Board of Directors

ABOUT THE BOARD

Dan Boyle (Chair) is a former member of Dáil Éireann, Seanad Éireann, and Cork City Council. He is a Community Development Worker and is active in many arts organisations and events in the Cork area. In addition to chairing the board at Firkin Crane, he is currently chair of the board of Corcadorca Theatre Company, as well as a board member (and former chair) of Cork Art Society/Lavit gallery. He is also formerly the chair and board member of Wandesford Quay Artists Studios and Gallery and a former board member of the Glucksmann Gallery, Triskel Arts Centre and Crawford Art Gallery.

Catherine Clancy

Yvonne Coughlan, MA Theatre and Drama studies, UCC, founded her company RSVP (Red Sandstone Varied Productions) in 2006, and has co-created and directed; arts participatory projects in short film and theatre, site specific theatre projects, inter-disciplinary performances, festival  installations and community arts events, since that time. She has had the pleasure of producing live performances, radio podcasts, and art films, with international creatives, and on location in England, Scotland, Greece, Poland, Norway and Australia. Prominent Cork heritage locations have also provided memorable settings for her work, such as Blackrock Castle, Fota House and Gardens, The Old Cork Waterworks; and Cork City Gaol, where the first RSVP production of Yvonne’s writing The Haunted History Tours, began in 2007. Though her heart lies with the artistic direction of the performer on screen or stage, she is also a film producer and casting director, with award winners like short film 3 Friends, an adaptation of the work of Colm Tobín, and art film The Other Woman Zizi’s dream, among her music video, experimental film, and documentary film projects. She is the producer of annual Cork events the Cork Martial Arts Promotions (CMAP) awards ceremony, and McCarthy’s Community Talent Competition. Further positions held are production manager at promotional film production company VisitorFlix International, and Creative Producer with InFlightflix International, the Inflight destination video guide. She also volunteers as Cork South West co-ordinator with the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA.) Yvonne has often produced work for The Firkin Crane stage, and is honoured to be a member of the board at such a prestigious and well loved theatre. www.rsvpireland.net

Patricia Crosbie, a native of Cork, was a member of Irish National Ballet (Cork) for 6 years and was a principle ballerina with London Ballet Theatre (London) and Vienna Festival Ballet (London). She toured worldwide with the renowned rock band, The Kinks, choreographing and performing in their concerts. Patricia is now Ballet Mistress with Cork City Ballet (Firkin Crane, Cork) for whom she has choreographed many ballets, including her critically acclaimed full-length dance interpretation of The Playboy of the Western World. She has conducted workshops and Master classes for Irish National Youth Ballet, Crux Dance Company, Siamsa Tire, Cork School of Dance and for Dance Ireland, which included ‘Summer Intros’ in 2012.

Patricia taught on the Diploma in Dance Course at Cork’s College of Further Education (CSN) for 12 years and teaches open ballet classes for Cork City Ballet at Firkin Crane. She is now ballet tutor on the MA and BA courses at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance Limerick University. Patricia contributed to Dr. Ruth Fleischmann’s book Joan Denise Moriarty: Ireland’s First Lady of Dance, and spoke at its launch in UL. Patricia was awarded her MA in Dance from UL in 2012 and has been appointed Associate Artist with Dance Ireland (Dublin) for 2015/2016. She has been a Director of the Board at Firkin Crane since 2012

Thomas Gould is a Sinn Féin Councillor for Cork North Central since 2009 is the leader of the Sinn Féin party in Cork City. He is originally from Knocknaheeny but now lives with his wife Michelle and two children, Aoife and Orlaith – on Cathedral Road in Gurranabraher, which is very close to the Firkin Crane. He went to school in the North Monastery and to college in CIT as a mature student where he received a diploma in Business Studies. Thomas is now a Logistics Manager for JDS Foods, which is based in Churchfield. He is currently the Chairman of St. Vincent’s H&F Club and is also involved with St. Vincent’s Camogie Club with whom his wife and daughters play. He has coached both underage and adult teams for the past 30 years. 

Thomas is on the Board of Management of Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers, Farranferris and is a member of Parents for Equal Access to Education (PEAE). He is the chairman of the Northside School’s Coaching Initiative.  He is also on a number of committees in Cork City Council: the Environment & Recreation Strategic Policy Committee, Housing & Community Functional Committee, Finance & Estimates Functional Committee, Environment & Recreation Functional Committee, School Meals Committee, Southern West River Basin District Management Committee and the Sports Committee. He became a member of the board of the Firkin Crane in 2014.

