Donncha Ó Muíneacháin - Portrait of a Dance Master

In ómós do Dhonncha Ó Muíneacháin, nach maireann

Describing someone is powerfully difficult. Trying to describe the late Donncha Ó Muíneacháin is near impossible.

I discovered this when I rang the local Malahide Gardaí on the morning of his removal, in January 2005 to alert them to the fact that great numbers were likely to show up, and would they do something about guiding the traffic? ‘Well who was he?’ said the young Garda. I muttered something about him being a dancer and a dance teacher, while his dayjob was as a civil servant but realised that my attempts at describing this man were as pathetic as trying to put his irrepressable spirit into a box. How could I explain to someone who hadn’t met him what he meant to hundreds and hundreds of others both in Ireland and abroad, the numbers he had touched by his big heart, his generosity of spirit, his astonishing energy, his charisma, his amazing aptitude for remembering people’s names which made us all feel that he knew us so well, his beatific smile…? Those who attended what turned out to be one of the biggest ever funerals in Portmarnock (rivalling that of the late Eamonn Andrews’ funeral in the 1970s) knew the man that was Donncha, and some of the facets that made up his bigger-than-life persona. And those Gardaí were truly needed…!

The second eldest of four children, Donncha was born in Cork city in September 1947. Dancing from an early age, his first teacher was Maureen Hall with whom Donncha kept in contact all his life. When she emigrated to America he joined her sister’s classes in the Peggy McTaggart school of dancing where he won medals, cups, trophies, championships and belts all over Munster and beyond.

On what was possibly his first dancing tour abroad, he travelled to Edinburgh for the International Festival of Dancing in 1959. [photo: Donncha in second row, extreme left. Peggy McTaggart is seated in the centre of her troupe of dancers.] His sister, Marie Cahill, seven years his junior, remembers him as ‘dancing forever’ during her childhood. When their mother, Joan, became ill during Donncha’s teens, and subsequently died, he practically took over the running of the household and, in particular, looked after the twins, Marie and Joe, while he himself attended secondary school. Making sure his younger siblings’ nails were neat and clean and putting rollers in his sister’s hair were symbolic of the attention to detail he gave every project he was ever involved in. Cleaning out the fire and attending to family matters meant he was often late cycling to school: punishment for this was accepted stoically without explanation or excuse.

[A photograph from the Cork Examiner, shows a young Donncha, proudly wearing the under-16 Boys’ Belt from Feis Maitiú in 1963.]

In late 1965, he joined the Civil Service, which meant him moving to Dublin, but he visited the family home in Cork at least once a month and kept in touch with wonderful letters containing many ten-shilling notes.

Around 1966, he joined the Gráinne McCormack school of dancing in the North Strand, Dublin, probably in answer to her call for male dancers for a forthcoming European trip and he travelled with them in 1966, ‘67 and ‘68 to a number of European destinations. [Photo taken in Dublin airport on 19^th March 1968, on their return from a dance/music trip to Germany, Donncha beaming in the centre of the group.]

His interest in Irish music and dance was further enhanced by meeting Seán Haverty in 1967 in Gráinne’s school (when Seán brought his son Kevin to classes). As well as introducing him to the Clontarf branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Seán and his wife, Ann, provided home and lodgings to Donncha in Dublin during the greater part of the seventies, from 1971 to 1977.

Along with Seán Haverty and Tom Glackin (father of fiddlers, Paddy, Séamas and Kevin), Donncha helped set up Craobh Seán Treacy branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in the spring of 1970 and taught dancing at various city venues.

“It was mainly céilí dancing I taught at these classes but I also taught some country sets such as the North Kerry, Cashel, Caledonian, Ballycommon and the Plain Clare (which I learned from dancing it with Josie Murphy, Micheál and Biddy Murphy and their familiy and friends at house parties at Josie’s house on Longwood avenue, off the South Circular Road),” Donncha wrote in an article in 2001 celebrating Craobh Seán Treacy’s involvement in Comhaltas.

Among those attending his classes in those early years were Connie Ryan (RIP), Billy Boylan and Mick Mulkerrin, all of whom helped spread the love of dancing further afield.

Donncha devoted a major part of his life to the Seán Treacy branch, involved with every aspect of organising, rehearsing, teaching, practising, cajoling, encouraging and indeed pressurising other musicans and dancers, young and old and involving them in seisiúin, displays, competitions, tours, trips, exhibitions, performances, feiseanna, fleadhanna, Ceol an Gheimhridh, Pléaráca, Slógadh, Scór and Spleodar!

He was involved in organising the first Fleadh Nua in Croke Park in 1970, and travelled constantly, thinking nothing of driving to Galway, Ennis or Cork to help a local troupe there with their choreography and rehearsals – and driving back home in time to get up for work the following morning! He was a member of Coiste Rince Chomhaltais with Tomás Mac Eoin, and helped re-energise dancing nationwide, as well as being a member of the first, very successful Comhaltas tour of North America in 1972.

He was our national dancing ambassador on subsequent U.S. tours over the following ten years where he gave “electrifying performances” to vast audiences. In 1977, he was on a dancing tour to Libya as part of an Irish Trade Mission.

His partnership with Celine Hession and the live television transmission of their impromptu dance on the steps of the Palace Hotel in Cashel in 1969 made them a household name in Ireland, giving them celebrity status on a par with that of Michael Flatley and Jean Butler in later years. James Last and his orchestra saw them dancing in the early 1980s at the Rose of Tralee festival and were among his biggest fans.

As a surprise birthday gift for James Last, Donncha and Celine were flown to England as a special treat for him. [photo] They were invited to dance at numerous festivals, celebrations, conventions and were regular visitors to St Helen’s in Manchester, to Birmingham and to Liverpool, as well as venues in London and Edinburgh. They made an appearance on the then famous Opportunity Knocks on BBC television.

