In December of 2019, Clíodhna Ní Bheaglaoich and I, Seán Hughes, heard from the Director of ITMA Liam O’Connor, asking us if we might be interested in carrying out some research at the Archive. The research was to be focused on the music, song and dance of the area in the south west of Ireland known as Corca Dhuibhne. We would then, upon completion of our research, go to Corca Dhuibhne and present our findings to the local people and to those from farther afield who had come to attend the annual Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh festival. We accepted the invitation, admittedly a little tentatively at first, as the idea of standing before the local people and presenting to them their own musical heritage caused us a certain amount of apprehension. 

We understood however that Corca Dhuibhne, being an Irish-speaking Gaeltacht region rich in cultural and folk tradition, would yield many gems and that the opportunity should not be foregone.

Ceantar Gaeltachta is ea Corca Dhuibhne go bhfuil saibhreas ann ó thaobh teanga, cultúir agus béaloideas de. Thuigeamar go mbeadh seoda sa taisce acu agus thacaíomar an deis taighde a dhéanamh orthu. 

This is a photograph that we found in the ITMA Images Collection showing a dance at the crossroads in the village of Muiríoch in 1963. We quizzed the audience during our presentation at Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh on what the exact location was and who the dancers might be. It was pointed out to us that the dancers appear to be dancing ‘The Siege of Ennis’, which would not have traditionally been danced in the area. This led us to conclude that at least some, if not all, of the dancers were visitors to the area, perhaps Irish language scholars. 

As the map above shows, Corca Dhuibhne makes up a large part of the Dingle Peninsula, a westerly landmass jutting into the Atlantic Ocean and part of the county of Kerry. It is an area which is remarkable for the beauty of its physical landscape, a mountainous region surrounded by the imposing presence of the ocean, a source of inspiration and livelihood for many generations who have resided there. It is a patchwork of parishes and townlands all unique in their history and for the local characters who enrich them. It is an area now which is populated with families who have survived in this breath-taking landscape for generations and who have kept the Irish language alive. Also to be found in Corca Dhuibhne are Irish language enthusiasts, writers, poets, musicians, and artists who have all been enraptured by the magic and the atmosphere to be found in such abundance there. 

Of note are the renowned Blasket Islands, an archipelago off the western tip of the peninsula which were the home of a unique and extraordinary community of people; fishermen and farmers, musicians and poets, craftsmen and storytellers, whose way of life largely came to an end in the mid-twentieth century as a result of emigration from and evacuation of those islands at that time. 

This is the area which we were tasked with delving into and digging around so our apprehension and our excitement might be understandable given the depth and the scope of material which we expected to be investigating.

Tógadh Clíodhna Ní Bheaglaoich i gCorca Dhuibhne agus tá gaol láidir ag a muintir leis an gceol agus amhránaíocht sa dúthaigh seo. Is ón dTulach Mhór i lár na tíre dhomsa. Veidhleadóirí is ea sinn beirt agus bhogamar go Baile Átha Cliath le déanaí tar éis dhá bhliain a chaitheamh ag maireachtaint i gCorca Dhuibhne. Bhí sé i gceist againn riamh dul isteach go dtí an gcartlann agus thug an deis seo cúis mhaith dhúinn tabhairt fé. 

Clíodhna Ní Bheaglaoich is of course a native of the peninsula and a member of the Ó Beaglaoich family who are so synonymously associated with the music and song tradition of West Kerry. She is a native Irish speaker and a fiddle player. I am also a fiddle player and my hometown is Tullamore, Co. Offaly, in the midlands of Ireland. After a period of time living abroad we returned home to Ireland in September 2017. We spent two years in Corca Dhuibhne and it was a remarkable experience for me to live in an Irish speaking region. We then decided after those two years to relocate to Dublin. We understood that certain things only to be found in West Kerry were being left behind but also that new opportunities would be made available to us upon our relocation. One of those opportunities that we had in mind was that we would be able to explore and utilise the facilities made available to the public by the Irish Traditional Music Archives in Merrion Square, something which had long been an intention of ours. It was opportune then that, in the weeks leading up to our move from one side of the country to the other, we heard from Liam O’Connor, inviting us to make use of the facilities in a somewhat more formal capacity. It gave us a purpose and a deadline and we needed no more of an excuse.

We moved to Dublin and within the first week or so we made our first visit to the ITMA premises. We met with Liam and he handed us over to a former acquaintance and friend Alan Woods. Alan gave us a comprehensive tour of the building, from the basement to the top floor. We met all the members of staff along the way and they offered their assistance and expertise to us while we carried out our research. 

The final stop on the tour, and the room with which we were to become most familiar with, was the library or Reading Room. This is the room which is generally for public use, a room full from floor to ceiling with books and commercial recordings, and also containing a selection of computers which give access to the database, the most efficient way to trawl the collection. We were shown how to search the database using the computers and after a short period of fine-tuning we soon found ourselves capable of using that facility with some degree of proficiency. 

