Twelfth Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© Individual Contributors

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 12, 2023-24

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Declan Keenan

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 200p

When Published: 2023

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: This twelveth publication of this biennial journal was launched in the Coimín Centre, Blessington on 9/11/2023. It includes perhaps the most diverse set of topics yet to appear in this journal. Full contents are listed below. The most extensive article in this issue runs to 24 pages. In it, Peter W. Halligan provides an enlightening account of the castles at Oldcourt and Three Castles. 

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Foreword from the Chairman / Paul Gorry — Donal McDonnell (1945-2022) — Secretary’s Synopsis / Cora Crampton — Noel Lyons (1942-2022) — Editor’s Preface / Chris Lawlor — Mapping the devolved Gaelic territories and districts of the O’Tooles / Declan Keenan — Migrant railway workers and local communities: a case study of Harristown station on the Sallins-Tullow branch line 1883-1951 / John O’Brien — Some observations on the Great famine in County Wicklow, c.1845-1850 / Gerald Cullen — Gentry, Brides and Lions / Maura Murphy Gibson — The man who wore a blue shirt in 1933: the Bass War in West Wicklow and Kildare / Declan O’Connor — A little bit of Bulgaria in Ireland: Pierce O’Mahony (1850-1930): politician and philanthropist / Brian McCabe — Dame Ninette de Valois (Edris Stannus) / Paul Tyrell — A 1792 Rental of the Lordship of Belan, Co. Kildare / Richard B. Lennon —Language Matters Revisited / Ita Roddy — Death from a Flat-Nosed Bullet in Blessington / James Scannell — A farming community: Hollywood in the early twentieth century / John Glennon — Sadhbh O’Byrne – glimpses of a Gaelic woman of sixteenth-century Ireland / Cora Crampton — The Manor of Blessington, created by Michael Boyle / Jim Corley — Revisiting the 1798 Dunlavin massacre for its 225th anniversary / Chris Lawlor — Balfe the Robber / Brendan Corrigan — A sociological interpretation of the Hillfort Capital – exploring Hughstown and Tinoran hillforts (part 1 of 3) / Mairéad Kelly — Charles Maule Drury (1848-1939) – collector of folklore / Paul Gorry — The castles of Oldcourt and Three Castles / Peter W. Halligan — ‘I say it as I think it’ : The life and controversial times of Rev. T. C. O’Connor, Rector of Donoughmore and Donard / Rosemary Raughter — Query / Peter W. Halligan.

Extra #1: Illustrated throughout with black & white photographs and maps.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website

The Art and the Dance

© The Publisher

Full title: The Making of a Choreographer: Ninette de Valois and Bar aux Folies-Bergére

Creator / Author: Beth Genné

Item Type / Page count: Book / 139p

When Published: 1996

Publisher / Place of Publication: Society of Dance History Scholars / U.S.A.

About: The ballet ‘Bar aux Folies-Bergére’ took inspiration from and was based around a famous painting of the same name by Édouard Manet. The choreography for the ballet was executed by Ninette de Valois. This book looks at her formative years as a choreographer with specific reference to this ballet. De Valois’s handwritten notebook for the production provides an invaluable insight into her artistic vision and this notebook is reproduced in facsimile with a transcription.

ID number(s): 0965351912

Contents: List of illustrations — “Will be Valuable Someday”: Preface — Acknowlegdements — “Wonder Child” in the School of Hard Knocks: De Valois’s Early Years — “Everything of Value”: De Valois and Diaghilev — “The Future of the Ballet”: De Valois and Modern Choreography — “A Strange, Noble, Unforgettable Figure: De Valois, Yeats, Baylis, and Rambert — Bar aux Folies-Bergére — The Notebook: Introduction, Facsimile and Transcription — Notes — Index.

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co. Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905.

Extra #1: includes twenty-six black & white photographs

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: For information, Ninette de Valois was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.

Extra #4: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Extra #5: Link to the website of the Dance Studies Association (formerly The Society of Dance History Scholars)

The Queen of English Ballet

© The Publisher

Full title: An English Ballet

Creator / Author: Ninette de Valois, edited by David Gayle

Item Type / Page count: Book / 61p

When Published: 2011

Publisher / Place of Publication: Oberon Books Ltd. / 522 Caledonian Road, London N7 9RH

About: This is a small collection of pieces either by Dame Ninette de Valois or about her. It includes the first publication of the text of a speech she gave in 1981 during the fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Ballet. Also included is the text of an address given in her memory at a function in Westminster Abbey in 2001.

ID number(s): 9781849431071

Contents: Acknowlegdements — Foreword / David Gayle — De Valois’ Address to the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars / Ninette de Valois — Madam and the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars (now known as the Yorkshire Ballet Summer School) / David Gayle — Some Problems of Ballet Today / Ninette de Valois — Sir Peter Wright’s Memorial Address at Westminster Abbey 28^th September, 2001 / Sir Peter Wright.

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co.Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905.

Extra #1: includes several photographs

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: For information, the author was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.

Extra #4: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Extra #5: Link to the Publisher’s Website

Steps in a Dancer’s Life

© The Publisher

Full title: Step by step: the formation of an establishment

Creator / Author: Ninette de Valois

Item Type / Page count: Book / 204p

When Published: 1977

Publisher / Place of Publication: W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd. / 44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB.

