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Edward Patrick McGrath was born in New York City on 8 December 1929, the son of Edward Patrick McGrath and Elizabeth née Breen. His parents had emigrated to the United States from Belfast. He received a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1958 and a master’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1960.

Edward McGrath began his career in journalism at the New York Herald Tribune in the 1950s. Over the years, he worked in publishing and public relations. During the final twelve years of his life he was president of McGrath Associates, a corporate communications consulting firm. Edward was also a writer. His published non-fiction works included articles on such far-ranging subjects as whaling and witchcraft. He had an interest in Irish literature and wrote fiction for personal pleasure. In 1974, Edward and his wife moved from New York City to Weston, Connecticut where among other things he held the position of chairman of the Library Board. Edward McGrath died in Weston on 23 August 1994.

Anne (Annie) McGowan née Browne (1879-1965) was the daughter of Patrick Browne, a baker, and his wife Susan, of Clare Street, Limerick. In 1900, she married Michael McGowan (1878-1942) whose father Daniel McGuane (1843-1920) was originally from Poulwillian, Miltown Malbay, County Clare. Daniel, a tailor, had come to Limerick in the 1860s with his wife Mary Anne Foley, a seamstress from Kilkee, to run a business premises on the corner of Catherine Street and Roches Street. When in Limerick, Daniel changed the spelling of his surname from McGuane McGowan.

Michael McGowan worked first on the railway in Limerick and later in Inchicore Works in Dublin. In 1915, he joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers seeking adventure and an escape from the large family he now had to take care of. Michael was sent to the Western Front where he was poisoned by gas and evacuated to a hospital in Birmingham. He was discharged from the Army in 1919. His wife returned to Limerick during the war and lived with her children in Doyle’s Cottages off John’s Street, which was not far from Limerick Jail. In order to support her mother, Anne’s eldest child Sarah (Sally) got a job as a printer’s assistant in McKern’s Printing Works in Limerick city and, on her mother’s insistence, joined the Transport Union. When Sarah and 11 other girls were offered a pay increase of two shillings and six pence on condition that they leave the Union, Sarah was the only girl to refuse the offer as a result of which she was sacked. She later worked as a waitress in a Catherine Street restaurant.

During and after the Civil War, Annie and Sarah McGowan and Annie’s son Timothy (Tadgh) McGowan delivered food and parcels of books, magazines and cigarettes to Republican prisoners in Limerick Jail and continued to send these to prisoners transferred to the Curragh internment camp in County Kildare. Given the family connections with West Clare, most of the prisoners they assisted were from that area. One of the correspondents, Thomas Keane, was from Carrigaholt, where a Keane’s pub exists to this day.

Judith McGilligan was born on 22 August 1941 in Dublin. She began her career as a ballerina, attending the National Ballet School and eventually working for Leonide Massine's European Ballet. She later danced with Janine Charrat's company, Ballet de France. Having sustained a knee injury, she turned to acting and is known for her roles in Ryan's Hope (1975), The Edge of Night (1956) and Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966).

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.

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.

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.