This final batch of tracks from the recording session of Séamus O’Mahony in 1952, predominantly feature popular tunes like The Rambling Pitchfork, as well as pieces or set dances associated with dancing, such as The Blackbird and The Three Sea Captains.

On the track featuring the well-known hornpipes The Kildare Fancy and The Harvest Home, O’Mahony’s intricate, dexterous left-hand is complimented by a fluid skilled bow-hand. His customary lavish tone and nostalgic vibrato is evident on his rendition of the song-air Teddy O’Neill.

For those with very perceptive ears, listen closely to Bonaparte’s Retreat as O’Mahony seems to provoke an excited reaction from a canine listener around the one minute mark!

However, the most unusual item in this recording session remains Sarsfield’s March performed energetically here by the father and son combination. This unique setting was learnt from a travelling musician from Wexford who visited the O’Mahony household in Mitchelstown in the early 20^thcentury and it could possibly be termed a descriptive piece.

ITMA was delighted to receive a copy of a manuscript belonging to Séamus O’Mahony in which a beautifully written transcription of this setting of Sarsfield’s March appears complete with piano accompaniment notated by traditional singer Máire Ní Scolaí (1909—1985).

For those of you seeking more information on this remarkable fiddle player and his extraordinary life, ITMA would recommend reading Brendan E. O’Mahony’s memoir and reflections on his parents’ relationship The Last Word published in 2013.

This is the fourth and final blog in the series about Séamus O’Mahony. Please follow the links below to read more about, and listen to, previous recordings.

Séamus O’Mahony: A Hidden Gem in ITMA / “Caill‑taisce’ sa Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann

Séamus O’Mahony: A Hidden Gem in ITMA. Part 2 / “Caill‑taisce’ sa Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann. Uimhir 2

Séamus O’Mahony: A Hidden Gem in ITMA. Part 3 / “Caill‑taisce’ sa Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann. Uimhir 3

Written & Researched by:

Liam O’Connor

With thanks to:

Brendan E. O’Mahony, Séamus O’Mahony’s son, for permission to make an outstanding recording from 1952 available to the traditional music community.

The O’Mahony Family for photographs used in this blog.

Kathy Mirza for her co-operation in 1998 in allowing ITMA copy the 1952 reel-to-reel recording of Séamus O’Mahony in the Fr. Killian Curran Collection.

Seán Keegan, DKIT, who kindly restored the recordings to concert pitch and to the speed at which it was originally played.

ITMA Staff.

The first track we’ll share in today’s blog is a 3-part version of the well-known jig Cherish the ladies.

Some written sources describe this as a “Munster Jig”. Indeed, versions of the tune feature in works by the Munster collectors P.W. Joyce, Chief O’Neill and Canon Goodman.

Having published a more elaborate 6-part version in O’Neill’s 1001: The Dance Music of Ireland (1907), Chief O’Neill attributed the original 2-part tune to the 18^thcentury Limerick composer Walker ‘Piper’ Jackson in Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913).

Joyce notated a 2-part version from the playing of his neighbour Ned Goggin, the professional fiddle player in the village of Glenosheen, Co. Limerick during the mid-19^th century.

On the second track, O’Mahony plays two well-known reels: The Teetotaller and The Heathery Breeze. Again, these are widely published and widely recorded tunes. For example, both were published in O’Neill’s 1001: Dance Music of Ireland (1907).

For some listeners, O’Mahony’s rhythmic nuances in the second part of The Teetotaller may be reminiscent of rhythmic subtleties heard in Tommie Potts’s fiddle playing.

On the third track, O’Mahony
plays another well-known slow air An Chúilfhionn.  Described by Chief
O’Neill as “the Queen of Irish Airs” (1913), it is one of the most written
about airs in the Irish canon. Despite sharing the same title, many published
melodies vary significantly from one another. For example, Bunting published
“An Coolan or The Lady of Desert” in 1840 and it is significantly different to
the version P.W. Joyce published in 1909. Considered “ancient” by Bunting,
Grattan Flood (1906) even speculated that the original tune was composed in the
13^th century.

Regardless of its genesis, it is now one of the most
popular airs in the Irish tradition and O’Mahony’s version here is indicative
of what has become the most commonly-performed setting.

Tommie Potts can be
heard playing a very similar version to O’Mahony’s on Tommie Potts:
Traditional Fiddle Music from Dublin (RTÉ, 2012).

This is the third in a series of four blogs about Séamus O’Mahony. The fourth and final blog will be published in December 2019.

Séamus O’Mahony: A Hidden Gem in ITMA / “Caill‑taisce’ sa Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann

Séamus O’Mahony: A Hidden Gem in ITMA. Part 2 / “Caill‑taisce’ sa Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann. Uimhir 2

Written & Researched by:

Liam O’Connor

With thanks to:

Brendan E. O’Mahony, Séamus O’Mahony’s son, for permission to make an outstanding recording from 1952 available to the traditional music community.

The O’Mahony Family for photographs used in this blog.

Kathy Mirza for her co-operation in 1998 in allowing ITMA copy the 1952 reel-to-reel recording of Séamus O’Mahony in the Fr. Killian Curran Collection.

Seán Keegan, DKIT, who kindly restored the recording to concert pitch and to the speed at which it was originally played.

ITMA Staff.

On the first track, Séamus or Jimmy as he was known locally, can be heard playing the well-known set-dance The Ace and Deuce of Piping. P.W. Joyce published the melody in Ancient Irish Music (1873) in which he explained the title:

The words ‘Ace and Deuce’ (or one and two) mean here the highest pitch of excellence; and as the name indicates, the tune was considered the perfection of music when well played on the bag-pipes, and its correct performance was believed to be a sufficient test of the instrumental skill of a piper.

Joyce notated the melody in 1853 from the whistling of his neighbour John Dolan, Glenosheen, Co. Limerick; a village only 24 km from Mitchelstown, Co. Cork where O’Mahony was raised. The version O’Mahony plays on this recording, 101 years after Joyce notated Dolan’s version, is remarkably similar.

O’Mahony can be heard playing an expressive version of Táimse i m’Chodladh is ná Dúistear Mé, the well-known 18^thcentury ‘Aisling’ (a dream or vision) song, on the second track. His continuous vibrato and dramatic tone are distinguishing features of his approach to air playing.

On the third track, a spirited treatment is given to a march most commonly associated with the song Kelly the Boy from Killane written by P.J. McCall to commemorate John Kelly’s involvement in the United Irishmen’s Rebellion in 1798.

ITMA was delighted that Aoife Nic Cormaic presented tracks of Séamus O’Mahony on The Rolling Wave on the 6 October 2019. Listen to the RTÉ Radio 1 programme here.

We look forward to sharing more tracks with you in the coming months.

Written & Researched by:

Liam O’Connor

With thanks to:

Brendan E. O’Mahony, Séamus O’Mahony’s son, for permission to make an outstanding recording from 1952 available to the traditional music community.

The O’Mahony Family for photographs used in this blog.

Kathy Mirza for her co-operation in 1998 in allowing ITMA copy the 1952 reel-to-reel recording of Séamus O’Mahony in the Fr. Killian Curran Collection.

Seán Keegan, DKIT, who kindly restored the recording to concert pitch and to the speed at which it was originally played.

Even though Séamus O’Mahony lived to reach the grand old age of 91, his name is seldom mentioned in discussions on fiddle playing in Ireland. There are several reasons for this: O’Mahony did not make solo commercial recordings and he grew increasingly reluctant to perform in public or commit to broadcasts in the mid-twentieth century. However, the quality of his fiddle playing evident on the following tracks may prompt the question “How could a musician this good be forgotten?”

Born into a musical family, by the tender age of 13, Séamus and his older brother Edward had earned a sufficiently formidable reputation, as being outstanding young fiddler players, to warrant a biography and full-page photo in Chief O’Neill’s Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913).

Older brother Edward or Eddie O’Mahony (1896–1962) substantiated his early promise by winning the senior Oireachtais fiddle competition in 1912 before joining the Capuchin Order in 1914 and moving away from playing traditional music. Younger brother Séamus followed in Eddie’s footsteps by winning the senior Oireachtais competition in 1917 thus adding to an already impressive array of medals.

In addition to 16 tracks of solo fiddle playing, ITMA has six recordings made by Séamus with uilleann piper Liam Walsh. Leo Rowsome was another musical partner that Séamus played with on several broadcasts and they recorded together as part of the All-Ireland Trio with Nelius Cronin.

Having developed a reputation as one of the Ireland’s leading traditional musicians, unfortunately for fans of Irish traditional music, Séamus became less inclined to play in public and did not commit to further commercial recordings.

My own personal interest in Séamus O’Mahony arose from reading the liner notes to Tommie Potts’s seminal album The Liffey Banks (1972). Potts, like Chief O’Neill, was not in the business of giving praise too easily. In a very considered note, Potts cited three fiddle players as being “the nearest on the point of influence on” him.

Having read Tommie’s note, I asked myself: “Who was Séamus Mahoney [sic.]? Are there recordings of him? How good was he and why is he not spoken about?”

As it happened, my father Mick O’Connor had been in contact with Séamus O’Mahony in the 1980s while conducting research into Leo Rowsome and in preparation for a history of the Dublin Piper’s Club. Subsequently, he began correspondence with Séamus’s son Brendan E. O’Mahony. Mick has prepared an unpublished biographical article on Séamus for future publication.

