Illustration | Libby McCrohan
Conor Caldwell, Siobhán Peoples and Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
“Throughout this project, I recall memories of my dad over the years and how I remember him both as a musician and a person. As his daughter, these were one in the same as you never experienced one without the other. Every experience he had as a person informed his musicianship.
Through the highs and lows of his life, I hear these times when he plays. From the heady days of the 1970s where you can hear the invincibility and excitement he had in his twenties all the way through to his last years of playing that were more considered and mature. His playing never stopped changing throughout his life bar one aspect, his musical voice. He always sounded just like himself regardless of what changed in his approach.
For me personally, the most exciting part of this project has been hearing the Breathnach recordings. I had never heard my dad play with a strong Donegal ‘accent’ before. Also in those recordings, you can hear where he has been learning rolls but only put them in to his own two compositions, ‘The Green Fields of Glentown’ and ‘La Casa Mulligan’. Interestingly, ‘La Casa Mulligan’ also had a different third part then to what we are now used to hearing.
As a musician, he loved to spend time with others of the same mind. From Donegal to Dublin, Dublin to Clare, Clare to Boston and the final journey home, he spoke of many that touched him. And if I may on his behalf and on the behalf of my family, thank all of those people who took time out to visit him and spend time with him. This was never as valuable as in his final years when he could no longer play. The time spent in the little house in Miltown or at his home in Kinnycally meant the world to him. Thank you.”
-Siobhan Peoples
“When I first properly encountered the fiddle playing of Tommy Peoples, I was blown away by his genius. I was a young teenager when a copy of The Bothy Band 1975 was put in front of me in July 1997. I gobbled it up. I couldn’t get enough of it. By the end of that summer, I’d searched out as many of his recordings as I could and spent hundreds of hours attempting to break down, learn, emulate and consume this fiddle playing that I saw as an apparition.
That sound that he created; the fiery crackle of his triplets; the lilt, lyrical and almost grammatical nature of his phrasing; the tone and intonation that were always excitingly on edge; his emotion filled ‘Hector the Hero’, ‘Kitty O’Shea’s’, ‘Port na bPucaí’ and the fire in his belly on ‘Farewell to Erin’, ‘Tom Billy’s’, and the many other dance tunes that he made completely his own captivated my musical soul, left me in awe and journeying with the possibilities of the fiddle ever since.
I was fourteen years old back then, I had been lucky to have been taught by Siobhán for three days at what was my first Willie Clancy Summer School. I was just about able to play, at the right age, and that week had developed a monstrous interest to go at this fiddle playing thing properly. I was well aware of who Tommy was before this. His legend transcended into almost every primary school age instrument owner’s minutia of accompanying musical knowledge at that time. In my own case being from a musical, fiddle loving family from Donegal, that was multiplied tenfold. Our own family played ‘Jackson’s’ and ‘The Oak Tree’ as a core, staple set of reels that, before I could play the fiddle, I knew were from the playing of Tommy Peoples. At that time I made a habit of coupling ‘The Green Fields of Glentown’ and ‘La Cosa Mulligan’ onto the front of them and took pride in my ability to play these really hard reels. They gained praise from my teacher and grandfather Francie and other elders who were coaxing and guiding me along this formative journey.
A magical memory in my mind is the first time I heard The Iron Man. My aunt Mairéad and Dermot Byrne had the LP and put it on when I was in Dublin visiting around this time. The sound that Tommy and Daithí Sproule had together, the sets of tunes and in particular ‘Kitty O’Shea’s’ blew my mind. I thought it was some sort of musical perfection. That’s the kind of hold Tommy Peoples and his music had on me before I ever met him.
They say never meet your heroes – they couldn’t be more wrong in Tommy’s case. I was a fawning bumbling fan (fanatic most definitely in my case) and over the following 20 years I got to meet, to hear, to play with, to work with, to teach alongside and to broadcast on radio and tv with him. My teenage self would never believe that I just wrote that sentence. Although I would never say that I got to know him too well I can say that every time our paths crossed, he was nothing other than courteous, kind hearted, generous, respectful and there was a knowing kinship between us that spoke the languages of fiddle, gaelachas and Donegal with the unspoken mutual knowledge of each of us having a spark of fiery madness, lightly hidden from plain sight just under the bonnet.