Kieran McCarthy has actively promoted Cork’s heritage with its various communities and people for over twenty years. He has led and continues to lead successful heritage initiatives through his community talks, City and County school heritage programmes, walking tours, newspaper articles, books and his work through his heritage consultancy business. For the past 16 years, Kieran has written a local heritage column in the Cork Independent on the history, geography and its intersection of modern day life in communities in Cork City and County. He holds a PhD in Cultural Geography from University College Cork and has interests in ideas of landscape, collective memory, narrative and identity structures. Kieran is the author of seventeen books on Cork and its region. In June 2009 and May 2014, Kieran was elected as a local government councillor (Independent) to Cork City Council. He is also a member of the EU’s Committee of the Regions. More on Kieran’s work can be seen at www.corkheritage.ie and www.kieranmccarthy.ie.

Linda O’Halloran has been working in Cathedral Credit Union for almost 17 years, starting off as a teller then moving on to Marketing and Promotions Officer. She has been involved in many community groups over the years, including the role of Chairperson of the Parents Council in St Aidan’s Community College, SARA (Shandon Area Renewal Association), Shandon Business Association, one of the organisers of the Age Action Inter Generation Quiz and in the past 11 years one of the two main organisers of the Award Winning Shandon Street Festival. Linda has just become the most recent addition to the Board Directors of Firkin Crane and she looks forward to being part of the exciting times which are planned for the amazing building.

Dr Catherine Foley is senior lecturer in Ethnochoreology and founding course director of the MA Ethnochoreology and the MA Irish Traditional Dance Performance programmes at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. She is Founding Director of The National Dance Archive of Ireland, Founding Chair Emerita of Dance Research Forum Ireland, and Founding Director of the dance festival Tráth na gCos. Catherine is serving her second term as the elected Chair of the International Council for the Traditional Music (ICTM) Study Group on Ethnochoreology (2014-2022) and is an elected member of the ICTM executive board (2023). Catherine was appointed Visiting Scholar at Indiana University, USA, in 2013 and Visiting Professor at Roehampton University, London in 2014. Catherine has published extensively including her two monographs, Irish Traditional Step Dancing in North Kerry (North Kerry Literary Trust, 2012) and Step Dancing in Ireland: Culture and History (Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2013); the latter was shortlisted for the Katherine Briggs Folklore Award 2014.  Catherine has published in international scholarly journals including Dance Research Journal, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Dance Research, and New Hibernia Review.  Catherine is a dancer and a musician.  She has choreographed original dance work including a newly commissioned set dance, The Sionna Set Dance, which was published by the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance as a multi-media educational package with Arts Council funding; she has also produced a solo DVD: Stór Damhsa: Irish Solo Traditional Set Dances and Step Dances (2015).  She has participated as a panel member on diverse Arts Council funding boards and was a member of the Society of Ethnomusicology’s Nadia and Nicholas Nahumck Fellowship Award. She is currently serving on the board of directors of the Firkin Crane. 

Jools  Gilson

Marguerite Donlon, choreographer, theater/opera director and curator is an innovative and unique creator. Her ideas push artistic limits just as her rich creative language melds art forms. Known by her audiences for balancing the witty and the profound, she has excited the dance world with a freshness that never strays far from reality. Marguerite Donlon’s innovative style – creative rigour often laced with humour – has secured her a unique position – and a loyal following – in the dance world.
 
Marguerite Donlon has always followed her own path. Born in Longford, Ireland, she began her ballet studies with Anica Dawson, Shawbrook Co Longford and later went to Dorothy Stevens academy in England at the age of 16. On graduation she joined the English National Ballet under Peter Schaufuss and in 1990 became a solo dancer and choreographer with the Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. There she worked with legends such as Natalia Makarova, Rudolf Nurejev and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. Her repertory covered the twentieth century choreographers, including Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, Bill T. Jones, Meg Stuart and Jiří Kylián. From 2001 to 2013, Marguerite Donlon was the director of the ballet of the Saarländisches Staatstheater. Her company became a well-respected and in-demand artistic ensemble behind more than 30 productions The company has also guested extensively world wide receiving critical acclaim. She is the founder and curator of “dance now saar festival” and was responsible for the birth of the successful youth company “iMove SB”.
 
Moving back to Berlin in 2014 as a freelance choreographer Marguerite Donlon has created works for ballet stares such as Svetalnja Zacharova Bolshoi and companies including Nederlands Dans Theater II, Stuttgart Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, the Companhia Nacional de Bailado Portugal, Hubbard Street Dance Company Chicago, Ballet X Philadelphia, Rembert Dance London and several companies in Germany. Her refreshed, critically-acclaimed versions of ballet classics – Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – have earned nominations for the prestigious “Prix Benois de la Danse” and for the German Theater Award “Der Faust”.
 She was awarded the Order of Merit of the state of Saarland in 2007. In 2018 the Cathaoirleach and Members of Longford County Council honoured Marguerite on her distinguished career as a Dancer, Choreographer, Artistic Director and for her critically acclaimed achievements in the World of Dance.
She is also a member of the Global Irish Net Work.
 
Marguerite is the founder and director of the Donlon Dance Collective based in Berlin and in Aug 2019 will be the new Artistic ballet director of Ballet Hagen, Germany.
She is the current curator of Step Up 19 for Dance Limerick.