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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.

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.

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.

Katarína Mojžišová is a Slovakian dance artist who worked in Ireland between 2005 and 2012. Born in Uherské Hradišt? in the former Czechoslovakia, she gained an MA in Dance from VŠMU Bratislava in 1999. Her diverse career includes dance, film, theatre, and performance art. She has a particular interest in experimental dance works and cross-genre projects, such as O1, a 7-hour performance created in collaboration with sound artist Robin Parmar in 2006, and The Rite of Spring, Limerick (Commissions Award of The Arts Council and Limerick City Council), performed in the Parkway Shopping Centre on the day of vernal equinox in 2007. She has also created numerous choreographic works supported by art institutions and dance companies, including Parsifal Project (commissioned by Framemakers Symposium 2005); Dragon (supported by Daghdha Dance Company and selected for Dublin Fringe Festival 2006); and The Auction (commissioned by Excursions: Performance Festival 2005 and selected for Have-U-Met-Nosti Festival, Dublin, 2007). Katarína was also involved in the former Mentoring Programme of Daghdha Dance Company and has lectured on dance and performance at the University of Limerick and the Sculpture and Combined Media of Limerick School of Art and Design.

Fearghus Ó Conchúir was born in the Gaeltacht region of Ring in County Waterford. He completed degrees in English and European Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford before training at the London Contemporary Dance School. He was the founder of Corp Deasa Contemporary Dance Company but later developed his career as an independent choreographer and dance artist. He has performed live and in film in Europe, North America, and China. In addition to his own work, Ó Conchúir has danced for other companies and collaborated with numerous dance and other artists. He has also taken an active role in the promotion and development of dance in Ireland and is a board member of Dance Ireland, Project Arts Centre, and Dance Digital. In January 2019, he was appointed Deputy Chair of the Arts Council. A more detailed overview of Ó Conchúir’s career and individual choreographies as well as recordings of his performances can be found at http://www.fearghus.net/.

Edward Donough O’Brien was born on 14 May 1839 as the eldest son of Lucius O’Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin of Dromoland by his first wife, Mary née Fitzgerald. He was educated at Cambridge and succeeded his father as 14th Baron Inchiquin in 1872. He served as Representative Peer of Ireland between 1873 and 1900 and held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of county Clare between 1879 and 1900. In 1862 he married the Hon. Emily Holmes à Court as his first wife and by her had four children: Geraldine Mary (1863-1951), Lucius William (1864-1929), Murrough (1866-1934) and Edward Donough (1867-1943). His first wife died in 1868, and six years later he married as his second wife the Hon. Ellen Harriet White (1854-1913). By his second wife, he had another ten children: Clare (1875-1950); Moira (1876-1957), Eileen (1877-1867), Maud (1878-1956), Donough (1879-1953); Beatrice (1882-1976), Lilah (1884-1968), Henry Barnaby (1887-1969), Doreen (1888-1960) and Desmond (1895-1915). Edward Donough O’Brien died on 9 April 1900 and was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Lucius William O’Brien, as 15th Baron Inchiquin.

Jeremiah Michael O’Neill was born on 27 September 1921 in Limerick, where his father was the city’s postmaster. He was educated at the Augustinian College, Dungarvan, County Waterford. He moved to England in the 1950s where he worked in Barclays Bank (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) and grew to specialise in colonial banking. He was posted to West Africa and ended up in Ghana and Nigeria. He returned to England with his wife Mary and his children, and became an agent in the building trade in London and the Home Counties. In 1967, he became the tenant landlord of the Duke of Wellington pub in the Ball’s Pond Road in Islington. There he established the Sugawn Theatre and Sugawn Kitchen, a well-known venue for plays and folk music.

In 1980, he left the pub trade and settled in Hornsey, where he wrote a number of plays and four novels. During this time he received two Irish Post/ AIB awards. His plays include God Is Dead on the Ball’s Pond Road, written for the Sugawn Theatre’s 1976-1977 season; Now You See Him, Now You Don’t; and Diehards. His first novels, Open Cut (1986) and Duffy Is Dead (1987), were hailed as truly original works, earning him the accolade of being ‘the laureate of the London Irish’. These first two novels were followed by Canon Bang Bang (1989) and Commissar Connell (1992). He moved to live in Kilkee, County Clare, where he completed his two last novels, Bennett & Company (1998) and Rellighan, Undertaker (1999). He died on 21 May 1999, shortly after being awarded the Kerry Ingredients Book of the Year Award for Bennett & Company.

Member of sales and catering staff at Shannon Airport.

Sara Payne was born in England in 1907 into a theatrical family. She was the daughter of the theatre director Ben Iden Payne and actress Mona Limerick. Payne was amongst the first cohort of students at Ninette de Valois’ school, the Academy of Choreographic Art, London. From 1928 until 1931 she was Principal at the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet. In 1936, Payne returned to Dublin, where she established the Sara Payne School of Dance and Mime and a dance company. In parallel, she worked as a choreographer and dancer at the Gate Theatre.

Payne’s vision for the development of ballet in Ireland focused on fusing ballet with traditional Irish dance steps and patterns. This is exemplified by her Irish-themed ballets, including Doomed Cuchulain, The Scarecrow and A Fiddler’s Story. Payne’s inclusion of trained traditional Irish dancers and musicians in performances took her vision a step further.

In c. 1946, Payne return to England, and by 1955 she was working again with de Valois at the White Lodge, Royal Ballet School, London, where she remained until her retirement in 1972. Sara Payne died in 1993.

Fiona Quilligan was born in Dublin and studied dance at Dun Laoghaire College of Art and the London School of Contemporary Dance. She performed with Dublin City Ballet before founding Rubato Ballet in 1986. Her vision for this collective of professional dance artists was to create new Irish dance works and to pioneer links with related art disciplines, such as music, art, poetry and sculpture. The company achieved high critical acclaim both in Ireland and abroad and was the recipient of the Nijinsky Medal from the Polish Artists Agency Warsaw (1990), the AIB Better Ireland Award for Arts and Culture (1992), and the ESB Environmental Awareness Award (1999).

In 1992, the company founded Rubato Community Arts Project in association with FÁS, which employed 14 artists to provide experiences of dance, music and painting for primary and secondary school children and to establish a role for artists in the community. Rubato Ballet was wound down in 2003, and a year later Quilligan continued her career as a freelance choreographer. More information on Fiona Quilligan and Rubato Ballet can be found at https://www.fionaquilligan.info/.