Without too much of a focus other than the geographical area in question we slowly began our search. We began by searching the name of the county, the peninsula, the villages and the parishes, in both Irish and in English. We then began to search the names of musicians who we were aware of that had come from the area. We took books from shelves, and CDs from filing cabinets and were made very aware that we were welcome to do so. We kindly requested the librarian on duty (who happened quite often to be Alan Woods) to retrieve for us photographs, posters, VHS and other pieces which needed to be located in other parts of the building. 

Gradually, over time, a shape and a personal preference for the type of material we were looking for began to emerge. We decided that, in presenting to a large number of people from the local area, we wanted to show and play for them musicians and music that they may not have seen or heard for some time. While Corca Dhuibhne is home today to many fine musicians who are producing and releasing very beautiful and commendable collections of music, we felt that many people in attendance might have these albums in their homes and have a certain level of familiarity with them. 

Tá ceoltóirí iontacha ag maireachtaint agus ag foilsiú a gcuid ceoil i gCorca Dhuibhne le blianta ach theastaigh uainn seana-cheoltóirí agus taifeadtaí nach raibh cloiste ag daoine le tamall a chur faoi bhráid an phobail. D’éistíomar le taifeadtaí páirce agus d’fhéachamar ar fhíseáin nár craoladh ar an dteilifís le fada an lá. Bhí sé go hiontach na daoine áitiúla a fheisint ag caint ar an tseana-shaol agus ar na cuimhní a bhi acu ar na ceoltóirí agus na háiteanna a bhí á dtaispeáint againn. Mar thoradh ar seo bhailíomar eolas breise i dtaobh daoine agus ceol na háite.

A small example of some of the many fine collections of music that have been released by musicians living and playing in Corca Dhuibhne, a fraction also of the music held at ITMA which relates to this area. 

We were intent on using field recordings if possible and we also wanted to use some materials which may have been incomplete in some detail of information such as dates, locations and names of musicians. Knowing the zeal and enthusiasm that the people of Corca Dhuibhne have for conversation, debate, and anecdote we felt that this might be a way to get the audience involved and engaged with the presentation. 

While we took photographs, ITMA staff scanned images and pages from books and manuscripts, converted older format audio files into MP3 and converted VHS into MP4. Clíodhna and I began the process of compiling our materials, selecting those pieces which stood out to us personally, and moulding these into some kind of a presentable narrative. While we drew our materials from the Archive at ITMA, it must be noted that we utilised materials which had been collected by An Coimisiún Béaloideas Éireann, RTÉ and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, organisations which have collections of huge importance themselves and which liaise with ITMA. We are grateful to An Coimisiún Béaloideas Éireann, RTÉ and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta for permission to use these recordings in the presentation and this blog.

Our selections were compiled and the presentation was prepared. This was the result of a number of visits to the ITMA premises at Merrion Square and also of hours of work put in at home. With our efforts condensed into a PowerPoint file and stored on a memory stick we hopped into our car on a Thursday evening and set off on the long journey to the Dingle Peninsula, our first time to return since we had left in December. 

The Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh festival, organised by Niamh Ní Bhaoill and Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, was well underway when we arrived. We began our preparations on Friday afternoon at Áras Bhréanainn, the Community Centre in the village of Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, the focal point of the festival on the peninsula. As the hour approached the mumblings of a crowd began to make their way through the sheets of horizontal rain outside and the room began to fill up. Maeve Gebruers and Treasa Harkin, who work at ITMA, were in attendance and had set up an ITMA Pop-Up Archive at the venue. They were an invaluable source of support and assistance as we prepared for the presentation and then, with prayers that we would experience no malfunction of technology, we set about putting before our audience some of the gems we had uncovered.

I would like to include in this post a flavour of what we presented on that occasion and to give you an insight into the type of material which can be found at ITMA and that stood out to us personally as fiddle players and enthusiasts. Beidh blaise againn don gceol a d’aimsíomar sa taisce anois.

One of the most remarkable areas in Corca Dhuibhne is the Blasket Islands which I have mentioned briefly at an earlier point in this blog. We listened to numerous recordings of musicians from those islands and found their raw energy and rhythm to be compelling. One piece that we included in the presentation was this video recording of musicians Muiris ‘Deálaí’ Ó Dálaigh (accordion) and Seánin Mhicil Ó Súilleabháin (fiddle). The rhythm of musicians accustomed to playing for dancers is evident. The music is followed by an interesting snippet of conversation concerning the source of tunes for musicians living on the islands. This clip was originally broadcast in the 1980s and was then selected for airing on the popular television show ‘Come West Along the Road’ which was of course presented by former Director of ITMA Nicholas Carolan. 

Tá ana rithim agus spiorad sa cheol seo agus is léir go raibh seana-thaithí acu a bheith ag seimnt i dteannta a chéile agus a bheith ag seimnt do rinceoirí. Tá freagraí suimiúla ag na ceoltóirí ar na ceisteanna a bhí ag an láithreoir dhóibh maidir leis na poirt agus cad as a thánadar.