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For a full biography of Seán Mac Diarmada, please refer to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, https://www.dib.ie/biography/mac-diarmada-macdermott-sean-a5027.

Thomas Graham and Joyce Ann MacCafferty were former pupils and dancers of the Belfast-born Patricia Mulholland (1915-1992). Mulholland was the founder of the Irish Ballet School in Belfast and of the Irish Ballet Company, which made its debut in 1951 during the Festival of Britain in the Empire Theatre, Belfast. In 1953, at the request of CEMA, Mulholland devised and produced the first Irish folk ballet, Cuchulain. A further group of ballets was sponsored by CEMA, including The Piper, The Dream of Angus Óg, and Follow Me Down to Carlow. Other works in her extensive choreography, strongly influenced by Irish legends and folklore, include The Mother of Oisín, The Black Rogue, the Oul’ Lammas Fair in 1900, The Children of Lír, Phil the Fluter’s Ball, and The Hound of Culann. Mulholland’s choreographies were not ballet in the classical sense but a form of folk ballet – Irish mythology interpreted by Irish dancers to Irish music and song. Patricia Mulholland is regarded as one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century Irish traditional dancing and the founder of Festival Dance, a specialised form of Irish dancing which focuses on the individuality of each dancer’s style, thus breaking away from the more rigid and formulaic ‘Feis’ style.

John Maurice ‘Jack’ MacCarthy was born in Kilfinane, County Limerick, and was educated to primary school level locally. He completed his secondary education in Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. From an early age MacCarthy was highly interested in nationalist politics. He joined the Irish Volunteers at their inception in 1914 and was involved in the reorganisation of the Volunteers in 1917 following the release of IRA prisoners. In the War of Independence he was successively Commandant of the Galtee Battalion, Commandant of the East Limerick Brigade and Vice Officer Commanding and Adjutant of the 4th Southern Division of the Irish Republican Army. He was heavily involved in all the major operations conducted by the East Limerick Brigade during the conflict, most famously in the events surrounding the downing of an RAF airplane by the IRA. At the end of the War of Independence, MacCarthy joined the pro-Treaty side for purely pragmatic reasons, realising that the IRA would be unable to recommence hostilities against the vastly superior British forces. In later years, MacCarthy worked as military correspondent to the Irish Independent during the Second World War and was the author of Limerick’s Fighting Story (1948).

Norman Maen was born Norman Maternaghan in Ballymena, County Antrim in 1932. He began his dance tuition at an early age by attending Irish dancing classes on Saturday mornings at the Protestant Hall in Ballymena. He was a member of Patricia Mulholland’s Irish Ballet Company and for many years an All-Ireland champion Irish dancer. Maen’s career plans initially led him to Ballymena Academy and Stranmillis College, Belfast, where he gained teaching qualifications, but within a year of his graduation he decided to follow his dream of appearing on stage. He moved first to Vancouver and then to Toronto, where Canadian Broadcasting Corporation chose him as one of their elite six-member television dance team, Alan Lund Dancers, who appeared on a weekly television series, Camelot, starring Robert Goulet. He later moved to New York to work on Broadway as the principal dancer for Jack Cole. In 1961, Maen returned to Ireland to work as station choreographer for Telefís Éireann for three years. In 1963, he moved to London, where he set up his own dance company, The Norman Maen Dancers. In a daring move to gain commissions, he invited theatre and television producers to an audition showcasing the skills of his dance troupe. The gamble paid off, resulting in four offers.

Maen’s superbly choreographed work is perhaps best remembered from the primetime television series This is Tom Jones (1969-1971) which gained him an Emmy for outstanding achievement in choreography in 1970. He arranged dance routines for stars like Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, and Juliet Prowse, and was the creator of a number of dance routines for the Muppet Show, including the unforgettable Swine Lake sequence featuring Rudolf Nureyev and Miss Piggy. Maen’s other notable contributions to the world of entertainment include several years as director of the Royal Variety Performance, choreographic work created for musical theatre in Dublin (including Finian’s Rainbow and The Fantasticks) and the West End (such as Man of Magic and Irene), and choreography for the musical The Young Ladies of Rochefort (1967), starring Gene Kelly and Catherine Deneuve.

Henry William Massy was born on 12 January 1816 as the youngest son of the Reverend William Massy from his second marriage to Elizabeth Evans. He served as Magistrate and Justice of the Peace for counties Tipperary and Limerick and gained the rank of Major in the Tipperary Artillery Militia. He had a long-term clandestine love affair with Maria Cahill, who was socially his inferior and thus unacceptable to his parents. They eventually married in 1862 and divided their time between England and France with their eight children, seven of whom were born out of wedlock. He died at Grantstown Grove, county Tipperary on 20 November 1895.

John McCarthy was born in Cappamore, county Limerick in 1885 to William and Ellen McCarthy as the second of seven children. His parents owned a farm, a public house and a bakery and while his siblings all went to college, John remained at home to run the family businesses. When in his early teens, John began taking violin lessons from John Corbett, a highly respected but strict music teacher in Cappamore, who insisted that his pupils learnt to play from sheet music rather than by ear. Under Corbett’s tutelage, John developed into an accomplished and note-perfect player. At the turn of the century, Irish traditional sheet music was rare and, to increase his repertoire, John began to collect popular tunes in the East Limerick and North Tipperary area. Some of the notations he wrote down himself, others were given to him by friends and fellow collectors, his sister Eily McCarthy, his cousin Justin McCarthy and his friend Cornelius Collins among others. Music notations were commonly circulated among players and some of the sheets collected by John appear to date from as early as 1876. He used the music to play with other musicians in pubs, dances and local houses. Having married in 1916 Hannah Lally of Knockshambo, county Mayo, he reared a family of twelve children. He died on 5 February 1966.