To have been invited to work alongside Siobhán and Conor on this project has been a privilege and an honour and I hope its publishing stokes the embers of Tommy’s vast musical legacy, output and influence. I’m very grateful to Liam O’Connor and all at the Irish Traditional Music Archive for enabling this to happen, asking us to do this and then getting out of the way and allowing us to do it our way. ITMA’s focus on how Irish traditional music, song and dance are living and breathing things as opposed to something to be put in a glass case to gaze at, is fostering a depth and strength in our music. That takes courage and leadership and I thank the Arts Council for funding our involvement in the project and supporting ITMA’s work in this way.
The material that we present to you in this collection is atypical. Tommy as a man and as a musician was unique and we have taken our lead from aspects of his personality and music in what we present here. There was a tourism Ireland advert for Donegal that stated, ‘Up Here It’s Different’. Tommy was different and so is this collection.”
– Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
“There has never been anyone quite like Tommy Peoples in the Irish traditional music community. He was one of our greatest stylists on the fiddle, one of our greatest composers and one of our greatest teachers. It is rare that someone masters even two, let alone three of these skills. I’m sure that I heard his music as a child, whether on the radio at dinner time or on mixtapes during those seemingly endless car journeys around the west of Ireland to visit relatives or to embark on rain-soaked holidays. While I can’t remember exactly which recordings of Tommy’s were mixed in amongst Christy Moore, A Woman’s Heart, Woodie Guthrie and numerous contemporary acts which, with the benefit of hindsight, my parents would probably prefer me not to reveal, I know his music was there and starting to influence my own tastes.
As I developed an interest in the fiddle I started attending festivals for classes around the country and I remember properly encountering the ‘idea’ of Tommy Peoples from the Altan’s album Island Angel. ‘Tommy Peoples’ Reel’ was the first tune that I managed to recognise being played in a session (by Tara Connaghan of Glenties), and little did I know that all these years later this project would get to the bottom of its origins (spoiler – it was not written by Tommy).
I first saw him in person at the Gleann Cholm Cille Fiddle School in 1998. I arrived halfway through the week and was enrolled in the second from bottom class. The place was in a state of utter excitement. Tommy’s imminent arrival for the recital slot on the Thursday created the type of hysteria that I had only seen outside Croke Park on a big match day. ‘You know Tommy’s coming, don’t you?’ said literally everyone that I met. Tommy – he was one of those few people in Irish music who required no further introduction or context than the utterance of his Christian name.
My reference point for his music by August 1998 had extended to a recording of numerous Donegal fiddlers from Cork in 1991 entitled Fiddlesticks. I knew Tommy was different because he was the only person granted a solo. I had started learning the reel ‘The Boys of Ballisodare’, which he played on the recording, and I was attracted to the mood he created by taking it down a step and letting what Tommy Potts would have called the ‘sadness’ of the tune emerge. Of course, I didn’t understand any of the nuances yet, but I knew what I liked, and I liked Tommy’s music. His arrival in a place like Gleann Cholm Cille would bring people out of the woodwork that wouldn’t have countenanced attending a session or performance by anyone else. Many of these people didn’t really like fiddle music – but they also knew what they liked, and Tommy was it. There were so many people at the event that it was difficult to hear much of what said, but the music was incredible and having managed to tape the occasion for posterity, it gave me many hours of learning over the winter months at home.
