The roots of this branch go back to St. Patrick’s Day 1969. About that time Maureen Malcom, a step-dance teacher living in Fairfax, Virginia, was asked by her daughter’s First grade teacher to come to the school and give a demonstration of Irish step-dancing. Maureen had received her TCRG certification while living in Ireland. Maureen came to the school and gave the demonstration to all the first grade classes. The mothers of these children were invited. There followed requests from some of the mothers to give step-dance lessons to their daughters. The classes were started and shortly thereafter “The Erin Dancers” were born. Parents got involved and a monthly "Ceili" followed, then an annual "Feis". The Ceilies began around 1972, and the first Feis was held in 1976 with 800 competitors. “The Irish Dance Festival of Northern Virginia Ltd.” was incorporated on May 11, 1978 to direct these activities. In 1986 the Greater Washington Ceili Club invited the Irish Dance Festival of Northern Virginia Ltd. to hold the Feis at Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, Md. in conjunction with their Irish Festival. The Feis has been held there ever since (with the exception of 2001 when there was no Feis due to construction at Glen Echo). In 1994, the Executive Board of the Irish Dance Festival of Northern Virginia Ltd, voted unanimously (one abstention) to “roll” the Irish Dance Festival of Northern Virginia Ltd. into a new branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Michelle Donnelly inherited the Erin Dancers, now known as the Donnelly School of Irish Dance. The board of the new branch voted to name the new branch “ The O’Neill-Malcom Branch” to honor Maureen and Ben Malcom and Peggy O’Neil (R.I.P.). Peggy O’Neil was born in County Kildare, Ireland and received her TCRG in Ireland. She became the first Irish dance teacher in Scotland before coming to America and starting a step-dancing school and a Ceili in Southern Maryland. Peggy’s daughter, Laureen O’Neill -James now runs the school – The O’Neill-James School. Thirty-three years agrowin!