Noel Reid sings with the Crossroads Ceili Band on a recent Friday night at O'Flaherty's Irish Channel Pub, Toulouse Street in the French Quarter. One popular Irish song performed at the pub has been known to have a bawdy verse at the end, but Noel omits it. When questioned, he claims the verse never existed to begin with! Hence, there are two versions of the tune, the regular version and the Noel version. (Photo by Elizabeth A. Perry)

Anyone who has been to O'Flaherty's Irish Channel Pub on a Saturday night in the past 15 years has most likely seen Noel Reid perform. He sings and plays the bodhran with the Crossroads Ceili Band and sometimes sits in with Beth Patterson, Justin Murphy and Patrick O'Flaherty, members of the Irish group The Poor Clares.

A talented Irish dancer, Noel also is routinely pulled out of the band to dance with members of The New Orleans School of Irish Dance. All of these activities can take place in one night, and if there is one thing the younger Irish dancers can agree with, it is that this 66-year-old man has more physical energy than all of the 20- and 30-something dancers combined.

Noel is known for his ability to teach and motivate dancers half his age and is usually the first choice as male partner for the group's more difficult country set dances because of his expertise. One young Irish ceili dancer said she is afraid to complain she's tired around him, especially when he tells her to get up and dance, because she doesn't want him to know he has more energy than she does!

He has this joy that says, 'We're here to dance, so let's dance!' said Irish dancer Mary Kelly. He's been a constant in this group. You can count on Noel being there with his sparkly blue eyes and big smile. He's an anchor for the school.

At a time in life when many people begin to slow down and retire, Noel seems to have sped up. He retired from Lockheed Martin in January to devote more time to things which interest him and is now busier than ever as an avid cyclist, musician and dancer. Already accomplished at playing the bodhran, he is in the process of teaching himself to play the fiddle and the accordion. He is also studying for certification as a teacher of ceili dancing with the international certifying board of An Coimisiun le Rinci Gaelacha in Dublin.

As president of the New Basin Canal Branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, a society which works to preserve Irish culture around the world, he traveled to Washington this spring to represent the vibrant New Orleans branch. Noel also served as the official Scoring representative and chairman for the first Feis Louisianne in Kenner this February.

Noel was born in Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland, 30 miles from where Coltus Comhaltas Ceoltiori Eireann got its start. As a young boy his parents would take him and his four siblings to the local Gaelic League gatherings, where they learned ceili and country set dancing, as well as some solo dancing. His parents were devout Catholics who were active in their church parish and often had priests over to their house.

His happy childhood began to unravel when his parents separated. His mother took his sister, Pauline, and left Noel and his three brothers in the care of their father. His father was unable to cope with working and raising three young sons alone, so he sent them to an orphanage in 1942 when Noel was 9, his older brother Colm was 12 and his youngest brother Dermot was 7.

The Reid brothers were taken out of the orphanage five years later by their father because he had managed to set up his own grocery business. Unfortunately, the business failed, and Reid and his sons were evicted from the shop and ended up living with their neighbors. Noel said when his mother found out, she sent for the boys to live with her and their sister.

I had never been to the city, said Noel. I had never seen traffic lights before. I used to sit on the sidewalk and watch them turn from green to yellow and red.

In 1951 Noel's mother moved to England with her children. Pauline, the eldest, took a job at a hotel off the coast of England and two of her brothers, including Noel, went to live with her. The brothers went to work on the assembly line at an American company. When the Reid brothers were called up for military service the next year, Noel was rejected because of his flat feet. He stayed behind at the company, working his way up the corporate ladder and going to school at night to make up for what he missed as a child. He followed up with 10 years of schooling in engineering.

That's how I was able to transfer from department to department, said Reid. Because my education got better.

Reid was 28 when he met his wife Bernadette in 1962 through his brother-in-law. A beautiful, athletic woman eight years younger than Noel, Bernie was from Malahide, a resort town just outside of Dublin. Bernie was a very independent woman and refused to officially acknowledge she was dating Noel until they were engaged.