A few years later I attended a workshop that he gave in county Armagh. Thirty or so students were squeezed into the backroom of a restaurant, completely undifferentiated in ability. Some were skilled traditional players already, many were classical players with a curiosity about Tommy or his music; others, like me. were enthusiastic but only beginning their journey as fiddlers. I remember him rolling a cigarette before he would begin writing out a tune on the board for the class to read. As someone who was learning classical music at the time I was delighted, as it meant I could learn a little faster than by ear. But as the tune, ‘The Gortree Jig’, revealed itself from the tip of his marker, I realised that the notes would be of little help and that this was a piece which was going to take more than the day’s session to learn. It is a beautiful three-parter, in true Peoples style, written in the key of E and a tune which offers continuous challenge to the fiddler. Not having known that notation would be offered at the workshop, I had not brought a notebook, so I borrowed a pen and carefully copied the tune down in the back cover of former Ireland captain Mick McCarthy’s autobiography – I’m sure Mick would have been delighted! Over the coming months I struggled with the tune time and time again until my technique improved and eventually I could make my way through it.
There was a pattern emerging by this time for me – Tommy’s music was not like the other tunes in my books or classes which could be much more easily conquered in an hour or so – this music required hard graft and commitment to properly learn. This lesson was refreshed for me some years later when I went back to ‘The Gortree Jig’ having heard the Monaghan fiddler Dónal McCague’s setting. I soon discovered that one couldn’t count on simply dusting down Tommy’s tunes from the musical shelf in your brain. To stop practising his tunes was to forget them, just as I have since forgotten how to play Bach or Brahms. His music demands respect and must be continuously worked on and practised.
While I was greatly aided by my transcription of that jig, it was not until I began working on this project that I realised how intrinsic the written note was to Tommy’s musical identity. His early lessons were from manuscript at home in St Johnston where, as Séamus Gibson explains, one was not considered a musician without the ability to read music. Upon moving to Dublin he would be seen by others, such as Paddy Glackin, transcribing tunes from music collections in the library to take home and learn. As he told Kevin Glackin in interview material included here, he rarely composed with the fiddle in hand, instead coming up with new pieces at his leisure and would write them out before attempting to play them. In the Cathal McConnell tapes, we see that Tommy was sight reading tunes from Ryan’s Mammoth Collection for his friend, altering them on the spot and creating new repertoire as he went. Arguably his greatest achievement of all was the publication of his life’s work in book form, with all – or at least nearly all – of his compositional output reproduced in his own hand. His use of the written note is something that makes him stand out from almost all other traditional musicians of his generation, and is an intriguing part of his musical legacy.
Around 2002 I again encountered Tommy in Skerries at weekend organised by my friend Aidín Ní Mhaonaigh and her family. It was hard to believe that they had managed to procure his services to teach a small group of us teenagers for two days, as well as join us for a session on the Saturday night. Tommy’s generosity shone throughout the weekend, and he generously invited us to start tunes at the session and talked about his music throughout the workshops. This was probably the only time that I had a chance to talk to him at any length. He seemed genuinely interested in hearing about members of my family whom he had known, including my aunt Rosemary who had been a piano player with the Coleman Country Ceilidh Band at one point.
In hindsight, I wonder just how many people had asked him through the years if he remembered their aunt, or uncle or neighbour or some local musician, all of whom I am quite sure claimed Tommy as a ‘great friend’. Perhaps there was good reason that they should think so. Even though such people may have only had limited interaction with him – maybe a brief chat or two at a festival or concert – his recordings gave people a chance to feel, not just as though they were listening to him, but as if they were spending real personal time with him. Like all good works of art, his recordings demand multiple listens to even begin to scratch the surface, and it’s important to say that Tommy Peoples’ music is not always easy to understand. Like him as a person, it is complex, multi-layered, even sometimes flawed, but it is always compelling.