From 1970 on, Donncha taught dancing classes to children and adults under the auspices of Craobh Seán Treacy. He began teaching adult set and céilí classes in Na Fianna GAA club in 1972 and took over calling the dances at the monthly céilí there after Paddy King retired.

He was probably the first dance teacher to teach sets from all over the country to his classes. In ‘Issue Zero’ of Set Dancing produced by the ‘Set Dancing for Galway’ group in 1993, Donncha wrote a short piece after having taught classes for 25 years at that stage – “I think it would be true to say that I was teaching set dancing, in a cosmopolitan sort of way, many years before any of the current crop of ‘inter-county’ teachers, without exception.

Needless to say, sets native to their own counties were being taught in their own native county, e.g. Clare, Kerry, Tipperary, but one would not find a Clare set being taught in Kerry or vice versa due to lack of appreciation for the other’s art form.”

During the seventies and into the eighties, Donncha had travelled all over Ireland with John Norton, collecting information on local set dances and meticulously recording these.

The repository of this material was the boot of Donncha’s car, so imagine the panic and dismay when his car was stolen from the carpark of the Coombe maternity hospital in 1984, where his wife, Helen, had given birth to their third child, Cillian. Although the car was recovered shortly afterwards, everything in the boot was missing… Luckily for us, Donncha had committed many sets to memory and had been teaching many of them in his Dublin classes over the years.

Cardinal-elect, Tomás Ó Fiaich, and Professor of History and President of Maynooth College at the time, performed the wedding ceremony for Donncha and Helen Culligan in 1978 and they set up home in Portmarnock, by the sea in north county Dublin.

Donncha still danced and danced, organising and teaching after work on most days of the week. Their first child, Siobhán, was born in 1979, Fiachra in 1980 and Cillian in 1984, and each of them was taught dancing and traditional music, as well as being encouraged in sport at the local GAA club –Naomh Mearnóg - where Donncha was a loyal member. Their children attended Scoil Neasáin in Harmonstown and Donncha was involved in school fundraising for the annual trip to Inis Oírr in the Aran islands, as well as two major Spleodar concerts in the National Concert Hall (1997 and again in 2000) where he also performed.

Having young children himself got Donncha involved even more in Craobh Seán Treacy, encouraging them to participate in music and dancing classes. His enthusiasm always focussed on the taking part not on winning, no matter what age-group he was coaching. Often, he would collapse with laughing at mistakes, his whole body creasing up with his very distinctive laugh. Donncha always seemed to be smiling, especially as he danced, and photo after photo shows him beaming. Posing with Fiachra, then aged 11 years, shows a very proud Dad with his son at the British Championship in 1991. Fiachra went on to get a very impressive placing in the World Solo Dancing Championships held in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin, in 1995 and often did an exhibition dance with his Dad at Dublin céilís, showing a very similar style much as voices of singers from the same family blend together in a very natural way.

As a fundraising venture, Donncha began organising weekend set dance workshops for the Society of St Vincent de Paul, held in Inis Fáil’s GAA club on an annual basis.

An annual céilí was added in, followed by other charity events – for St Francis’ Hospice, for St. Rosalie’s, for CASA (the caring and sharing association) that takes mentally handicapped children to Lourdes.

Donncha was responsible for collecting thousands of pounds (and later euros) for many charities and schools (Scoil Neasáin and Coláiste Mhuire, Dublin in particular), doing the work of seven-man committees all by himself in a whirlwind of energy.

His enthusiasm extended to ringing everyone on his dancing list before every single céilí, most particularly for his charity céilís which would mean at least two phonecalls to prospective dancers in advance! After every céilí, he would be the last to leave, having spoken personal goodbyes to everyone in the hall, stacked the chairs and swept the floor.

Donncha could be depended on totally. If he said he’d do something he would never let anyone down. When the Foot and Mouth cattle disease prevented RTÉ’s Céilí House team travelling ‘down the country’ in 2001, Kieran Hanrahan contacted the Seán Treacy branch, knowing that Donncha would be the man to organise singers, dancers and musicians at short notice, rehearse them and meticulously plan each item down to timing each performance, making the job of producer and presenter of the programme very easy. This recording of Céilí House was broadcast on St Patrick’s day, 2001.

His proficiency in both the spoken and written Irish language was masterful and he had numerous friends and acquaintances with whom he conversed regularly as Gaeilge as well as speaking it daily in the home. He was interested in and very knowledgeable about every aspect of Irish culture – language, history and games, as well as the more obvious music, singing and dancing, and he was a loyal supporter of ‘buying Irish’. His contribution to Irish culture was marked by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann in 2003 when Donncha was one of the first recipients of a Bardic Award, and Labhrás Ó Murchú, Uachtarán of Comhaltas, gave a very moving oration at Donncha’s funeral.

Every year he took part in the Trócaire fast, and I recall one occasion where he had done a day’s work, taught an adult dance class and then went on to call at a céilí on the day of the fast! His energy seemed boundless, he was always running [when he wasn’t dancing], and the only time you were likely to see him stationary was at mass!

As a Millenium project, Donncha was to the fore again in organising the compilation of a permanent record of the talent in his Comhaltas branch. The CD and audio tape ‘Idir an Dá Linn’ with approximately 55 participants taking part in the recording was launched in August 2000.

Another project was a video recording of the two hand céilí dances, called ‘Beirt Eile’, dances that were very close to his heart. Remembering his love of these dances and his exhortation to dance teachers to teach them, it was decided to ask any of those organising céilís around the weekend of 24^th March 2007 to dance these two hand dances at midnight.

May our tears be turned into dancing.

Rhóda Uí Chonaire

[with special thanks to Helen Uí Mhuíneacháin and Marie Cahill]