In October 1998, Kathy Mirza lent ITMA a reel-to-reel from Father Killian Curran’s Collection which contained a very fine recording featuring Séamus O’Mahony playing in his home in Youghal, Co. Cork, in July 1952 with some accompaniment on piano from his son Brendan. Upon being appointed Director of ITMA, I sought an introduction to Brendan from my father Mick O’Connor to see if there was a possibility of making the recordings accessible to the general public through ITMA’s website. Luckily Brendan agreed to ITMA’s proposal.

A special thanks must go to Brendan E. O’Mahony for being so generous with his own time, for donating other material such as photographs, letters, contracts, newspaper clippings and concert programmes to ITMA thus providing important insights into the extraordinary life of his father. During a recent field-work trip to Cork, Brendan told ITMA staff that his father Séamus brought the fiddle with him on active duty with the Irish Republican Army in North Cork during the War of Independence. Séamus’s wife, Máire also played the fiddle and took fiddle lessons from him in Mitchelstown in the 1920s. “The fiddle,” Séamus wrote to her at the time, “is part and parcel of us, part of who we are.” ITMA plans to continue to develop this project over the coming months and to conduct an interview with Brendan in 73 Merrion Square. Brendan, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, UCC, where he lectured for 35 years, wrote a lyrical, insightful and personal memoir of his parents in his 2013 publication The Last Words.

Upon hearing these recordings, as a fiddle player, I was absolutely blown away by the quality of Séamus’s playing, his command, emotion, skill, intensity, tone, subtle ornamentation, flair and polished execution. The more I listen to it, the more nuances I hear in his music. Hearing some similarities in style, tone, rhythmic character between O’Mahony and Tommie Potts becomes more evident too and gives a retrospective into the development of the latter’s style.

I hope these recordings inspire others to find their own hidden gem/”caill-taisce” from the collections awaiting them in the largest and most comprehensive collection of Irish traditional music in the world here at the ITMA.

In the coming months a total of sixteen tracks will be shared through ITMA’s newsletter and website in order to shine a light on one of Ireland’s forgotten musical figures of the early 20^thcentury.

Bainigí sult as an gceol draíochtúil seo.

Written & Researched by:

Liam O’Connor

With thanks to:

Brendan E. O’Mahony, Séamus O’Mahony’s son, for permission to make an outstanding recording from 1952 available to the traditional music community.

Kathy Mirza for her co-operation in 1998 in allowing ITMA copy the 1952 reel-to-reel recording of Séamus O’Mahony in the Fr. Killian Curran Collection.

Seán Keegan, DKIT, who kindly restored the recording to concert pitch and to the speed at which it was originally played.

ITMA Non-commercial Media Officer, Alan Woods, and Mick O’Connor who contributed significantly to the research on Séamus O’Mahony.

Leo Rowsome (1903–1970) was a third generation uilleann piper.  His musical and pipe making skills were inherited from his grandfather Samuel Rowsome from Ballintore. Co. Wexford and his father William who established the family pipe making and repair business in Dublin.  One of six musical children, Leo was to play a pivotal role in the revival of uilleann piping in Ireland as a pipe maker, performer, teacher, organiser, advocate & publisher. He performed extensively in Ireland and abroad, and broadcast on both radio and televsion.  His recording career began in the era of the 78 rpm disc and  Leo recorded with a number of 78 rpm record companies and on vinyl with Claddagh and Topic Records. 

The Rowsome piping tradition continues through fifth and sixth generations of the family in both playing, pipe making and publishing. 

Material and references to Leo Rowsome feature throughout the ITMA Collection and have been the focus of two previously published digital features.

Leo Rowsome King of the Pipers, 78rpm Disc Recordings, 1926-1944 [Sound recording playlist]

Leo Rowsome on the Bill: Concert Posters, 1940s-1950s [Image gallery]

Today 20 September 2020, as well as the digital publishing of the 1936 Tutor, we are also delighted to feature below a written contribution from Leo’s daughter Helena Rowsome Grimes. 

When my father, played happily at my wedding on 10 August 1970, little did I know that he would die suddenly six weeks later.  I spoke with him from Belfast on the night before he travelled to Riverstown, Co. Sligo, where he was to adjudicate The Fiddler of Dooney Competition.  Noticing that he didn’t sound well, I asked him to try and get someone to go in his place, to which he replied “I wouldn’t let them down.”  That, and a “Cheerio” were his last words to me.  

That was the nature of the man, who lived for and by the uilleann pipes.

Through his work as performer, teacher and maker of the uilleann pipes, Leo has been credited with saving the instrument from possible extinction.

In his workshop at the back of his family home, he repaired and refurbished instruments by the old masters, including those of his own father, William, ensuring their preservation for posterity.  

Leo recorded on 78 rpm extensively for HMV, Decca and Columbia records. In forming Claddagh Records, Garech de Brún and Ivor Browne (both pupils of Leo’s) thought it to be essential that a complete long-playing record should be made of Leo’s piping, and so “Rí na bPíobairí” became the title of Claddagh’s first vinyl album. The first album proved to be a great success and that was followed by the piping of another of Leo’s former pupils, Paddy Moloney, playing with The Chieftains on their first Claddagh’s album.

Leo was a global ambassador for Irish traditional music. He was the one who was asked by the Irish Government to entertain diplomats and visitors  to Ireland. Always on time, well dressed and charismatic, with his pipes shining and in perfect tune, he was a true professional. In his performances from Dublin to Fontainebleau, Covent Garden or Carnegie Hall, Leo brought the uilleann pipes to a wide audience, and in doing so earned huge respect for the music he played and for the uilleann pipes.

He appeared in a number of films, including Nora O’Neill (1934); Irish Hearts (1935); Broth of a Boy (1959); Home is the Hero (1959) and The Playboy of the Western World (1961).

There is no doubt that one of Leo’s greatest contributions to traditional Irish music was his appointment as uilleann pipes teacher in Dublin’s Municipal School of Music, at a very young age. It was the renowned Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin RIP, who asked me the cleverest of questions: “How did your father get a job teaching Irish music in a classical music institution” at the age of just seventeen”?

Samuel Rowsome and his wife, Mary were themselves clever in sending their three sons, William, Tom and John to learn the theory of music from a German teacher of music, Frederick Jacobowitch, who lived near their Ballintore home, in the Ferns area of Co. Wexford at that time. Then, in true tradition, William passed that knowledge on to his son, Leo who became an expert in the theory of music, and notated on manuscript all the tunes for his pupils, who themselves benefited greatly from Leo’s instruction. Another factor was that Leo was a kind man who presented himself well, had a great sense of decorum and knew how to communicate with people from all walks of life.   

Leo Rowsome revived the Pipers’ Club (Cumann na bPiobairi Uilleann) in 1936, having called thirty of his senior pupils to attend a Siamsa Mór in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. He became President of the Club and in 1946, the Club moved to Aras Ceannt, 14 Thomas Street, Dublin. Leo and Tom Rowsome, together with their colleagues and friends from Cumann na bPíobairí Uilleann were adamant that a national organisation for the promotion of Irish traditional music should be formed. Leo began writing to musicians country-wide to alert them.  Much work was done, and mileage covered by Leo’s brother Tom in what was known as his “Comhaltas” car!  It was from the “Club” that Cumann Ceoltóirí na hÉireann was formed, which lead to the formation in 1951 of Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Éireann. 

Na Piobairi Uilleann, the organisation for the promotion of the uilleann pipes was formed in 1968 and Leo, with Seamus Ennis were its first patrons.  Its current CEO, Gay McKeon was a pupil of Leo’s. 

Ensuring that the Rowsome tradition of piping and music-making was passed on to his family to be safe for future generations, Leo left an enormous legacy of archival and commercial recordings.  He continued his father’s work by completing his Tutor for the Uilleann pipes and dedicating it to him. [now digitised and available online from ITMA]

I had the privilege of having a book of my father’s reels and jigs The Leo Rowsome Collection of Irish Music – 428 reels and jigs from the pen of master piper, Leo Rowsome published by Waltons to commemorate the Centenary of his birth in 2003. The tunes in the book are Leo’s own versions, handed down to him by his father, grandfather and uncles. The book which is dedicated to my parents also contains some of Leo’s own compositions. 

Leo’s daily schedule was a busy one: He worked making pipes, reeds, carrying our repairs in his workshop every morning, until he took the bus to Dublin’s Municipal School of Music on Chatham Row in the afternoons, where he taught until 9 or 9.30 p.m.  On arrival home, he would be encouraged by my mother to write a few more tunes before supper – It is that collection of reels and jigs, some of Leo’s own compositions, that I had published by Waltons in 2003. In that collection, ironically, the last tune he wrote was a jig – Goodbye and a Blessing.

Leo’s wife, Helena was a fantastic support to him in every aspect of his work. A musician herself with a good singing voice, she worked as a Primary School Teacher in a local school where she also was involved in choral work after school.  She had a deep appreciation of Leo’s talents and always did what she could to ensure that he had peace to complete those wonderful sets of uilleann pipes in his workshop at the back of the family home on Dublin’s north-side.

Leo and Helena had four children. Leon (1936-1994) was a superb uilleann piper and Liam (1939-1997) a genius on the fiddle. Liam and Tommy Potts playing together were, without doubt, the Menuhin and Grappelli of Irish traditional fiddle playing. My twin, Olivia teaches piano and music in our families continues to endure.