Amongst his iconic catalogue of work, it is the Molloy Peoples Brady recording of 1977 (released the following year on the Mulligan label) that has perhaps underpinned my entire understanding of Irish traditional music. Everything about the record is exquisite, from the flute playing of Matt Molloy to Paul Brady’s genre-shattering setting of the song ‘The Shamrock Shore’. That said, I often joke that it is one of the great injustices of modern Ireland that only one solo track from Tommy made it on to the record, while Molloy and Brady got two each! The raw power, energy and creativity expressed through his playing of ‘The Trip to Athlone’ and ‘The Rambling Pitchfork’ see two otherwise mundane and now overplayed jigs transformed into testing showpieces which defy learning or imitation. His pathway through the second jig in particular is spellbinding and is the perfect showcase for the dynamism of the ‘Peoples’ triplet’, which is discussed in detail in this project. The repeats allow him to demonstrate his full arsenal of ornamentation as well as his ability to change emphasis in a phrase at will. Sometimes he hovers unexpectedly on what is normally an eighth note/quaver, toying with the listener’s expectation. In the final repeat he reaches for an F natural in the second phrase of the A part, developing the melody further. For me, the crowning achievement of this arrangement is the final phrase of his B part, again showcasing his hallmark triplet in a rapidly ascending sequence. He brings a sense of urgency to this phrase before unwinding it in the final repeat to ease the piece to a close. In listening again (and again) to this recording I am reminded of Reverend Richard Henebry’s famous line about the Galway piper Patsy Touhey, when he said, ‘The Homeric ballads and the new Brooklyn Bridge are great, but Patsy Touhey’s rendering of ‘The Shaskeen Reel’ is a far bigger achievement.’
I came across Tommy several other times in my adult life. He had returned to Ireland at this stage and was performing regularly around the country. I had remembered his shyness from the session in Skerries, but had not fully understood how this impacted him when having to give a concert. I recall two occasions in quick succession around the year 2004, one in Belfast and one in Donegal, when he asked musicians who had filled the support slots to join him for his set as he was making his way to the stage. Of course, he always played magnificently regardless and eased the accompanists into his groove. I don’t wish to make light of Tommy’s nervousness, which was undoubtedly a difficulty for him to carry, but knowing that perhaps the greatest of them all felt the pressure before a gig has always given me a degree of comfort in my own darkest moments of self-doubt!
The morning I heard of Tommy’s sad death I was packing up my car at the end of the Gleann Cholm Cille Fiddle Week. It was just almost twenty years to the day since I had first seen Tommy play in person, barely 200 yards from where I heard the news. The sun was shining brightly and the birds chirping as we sat in a pensive melancholy overlooking the waves rolling in and out on the shore below. There was a palpable feeling that something had changed in the world. It was difficult to put this loss for Ireland’s musical community – and moreover Tommy’s family – into words. Eventually the fiddles slipped out of their cases and the first few notes of ‘Hector the Hero’ sounded as we remembered Tommy in the only way we knew.
I never really knew Tommy Peoples, but I treasure the memories of the few days and hours that I spent in his company. I hope that this project offers something for readers of all backgrounds, be that aficionados of Tommy’s music, musicians from other styles and traditions, listeners and those being introduced to his music for the first time. Whether you are here to learn a little about Tommy as a person, or whether you want to unpack his fiddle style in detail, I hope that you will discover multiple pathways through the website and get as much joy out of doing so as we did in curating the material.”
– Conor Caldwell
As part of this project, we interviewed six fiddle players who knew Tommy and his music. The interviewees give a broad range of perspectives on his music, and include family members, his contemporaries, those who learned from him and those who played with him. These individuals come from a range of professional backgrounds, including broadcast, the media, teaching and performance.
We recognise that valuable contributions could have been gathered from additional interviewees, but given the limited time-frame in which we had to complete this project, we felt that this cohort of interviewees offered a wide range of perspectives on Tommy’s music.
The interviewees are:
Siobhán Peoples is a well-known fiddle player and teacher. Born in 1971 to Tommy and his wife Marie, she is based in Ennis and teaches fiddle at the University of Limerick. Siobhán played regularly in duet with Tommy from the 1980s and her interviews reveal deeply personal memories of their relationship. As well as being one of the editors of this website, Siobhán speaks as a family member. These feature throughout the project and specifically in Chapter Seven.
