Jeremiah Molyneaux, also known as Jerry Munnix, was born c. 1881, at Gunsborough Cross, a short distance from Listowel. His father William was a blacksmith and his mother, Ellen Scanlon, was a dressmaker. Molyneaux was the youngest of the couple’s seven children. He was a small man, about 1.5m (c. 5ft) tall. Molyneaux married a woman from Lixnaw when he was in his forties. The couple had two children who died in infancy. Following the break-up of his marriage, Molyneaux returned to Gunsborough where he lived the rest of his life with his brother and sister. Molyneaux is remembered primarily as a travelling dancing master but he also worked in his father’s forge and as a cobbler and carpenter. Dance schools were usually hosted during the winter months, so Molyneaux used these additional skills to supplement his income throughout the rest of the year. Molyneaux is believed to have attended one of the schools hosted by the travelling dancing master Nedín Batt Walsh in the Coolard area, near Listowel. It is uncertain how long he was tutored. However, Molyneaux is reputed to have won several local step dancing competitions as a teenager. In 1903 Molyneaux held his first dance school in the kitchen of his own home in Gunsborough. Thereafter he held dance schools throughout North Kerry and into West Limerick. Molyneaux also taught in private houses and in primary schools when the local parish priest allowed it. The step dances he taught were based on those that he had learnt from Nedín Ball Walsh. However, Molyneaux further choreographed and developed these steps. It is said that, while seated by a fire, he would often use a stick to trace, choreograph and create dance patterns in the ashes. Molyneaux did not use live music in his step dance classes. Instead he lilted or whistled a tune as he taught. Molyneaux taught both men and women the basic forms of step dance: the Jig, Treble Reel and Hornpipe. When these were mastered, he progressed to the exhibition pieces of a solo step dancer. These included ‘The Blackbird’, ‘St Patrick’s Day’, ‘The Job of Journeywork’, ‘The Garden of Daisies’ and ‘The Humours of Bandon.’ Of these, ‘The Blackbird’ was Molyneaux’s favourite and his version is now known world-wide. All of the steps taught by Molyneaux were danced in a close-to-the-floor style. The feet sounded out each movement as they made contact with the ground. Sometimes steps were taught depending on gender or ability. Molyneaux did not teach every step he knew; some he retained for himself and danced for exhibition purposes only. After a career spanning 50 years, Molyneaux ceased teaching his dance schools in 1953. However, up until his death in 1965, he did occasionally teach a step to an interested party. See: Catherine E. Foley, Step Dancing in Ireland: Culture and History, Routledge, 2016.