Piping in the family reached its 5^th generation, with Leon’s son, Kevin, and is now in its 6^th generation with his daughters and their cousins playing pipes. 

Thankfully, pipes made by Leo and his father, William, are in the hands of some of today’s excellent uilleann pipers world-wide.

Leo’s unique set of uilleann pipes, the set he began making in 1922 and played for his entire professional life, is now part of the Irish national collection and patrimony at The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, where they are on display for the entire world to see.  Gifting Leo Rowsome’s own handmade set of pipes to the people of Ireland fulfils a guiding principle of Leo’s, i.e. that the cultural heritage of the uilleann pipes belongs to everyone.

On Leo’s 30^th Anniversary, Mr Justice Vivian Lavan (a former pupil of Leo’s) gave a superb address at his graveside. I quote:

My first meeting with Leo was in the Pipers’ Club, Thomas Street, Dublin, where he held his Saturday evening classes. Even to my youthful and untutored eye, I knew that I was in the presence of a true professional. There he was in his bow tie, carrying his avuncular air, exhibiting a charm and courtesy – traits which endured for the years I knew him.

Like many other pipers, I joined the ranks of his pupils in the Municipal School of Music in Chatham Street. As a pupil I witnessed the true professional work. Leo had an unfailing and unflappable ability to each and to encourage from the very youthful to the more mature!  His teaching method was always one to one – never master to neophyte. His encouragement to try again, if the performance was less than ought to have been expected – and after that encouragement, he would take an empty manuscript and transpose on these some apposite and suitable piece of music to whet the pupil’s appetite. My years as such a pupil were a shared delight.  The second part of his teaching took place in the Pipers’ Club in Thomas Street on a Saturday evening. As in law, so also in the Pipers’ Club, there was strict order of precedence, from the youngest to the most senior. There boys of my vintage were to rub shoulders with some who were later to become household names – such as Paddy Moloney, Garech Browne, Liam óg O’Flynn and Des Geraghty. Those Saturday evenings some 45 years later are still firm in my memory for the commitment to the preservation and dissemination of Irish music, and the practice and playing of the uilleann pipes, which Leo gave. In this endeavour, he was ably supported by the Seerys, Tuohys, Crystals, McClouds, Pat Noonan and Tom McCabe, my uncle, and all of the others who in those dim, difficult and distant days had the vision to develop the organisation and structure of Irish music generally and of uilleann piping in particular. I began then to understand the contribution which Leo had been making to the popularisation of the uilleann pipes in the decades from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Vivian Lavan (1944-2011) died on 17 August 2011. He was enrolled as a pupil of Leo’s at the School of Music 1957-1960. 

Text written by Helena Rowsome Grimes, Nicholas Carolan [previous features] & Grace Toland.

Presented by Grace Toland.

September, 2020

When ever the role of women involved in Irish traditional music is discussed, Mrs. Kathleen Harrington’s name frequently comes to the fore. Although there were numerally few women actively involved in playing traditional music, the few who were publicly active, were universally respected. The names of Aggie Whyte, Bridie Lafferty, Mrs. Crotty and Tilly Finn spring to mind. Undoubtably there were many others who only played at home but the musicians named above were the ones I was privileged to encounter.

Growing up in Sligo

Kathleen Harrington née Gardiner was born into a very prominent musical family at Corhober, Ballymote, Co. Sligo, on 14 July 1897. Her father, Séamus Gardiner, played the fiddle and flute and taught music in the locality, including training the local fife and drum band in the United Irish League Hall in Ballymote. Michael Anderson the piper from Lisananny, Ballymote, Co. Sligo, mentioned in Francis O’Neill’s Irish music and musicians (1913), was a first cousin.

It was only natural that the Gardiner children took to music. Mary Gardiner (Mrs. Sheridan who married and settled locally in Ballymote, Co. Sligo), Lucy Gardiner (Mrs. Rowland), and James Gardiner, all played fiddles. James emigrated to Scotland and played in a céilí band for many years. Her brother John Joe Gardiner played fiddle and flute was perhaps the best known of the family.

At that time, the Sligo style was predominant in music circles. Kathleen, and her brother John Joe, played with all the great musicians in the area. They were contemporaries of Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran and had close connections with them over the years. This included receiving private acetate recordings containing music and greetings from James ‘Lad’ O’Beirne and Paddy Killoran.

Life in Liverpool

Kathleen and Lucy Gardiner went to work in Liverpool. While there, they stayed with the McNamara family, a music loving family originally from Co. Clare. Their son, Seán McNamara also played the fiddle and later played with the Liverpool Céilí Band. The Gardiner sisters became involved in the activities of the emigrant Irish community in Liverpool playing music at céilidhe and gatherings. It was at a céilí that Kathleen met her husband, Seán Harrington. Seán was at that time a volunteer in the Liverpool IRA. She herself became a member of Cumann na mBan during that period in England. When Kathleen and her husband returned to Dublin she resumed playing traditional music with her husband’s encouragement.

Katheen Harrington’s sister, Lucy married and settled in Galway where her sons, Oliver and Raymond, became renowned accordion players. They later spent years in London where they were an important part of the vibrant traditional music scene there in the 1950s and 1960’s.

Mrs. Harrington was a good fiddle player and unusually at the time for women, had recorded a solo fiddle 78 rpm disc recording for HMV in 1938, and a recording for the short lived Irish Recording Company (IRC).

The Gardiner Traditional Trio

Kathleen Harrington recorded with her brother John Joe Gardiner who was an extraordinary musician, equally proficient on fiddle and flute. They recorded as the Gardiner Traditional Trio in 1938 with John Joe on flute, Kathleen on fiddle and Moya Acheson from Dundalk on piano. John Joe was a contemporary of Michael Coleman and his brother, James. John Joe Gardiner taught fiddle players Paddy Killoran and James Morrison before they emigrated to the USA and they kept in touch over the years.

Mrs. Harrington and the Kincora Céilí Band

Apart from her 78 rpm disc recordings, as a solo musician, and with the Gardiner Trio, Kathleen was also known throughout the country as the leader of the Kincora Céilí Band.

p>The Kincora Céilí Band was formed after the foundation of the Ballinakill Céilí Band, the first céilí band to broadcast and record. Recordings issued by record companies of these two fine groups are a testimony to their brilliance. Their combination of flutes and fiddle in the Kincora Céilí Band produced a sweet and melodious sound reminiscent of the Ballinakill Céilí Band and undoubtedly these two bands must rank amongst the greatest groupings of Irish traditional musicians.

Mrs. Harrington founded the Kincora Céilí Band in the late 1930s. The Kincora Céilí Band was in typical Sligo style with fiddle and flute to the fore: Kathleen Harrington (Sligo), Pat O’Brien (Sligo), Mick Loughman (Kildare) on fiddles, John Egan (Sligo), John Brennan (Sligo) on flutes and Kathleen O’Connor (Dundalk) on piano. Their first public appearance was at a céilí organised by the Scottish branch of the Old IRA in 1937 in the Round Room of the Rotunda, Dublin. The Kincora Céilí Band was subsequently very popular with dancers and music lovers alike.

At a later period in 1940s, after an illness, she handed over the leadership of the band to piper, Seán Seery, but continued playing the fiddle with them. With this changed band they went on to win the All-Ireland Senior Céilí Band Competition title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann held at Longford in 1958.

The Pipers’ Club and the development of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ)

Mrs. Harrington was also a major figure in traditional musical circles and as a member of the Pipers’ Club committee, was centrally involved in the in the development of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) in the early years, and in the trade union associated with CCÉ, The Irish Traditional Musicians Association for many years. For most of this period, apart from Mrs. Crotty in Co. Clare who was also involved in CCÉ, Mrs. Harrington was one of the very few female musicians actively involved at a national level.

Because of her national profile as a band leader and her family connections, she was a highly respected individual and much sort after as a musician and an adjudicator at the early fleadhanna.

She was a very active committee member of the Pipers’ Club from when it was located in 14 Thomas Street, Dublin and continued to serve as a committee member when they relocated to Monkstown in 1976.

The Siamsa Céilí Band

Mrs. Harrington’s days of playing with céilí bands was not finished yet. Her brother, John Joe was living in Dundalk and was the figurehead and inspiration for a new generation of musicians. Rory Kennedy with Patsy and Pauline Gardiner formed the Siamsa Céilí Band and were subsequently three times champions of the All-Ireland Céılí band competition (1966–69).

Mrs. Harrington was a prominent and experienced member of the band. The Siamsa Céilí Band included John Joe’s daughters, Pauline and Patsy and his son-in-law, Brian O’Kane. Mrs. Harrington was certainly an asset to the band as she had the experience of competing and winning with the Kincora in the All-Ireland Céılí band competition in 1958.

Members of the band as shown below:

Standing, back row: Brian O’Kane (piano accordion), Kevin O’Callaghan (drummer), Brendan Gaughran (piano) and Rory Kennedy (accordion).

Front row: Patsy Gardiner (fiddle), John Joe Gardiner (fiddle), Kathleen Harrington (fiddle), and Joe McKevitt (flute).

