PEGGY McTEGGART:PEGGY McTEGGART, who has died at the age of 87, had a profound influence on the course of Irish dancing in a teaching career that embraced pupils at every level from tiny tots to world champions.
In more than 70 years as a teacher she put thousands of Cork children through their paces in the intricacies of jigs, reels and hornpipes. Remarkably, she was only 15 years old when An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha, the governing body of traditional dancing, recognised her talent as a fully qualified teacher in the late 1930s.
McTeggart was a gifted performer on the stage. She began dancing at the age of nine, going on to win countless cups and medals. She was the first woman to dance the steps of a “hard” jig in competition, a genre confined until then to male dancers. With her sister Nancy, she danced for Éamon de Valera when the port of Cork was handed back to the State by the British government in 1938.
Though semi-retired, McTeggart had continued giving tutorials at UCC’s school of music and theatre, and was preparing to teach students at the university on the morning she died. She had also continued teaching children, the “smallies” as she called them, at two primary schools in Cork: Gaelscoil Peig Sayers in Blackpool and Scoil Barra Naofa in Monkstown.
In a fitting tribute to her memory, a veritable “who’s who” of traditional dancers and musicians gathered in Cork at her funeral. For former pupils she had become something of an “agony aunt”, a shoulder to cry on at difficult times in their dancing careers.
She was born in Dundalk where dance and music were a way of life in the McTeggart home.
Following the untimely death of her first husband, Michael Byrne, she married the late Ted Sheehan. As a teacher, however, she worked under her maiden name.
Among her star pupils, Alan Kenefick took his first dancing lessons at the McTeggart school on Cork's Victoria Road when he was nine. He went on to win every major championship, from local and regional competitions to all-Irelands and British, North American and world championships. He joined Michael Flatley's troupe in 2007 and performed in the Celtic Tigerand Magic of the Dance, where he was the lead dancer.
Another McTeggart protege, the late Donncha Ó Muineacháin, a virtuoso of the “old school” of Irish dancing, had a major influence on the promotion of Irish culture. Former pupil Michael Kelly, a professional judge of dancing, described her as almost without equal.
She was also an inspirational teacher for Maggie McCarthy of Dripsey, who performed internationally with the Rhythm of the Dancegroup and danced on stage with Dolly Parton in Tennessee.
Following the death of her first teacher, Aileen Harrington, McCarthy joined the McTeggart school, where McTeggart refined the steps of McCarthy’s showpiece – dancing while playing the fiddle.
Down the years, the McTeggart school produced generations of dancers for special events at Cork Opera House and other venues.
The family influence on traditional dancing also extends to the US where her sister, California-based Maureen (80), still teaches young dancers across several states.
Doubtless, McTeggart’s major influence on the realm of Irish dancing will be warmly recalled next month when young Irish-American dancers compete at the 15th annual Fall Feis in Loveland, Colorado, from November 5th to 6th.
McTeggart's legacy is graphically etched on a UCC internet video showing young musicians and dancers performing Miss Monaghan's Reelin the college quad to steps created by past masters and handed down in turn by McTeggart, thus keeping an age-old tradition alive.
She is survived by her sons Tommy and Jimmy Byrne and Adrian Sheehan, sisters Maureen Hall-McTeggart and Betty Walsh, and her brother Tomás McTeggart.
Peggy McTeggart: born May 15th, 1924; died October 10th, 2011