Irish novelist and poet regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. His best-known works include Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).
Junk Ensemble was co-founded in 2004 by its current Artistic Directors Megan and Jessica Kennedy to create works of brave and innovative dance theatre. Its productions have toured nationally and internationally and are the recipients of many awards, including Jane Snow Award for Excellence and Innovation 2007 for The Rain Party; Culture Ireland Touring Award 2008 for Drinking Dust, and Absolut Fringe Festival Best Production Award 2011 for Bird with Boy. In addition, Jessica Kennedy was honoured with Best Female Performer Award at the 2006 Dublin Fringe Festival. In 2012, Junk Ensemble became artists in residence for Tate Modern in Britain.
Jane Kellaghan graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, UK with a BA in Performing Arts (dance) in 1995. In 2000, she was awarded a master’s degree with first class honours in Dance Performance from the University of Limerick. As an independent artist, Jane has worked with Daghdha Dance Company, Wayne McGregor (Random), Mná Rua, Half/ Angel Visual Theatre, Rebus, Isabelle Meerstein Film Company & Tina Horan Films. Her commissions include works for Firkin Crane’s New Works Series 1996, Solo Independence 1998, A Sense of Cork 1998, Trading Places with Charlotte Darbyshire 1999, and choreographic work for theatre companies including Everyman Palace under the direction of Tim Murphy (1996-1999) and for New Moon Youth Dance Company under the direction of Tina Horan. She also choreographed and performed for Cork City Ballet annually from 1997 to 2004.
In 2000, Kellaghan founded CruX Dance Theatre to provide greater access to the art of dance. Through its repertoire, the company has also succeeded in stimulating awareness of the possibilities of dance integrating as it does multi-media elements, particularly video, photography, and film. Kellaghan has created work annually for the company and continues to act as its Artistic Director.
Jane Kellagahan’s other significant role is that of a teacher. Since 1995, she has taught Contemporary Dance Technique, Choreography Craft & improvisation on the Vocational Education Committee (VEC) Diploma in Dance course run by Coláiste Stíofáin Naofa based at The Firkin Crane, Cork. She is also the director of CruX Youth Dance, which since 2002 has provided contemporary and creative dance training for children, through weekly classes and annual performances. Between 2008 and 2011 she was employed by The Firkin Crane to set up and manage Blank Canvas – Professional Dance Residency Programme while also acting as professional dance advisor to Paul McCarthy. In 2006, Kellaghan qualified as a yoga instructor and teaches weekly classes in Cork City and County.
This distinguished family of solicitors and army officers was of Anglo-Norman origin and had arrived in Ireland from Wales in the seventeenth century. One of its early representatives in Ireland, Thomas Kemmis (1753-1823), held a number of distinguished positions, including Crown Solicitor to the Treasury, Deputy Keeper of the Seals of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland, and Solicitor to Civil and Military Departments of the Ordnance in Ireland. He was succeeded by his third son, William Kemmis (1777-1864), a Crown Solicitor for the Dublin and Leinster Circuit. William married Ellen, second daughter of Nicholas Southcote Mansergh of Grenane, county Tipperary, in 1805, and in the same year commenced the building of Ballinacor, which partly incorporated an old dwelling house known as Drumkitt Lodge. His eldest son, William Gilbert Kemmis (1806-1881), died unmarried, and bequeathed the estate to his nephew, Colonel William Kemmis (1836-1900). A Professor of Artillery at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, Colonel Kemmis was the author of several instructional text books. He married in 1862 Ellen Gertrude de Horne Christy, eldest daughter and heiress of George Steinman Steinman of Priory Lodge, Peckham, and Sunridge, Kent. Their eldest son, William, succeeded to Ballinacor, while the second surviving son, Marcus (1867-1945), became heir to his maternal grandfather and assumed the surname of Kemmis-Steinman.
Like his father, William Henry Olphert Kemmis (1864-1939) followed a military career, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Artillery Militia. He retired on the death of his father to take on the management of the Ballinacor estate, and married in 1888 Frances Maude, second daughter of the Reverend Charles Beauclerk. Captain William Daryl Olphert Kemmis was the eldest of their three children. Having joined the Inniskilling Dragoons in 1912, he served in the First World War and retired from active service in 1923.
In 1927, Captain Kemmis married Winona Rosalie 'Jess' Armstrong (1893-1982), the second daughter of Captain Marcus Beresford Armstrong of Moyaliffe House, county Tipperary. When Captain Armstrong died in 1923, he bequeathed the Moyaliffe estate to Jess. Following the death of his only son, Captain Marcus Beresford Armstrong made the decision to pass the Moyaliffe estate to his second daughter, Jess. She and her husband divided their time between Moyaliffe and Ballinacor until the death of Captain Kemmis in 1965, when Ballinacor passed to his cousin, Major Richard Lomer.