Personality wise, she was a lovely dignified lady, always dressed smartly, invariably with a large stylish hat. Over the years she forged a unique role as a recording artiste, band leader, winning several Senior Céilí Band All-Ireland titles with the Kincora and Siamsa céilí bands, a committee member of the Pipers’ Club and an adjudicator at musical events all over the country.

On a personal level, I would like to acknowledge her generosity and encouragement to me and other young musicians in the 1960s. In her own quiet way, she was a role model for female musicians and in that regard, was universally respected by the musical community.

Kathleen Harrington and other surviving members of the Kincora Céilí Band participated in a get together organised by the author to commemorate the Kincora Céilí Band shortly before her death on 4th November, 1984.

Unpublished recording of Kathleen Harrington

ITMA and Mick O’Connor would like to extend thanks to Harry Bradshaw who has shared an unpublished recording of Kathleen Harrington to mark #IWD2022.

Recorded circa 1949–50, Kathleen is accompanied by piano, double bass and banjo mandolin.

Acknowledgments

Mick O’Connor would like to thank the extended Harrington and Gardiner families, and in particular to Brian and Patsy O’Kane née Gardiner, for their continuous support and encouragement over the years.

Special thanks to Harry Bradshaw for his generosity in supplying an unpublished recording of Mrs. Harrington playing Bonnie Kate and the Boys of the Lough.

Images used are courtesy of Mick O’Connor, ITMA Photographic Collection, and Independent Newspapers.

Blog editor: Grace Toland

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Airs and Fantasies Vol 4: A Book of Operatic Selections, Ballads and Traditional Airs, Compiled and Arranged with Bowing and Marks of Expression for Violin Solo / Frank Roche. Dublin : Pigott, 1932

Francis Roche (1866–1961) from the village of Elton in south Co Limerick was a violinist, pianist and dancer, and a teacher of music and dance. His father and two brothers were of the same profession, and they ran a family academy in Limerick city from about 1900 and later in Elton with outreach to neighbouring areas. They taught Irish music and Irish dancing, but also popular classical music and ballroom dancing.>

From about 1890, Francis began compiling and arranging a collection of music for publication. He was motivated by demand from pupils and fellow-teachers but also by the example of the published collections of Francis O’Neill in Chicago and especially by those of his fellow Limerick man P.W. Joyce, who loaned him manuscripts. Roche’s initial collection appeared in two volumes in January 1912.

The contents were noted down from oral tradition and from manuscripts of his father and others. It is clear from the performance markings throughout that his primary target instrument was the fiddle. The inclusion of such features as cadenzas and artificial harmonics (especially in the airs) makes it clear that a very high standard of proficiency, necessitating training in classical music, was required for some of the pieces. As an enthusiastic nationalist and Gaelic Leaguer, Roche mainly published Irish traditional tunes, and he had theories about the character and techniques of Irish music. But he also included international quadrille and fling melodies on the grounds that the related dances were widely danced in Ireland and their melodies had become ‘Irish by association’.

The first two volumes had a print-run of 4,000 copies, which quickly sold out and were reprinted. Roche revised them both for republication with a third volume in 1927. This fourth volume was published in 1932.

Nicholas Carolan, Jackie Small and Treasa Harkin, 17 December 2013

Collection of Irish Airs Marches & Dance Tunes. Vol 3. Compiled and Arranged for Violin, Mandoline, Flute or Pipes: with Introductory Essay on Irish Dancing / by F. Roche

Francis Roche (1866–1961) from the village of Elton in south Co Limerick was a violinist, pianist and dancer, and a teacher of music and dance. His father and two brothers were of the same profession, and they ran a family academy in Limerick city from about 1900 and later in Elton with outreach to neighbouring areas. They taught Irish music and Irish dancing, but also popular classical music and ballroom dancing.>

From about 1890, Francis began compiling and arranging a collection of music for publication. He was motivated by demand from pupils and fellow-teachers but also by the example of the published collections of Francis O’Neill in Chicago and especially by those of his fellow Limerick man P.W. Joyce, who loaned him manuscripts. Roche’s initial collection appeared in two volumes in January 1912.

The contents were noted down from oral tradition and from manuscripts of his father and others. It is clear from the performance markings throughout that his primary target instrument was the fiddle. The inclusion of such features as cadenzas and artificial harmonics (especially in the airs) makes it clear that a very high standard of proficiency, necessitating training in classical music, was required for some of the pieces. As an enthusiastic nationalist and Gaelic Leaguer, Roche mainly published Irish traditional tunes, and he had theories about the character and techniques of Irish music. But he also included international quadrille and fling melodies on the grounds that the related dances were widely danced in Ireland and their melodies had become ‘Irish by association’.

The first two volumes had a print-run of 4,000 copies, which quickly sold out and were reprinted. Roche revised them both for republication with this third volume in 1927.

Nicholas Carolan, Jackie Small and Treasa Harkin, 17 December 2013

Collection of Irish Airs, Marches and Dance Tunes Compiled and Arranged for Violin, Mandoline, Flute, or Pipes by F. Roche; with introduction by Charles J. Brennan. Dublin: Pigott & Co; London: Leonard & Co, n.d. [1912]

Francis Roche (1866–1961) from the village of Elton in south Co Limerick was a violinist, pianist and dancer, and a teacher of music and dance. His father and two brothers were of the same profession, and they ran a family academy in Limerick city from about 1900 and later in Elton with outreach to neighbouring areas. They taught Irish music and Irish dancing, but also popular classical music and ballroom dancing.

From about 1890, Francis began compiling and arranging a collection of music for publication. He was motivated by demand from pupils and fellow-teachers but also by the example of the published collections of Francis O’Neill in Chicago and especially by those of his fellow Limerick man P.W. Joyce, who loaned him manuscripts. Roche’s initial collection appeared in two volumes in January 1912.

The contents were noted down from oral tradition and from manuscripts of his father and others. It is clear from the performance markings throughout that his primary target instrument was the fiddle. The inclusion of such features as cadenzas and artificial harmonics (especially in the airs) makes it clear that a very high standard of proficiency, necessitating training in classical music, was required for some of the pieces. As an enthusiastic nationalist and Gaelic Leaguer, Roche mainly published Irish traditional tunes, and he had theories about the character and techniques of Irish music. But he also included international quadrille and fling melodies on the grounds that the related dances were widely danced in Ireland and their melodies had become ‘Irish by association’.

The two volumes had a print-run of 4,000 copies, which quickly sold out and were reprinted. Roche revised them both for republication with a third volume in 1927. The revised second volume is the source of the melodies presented here.

Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 22 October 2013

Collection of Irish Airs, Marches and Dance Tunes Compiled and Arranged for Violin, Mandoline, Flute, or Pipes by F. Roche; with introduction by Charles J. Brennan. Dublin: Pigott & Co; London: Leonard & Co, n.d. [1912]

Francis Roche (1866–1961) from the village of Elton in south Co Limerick was a violinist, pianist and dancer, and a teacher of music and dance. His father and two brothers were of the same profession, and they ran a family academy in Limerick city from about 1900 and later in Elton with outreach to neighbouring areas. They taught Irish music and Irish dancing, but also popular classical music and ballroom dancing.

From about 1890, Francis was engaged in compiling and arranging a collection of Irish music for publication. He was motivated by demand from pupils and fellow-teachers but also by the example of the published collections of Francis O’Neill in Chicago and especially by those of his fellow Limerick man P.W. Joyce, who loaned him manuscripts. Roche’s initial collection appeared in two volumes in January 1912.

The contents were noted down from oral tradition and from manuscripts of his father and others. It is clear from the performance markings throughout that his primary target instrument was the fiddle. The inclusion of such features as cadenzas and artificial harmonics (especially in the airs) makes it clear that a very high standard of proficiency, necessitating training in classical music, was required for some of the pieces. As an enthusiastic nationalist and Gaelic Leaguer, Roche mainly published Irish traditional tunes, and he had theories about the character and techniques of Irish traditional music. But he also included international quadrille and fling melodies on the grounds that the related dances were widely danced in Ireland and their melodies had become ‘Irish by association’.

The two volumes had a print-run of 4,000 copies, which quickly sold out and were reprinted. Roche revised them both for republication with a third volume in 1927. The revised first volume is the source of the melodies presented here.

Nicholas Carolan, Jackie Small and Treasa Harkin, 19 September 2013

Ceol na nGaedheal: Carl Hardebeck’s Arrangements for Tin Whistles

The two-line interactive music scores presented here are from arrangements made for tin whistles by the English-born classical musician and dedicated arranger of Irish music Carl G. Hardebeck (1869−1945; Hardebec in Irish). They were published in 1937 as Ceol na nGaedheal (music of the Irish), a small inexpensive collection suitable for school use, by the Dublin educational publishers Browne & Nolan Ltd (Brún agus Ó Nualláin Teor. in Irish). The scores were added to the site on 10 February 2015, the 70th anniversary of Hardebeck’s death on 10 February 1945.

The booklet contains twenty-five popular national airs and dance tunes, and a basic tutorial introduction which views the tin whistle as an easy and cheap means of initiation to playing music for all children. With a view to giving easy access to the reading of music, its melodies are set in the tonic sol-fa notation which had been widely used in Irish primary schools since the 19th century.

The arrangements were produced in Hardebeck’s last years, when he was living in poverty in Dublin, and they may have been commissioned from him as a practical support. Nevertheless they are interesting and original, and he evidently undertook the work seriously. The first line of tonic sol-fa generally carries the melody and the second provides harmony, but occasionally the melody alternates between the two lines.