About: A collection of published and unpublished articles, essays and other writings all of which have ballet as their theme. The author was the founder of Britain’s Royal Ballet and spent over thirty years as its director.

ID number(s): 0491015984

Contents: Prologue – Introduction – [Phase I – The 1920s and the 1930s] The traveller: a pupil and her teachers — The formation of an establishment: Life at ‘the Wells’ — Lilian Baylis — Extracts from ‘Invitation to the ballet’  — A tribute to the Mercury Theatre — [Phase II – The 1940s and the 1950s] Five architects of the ballet: Constant Lambert, Frederick Ashton, Robert Helpmann, Margot Fonteyn, Sophie Fedorovitch — The Royal Charter: a memorandum — The English Ballet: a lecture to the Royal Society of Arts, 1957 — [Phase III – The 1960s and the 1970s] Gemini: two studies — John Cranko — Kenneth MacMillan — The stranger in our midst: a portrait of Nureyev — Choreography — Movements — [Impressions] A visit to Russia: 1957 — The Turkish State Ballet — Diaghilev — W. B. Yeats — What makes a dancer’s life — Epilogue — Index.

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co.Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905.

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: Contains thirty-two pages of photographs.

Extra #4: For information, the author was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.

Extra #5: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Baltyboys Ballet Belle

© The Publisher

Full title: Ninette de Valois and the Vic-Wells Ballet.

Creator / Author: Kate Neatby / edited by Edwin Evans.

Item Type / Page count: Book / 46p

When Published: 1934

Publisher / Place of Publication: British-Continental Press / London.

About: This is book number 11 in the series called ‘The Artists of the Dance’. It tells the story of Ninette de Valois and the creation of the Vic-Wells Ballet from a marriage of the Old Vic and Sadler’s Wells companies. Ninette de Valois, later to become Dame Ninette de Valois and the founder of The Royal Ballet, London was one of the pre-eminent world figures of twentieth-century ballet.

ID number(s): None

Chapters: Foreword / Lilian Baylis — Introduction — Before the Vic-Wells — Beginnings of  the Vic-Wells Ballet — The school of ballet — Miss de Valois as performer — Miss de Valois as producer and choreographer — [Productions] Job — La Création du Monde — The Foolish Virgins — The Scorpions of Ysit — The Haunted Ballroom — Douanes — Other Ballets — Bar Aux Folies-Bergere — Conclusion — Appendix.

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co.Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905.

Extra #1: includes photographs

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: For information, the author was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.

Extra #5: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Poems of a Dancer

© The Publisher

Full title: The Cycle and Other Poems

Creator / Author: Ninette de Valois

Item Type / Page count: Book / 51p

When Published: 1985

Publisher / Place of Publication: Sadler’s Wells Trust / London.

About: A collection of poems, dedicated to Princess Margaret, the proceeds of which were donated to the Sadler’s Wells Development Appeal for furthering the aims of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Ballet School in London.

ID number(s): None

Contents: [I] The beach of shells ( a memory of childhood) — The Buddha (in a museum garden) — The contented ghost — “He covets the earth”  — First love — Nocturne — November 11th — Song of the rush hour (underground) — The waters of Lethe (a myth) — [II] The crocus — The cycle — Dead cherry tree in a London garden — Frost — Harbour swans — Hidden copper beech in summer — The hills of Arran — The morning is not yet awake — Plea to autumn — River scene at twilight — The thaw — The tree (earth’s pipeline) — The wave — Winter river — [III] “I love pubs” (monologue overheard) — Background music in a saloon bar — One’s company — “Time please” — [IV] Age — Candles — Castle ruins on a hilltop — Theatre in the round — Concorde — Continuity — Courage — Graveyard on a hilltop (seen from a train) — Migraine — The Thames — Poppies — Poplars — Said the child…

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co.Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905 and she became the founder of what was to become the Royal Ballet.

Extra #1: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #2: For information, the author was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.

Extra #3: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Come Dance With Me

© The Publisher

Full title: Come dance with me: a memoir 1898 – 1956

Creator / Author: Ninette de Valois

Item Type / Page count: Book / 238p

When Published: 1957 and later editions

Publisher / Place of Publication: Lilliput Press / 4 Rosemount Terrace, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7 (1992 edition).

About: This is the autobiography of Dame Ninette de Valois, the founder of The Royal Ballet, London and one of the pre-eminent world figures of twentieth-century ballet.

ID number(s): 0946640629 / 9780946640621

Chapters: An Irish jig — The Longest way — The extended circle — Both sides of the river — The wind in the clock — One side of the market — Birthday offering — Appendix: Notes on the ancestry of Dame Ninette de Valois.

WW Connection #1: Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) was born at Baltyboys, Blessington, Co.Wicklow in 1898. The family moved to England in 1905.

Extra #1: includes photographs and index

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for various editions of this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Browse the 1901 Census entry for Ninette de Valois (née Edris Stannus) in Boystown Lower, Co.Wicklow

Extra #5: For information, the author was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1974 for her contribution to European culture.