Using lattice QCD, we examine several key features associated with dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and quark confinement. Calculations are performed in pure SU(3) gauge theory using the chiral overlap fermion action. Vortex-only and vortex-removed configurations are derived from the the original Monte Carlo gauge fields via a centre vortex identification procedure. The topological charge density, static quark potential, quark mass function and hadron spectrum are compared across the three ensembles. Remarkably, in each instance, the vortex-only degrees of freedom (after some smoothing) are able to encapsulate the pertinent features of the original gauge fields. The removal of centre vortices is consistently associated with a loss of dynamical chiral symmetry breaking. In particular, preliminary results for the vortex-removed meson spectrum hint at the restoration of chiral symmetry at light quark masses.