Given that Hardebeck was blind and unable to proofread, and that the typesetters probably did not read music, there are very few errors in the book’s musical content. It is very likely that items from this book fed into the live tradition, and probable echoes of it can be heard in the repertories of prominent Irish 20th-century musicians.

Nicholas Carolan, Jackie Small and Treasa Harkin, 10 February 2015

The Meisel Simplified Method: How to Play the Globe Accordeon Irish Style. An Easy and Practical Method for Self-Instruction. Also Contains Selections of Irish Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes, Long Dances, Airs, Ballads and Other Popular Music / arranged by James C. Morrison. New York: C. Meisel Inc., 1931

By the 1920s, melodeons and accordions had become well established in Irish traditional music, especially in Irish America where they were popular band instruments. Agents for Globe accordions in particular were successfully targeting Irish players in the United States by the mid-1920s with a variety of amateur and professional instruments, and using the prominent Cork-Boston accordion player Jerry O’Brien in advertising campaigns. At the end of the decade New York resident James C. Morrison of Riverstown, Co Sligo, well known in the city on stage, record and radio, was commissioned to write a tutor for the Globe accordion. ‘Professor’ Morrison (1893–1947) was primarily famous as a fiddle player, but he also sold, played and taught the accordion, among other instruments. He included in the tutor a selection of tunes suitable for beginners, reproduced on the left, from the popular contemporary repertory, most of which had been published on Irish commercial recordings in New York.

The diatonic Globe accordion for which Morrison wrote the tutor would today be described as a ten-key melodeon. Since he left no recordings as an accordion or melodeon player, we have no idea of his proficiency on the instrument, but he is known to have had close associations with noted players of the instrument of his day, including the melodeon player P.J. Conlon and the accordionist Tom Carmody, with both of whom he recorded. While the ten-key melodeon has great expressive possibilities, particularly for dance music, it is quite limited in musical compass in comparison to other instruments in the Irish tradition. Judging from his music scores, Morrison had a well-grounded understanding of the strengths and limitations of the instrument. He modifies tunes where necessary to fit them to the compass of the instrument, and carefully tailors each element of the scores to its characteristics.

A Globe accordion played by James Morrison in New York has recently been donated to the James Morrison Music Festival in his native Riverstown: see here. For a biography of Morrison by Harry Bradshaw and 30 remastered tracks of his music, see the double audio cassette James Morrison: The Professor (Viva Voce 001, Dublin, 1989). Morrison’s tutor and tune book of 1931 was doubtless an exemplar for an accordion tutor and tune book of 1949 by Jerry O’Brien in Boston (see here).

The Irish Traditional Music Archive has a photocopy of Morrison’s accordion tutor, kindly donated to it by Hugh E. O’Rourke of New York, from which these tunes were set. It would always welcome a donation of the original tutor, or a loan of it for digital scanning.

Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 23 May 2013

Cnuasacht Port agus Cor do’n bPíano / A Collection of Jigs and Reels Arranged for Piano 1 & 2: Piano Arrangements by Carl G. Hardebeck

The two-line interactive music scores presented here are from published arrangements of traditional dance tunes made for piano sometime before or in 1921 by the English-born classical musician and dedicated arranger of Irish music Carl G. Hardebeck (1869−1945). They were published first in Dublin in two slim volumes by the obscure Crow St firm of Sullivan & Co, presumably in the early 1920s, and were republished and kept in print by the large Dublin specialist music publishers Pigott & Co of Grafton St.

The 53 dance tunes of the volumes comprise, in Hardebeck’s classification, jigs and reels in a ratio of about 2:3, a hornpipe and a ‘fancy dance’. Some of his reels would however nowadays be regarded as hornpipes or set dances. His main sources were fiddlers − Sean O’Gorman of Co Galway, Treasa Halpin of Limerick, a Mr O’Curran of Co Waterford, and a John Duffy among them – and he tells us that his elaborate arrangements seek to imitate fiddle style, and are meant also to be played with a delicate early harpsichord tone. They are listening pieces, not intended for dancing. An indirect source, through O’Curran, was the Co Waterford fiddle player and Irish music theorist Fr Richard Henebry. O’Gorman had been taught by a Co Clare fiddle master and dance teacher, Lynch, and Hardebeck recommends the slow pace of his performances.

It seems clear that Hardebeck, in contrast to 19th-century arrangers of Irish music, adheres conscientiously to the tune versions and performance practice of his source musicians. He takes scrupulous care with the reproduction of traditional rhythms, for example, by making extensive use of crotchet-and-quaver triplets to represent the elusive traditional reel rhythm, and also faithfully reports a sharpened fourth interval where it occurs, in situations where a standard fourth would be preferred in standard usage today. He thus regularly specifies the Fah mode (which has now virtually disappeared from the tradition) for tunes that incorporate this phenomenon, which is amply attested in early sound recordings.

Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 12 March 2015

Cnuasacht Port agus Cor do’n bPíano / A Collection of Jigs and Reels Arranged for Piano 1 & 2: Piano Arrangements by Carl G. Hardebeck

The two-line interactive music scores presented here are from published arrangements of traditional dance tunes made for piano sometime before or in 1921 by the English-born classical musician and dedicated arranger of Irish music Carl G. Hardebeck (1869−1945). They were published first in Dublin in two slim volumes by the obscure Crow St firm of Sullivan & Co, presumably in the early 1920s, and were republished and kept in print by the large Dublin specialist music publishers Pigott & Co of Grafton St.

The 53 dance tunes of the volumes comprise, in Hardebeck’s classification, jigs and reels in a ratio of about 2:3, a hornpipe and a ‘fancy dance’. Some of his reels would however nowadays be regarded as hornpipes or set dances. His main sources were fiddlers − Sean O’Gorman of Co Galway, Treasa Halpin of Limerick, a Mr O’Curran of Co Waterford, and a John Duffy among them – and he tells us that his elaborate arrangements seek to imitate fiddle style, and are meant also to be played with a delicate early harpsichord tone. They are listening pieces, not intended for dancing. An indirect source, through O’Curran, was the Co Waterford fiddle player and Irish music theorist Fr Richard Henebry. O’Gorman had been taught by a Co Clare fiddle master and dance teacher, Lynch, and Hardebeck recommends the slow pace of his performances.

It seems clear that Hardebeck, in contrast to 19th-century arrangers of Irish music, adheres conscientiously to the tune versions and performance practice of his source musicians. He takes scrupulous care with the reproduction of traditional rhythms, for example, by making extensive use of crotchet-and-quaver triplets to represent the elusive traditional reel rhythm. He also faithfully reports a sharpened fourth interval where it occurs, in situations where a standard fourth would be preferred in standard usage today; he thus regularly specifies the Fah mode (which has now virtually disappeared from the tradition) for tunes that incorporate this phenomenon, which is amply attested in early sound recordings.

Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 12 May 2015

Competitive dancing in Ireland is probably as old as dancing itself in the country, but the first substantial evidence for it comes from the 19th century. Dancing masters frequently danced against each other for the control of teaching territories, and men and women for community prestige. With the establishment of the Gaelic League in 1893 and its competitive cultural festivals which included solo and group dances, dancing competitions became much more organised. Professional dancing schools were set up and dancing costume began to evolve.

The Irish Examiner (formerly The Cork Examiner), was founded as a nationalist newspaper in Cork in 1841. It was one of the earliest Irish newspapers to use photographs. Many of its oldest photographic plates were destroyed in a serious fire in the newspaper’s premises in 1927, but the many surviving glass negatives in its archive document a wide range of Irish social life in Munster in the first half of the 20th century. They include coverage of Irish competitive dancers.

The selection of Irish dancing images presented here were researched by ITMA staff in the premises of The Irish Examiner in 1992. They are reproduced with the kind permission of The Irish Examiner in whose copyright they belong.

For picture sales contact The Irish Examiner +353 (0)21 4802393 or 4802208

Nicholas Carolan, 1 February 2009

The button accordion, found in different tunings and with different numbers of buttons, is of course now one of the main instruments of Irish traditional music. It is also one of the more recent instruments to have been introduced for the playing of the music. While early forms of accordion were being sold in Ireland in the 1830s, it was the later 19th century before they began to come into the hands of traditional musicians, and it was the mid-20th century before they were very widely played by them.

The accordion images presented here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive range in date from the 1930s to the present day, but most are modern publicity photos by photographers unknown to us. Almost all are of two-row boxes, prominent among them instruments manufactured by the Paulo Soprani Company of Italy.

With thanks to photographers Stephen de Paoire, Danny Diamond, Orla Henihan, Tony Kearns, Brian Lawler, Aidan McGovern, Terry Moylan, Máire O’Keeffe, & Tom Sherlock for permission to publish the images. ITMA would welcome further information on any image.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 April 2015

Essentially, everyone who learns an Irish traditional tune is a collector of the music, and most interested people will have a memorised collection, even if they don’t sing or play an instrument. But what is normally meant by the term are those dedicated individuals who amass over time large numbers of songs and melodies and preserve them on a variety of paper media or on sound or video recordings. They may partly be motivated by personal or commercial considerations, but most collectors are altruistic, driven by a wish to preserve and share something that they themselves enjoy and value. Some may in time publish items from their collections.

