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This series contains a notebook of dance steps collected by James O'Mahony and ephemera relating to his daughter Kathleen Keniry née O'Mahony.

This collection contains memorabilia relating to the Irish dancing school established in Castlemartyr by James O’Mahony in the 1930s and its subsequent expansion to Midleton and Youghal by his daughter, Kathleen Keniry. The collection highlight is James O’Mahony’s notebook (N86/3/1), in which are recorded traditional step dances from many of the dancing masters prominent in Cork in the early twentieth century. The documented steps in the book provide a rare insight into step dances popular at the time and make possible their reconstruction and closer study.

Notebook kept by James O’Mahony, containing a large collection of traditional step dances from many of the dancing masters prominent in Cork in the early twentieth century, including Willie and Freddie Murray. The dances have been numbered and arranged into three sets, the first set comprising 63 dances, mostly hornpipes (with pages containing numbers 1-5 missing), the second containing 62 reels, and the third containing 84 jigs. These sets are followed by 58 pages of assorted steps, many of them figure dances such as four-hand and eight-hand jigs and reels. Several entries in this unnumbered set include the names of the dancers on whose demonstration the steps were based.

Mainly programmes and press cuttings illustrating Sara Payne’s career as a dancer, teacher and choreographer; the activities of the Payne School of Dance and Mime; and the early development of ballet as an art form in Ireland.

Yeats, William Butler. Four Plays for Dancers. London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, 1921. Lacking dust jacket. Signed on the inside by Sara Payne, and by the original owner of the book, Abbey Theatre actor Joseph O’Neill. The pages contain handwritten annotations for possible movement and sound direction, and the players’ cues for the play At the Hawks Well.

Book originally belonging to Sara Payne.

Programmes and flyer relating to performances by Sara Payne and the Payne School of Dance and Mime

As N43/1/1, with handwritten corrections and additions by Sara Payne.

Programme of a matinee performance by the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The repertoire included Theme Classique; Prelude; The New Hat; Serenade; A Study in Plastic Movement; Once Upon a Time; Suite de Danses; When the Cat’s Away; Pas de Trois; Russian Court Dance; When Philidda Flouts Him; Ballet Suite from Carmen; Holiday; Prelude Oriental and Fedelma.

Press cuttings relating to Sara Payne and the Payne School of Dance and Mime.