Kane O'Hara was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 playwright

Playwright

A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

.

The son of a squire

Squire

The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...

 from Sligo

Sligo

Sligo is the county town of County Sligo in Ireland. The town is a borough and has a charter and a town mayor. It is sometimes referred to as a city, and sometimes as a town, and is the second largest urban area in Connacht...

, O'Hara studied at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

. In 1757 he was a founder member of the Dublin Academy of Music.

His first publicly performed play was a burletta

Burletta

A burletta , also sometimes burla or burlettina, is a musical term generally denoting a brief comic Italian opera...

, Midas

Midas (burletta)

Midas is a burletta, or 'mock opera', by Kane O'Hara.Originally performed privately in 1760 near Lurgan, Ireland, it was revised and expanded with the encouragement of Lord Mornington, and was presented in its new form in Dublin in 1762 and at Covent Garden Theatre, London in 1764...

. Other burlettas by Kane included The Golden Pippin and Tom Thumb (1780).

Kane also composed a variety of works including masque

Masque

The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...

s and oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

s.

In 1774, Kane established a theatre in Dublin called ' Mr. Punch

Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular puppet show featuring the characters of Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character...

's Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

n Theatre ', which in 1776 transferred to London, producing puppet show versions of operas and burlettas. He went blind in 1781 but continued his interest in theatre until his death.

Source

Phyllis T. Dircks, O'Hara, Kane (1711/12–1782), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 subscriber access only accessed 9 Sept 2007.