The collectors featured in this gallery from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive range from those of the 18th and 19th centuries who of necessity collected with pen and paper and had the rare skill of being able to jot down melodies at first hearings, to those modern collectors with the no less valuable skill of operating audio and video technology to faithfully convey the reality of live performance. A debt is owed to all of them for enabling people now and in the future to experience the past of the music, and for providing materials for its ongoing re-creation.

Also here while it is still active is a link to a recent RTÉ ‘Nationwide’ programme (this programme is no longer available on the RTÉ Player) which featured the work of the collectors Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie on the occasion of their recordings being made available through the Clare County Library here. An ITMA feature on their Irish collections can be found below.

With thanks to Colette Moloney, Ríonach uí Ógáin, Peter Browne, & Lisa Shields.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 June 2015

This audio playlist has been curated by Irish Traditional Music Archive staff to provide a soundscape to the Decade of Centenaries. The selection reflects material of contemporary political, cultural and popular interest and is drawn from recordings held in the ITMA collections. The songs, music and speech come from wax cylinder and 78 rpm disc recordings, ranging in date from 1905−c.1940, which have been digitised by ITMA, and in the case of the wax cylinders by Henri Chamoux. They were originally recorded in Ireland, London and New York by early recording pioneers, the majority issued by commercial recording companies.

The recordings provide a backdrop to a changing Ireland: the Gaelic League and the Irish-language revival, the First World War, the 1916 Rising, and Irish and international popular music of the day, including the first wave of popular Irish-American vaudeville instrumentalists.

We drew inspiration from printed resources (see Erin remember 1916 below) as well as the Irish Military Archives’ Bureau of Military History Collection, 1913−1921. The witness statements are a rich source of information on songs, fundraising concerts, marching bands and individual musicians and singers of the period. Recordings made in Germany in 1917 of Irish prisoners of war are also an extremely valuable contemporary resource. They have been digitised by the Sound Archive of Humboldt University Berlin.

You will find more information about each recording in the playlist by selecting the arrow key to the right of each title. This will bring you to the individual page for this audio piece. Here you will find composer names, recording labels, etc. which we have been able to source. Where possible we have linked to printed versions of the sound recordings which you can also view online.

This playlist is a sampler of the many sound recordings held in ITMA which reference events during the Decade of Centenaries. ITMA will continue to catalogue and highlight historical recordings while also documenting responses to the events of 1916 in 1966 and 2016.

Grace Toland, Danny Diamond, Brian Doyle & Alan Woods, 1 March 2016

Early forms of sound recording were ‘acoustic’, that is, the sounds produced by singers and musicians were directed into a horn and cut mechanically by a vibrating needle into a groove on a cylinder or disc. The resulting playback sound was constricted and relatively unnatural. But in the mid-1920s the introduction of electric microphones and ‘electrical’ sound recording brought a great increase in fidelity of sound. It also enabled a much greater sound dynamic to be captured, and this had a particular advantage in recording large ensembles like dance bands.

Larger Irish-American bands, of the kind that had been playing in dance halls in the eastern cities since the late 19th century, took advantage of the new medium, and the recordings they made began appearing from 1926. They featured the full band ensembles, as in their performances in the halls, and also the band vocalists and instrumental soloists. The selection presented here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive represents ensembles from New York, Boston and Chicago, which comprised mainly Irish-born musicians playing traditional music. Combinations of instrumental sounds never before heard in Irish music were heard on these recordings, which give us our first insights into large Irish ensemble playing.

By way of contemporary contrast and contextualisation, the selection concludes with an ‘Irish’ song by the famous Irish-American Bing Crosby and a rendering of one of the most famous Irish melodies by what was possibly the most famous of the American big bands.

With thanks to record donors Jim Brophy, John Cullinane, Ciarán Dalton, Vincent Duffe, John Loesberg, Mrs Walter Maguire, Dan Maher, Matt Murtagh, & Kieran Owens.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 December 2011

A successful dance-hall, gramophone and radio band in Boston from the mid-1920s, Dan Sullivan’s Shamrock Band specialised in the playing of Irish traditional music and popular songs. Known as Sullivan’s Shamrock Band on its earliest discs, it recorded extensively in New York and Boston for the Columbia, Victor and Decca companies, from 1926 to 1934.

Dan Sullivan was a classically trained piano player, the American-born son of a Cork-Kerry professional fiddle and flute player of the same name, and he worked for the Steinway Piano Corporation in Boston before himself becoming a full-time professional. The earliest lineups of his recording band featured a core of Kerry musicians: Michael C. Hanafin on fiddle, Daniel J. Murphy on uilleann pipes, and Daniel P. Moroney on whistle. Later lineups included Sligo, Galway and Irish-American musicians, and introduced flute, accordion and banjo.

All the Sullivan Band recordings held by the Irish Traditional Music Archive are presented here. While their music was recorded for dancing rather than for listening to, the band was one of the first Irish groups to benefit from the fidelity of electrical sound recording, which was introduced by the large American commercial companies from 1925, and its instruments can be distinctly heard in the best recordings. Some of the ITMA discs are quite worn and noisy or faint, but are presented here at the end of the sequence for the sake of interest.

With thanks to donors of discs Ciarán Dalton, Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie, Vincent Duffe, Gearóid Gallagher, Gearóid Jackson, John Loesberg, Dan Maher, Kevin O’Reilly, Kieran Owens, Gay McKeon, John Butler, John Brennan, John & James Kelly, Caoimhín Mac Aoidh, & Tom Munnelly. ITMA would welcome donations, or loans for copying, of any Sullivan Shamrock Band recordings not presented here, or of better copies of worn discs. The photograph is reproduced courtesy of the Tamiment Library / Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University. It is a Victor Talking Machine Co publicity photograph dating from 1928, and it is part of the Library’s Archives of Irish America: Mick Moloney Irish American Music and Popular Culture Papers collection. Dan Sullivan is seated centre right; the fiddle player at top left is Michael C. Hanafin, at top right is Mike Mullin; the flute player is Murty Rabbett, the drummer Jim O’Brien, the banjo player Neil Nolan, and the accordion player Connie Hanafin (with thanks to Daniel Neely for identifications via Facebook).

Nicholas Carolan & Brian Doyle, 1 June 2014

The banjo has been a popular instrument in American culture, particularly in jazz and minstrel music, since the early 20th century. It is now generally accepted that the banjo originated in Africa and was introduced to the United States as a consequence of the slave trade. In its original form, it would have been constructed from timber gourds and hide skin with hemp or gut strings. In the United States the instrument underwent numerous modifications, such as the addition of frets, tension hoops, synthetic skins and steel strings. Gradually the banjo was integrated into mainstream popular American music.

However the popularity it was to gain in Irish traditional music most probably began with the invention of the four-string or tenor banjo in the opening years of the 20th century. This differed in a number of ways from earlier models, but most significantly the tenor banjo had four strings instead of five, had a shorter neck and was played with a plectrum. It was tuned at a higher pitch than its modern equivalent, but in fifths, similar to the mandolin, and thus complemented the fiddle. It also had the advantage of being loud, making it suitable to play in the noisy, poorly amplified venues of the time. Another factor in its popularity was the ready availability of high quality instruments, at affordable prices, by makers such as William Lange of Paramount fame, with a factory on 225−227 East Twenty Fourth Street, New York.

This selection of early 20th-century recordings reflect the sounds of the pioneers of this ‘new’ instrument in the tradition. Without there being teachers to imitate, a range of styles and approaches developed:  James Ryan, from Paddy Killoran’s Pride of Erin Orchestra, tended to use the banjo largely as a backing instrument; Michael Gaffney adopted a plain melodic style, while the virtuoso playing of Mike Flanagan was a mixture of melody and chords held together by a wonderful underlying sense of rhythm.

The earliest-known commercial recording of Irish traditional music played on the banjo dates back to 18 December 1916, when James Wheeler recorded with accordion player Edward Herborn for the Columbia label.

We hope you enjoy this eclectic mix of early banjo-playing styles from ITMA’s collection of 78 rpm discs.

Brian Doyle, 1 February 2016

The barndance is in origin both a musical form and an accompanying social ballroom dance which became popular in England and north America in the late 19th century. Its ancestors were the European polka and schottische social dances and their distinctive music of the mid-century. Like them, the barn dance changed over time and space and exists in a number of varieties. Its early music was composed by professionals or consisted of existing melodies adapted by them to the new fashion. Usually in 2/4 or 4/4 time and strongly marked in rhythm, with an emphatic ending to each section, the barndance seems originally to have been danced by couples in lines who would advance in sequence and dance complete waltz turns. In the 20th century the term would be applied to quadrille-derived square dances, or to dances danced in barns – in this latter sense it seems to have been used also in the 18th century as a term for country dances.

Although basic research on the topic remains to be done, barndances are likely to have come into Ireland at the time of their first popularity through commercial sheet music and the activities of professional dance teachers. In time they were danced and played traditionally, mixed in during a night’s dancing with older forms. As a dance form, the barndance is now almost obsolete in the Irish tradition, as are the related schottisches, flings, etc., and the distinction between these forms is now being lost. But their musical forms live on in the instrumental tradition because of the attractiveness of their melodies. While barndance melodies begin to appear in collections of Irish traditional music in the late 1920s, they had earlier and more influentially begun to be issued from the early 1920s on 78rpm commercial discs recorded by Irish emigrant musicians in New York and other American centres of Irish settlement.

