Irish mom of the year excels with hands and feet
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Stephanie Taylor’s Irish eyes were definitely smiling Friday when she basked in the glow of being named new Irish Mother of the Year by The St. Patrick Society of the Quad Cities for its Grand Parade XXXVIII.
Nominated by her husband John, Stephanie is the youngest-ever Irish Mother of the Year (in the parade’s 38-year history), solidly meeting the criteria to be “involved in family, church, and community; have a good sense of humor and demonstrate pride in her Irish ancestry.”
The award was a surprise, and she actually heard she won when they were at an Irish dance competition for their son Miles, in Lake Geneva, Wis. All three of her kids do Irish dance, and Stephanie teaches a class (for Champagne Academy of Irish Dance) at Bishop Hill Creative Commons, since 2019.
She started Irish dance at age 9, and has danced in the Grand Parade many times.
“I got a scholarship when I was in high school from them, so it’s come full circle, I get to be the Irish Mother of the Year,” Stephanie said Friday in an interview with Our Quad Cities News. Both her parents (who grew up north of Chicago) are Irish, and they moved to Geneseo around 1980.
Stephanie, 38, attended elementary school at St. Malachy Parish in Geneseo, graduated from Geneseo High School, received a bachelor’s degree in theater from Dominican University, and is a graduate of the Institute of Therapeutic Massage.
Her three children — Miles (12), Anderson (9), and Colette (6) — also play Irish fiddle and tin whistle, and her oldest is beginning to learn the uilleann pipes, the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland.
“You play sitting down for the Irish bagpipes and you don’t blow into it, you pump it with your arm,” Stephanie said. “It’s more of an epic sound than a battle sound. The ‘Lord of the Rings’ soundtrack, that’s all uilleann pipes.”
She’s taken her kids to the QC Grand Parade (the nation’s only bi-state St. Patrick’s Day parade) since Miles was 2 months old. They have danced or marched in the parade the last five years (it was canceled in 2020 and postponed to the summer in 2021).
Stephanie will dance with them at the Post-Parade Bash March 16 at the Davenport RiverCenter. In the parade, she’ll ride in a convertible owned by a former Irish Mother of the Year.
The principal of her oldest son’s school, his mom was Irish Mother of the Year in 1991, Stephanie said. She said she enjoys being a mother more than being Irish.
“I really love my kids, and I would be Scottish mother of the year if I could, too,” Stephanie said. Her kids really appreciate Irish music and dance.
Active in the community
She is very active in her community, serving as a board member for the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, running Cambridge’s Youth Soccer League, and hosting concerts with her husband John, many of which feature Celtic acts. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist and has owned and operated Hand Taylored Massage since 2010.
As a theater major, Stephanie focused on stage management and not performing.
“I was usually back stage telling people what to do. As my husband can attest to, I’m very good at telling people what to do,” she said Friday.
Stephanie handles more of the logistics for their Cambridge home concert series in the summer, organizing the potluck dinners. They host concerts on their porch (since 2014), including an average of two a week in August and September.
The Taylors and Galva Arts Council also run the free Galva Summer Concert Series at Wiley Park, each Sunday night at 6 p.m. — this year May 26-Aug. 4.
“They’re just used to it,” Stephanie said of her kids with the live house concerts. “It’s part of their life. Sometimes, they get into the music and sometimes they’re just up in their room playing LEGOs and it’s no big deal.”
Her favorite Irish band that’s come to perform at their house is Connla, including a bagpiper. The Galva series (48 miles southeast of Moline) has been going since 2018, and they’re in the midst of a five-year grant from the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation.
Stephanie has served on the Galva Arts Council, when the series started and she suggested partnering to launch it. “I’m an ideas person, and John is the executor,” she said.
Busy time of year
This is the busiest time of the year for Irish dancers – the day after the Grand Parade, on actual St. Patrick’s Day, her kids will do the Cedar Rapids parade (the third time of doing that as a family).
They compete in Irish dance all over the Midwest, including Kansas City, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and the Chicago area.
Stephanie visited Ireland for 4-5 days when she was in college (during study abroad in England), but hasn’t taken a family trip there.
“We took them to Scotland two years ago and they really enjoyed that,” she said.
She works in a building next to their house for her massage business.
John works remotely from home and Stephanie says she prefers “the hands-on,” literally. COVID shutdowns stopped her massage work for about four months, before clients returned wearing masks.
“Everyone wanted a massage. Everyone was stressed and ready for a massage,” she recalled. “They wanted to get out of the house. People don’t realize, the physical act of touching another person. People were messaging me, when are you back to work?”
“When I first opened back up, they limited, you could only do a half-hour massage,” she said. “I think we’re back to normal.”
Stephanie doesn’t put an Irish spin on massages (she does Swedish and Russian massage).
“One of the types of massage I do, is actually done with my feet,” she said. “I’m standing on the table, I’m holding on to a bar on the ceiling. In theory, I should be better at that, because I did two things growing up – I did Irish dance and I played soccer.”
“I should be better at that type of massage, but I don’t have a lot of people that book that type,” Stephanie said. “That’s the only Irish angle – you could get a massage from the feet of an Irish dancer.”
Parade details
The Grand Parade XXXVIII, the nation’s only bi-state St. Patrick’s Day parade, will take place Saturday, March 16th, 2024. The day will begin with Mass at St. Mary’s, 2204 4th Ave., Rock Island at 10 a.m.
The parade will start promptly at 11:30 a.m. at the corner of 4th Avenue and 23rd Street in Rock Island, and then travel through downtown Rock Island, across the Mississippi River via the Talbot/Centennial Bridge to West 3rd Street and proceed east through downtown Davenport, along a route to the RiverCenter.
The Post-Parade Bash will take place at the RiverCenter from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The St. Patrick Society and River Bend Foodbank are teaming up once again to fight hunger in the Quad Cities.
For more information on the St. Patrick’s Society, click HERE.
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