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Kitty MacCormack (1892 – 1975) was an Irish designer with the Dun Emer Guild, theatre set designer, actress and author.

Early life and family

Kitty MacCormack (sometimes spelt McCormack) was the daughter of Constance MacCormack, and niece of Evelyn Gleeson. She was born in 1892, and after the death of her father in 1902, the family lived with Gleeson at her home, at Runnemede, Sandyford Road, Dublin with her mother and siblings, Grace (1898-1982) and Edward (1889-1906). With her sister, McCormack worked in the Dun Emer Guild from a young age, particularly after the Yeats sisters left Dun Emer to form Cuala Industries.

Theatrical work

MacCormack also did some acting, theatre set design and was an author. She appeared in Joseph Plunkett's 1912 play The Dance of Osiris at the Hardwicke Theatre, and designed the sets. She often acted under the name Catia or Caitia Nic Cormac. She also designed sets for the Irish National Theatre Society, Theatre Company of Ireland and the Dublin Drama League.

Career at Dun Emer

Some of her most notable works are the tapestries for the Honan Chapel, Cork in 1917, the vestments for St Patrick's church, San Francisco in 1923, and a carpet presented to Pope Pius XI in 1931. The carpet commissioned in an effort by Ireland's ambassador to the Vatican, Charles Bewley, to secure Ireland as the host of the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress. It was designed by MacCormack, took workers in the Guild almost 4 months to hand weave and cost £450. As "The Pope's Carpet" it was exhibited in Clerys from 19 to 30 January 1931.

She designed the poster for the 1927 "Grand Pageant of Dublin History". She also developed a set of designs for judicial robes for W. T. Cosgrave in 1924, drawing on the Brehon style sketches of which are held in University College Dublin Archives. In 1911 and 1920, she exhibited at the Oireachtas Art Exhibitions, and with the Water Colour Society of Ireland throughout the 1920s. MacCormack was also an illustrator, beginning with Christmas card designs for Dun Emer in the 1910s. She illustrated John Hackett Pollock's 1919 The wisdom of the world: A book of wonder-tales published by Colm Ó Lochlainn's Candle Press under Pollock's pseudonym An Philibín. MacCormack edited a volume for Ó Lochlainn in 1920, The Book of St Ultan; a collection of pictures and poems by Irish artists and writers, proceeds of which went to St Ultan's Hospital. As well as editing, she contributed illustrations and two poems to the volume.

After her aunt's death in 1944, MacCormack continued to run Dun Emer Guild until its store on Harcourt Street closed around 1964.

Death and legacy

MacCormack died in 26 June 1975. A large collection of theatre ephemera collected by MacCormack was sold in 2008. The Kitty MacCormack Archive is held by the Jackie Clarke Archive, and the National Library of Ireland also holds a collection of her theatre ephemera and letters. A dress designed by MacCormack for Clare Kennedy, the wife of Hugh Kennedy, is on display as part of The Way We Wore an exhibition in National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks.

References

1. ^ McCoole, Sinéad (2014). Easter widows. Dublin: Random House. ISBN 9781448171033.
2. ^ "Papers of Evelyn Gleeson and the Dun Emer Guild". Irish Archives Resource. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
3. Paterson, Elaine C. (2013). "Crafting Empire: Intersections of Irish and Canadian Women's History". Journal of Canadian Art History. 34 (2): 243–267. doi:10.2307/jcanaarthist.34.2.243. ISSN 0315-4297. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
4. McCormack, W. J. (2016). Enigmas of sacrifice : a critique of Joseph M. Plunkett and the Dublin Insurrection of 1916. East Lansing: MSU Press. ISBN 9781628952513.
5. Catalogue 105 (PDF). Dublin: De Burca Rare Books. 2013. p. 60.
6. "Poetry Day Ireland: A Moving House by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin". RTÉ Culture. RTÉ. 30 April 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
7. Raguin, Virginia (1 January 2017). "An Túr Gloine (Tower of Glass) at the Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart". Interfaces. Image Texte Language (38): 39–64. doi:10.4000/interfaces.310. ISSN 1164-6225. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
8. Shortall, Billy (25 June 2020). "The story behind Ireland's 1931 gift of a carpet to the pope". RTÉ Brainstorm. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
9. Dean, Joan Fitzpatrick (2014). All dressed up : modern Irish historical pageantry (First ed.). Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780815652847.
10. Dean, Joan FitzPatrick (2009). "Rewriting the Past: Historical Pageantry in the Dublin Civic Weeks of 1927 and 1929". New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua. 13 (1): 20–41. ISSN 1092-3977. JSTOR 25660844. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
11. Lyons, Eoin (15 April 2006). "His collected works". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
12. Holland, Ailsa C. (1989). "The Papers of Hugh Kennedy: A Research Legacy for the Foundation of the State". Irish Jurist (1966-). 24 (2): 279–304. ISSN 0021-1273. JSTOR 44027749. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
13. "Watercolour sketch of robes for Chief Justice of the Irish Free State by Kitty MacCormack Dun Emer Guild 1925-26 UCDA P4 1169 Papers of H – UCD Decade of Centenaries". centenaries.ucd.ie. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
14. "MacCormack, Katherine". Drawn to the Page : Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
15. Devine, Ruth (2009). "Gleeson, Evelyn". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16. "Learn: Cuala Press". Yeats Society Sligo. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
17. Snoddy, Theo (2002). Dictionary of Irish artists : 20th century (2nd ed.). Dublin: Merlin. p. 370. ISBN 1-903582-17-2. OCLC 50624017.
18. "1903-1920 The Theatre Company Of Ireland And The Dublin Drama League including material relating to Thomas MacDonagh, Pádraig and Willie Pearse, Joseph Mary Plunkett, and other revolutionaries". Whyte's. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
19. "Kitty McCormack archive". catalogue.nli.ie. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
20. "The Way We Wore - The Costume Society". costumesociety.org.uk. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
21. "CLARE KENNEDY WEARING CELTIC REVIVAL COSTUME". Inspiring Ireland. Retrieved 22 October 2020.

• 1892 births
• 1975 deaths
• Arts and Crafts movement artists
• Irish designers
• Embroidery designers
• Textile designers