Hobbitwoman, 'Céilí' as normally used in Ireland is a larger gathering than just a few friends and neighbours getting together. In Irish there are terms such as 'ag airneán' and 'ag bothántaíocht', covering such activities as 'late-night visiting' and 'social visiting'. This was very common in olden times when houses were small and crowded and there were very few venues for entertainment and little money to spend even if there had been. There was invariably one or more houses in a parish that were the regular meeting places at night. One might be favoured by the younger set and another by the older people. Music was not part of it normally, but there would be cards and maybe story-telling (ghost stories were always popular)and gossip and of course, courting in the back room. That was how my old mam and dad first met.