Siobhán was featured as part of ITMA’s Saothar series and nine of her compositions can be found here – https://www.itma.ie/features/notated-collections/siobhan-peoples-compositions
Séamus Gibson, a nephew of Tommy’s from St Johnston in east Donegal, is now based in Letterkenny. He is a well-known fiddle player and teacher in the northwest and in the 1990s had a regular Irish traditional music programme on Highland Radio which was very popular. He recorded some sets of music alongside Tommy which are on a CD entitled Fiddlesticks which was recorded at live concerts in Cork in 1991. Séamus was featured as part of ITMA’s Saothar series and twenty-two of his compositions can be found here – https://www.itma.ie/blog/saothar/seamus-gibson
Paddy Glackin is one of Ireland’s best known fiddle players. He shot to prominence as a teenage prodigy in the late 1960s. Being from Dublin, he was mixing in the same circles as Tommy Peoples after his arrival in the capital. Paddy was the original fiddle player with The Bothy Band, and was replaced by Tommy when they decided to go professional in 1975. Paddy is a well-known broadcaster of Irish traditional music most notably presenting The Long Note on RTÉ Radio and The Pure Drop on RTÉ Television. Paddy compered a tribute concert to Tommy at the Willie Clancy Summer School in July 2018, less than a month before Tommy passed away and also gave the eulogy at Tommy’s funeral in Ennis Cathedral the following month.
Bríd Harper is originally from Castlefin, near Tommy’s homeplace in east Donegal. A child prodigy who came to national prominence as a fiddle player in the late 1970s, Bríd is renowned for her technical ability and interpretation of some of Tommy’s repertoire. She won a hat-trick of fiddle competitions in 1988, the Senior All-Ireland Fiddle, The Fiddler of Dooney and The Fiddler of Oriel. Now living near Dungannon in Co. Tyrone, Bríd is an internationally renowned teacher and performer of traditional music and she performed at Tommy’s funeral mass.
Danny Meehan is a renowned fiddle player from Drumarone, near Mountcharles in Co. Donegal. He moved to London as a teenager and was part of the genesis of the pub session scene which has defined Irish traditional music over the following decades.
He played on the seminal Paddy in the Smoke recording in the late 1960s and with the band Le Chéile. Whilst in London he became a legendary character due in no small part to his musical ability. Meehan and Peoples first met on a trip to the Fleadh in Listowel in 1973, beginning a life-long friendship.
Like Tommy, he moved home to Donegal in the mid 2000s and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Gradam Ceoil by TG4 in 2012. Danny and Tommy, along with James Byrne (Gleann Cholm Cille), were known as great fiddle players whose musical camaraderie brought joy to themselves and those lucky enough to see them play together.
A larger-than-life fiddler who is now one of the elder statesmen of Donegal music, Danny’s wit, charm and knowledge of Irish traditional music make him a magnet for many music lovers.
Martin McGinley is a fiddle player from Raphoe in east Donegal who has extensive connections with the Peoples family. Tommy and Martin were second cousins, through their great aunt Julia Devine, herself the subject of one of Tommy’s compositions.
His mother, Kathleen, also a celebrated fiddler, learned initially from Tommy’s relation, Bob Peoples. She made the most extensive collection of fiddle music from east Donegal in the twentieth century. This collection was donated to ITMA after her death and forms the basis of Martin’s own MA research.
Martin has been one of the leading lights of Donegal fiddle playing over the last several decades and recently published an extensive account of fiddle playing in east Donegal on the Cairdeas na bhFidléirí website.
He was the first fiddle player with the group Dervish, and he presented the seminal Irish traditional music programme The Pure Drop on RTÉ television. He was the editor of a number of local newspapers in the northwest and was a BBC journalist for a period in the early 1990s.
Tommy Peoples: A Portrait of an Artist was compiled and curated by Siobhán Peoples, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh & Conor Caldwell, with support from the Arts Council.
