Irish in the West
“Mary Jo Feeney, Irish Dance Teacher Extraordinaire, To Receive Well-Deserved Honor at the 2024 Rebel Cork’s Christmas Dinner”
By: Maeve Canniffe; Irish Herald; November 2024
San Francisco St. Patrick’s Day Parade
“We are delighted to congratulate Mary Jo Feeney and the Murphy Irish Dancers on the well deserved recognition of being the Rebel Cork Honoree at the 2024 Christmas Dinner Dance at the UICC. Her contributions to the world of Irish dancing cannot be denied!”
Cork Person of the Year:
Mary Jo Feeney
Mary Jo Feeney will be honored as “Cork Person of the Year” by the Rebel Cork Benevolent Association (RCBA) and the Rebel Cork Ladies Association (RCLA) at their Gala Christmas Dinner on Saturday, December 14, 2024 at the United Irish Cultural Center.
It is a great honor, the RCBA has been going strong in the City for over 140 years, while the RCLA celebrated its milestone 110 year anniversary last year. Both are mainstays of the Irish community in San Francisco.
Mary Jo is being recognized for the vital part she has played in keeping up the tradition of Irish dance in the Bay Area for more than 60 years, and for her many contributions to the Irish American community.
The Murphy School of Irish Dance, which she founded and still operates, has taught and inspired literally thousands of our young girls and boys to learn and practice the skills and steps of Irish dancing. The Murphy School, alongside many other Irish dance schools—Greene, Healy, Kennelly, Whelan, and many more—has made San Francisco a hotbed for this aspect of our culture.
It’s been a long and eventful journey for Mary Jo. Now an ADCRG-“Ard Diploma Choimisiuim Le Rinci Gaelacha” or “Commission’s Highest Diploma in Irish Dancing”—she was, like so many others, taught her first Irish Dance steps in the kitchen by her mother before she even started school. Her parents had immigrated from Cork to San Francisco.
At the age of six, Mary Jo attended the Healy school in order to build her skillset in Irish Dance. Although she danced for a good portion of her youth, Mary Jo never felt like she really connected with dance or had a true passion for it until her friends in high school encouraged her to keep dancing so they could all dance together. Much like Mary Jo, they had been dancing for a large portion of their lives and their commitment inspired her to continue practicing and performing, eventually resulting in the love she has for dance today.
It wasn’t long before Mary Jo moved from dancing to teaching. Annie Slattery originally asked her to teach one class of 13 children on a Saturday night. This quickly tuned into a more than once-weekly event as Annie faded out of the picture and Mary Jo took over with grace. In a matter of a few years the school had grown from 13 students to almost 200 and became known as the Murphy School of Irish Dance.
Mary Jo has been leading the Murphy Irish Dancers to success for more than six decades. From regional, national, and world competitions, to the countless adventures they have been on., she has made many memories that dancers will have for life. Some of her favorite events were dancing for the Pope and travelling to China.
The 2010 trip to China was part of the World Expo as Shanghai and San Francisco were celebrating 30 years of friendship and being Sister Cities. About 20 students were brought by Mary Jo on the trip and had a blast showing off their skills and simply having fun. The dancers wore bright colors and performed both traditional steps and more modern pieces, like the Cotton-Eyed Joe, a Murphy tradition.
The Cotton-Eyed Joe choreography combines square dance and Irish dance to a remixed version of the song originally written by the band Rednex but later adapted by the Irish band The Chieftains, who added a treble reel element to the tune. This piece is a long-time favorite of both dancers and audiences alike as it adds a flair into the mix of dances. The dance came to be when Mary Jo and a variety of dancers were in Ireland for a world championship and saw others dancing when the song came on. They decided to follow along and once Mary Jo found The Chieftains’ version of the song, the dance was solidified in the repertoire.
Another stand-out event of Mary Jo’s career was dancing for Pope John Paul II in Candlestick Park. A group of Murphy dancers were at the San Francisco Ethnic Festival in 1987, which they had participated in for many years prior. The Ethnic Festival was always a memorable event for the dancers as they felt very professional, having to go through metal detectors and performing for very large crowds. This particular year, the Pope had come to attend the festival and the dancers worked for weeks, preparing what was a fantastic performance for him, something they would never forget.
Throughout these adventures, Mary Jo has shown her true spirit and passion for Irish dance and Irish culture.
Learning to love Irish heritage is a value that has been built over many years by Mary Jo as she aims to emulate her experience of Irish dancing when she was young, when the focus was on respecting the traditions and culture, not advancing in competitions. Although she motivates dancers to keep improving by encouraging them to enter competitions, known as feiseanna, the true soul of Murphy Irish Dancers lies in their performances for the community.
Mary Jo’s attitude, as well as that of her dancers, has allowed the school to flourish and continue over many decades, fostering life-long friendships and teaching students over many generations.
The Murphy School of Irish Dance has truly become a family, not only because of the many families that are a part of it-includ-ing the Feeney family: Mary Jo, her daughter and co-teacher Trish Conefrey, and grandson Michael Conefrey who danced for most of his young life-but also because of how close many of the dancers have become.
Today, there are many current students whose mothers danced together at the Murphy School, and both generations of dancers perform at the annual San Francisco St Patrick’s Day Parade organized by the United Irish Societies of San Francisco.
For all of her wonderful achievements in the world of Irish dance Mary Jo is more grateful for the life experiences she gained along the way. As she told The Irish Herald, being an Irish dance teacher “won’t make you rich, but it will make you happy,” which in her experience is much better.
Murphy Irish Dancers & Mary Jo Feeney Photo Gallery
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