of bridges? But Mam is always saying CRAZY stuff like that and that’s exactly what she said when I told her that I wanted to join The O’Brien School of Irish Dancing.

It all began one Monday morning when we were in our classroom learning about where the different counties are situated on the map of Ireland, which everyone knows is totally the HARDEST thing you have to do in Geography.

Thankfully, just as we were about to begin learning about the province of Leinster, with its whopping 12 counties, there was a knock on the classroom door.

An outline map of Ireland with twelve shaded areas indicating the twelve counties of the province of Leinster. An arrow pointing at the shaded areas reads totally the hardest.

Múinteoir Emer, who hates being interrupted during lessons, rolled her eyes and gave a huge sigh and shouted, but be snappy, I’m trying to educate people here.’

Múinteoir Emer wearing glasses and furiously standing with one of her hands on her hips and shouting ‘tar isteach!”

Anyway, the person at the door was who is a class above me and TOTALLY COOL and grown up. (She is even allowed to walk to the park and back on her own.) And I like her because, even though we are not really friends, what with her being older and totally mature and brilliant, she still says ‘HI’ to me and is always friendly.

So, Abbie is standing there, and she says to Múinteoir Emer, ‘I’m here to show the class the medal I won at the Munster Irish Dancing Championships at the weekend,’ and she comes in and stands up tall with her hands on her hips, in front of the class, smiling at us.

Abbie proudly standing with her hands on her hips, smiling. She wears a medal around her neck.