We would like to give credit to and thank the following who helped to make this happen:
Interviewers – Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, Siobhán Peoples & Conor Caldwell,
Interviewees – Paddy Glackin, Siobhán Peoples, Séamus Gibson, Martin McGinley, Bríd Harper & Danny Meehan
Additional Interviewee – Cathal McConnell
Camera – Victor Tzelepis
Location Sound – Adam Girard
Sound Mix – John Blake
Bríd Harper & Cathal McConnell interviews recorded and interviewed by Alan Woods, Iarfhlaith Ó Domhnaill & Kyle Macaulay
Archival Footage – TG4, RTÉ & Scoil Trad
Lead on Filmed Interviews — Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
Curation and Research – Siobhán Peoples, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh & Conor Caldwell
Editors — Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, Conor Caldwell
Layout, Design and Copy Editing — Robert Mackenzie
Project Co-ordinator — Treasa Harkin
Artist Liaison and Additional Research — Alan Woods
Lead on Written Materials — Conor Caldwell
Lead on Transcriptions — Siobhán Peoples
Executive Producer — Liam O’Connor
The Peoples Family
Julie Costello Pichilis
All the staff at ITMA
Conor Malone & The Balor Theatre, Ballybofey
Eoin Ó Riabhaigh, Kevin Glackin & Conal Ó Gráda
Emmet Gill
Gearóid Ó Maonaigh
Maurice Bradley
Dermot Byrne
Rab Cherry
Packie Keeney
Damien Ó Dónaill
Áine Ní Bhreisleáin
Clare Friel
Tony Kearns
Caoimhín Mac Aoidh
Niamh Ní Bhaoill
Philip King
Nuala O’Connor
Breandán Ó Beaglaoich
Caitlín Nic Gabhann
Sarah Caldwell
Libby McCrohan
There are several resources beyond this website that will be of interest to the reader and which will help to shed further light on Tommy Peoples’ life and music. These include tune collections, general survey books on Irish traditional music, online resources and more specialist texts on regional styles and musicians. We have attempted to capture all of these in an extensive bibliography that is included in this collection, but it is important to highlight some of the more prominent pieces at this stage.
The former RTÉ radio producer PJ Curtis noted, in his book Notes from the Heart (1994), that ‘there are few traditional fiddle players who are more respected or as widely acclaimed as is Tommy Peoples.’ A short chapter is dedicated to Tommy in this book which gives an informative overview of his life and music (p. 87-94).
Tommy’s name appears in all of the most well-known surveys of Irish traditional music, including Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music 2nd Edition (2011, p. 539), The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (2013, p. 828), The Rough Guide to Irish Music (2001, p. 351-353) and industry publications such as Fiddler Magazine.
Caoimhín Mac Aoidh’s Between the Jigs and the Reels, recently republished by Walton Music, contains a seven-page foreword from Tommy, written in May 1993. This gives insight particularly into his early life and schooling. The same publication features Mac Aoidh’s own commentary on Peoples (p. 217-221) in the context of the wider musical traditions of east Donegal.
Kerry fiddle player Eoghan Neff has also written extensively about Tommy’s style and technique, citing him amongst what he calls an ‘avant-garde’ in Irish fiddle music. His 2012 PhD thesis, containing a full chapter on Tommy, is entitled ‘At the Vanguard of Antiquity: Seeking the Avant-Garde of the Irish Fiddle in C20th Performance Practices’ (p. 355-390).
Tommy is mentioned several times in passing in Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin monograph on the music of county Clare, Flowing Tides (2016) in the context of his status as an important musicians in the region.
Tommy released a well-known fiddle tutor book in 1986 through the music company Walton’s. 50 Irish Fiddle Tunes was published in Dublin and New York: Waltons 1986/2003
Furthermore, we would like to point readers in the direction of other important sources which will further contextualise the musical tradition of east Donegal. Martin McGinley’s interactive musical map of the region on the Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí Website offers an insight into dozens of fiddler players who have called east Donegal their home, and offers a counterbalance to the historical focus on music in the southwest of the county.
Tommy’s story was more often told through the medium of television and radio, particularly in his later years as he became more comfortable looking in retrospect at his life and achievements. Here we give some examples of more substantial contributions that he made to television and radio.
