In competitive Irish dancing, the costume is very important. In every entry level, dancers must wear either hard or soft shoes. Girls must wear white poodle  socks or tights. Girls today wear original dresses with many ornaments with a wig or hair piece. Men wear  a shirt and tie paired with black trousers. 

In the Highland dance men were required to wear a traditional Scottish hat called balmoral and a doublet of coloured or velvet cloth. If the jacket is in a "Prince Charlie" style is to be accompanied by a shirt and bow tie with a waistcoat, cummerbund or belt. jackets in the "montrose" style were to be worn with a white lace jabot and, optionally, sleeve ruffles. A kilt with matching tartans are worn with a sporran and tartan trews could be also worn instead of a kilt. Girls wear a tartan kilt with a velvet jacket, worn with a white lace insert or a sleeveless velvet vest worn over a white blouse. matching tartan hose are also worn (Wikipedia, 2013). 

Highland dancing is a form of competitive solo dancing created in the Scottish Highlands in the nineteenth century, in the context of compititions at public events were it is usually accompanied by bagpipe music (Wikipedia, 2013). 

The tartan originated from the Scottish culture  and is a pattern that consist of  horizontal and vertical lines that are criss crossed in multiple colours.  They were usually made in wool and used to create kilts whose colour pattern represented the clan. A longer tartan was thrown over the shoulder to accessorize the kilt. It was developed sometime after the union with England against a protest (Trevot-Roper, 1983). 

Irish set dancing is based on french quadrilles that the Irish adopted and combined their  sean-nos steps and Irish music. Set dancing is danced in square sets of four couples, and consist of numerous figures, each of which has a number of parts and is repeated throughout the set. Each part of the set is danced to a music tempo that is mostly  polkas, jigs, reels, slides and hornpipes (Wikipedia, 2013). 

Step dancing is a traditional Irish dance, it can be performed in troops or solo.  there are two types of shoes that can be worn during this dance: hard shoes and soft shoes. Hard shoes are similar to tap shoes and makes noise, while soft shoes are similar to ballet slippers. While performing this dance, dancers stiffen their upper bodies while they perform quick intricate footwork (Wikipedia, 2013).

The Irish ceili dance is a dance that can be performed in various formations of two to sixteen people. The ceili dances are commonly danced  to Irish instrument such as the whistle, the flute, the Irish budhran hand drum or fiddle (Wikipedia, 2013).  

Shillelaghs is a Celtic punk band consisting with Dave Anderson, Kyle Libbus, Andrew Shannon and  Steven Asselbergs as members. Although many members hold strong beliefs on political or social winds, their lyrics focuses on topics such as family, life, love and loss.The Shillelaghs stance for liberation through fun and a quick laugh at the seriousness of this temporary life, is their main thing (music, 2013).