She said we were just platonic friends for two and a half years, he said. I was chasing her so hard that when she finally said `yes' she almost knocked me over!

The couple married on Sept. 18, 1965, and they moved into Noel's first permanent family home since he was a child. He went to work for British Aerospace and worked on designing galleys and sewage and water systems for the Concord jet, as well as military aircraft. The first of the Reids' sons, Kevin, was born in 1968, his brother Declan followed in 1972 and Gordon was born in 1973. The brothers were all born in Hampshire under Bernie's passport, making them Irish citizens.

The family moved to America for two years so Reid could take a temporary work assignment with the Boeing Company in Seattle, where he worked on the 757 aircraft's emergency and galley lighting. After the contract was finished and they resettled in England, Lockheed Martin offered Reid a work visa to relocate permanently to New Orleans. Bernie and the children followed four months later, where they grew up to attend St. Margaret Mary School and Jesuit High School.

Kevin went on to graduate from Boston College and is now a lawyer in Chicago, Declan went to Duke and is an investment manager in Dublin, and Gordon went to Vanderbilt and is an actor in Chicago.

Noel's son Kevin said his father has always tried to show his sons through example that if they work hard they can accomplish their dreams and that no one is better than they are.

He has high standards for himself and us, said Kevin. He never encouraged us to idolize the accomplishments of others, but to go out and accomplish our own goals. He never imposed his will on us and trusted that he had taught us the basics, which have carried us through, no matter how divergent our paths may be.

Noel and Bernie became involved with the Irish community in New Orleans when they joined the New Orleans School of Irish Dance 15 years ago, which was started by Mary Ann McGrath Swaim, a local attorney. The Reids were very involved with the school, performing at festivals and feis' (dance contests) and teaching dancing to people of all ages interested in learning ceili and country set dancing.

Noel's world fell apart again in an instant on June 13, 1994, when he was dancing the Glen Carr Reel with Bernie at O'Flaherty's. She collapsed on the dance floor and lay dying of an aneurysm of the brain stem. The room grew silent as she was rushed out into a waiting ambulance and off to the hospital. The dancers who were at the pub wanted to go with the Noel to the hospital, but he told them to go back inside and keep dancing for Bernie. A week later Bernie died. She was buried in her dance costume in Ireland.

I thought it was a dream I would come out of and I never did, Reid said.

While he and his sons were back in Ireland for the funeral, Noel took them to see all the relatives he had lost touch with since he was 8 years old. A lot of the Reids didn't know we had been in an orphanage, said Noel.

In the six years since Bernie's death, Noel honors his late wife's memory with an annual party on the anniversary of her death. Musicians and dancers converge on his house each year to sing, dance and toast Bernie's life with Noel and their sons. Mary Kelly said when she went to the memorial service for Bernie Noel asked her and the other dancers to dance the Glen Carr Reel, despite their protests.

He said, `I want people here to know what Bernie loved doing,' said Mary.

Noel continued with his work on a NASA project for Lockheed Martin, which involved the external tank of the space shuttle, until his retirement earlier this year. He also began cycling seriously again and entered the Louisiana Championship Road Race, a 51-mile course. He cycles with the New Orleans Bicycle Club's racing club and averages 150 miles a week. He also takes ceili and solo dance classes with the School of Irish Dance twice weekly and dances at the pub. Simply put, Reid said if he doesn't move it, he will lose it.

If I stopped dancing and cycling I wouldn't be able to do it anymore, he said. You have to keep active and never stop doing things because of age. I seem to be more active than other people my age, but I was always active. When people get old, sometimes they say, 'I'm old now' and that decides what they will do with their lives.

One thing is for sure, it would take a lot of effort to slow down Noel Reid. He's in the dance of life for good, not willing to slow down in case he should miss anything.