Tommy featured in the TG4 documentary Canúinti Ceoil (2007), which explored the concept of regional styles in Irish traditional music. However, the license for this programme has now lapsed and it is not in the public domain. Here he discussed his youth, growing up in east Donegal and his own musical style with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh.
‘Sé Mo Laoch is a TV series on Irish traditional music heroes that has been broadcast on the Irish language channel TG4 since 2001, made by Sibéal Teo and in recent years Aniar TV. In an episode about Tommy in 2008, he commented in-depth on his life and music. Others who contributed the episode include Matt Molloy, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Siobhán Peoples, PJ Curtis, Peter Browne, Ciarán O Maonaigh, Tony Linnane, Antóin Mac Gabhann, Michelle O’Brien & Danny Meehan.
In December 2007, Highland Radio featured an in-depth interview with Tommy, hosted by Packie Keeney.
In 2011, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta broadcast a two-part interview with Tommy on his life and music, presented by Áine Ní Churráin.
Following his death in 2018, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta broadcast a tribute to Tommy as part of the series Siúlach Scéalach, presented by Ian Lee.
An extensive list of newspaper articles
Peoples, Tommy. 50 Irish Fiddle Tunes. Dublin and New York: Waltons, 1986/2003.
Further Reading on Tommy Peoples
Meade, Don. ‘Kitty O’Neil and Her “Champion Jig”: An Irish Dancer on the New York Stage’ in New Hibernia Review Volume 6, Issue 3, Fómhar/Autumn 2002. pp. 9-22
Neff, Eoghan. ‘Chapter 6 – 1999: Tommy Peoples: Fluxing Structures’ in At the Vanguard of Antiquity: Seeking the Avant-Garde of the Irish Fiddle in C20th Performance Practices. PhD Thesis. University of Cardiff, 2012. pp. 335-390
Obituaries
Maguire, Stephen. Sadness at Passing of Renowned Donegal Fiddler Tommy Peoples https://www.donegaldaily.com/2018/08/04/sadness-at-passing-of-renowned-donegal-fiddler-tommy-peoples/Donegal Daily 4 August 2018
Daly, Michael. Donegal fiddle legend Tommy Peoples has died
https://www.donegallive.ie/news/news/327991/donegal-fiddle-legend-tommy-peoples-has-died.html Donegal Live 4 August 2018
Schofield, Derek. Tommy Peoples Obituary https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/22/tommy-peoples-obituary The Guardian 22 August 2018
Donaghy, Gerard. ‘A legend’ – Renowned fiddler and composer Tommy Peoples passes away at the age of 70. The Irish Post 4 August 2018 https://www.irishpost.com/news/legend-renowned-fiddler-composer-tommy-peoples-passes-away-age-70-158096
Ricketts, Ken and Marya Parker Tommy Peoples – An Appreciation https://www.mustrad.org.uk/enth82.htm MUSTRAD 10 August 2018
Tommy Peoples Obituary The Times 19 October 2018
Trad Connect. Legendary Irish fiddler Tommy Peoples dies aged 70 https://tradconnect.com/profiles/blogs/legendary-irish-fiddler-tommy-peoples-dies-aged-70-1?overrideMobileRedirect=1 4 August 2018
Obituary Tommy Peoples https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/obituary-tommy-peoples-37252288.html The Independent 26 August 2018
Quinn, Toner. Remembering Tommy Peoples https://journalofmusic.com/focus/remembering-tommy-peoples 7 August 2018
Stokes, Niall. Former Bothy Band Man Tommy Peoples Has Died https://www.hotpress.com/culture/former-bothy-band-man-tommy-peoples-died-22751096 4 August 2018
