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Michael was not born in Chicago. He was born in Detroit, as was his older sister Annie. His parents were married there in Saint Monica's Catholic Church on 25 August 1956. Michael's parents moved to Madison Wisconsin when he was quite young, and later moved to Chicago.
Michael's mother Elizabeth (aka Eilish) Ryan is the daughter of Patrick Ryan of Dranagh, County Carlow, and Hannah Lanigan. I don't know where the Mayo bit came from, but she's not from there.
I'm Michael's second cousin. My mother is his mother's first cousin, and my grandfather Jimmy Ryan was his grandfather's older brother. We share a common pair of great-grandparents, Michael and Eliza Ryan of Dranagh.
BillGawne 22:13, 24 March 2006 (UTC) Bill Gawne gawne@cesmail.net
This article does not seem to conform to Wikiepedia's general format - the list of dated entries in particular. Also, some of the sentiments are unencyclopaedic, most notably the last paragraph. Blaise Joshua 15:56, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
That was an amazingly fast cleanup! Nice one : o ) Blaise Joshua 14:20, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
I added a cleanup tag because this article needs copyediting. Mostly missing, misplaced or extra punctuation (especially around the citations), awkward and/or casual language style, and missing or extra spaces (particularly around punctuation). Anchoress 08:37, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:22, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
Odd that there's no criticism section here. In fact, the whole thing seems to be a bit of a love letter. Flatley is derided by many for the cod-erzatz-commercial version of "Irish-ness" that the Riverdance (no criticism in that article either) show seemed to put forward. I grew up in Ireland, and many over there consider him to be a kind of self-serving egomaniac that grew fat from the "Celtic Tiger" and the American love for all things decorated with a Shamrock. The Riverdance show is not strictly traditional dancing, and nor is the music (and claims that they are merely "modernising" it are hard to buy - weakening it / diluting more like): it's a kind of money-led "American Idol" version of Irishness - listen to The Chieftans or The Pogues and then to the Riverdance soundtrack. There's a whole bunch of people that have "sold" their "Irishness" to the rest of the world , like a kind of fake plastic mysticism. Even the "traditional" dancing they are supposed to be doing, in a sense, represents repression in Ireland: if they were true artists, perhaps they would have addressed that. To call this art or traditional dance is like calling Justin Timberlake's backing dancer's "ballet dancers". Nothing negative in the article? Nothing about his ego, and the problems it has allegedly caused?
Call this an encyclopedia? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.158.233.89 (talk) 21:06, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
"Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Irish step dancer from the south side of the country. His parents were from County Sligo and County Carlow. As a child, he moved to Chicago - the city which he considers his home town."
lol... Apparently he was born in his home town, and then adopted it as his hometown
"He began dancing lessons at 11 and, in 1975, became the first non-European to win the All-Ireland World Championship for Irish dance."
lol... Flatley is an Ethnic European, a so-called 'Irish-American', born in the United States of North America. His has homes in Ireland, he is or was engaged to an Irish girl and professes his Irishness. His Mother and Father are Irish born immigrants to the USA and therefore he is entitled to Irish and EU citizenship... I'd say he is a European born in the USA. Would'nt you? No lol.. what a mess this article is.
lol... He was born in 1958 and according to the article "began dancing lessons at 11 and, in 1969, became the first non-European resident to win the All-Ireland World Championship for Irish dance" so he won the contest in his first year dancing? [he'd have been 11 in 1969] Boru —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.234.248.31 (talk) 16:36, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
'America' is a 'continent' not a nation, And European is an ethnicity. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.234.237.251 (talk) 22:27, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
"America" is accepted shorthand for The United States of America, which is a nation, not a continent. And "European" refers to someone from the continent of Europe. Turks and Swedes are most certainly not of the same ethnicity.Hellbound Hound (talk) 14:52, 6 June 2012 (UTC)
What about "Green Fields of America"? Here it says that Michael Flatley's first professional performance was with the Chieftains, but as far as I know he was touring with GFoA in late seventies. 140.163.254.157 (talk) 23:53, 22 July 2008 (UTC)an
Dear me, Irish American is not an nationality nor is it an ethnic or genetic origin. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.234.248.31 (talk) 21:07, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
Article has several cites from MichaelFlatley.com . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons#Reliable_sources says "Never use self-published books, zines, websites, webforums, blogs and tweets as a source for material about a living person, unless written or published by the subject of the biographical material." Not sure whether MichaelFlatley.com is okay or not. -- 201.37.230.43 (talk) 03:37, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
Adding to the errors noted above, Michael Flatley did not create Riverdance. He choreographed the majority of the 7-1/2 minute Eurovision piece, but it was created by Bill Whelan. Please check the Riverdance article, or better yet, more comprehensive history of the production, reign in the adoration already noted, and get facts straight. Drmargi (talk) 14:36, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
The article states three different birthplaces: Dublin, Chicago and Detroit - certainly only one of these can be correct. And as far as I know his nationality is (US-)American and not Irish. Regards --Reinhard Kraasch (talk) 19:48, 26 July 2015 (UTC)
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The infobox has an "instrument" section, but because it's Infobox Person not Infobox Musical Artist, this can't be processed. Is it worth replacing the whole template for this, or would we lose something else important? Also, why does it say not to change anything in it in the editor? Supernerd11 Firemind ^_^ Pokedex 13:24, 5 February 2018 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:
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It is curious that Flatley doesn't state his birthplace in his autobiography. He states his birthdate and a complete history of his parents' backgrounds, birthplaces, and courtship, but not his own birthplace. The book does say his parents met and married in Detroit, and the family moved to Chicago when he was a few months old (as stated and sourced in the article). One can infer, then, that Flatley was born in Detroit, but we don't operate on inferences, so it should be left blank until a WP:RS for his birthplace comes along.
My guess is that the intentional omission is due to embarrassment of not being born either in his hometown (Chicago) or the country he probably wishes he was born in (Ireland). Rift (talk) 01:10, 23 January 2024 (UTC)