These discs – from which a selection is presented below from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, along with some later recorded in Ireland – contain both ballroom melodies imported into Ireland and popular Irish song and dance melodies pressed into service for the new dance, and possibly some tunes from contemporary American-printed collections. This mixture undoubtedly reflects musical practice in the home areas of the musicians earlier in the 20th century, and in contemporary Irish-American dancehalls. The discs influenced local repertory in Ireland as they began to be heard widely there from the 1920s; in more recent times Irish traditional composers with an awareness of these discs began a new practice of barndance composition.

With thanks to record donors John Brennan Family, Jim Brophy, Éamon de Buitléar, Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie, Ciarán Dalton, Vincent Duffe, Christy Hand, Dan Healy, John Kelly Family, Máire Killoran, John Loesberg, Caoimhín Mac Aoidh, Dermot McLaughlin, Mrs Walter Maguire, Dan Maher, Tom Munnelly, Éamonn Ó Domhnaill, Ed Reavy Jnr, & Áine Sotscheck.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 June 2010

Denis Cox (Donnchadh Mac Coiligh, c. 1882—1962) first came to public notice as a prizewinner in the Feis Ceoil platform competitions of the 1920s, specialising in songs in Irish, and he enjoyed success also at feiseanna throughout Ireland in the same decade. Born in Trim, Co Meath, he spent most of his life in Dublin where he established a successful recital career. A natural baritone sometimes billed as a tenor, he went on to study classical singing and undertake concert tours in Britain, Germany and Italy. He made a short singing film for the Pathé Company and in 1934 represented Ireland at the World Fair in Chicago. Cox taught ‘Gaelic’ singing in the Municipal College of Music in Dublin from 1945, and performed songs in Irish and national songs in English frequently on Radio Éireann until the late 1950s.

From 1928 Denis Cox recorded extensively in London for the Parlophone Record Company, in Irish and English, and some of these recordings continued to be issued into the 1950s. About 1936 he recorded also in English for the Beltona Company. His songs in Irish were the subject of a special Parlophone marketing drive in 1933, when the company published a booklet of the texts of the songs in Irish he had recorded (see related material below).

Cox was generally described by newspapers as an ‘Irish traditional singer’ at a time when sean-nós Gaeltacht singers rarely got a public hearing, and he was even accepted as a traditional singer by the organisers of 1950s fleadhanna ceoil concerts. He was in fact a classically trained singer of traditional songs with a well developed stagecraft and a winning personality, who performed normally with piano or orchestral accompaniment. In his singing in Irish he belonged to a Gaelic League concert tradition of accompanied singing that had grown up since the 1890s.

See also Denis Cox, Songs in Irish in Print, 1933 below.

Do you have other Denis Cox recordings or less worn copies of the Irish Traditional Music Archive recordings presented here? ITMA would welcome their donation or the opportunity to copy them.

With thanks to record donors Vincent Duffe, Reg Hall, John Loesberg, Bernard Sexton, Áine Sotscheck, Geoffrey C. White, & the Franciscan Order, St Clare’s Convent, Harold’s Cross, Dublin, per Sr Mairéad Ní Fhearáin.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 August 2009

Leo Rowsome (1903–1970) was a third generation uilleann piper.  His musical and pipe making skills were inherited from his grandfather Samuel Rowsome from Ballintore. Co. Wexford and his father William who established the family pipe making and repair business in Dublin. One of six musical children, Leo was to play a pivotal role in the revival of uilleann piping in Ireland as a pipe maker, performer, teacher, organiser, advocate & publisher.  He performed extensively in Ireland and abroad, and broadcast on both radio and televsion.  His recording career began in the era of the 78 rpm disc and it is from this period that we present 12 tracks in this audio playlist.  Leo recorded with a number of 78 rpm record companies and on vinyl with Claddagh and Topic Records. The labels represented in this selection from 1926–1944 are Columbia, Decca and HMV.  The tracks span the range of Irish traditional music dance rhythms as well as airs, and are predominantly solo recordings.

The Rowsome piping tradition continues through fifth and sixth generations of the family in both playing, pipe making and publishing.

The curation of this audio playlist was inspired by the donation of a set of posters and photographs featuring Leo by his daughter Helena.  The posters and photographs are featured in an image gallery below as well as some performance related documents.

We would like to thank Helena Rowsome for the images and also the donors of the 78 rpm discs which make up this tribute to the King of the Pipers Leo Rowsome.

This booklet of texts of songs in Irish recorded by the Dublin-based baritone Denis Cox (Donnchadh Mac Coiligh) was published in 1933, presumably for the general educational market, by the Parlophone Company of London, the recording company which since 1928 had been issuing his many 78s of songs in Irish and English.

This booklet of texts of songs in Irish recorded by the Dublin-based baritone Denis Cox (Donnchadh Mac Coiligh) was published in 1933, presumably for the general educational market, by the Parlophone Company of London, the recording company which since 1928 had been issuing his many 78s of songs in Irish and English.

The 25 songs in the collection are mostly 18th- and 19th-century traditional songs, of the kind that had been popularised by the Gaelic League in their concerts since the 1890s. Originally noted from oral tradition, many of the songs had been published in the periodicals and songbooks of the League, and, after the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922, by commercial publishers. The published songs were frequently arranged for voice and piano, or for small vocal groups, by such arrangers represented here as Carl Hardebeck, Vincent O’Brien, and Hubert Rooney (who was Cox’s vocal teacher).

Traditional love songs, political songs, comic songs, praise songs, and religious songs are included in the booklet with some recently composed pieces. Remarkably, the song texts are published without English translations; one, ‘An Fhuiseog’, is a translation from English.

See also Denis Cox, Songs in Irish on 78s below.

With thanks to donor Cáit Ní Chonchubhair.

ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 August 2009

About 1940 Colm Ó Lochlainn began the publication in Dublin of an undated series of penny Irish-language songsheets entitled An Claisceadal (‘choral singing’).

By 1941 eighteen numbers had been published, produced by his Three Candles Press, and the series continued into the 1940s until it ended with the publication of sheet number 36. The entire series is reproduced below from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, and the music is available in our Interactive Scores section.

These sheets were the latest manifestation of a number of influential Irish-language song publications by Colm Ó Lochlainn which bear the title of An Claisceadal. This was originally the name of an informal choral group of Irish-language enthusiasts which had been brought together in Dublin in 1928 by Ó Lochlainn and by Fionán Mac Coluim, a Gaelic League organiser from Kerry. The singers were accompanied on piano by a Sligo music student Michael Bowles (Mícheál Ó Baoighill), later director of music on Radio Éireann and conductor of the National Orchestra of New Zealand. In the early 1930s Ó Lochlainn began publishing a series of booklets of song texts sung by the group. These were taken up enthusiastically by Gaelic League branches, and the songs they contain became generally popular and widely sung

Colm Ó Lochlainn was a polymath: a Dublin printer, type designer and publisher, a political activist, an Irish scholar and Irish-language enthusiast, an editor of publications and journals, a singer and musician. For more on Ó Lochlainn see below.

Colm Ó Lochlainn’s Irish-language songsheet series was clearly modelled on the old tradition of cheap printed street ballads. In contrast to street balladsheets, the Claisceadal sheets are printed on strong paper and on both sides – usually carrying two songs per sheet – and they also give the melody for each song, in staff notation. Each sheet was relatively small (12 x 19 cm). The sixty-nine songs of the series, some of them collected by Ó Lochlainn himself, are from the then living traditions of the gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking districts), notably those of Conamara, Mayo and Munster. They are mostly light cheerful songs (‘amhráin mheidhreacha’): lullabies, dandling and other children’s songs, spinning and other work songs, and love songs. The melodies are strong and regular, and many are also dance tunes. Some of the music notations seem to be in the hand of the famous traditional musician, singer and music collector Séamus Ennis, who worked for Ó Lochlainn in the years about 1940. For more on other Claisceadal publications click below.

With thanks to Aifric Gray, daughter of Colm Ó Lochlainn, for permission to publish the songsheets, for copies of photographs, and for other help. The collection of sheets was donated to ITMA by Nicholas Carolan; other Claisceadal publications have been kindly donated by Kate O’Dwyer, Maebh Ní Loinsigh, Máire Ní Dhonnchadha, Laurie Uí Raghallaigh, Chalmers Trench, Bríd Hetherington, and Dáibhí Ó Croinín.

ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

Colm Ó Lochlainn (1892–1972)

Colm Ó Lochlainn was born in Dublin as William Gerard O’Loughlin to an Irish-speaking father who was a Kilkenny businessman-printer, and a Limerick mother from a family of printers. Having studied Irish in University College Dublin under Eoin Mac Néill from 1910 to 1916, and acted with the Theatre of Ireland, Ó Lochlainn taught in Patrick Pearse’s school St Enda’s and was at the time deeply involved in the Independence movement, especially as a publisher and printer. After the 1916 Rising he continued his Gaelic studies, graduated MA, continued his involvement in printing and publishing, and from 1933 to 1943 was an assistant lecturer in Irish and librarianship in UCD. In 1926 he founded the Three Candles Press in Dublin, which would become for decades a leading Irish imprint as well as a general printer, and which specialised in history, biography, topography, bibliography, music and Irish studies. Ó Lochlainn travelled and studied printing techniques on the Continent and designed an Irish-language type-font. From about 1928 to 1957 he was also editor, printer and publisher of the bibliographical journal The Irish Book-Lover. Co-founder of An Óige, the Irish youth hostelling organisation, in 1960 he was awarded an honorary D.Litt.Celt, from the National University of Ireland. He was married to Ailish McInerney; they had three children.