Donegal fiddler who played with unbending integrity https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/donegal-fiddler-who-played-with-unbending-integrity-1.3599550 The Irish Times 18 August 2018
Tommy Peoples, great Irish fiddler – obituary https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/08/22/tommy-peoples-great-irish-fiddler-obituary/ 22 August 2018
O’Laoire, Lillis. Tommy Peoples: Rí Éigeas na nGael in aimsir na hAiséirí. Tuairisc.ie https://tuairisc.ie/tommy-peoples-ri-eigeas-na-ngael-in-aimsir-na-haiseiri/ 10 Lúnasa 2018
Quinn, Michael. Tommy Peoples – Remembering The Bothy Band Fiddler https://www.songlines.co.uk/news/tommy-peoples-remembering-the-bothy-band-fiddler 13 September 2018
Kelly, Aoife. Traditional music great Tommy Peoples dies at age of 70 https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/traditional-music-great-tommy-peoples-dies-at-age-of-70-37187169.html 6 August 2018
Tributes paid after death of renowned Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples https://www.thejournal.ie/tommy-peoples-rip-4165101-Aug2018/ 4 August 2018
Ring, Evelyn. President leads tributes to ‘influential’ fiddler player Tommy Peoples The Irish Examiner 6 August 2018 https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30860235.html
Reviews
Wallis, Geoff. Tommy Peoples Discography and Reviews Irish Music Review http://www.irishmusicreview.com/tpeoples.htm Accessed 6 April 2022.
Wallis, Geoff. Fiddler’s Fancy: Fifty Fiddle Tunes Collected and Performed by the Irish Fiddle Legend https://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/peoples.htm 15 July 2011
Interviews with Tommy Peoples
Smith, Sean. Looking around, legendary fiddler Tommy Peoples says this: ‘If music is played as it could or should, it’s got everything’. Boston Irish. https://www.bostonirish.com/arts/looking-around-legendary-fiddler-tommy-peoples-says-‘if-music-played-it-could-or-shou 29 June 2017
Selected Discography
Tommy Peoples, Peter Browne, Matt Molloy, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Liam Weldon. 1691. Arfolk, 1973.
The Kilfenora Céilí Band. The Kilfenora Céilí Band. Transatlantic, 1974.
The Bothy Band. 1975. Mulligan, 1975.
Tommy Peoples and Paul Brady. The High Part of the Road. Shanachie, 1976.
Tommy Peoples. An Exciting Session with one of Ireland’s Leading Traditional Fiddlers. CCÉ, 1976.
Tommy Peoples. A Traditional Experience with Tommy Peoples: A Master Irish Traditional Fiddle Player. Release Records, 1977.
Matt Molloy. Paul Brady. Tommy Peoples. Matt Molloy, Paul Brady, Tommy Peoples. Mulligan, 1978.
Tommy Peoples and Dáithí Sproule. The Iron Man. Shanachie, 1985.
Tommy Peoples. Fiddler’s Fancy: Fifty Irish Fiddle Tunes Collected and Performed by the Irish Fiddle Legend. Walton’s, 1986.
Tommy Peoples, Siobhán Peoples, Andrew McNamara, Kevin Crawford P.J. King, Páraic Mac Donnchadha, Pat Marsh, Joe Bane, John Maloney, Séan Mac Donnchadha. Maiden Voyage. Live Traditional Irish Music Session from Pepper’s Bar, Feakle, Co. Clare. Celtic Music, 1991.
Tommy Peoples, Séamus Gibson, Ciaran Tourish, Dermot McLaughlin, Séamus Glackin, Kevin Glackin, Prionsias Ó Maonaigh, Máiréas Ní Mhaonaigh, Paula Doohan, Liz Doherty. Fiddle Sticks. Irish Traditional Music from Donegal. Nimbus, 1991
Tommy Peoples (feat. Siobhán Peoples). Traditional Irish Music Played on the Fiddle. Trad Ireland, 1993.
Tommy Peoples. The Quiet Glen / An Gleann Ciúin. Self-published, 1998.
Tommy Peoples. Waiting for a Call. Shanachie, 2003.
Tommy Peoples. Recorded at Fiddler’s Hearth. Self-published, 2016.
