An Irish priest in County Armagh gave his parishioners a lift by performing a jaunty jig and showing off his Irish dancing skills at the end of a webcam mass back in 2020.

Father Colum Wright of St. Peter's Church in Lurgan joined Deacon Kevin Devine and sacristan Noel McCann to dance to an upbeat version of "Lord of the Dance" on accordion with some traditional Irish dancing steps. 

Parishioner Patricia Lavery recorded the video and posted it on Facebook alongside the caption: "so this is what happens at the end of mass Lurgan style... a little lightheartedness to give us a laugh." 

It’s Armagh this week... Fr. Wright and Deacon Kevin Devine along with the sacristan Noel McCann dancing in the middle. Patricia Lavery recorded this at the end of Mass in St Peter’s in Lurgan on Saturday night. Looks like Fr. Jimmy in Lisnaskea has set a precedent... pic.twitter.com/11RCmKDu06

— Brendan Marshall (@BJPMarshall) May 24, 2020

St. Peter's Church said that the video has been viewed more than 140,000 times.

Fr. Wright told the Irish News that he performed the memorable dance to give people a laugh and brighten their day in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 He said that people tune into his webcam mass from 84 different countries around the world and that he had been regularly waving and dancing at the end of mass to send messages of goodwill to people all over the world. 

"We can see the 'hits' on the internet and we have people from 84 countries joining us at different times. In St Peter's, myself and the sacristan would sometimes do a wee bit of a jig with the waving. So Noel put on some music just to give people a laugh," he told the Irish News. 

* Originally published in May 2020.