In music Colm Ó Lochlainn is remembered particularly for his two famous collections of English-language songs Irish Street Ballads (1939, reprinted 1946, 1952, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1978, 1984) and More Irish Street Ballads (1965, reprinted 1968, 1978, 1984), which were the chief source-books for the 1960s revival of interest in Irish traditional song. He himself was a singer, often appearing with his sister Úna on national radio in the 1920s, and a musician on piano, uilleann pipes, warpipes and harp. In the 1960s he introduced the traditional song series As Zozimus Said on the new Irish television service. He was also interested in Scottish Gaelic songs and edited and published a collection: Deoc-Sláinte nan Gillean: Dórnan Óran a Barraidh (1948). He was also the author of Anglo-Irish Songwriters since Moore (n.d., post-1947), later Song-Writers of Ireland in the English Tongue (1967), and occasionally composed song words and melodies. His Irish-language song publications are considered below.

For more detail on Colm Ó Lochlainn see Beathaisnéis vol. 4, Diarmuid Breathnach & Máire Ní Mhurchú eds (Dublin, 1994), pp. 132–4; Dictionary of Irish Biography from the Earliest Times to the Year 2002 vol. 7, James Maguire & James Quinn eds (Dublin & Cambridge, 2009), pp. 648–9; and The Three Candles: A Bibliographical Catalogue, Éamonn de Búrca ed. (Dublin, 1998).

Other Claisceadal Publications

Almost all of the many publications by Colm Ó Lochlainn bearing the title of An Claisceadal are undated, which makes the establishing of even a relative chronology difficult. Confusingly, the first twenty-eight songsheets reproduced above carry a copyright date of 1930 and the last eight a copyright date of 1940, although a 1941 Three Candles catalogue and other evidence make it clear that they were only being produced from about 1940. The earlier copyright date may refer to the establishment of the Claisceadal group.

From about 1932 Ó Lochlainn edited and published under his imprint of Cóartha (later Comhartha) na dTrí gCoinneall, the Sign of the Three Candles, a larger song series also entitled An Claisceadal which includes the same songs as the songsheets, among others. This series was in the form of twelve small (9.5 x 16 cm) cheap booklets, each of 16 pages (the last with an eight-page supplement). They contain song texts mainly, with only occasional melodies in tonic-solfa notation. All are undated with the exception of the eleventh, which is dated 1936. This series was also produced in hardbound forms.

Another publication entitled An Claisceadal 1, edited by Ó Lochlainn and J.F. Larchet and published by Comhartha na dTrí gCoinneal is a small (10.5 x 16.5 cm) sixpenny collection of twelve songs with staff notation.

It is undated but was advertised as available in 1933. This collection was also published by the Dublin firm of Piogóid/ Pigott in the same and in a larger (19 x 28 cm) two-shilling format, both undated.

A number of the Claisceadal songs were also published separately in sheetmusic form, arranged by various hands with the cooperation of Colm Ó Lochlainn. Published variously by the Three Candles Press, by Piogóid/ Pigott and by the Dublin firm of McCullough, they seemingly appeared from the early 1930s into the 1940s.

In 1941 a large (21.5 x 34 cm) double-sided sheet entitled An Claisceadal, with nine song texts, was produced by Comhartha na dTrí gCoinneall as an aid to community singing at the Oireachtas festival of that year.

In 1983 Micheál Bowles began the publication of a series of songs from the repertory of An Claisceadal group in The Irish Times, and he later edited these in two volumes entitled Claisceadal (vol. 1: Glendale Press 1985; vols 1 & 2: At the Sign of the Anchor 1986).

All of these Claisceadal publications are in the ITMA collections and are available to visitors.

Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 August 2010

ITMA regularly collects printed and digital programmes from festivals and events which feature Irish traditional music and musicians. As well as a rich source of information and photographs, they are also a diary of the traditional music year and in some cases the only record of a local event or musical performance by an individual or group.

In February 2010 ITMA uploaded here a first tranche of printed feis programmes dating between 1910 and 1963. We are now enriching this online collection with an 1898 Belfast Feis Ceoil programme and those of feiseanna held in Cork, Carlow, Dublin, Letterkenny and Drogheda, 1911−1943.

This second tranche continues to provide ‘a fascinating picture of contemporary Irish social life, as well as details on many competitors and adjudicators, famous and unknown; on music shops and music publishers; and on the music, song and dance specified for performance’. We urge you to look through the names of competitors to find for example a relative adjudicated by Eamonn Ó Gallchobhair (vocal music), Miss Kitty O’Doherty (instrumental music) or R. Mac Gabhann (dance) in St. Eunan’s College, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal 29−30 June 1940. The many advertisements show the vibrancy of the local business economy in 1940s Drogheda including the Eamonn Mac Aodh Ceilidhe Band with ‘eight members, own amplification [and] moderate terms.’ Do you know the uilleann piper who won the Rowsome Challenge Cup in the Mansion House in Dublin in 1941? And which Irish War Pipe Band took home the £5 prize in Carlow in 1913? Was it: Piobairi Airt-Mic-Murcoda, Inis-Corthaid; Goresbridge Pipers’ Band; Tullamore Pipers’ Band; Brownstown War Pipe Band or the De Lacy War Pipe Band from Ferns?

ITMA would be delighted to hear from relatives or individuals who can tell us more about the people named in these programmes or the events themselves. Contact us at info@itma.ie If you have or know of similar event programmes, ITMA would be grateful to have the opportunity to scan these to add to our collection.

Grace Toland, Maeve Gebruers & Seán Caverly, 1 October 2016

The rare and undated songsters reproduced here were published in the first half of the 20th century by the Dublin firm of Nugent & Co at 45 Middle Abbey Street, and were compiled for the company by Denis Devereux, a singer and printer who had been involved in the Independence movement as a friend of Arthur Griffith.

All but two come from the family collection of the singer Gerard Crofts, and were purchased at auction by the Irish Traditional Music Archive at the Adams-Mealy ‘Independence’ sale of 19 April 2011.

Printed on flimsy newsprint and sold mostly for a penny or twopence, the original songsters were not intended for long-term use and few have survived. They contain patriotic and popular songs of their time, almost all in English with a few in Irish. Some of the songs had been popularised on gramophone record and on radio by singers such as Jimmy O’Dea, Tony Reddin, Richard Hayward and Delia Murphy in the 1930s; others date from the early 1800s.

Gerard Crofts (1888–1934, pictured above) was a well known tenor from Capel St, Dublin, who frequently sang at concerts and on radio and who made gramophone records for the Aeolian Vocalion, Regal, and Beltona labels. He had joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914, and was imprisoned after fighting in the GPO in 1916. His friends included Sean McDermott, Éamonn Ceannt, and Peadar Kearney, writer of the Irish national anthem.

Also included here is The Irish Blackbird Songster, an undated 19th-century songster crudely printed by the John F. Nugent Co of 35 New Row West, Dublin, which seems to have been a forerunner of Nugent & Co of Middle Abbey St. It comes from the ITMA Leslie Shepard Collection. Erin’s Call Song Book was donated to ITMA by Matt Murtagh.

ITMA would welcome the donation of other materials of this kind which are not yet in its collections (check our catalogues here), or of their loan for copying.

Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 June 2011

Carl Gilbert Hardebeck (1869−1945) was a classical pianist, organist and composer, a music teacher and choirmaster, and also a dedicated collector, arranger and publisher of Irish traditional music. Traditional song was his main area of Irish interest, and he edited and arranged for voice and piano several influential collections of Irish-language songs. But he was also responsible for three published collections of instrumental traditional music, and these are reproduced here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive to mark the 70th anniversary year of his death.

Born in London of prosperous German and Welsh parentage, the precocious Hardebeck was blind from childhood. He received his music education at the Royal Normal School for the Blind, and in 1893 moved to Belfast to establish a music store. When this failed, he devoted the rest of his life to music, living in Belfast until 1919, moving to Cork to take up academic positions before returning to Belfast in 1923, and ultimately moving to Dublin about 1933. His final years were spent in poverty but he remained a keen advocate of Irish music until his death.

Married to an Irishwoman and poet Mary Reavy, Hardebeck became involved with the Gaelic League and Feis Ceoil movements in the 1890s. He learned Irish and devoted his life to Irish traditional music after coming into contact with traditional singers and musicians: ‘I decided to leave all and follow it’. His arrangements respected the nature of the music and are still highly regarded. Hardebeck’s music was published by himself in Belfast and by various London publishers; his other publications and re-publications came from Dublin publishers: Conradh na Gaeilge, Pohlman, Whelan & Son, Sullivan & Co, Pigott & Co, The Sign of the Three Candles, Browne and Nolan Ltd, and Oifig an tSoláthair. The two O’Sullivan-published volumes presented here were republished by Pigott & Co.

With thanks to the Breathnach Family for the donation of the volumes.

Nicholas Carolan & Maeve Gebruers, 1 February 2015