Terry Rafferty was born in New York in 1934. She was introduced to Irish traditional music when she met her late husband, Mike Rafferty on New Year’s Eve 1951 in Purchase, New York.

They began dating and Mike brought her along to her first music session. They took a train and a bus out to Pat Murphy’s house in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Her first session lasted two days. She fell in love with Mike and the music.

They were married 10 months later, had five children and were together for 59 years until Mike’s death in 2011.

She began having sessions at the house and annual New Year’s Eve sessions. They bought a reel-to-reel recorder and recorded all of the house sessions over the years. Another invaluable collection.

1980 was when Terry bought her first video camera. It was heavy and cumbersome, but she persevered and recorded every musician she came across in Ireland and the USA. Pub sessions, festivals, Fleadh Cheoils, house parties, concerts, weddings, funerals – no stopping her, even though it involved holding a heavy camera for hours on end. I remember as a teenager, I wasn’t exactly happy about a video being done, but I couldn’t be more proud and happy that she did what she did back then.

She eventually moved on to a smaller camera and the process of digitalising that collection hasn’t even started yet. Her entire video collection ranges from 1980 until 2010.

Terry & Mike joined the Michael Coleman CCE Club in the Bronx in the 1980’s. She then became the Mid Atlantic Regional Fleadh Secretary in 1989 and she is still currently doing it …

In 1993, she started a CCE branch in New Jersey and called it after Mike Rafferty.

Mary Rafferty, June 2022

View the Terry Rafferty Video Collection here

“From the Bridge: a view of Irish traditional music in New York” is a major digital exhibition from ITMA celebrating New York’s unique and enduring relationship with Irish traditional music. Supported by the Government of Ireland – Emigration Support Programme, it was launched in ITMA on 29 June 2022.

Enjoy a short video on the exhibition launch.

Visit the free online exhibition here

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As is amply proved by the excellent players on these video recordings from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, the tin whistle is a destination instrument in Irish traditional music, as well as being an entry-level stepping stone to other instruments such as the flute and uilleann pipes. It has a unique sound that can range from the plangent on slow airs to a crisp tightness on fast dance tunes, and it will always have its own space in the music. In recent years, experimental makers using a variety of materials have developed the instrument, and have transformed it from the cheap, beloved, but sometimes unreliable whistles available a generation ago.

The recordings were made by ITMA staff at a variety of venues over the period: the Willie Clancy Summer School in Co Clare, the Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Co Donegal, and the Scoil Shamhna Shéamuis Ennis in Co Dublin.

With thanks to the performers for permission to present their music here, and to the organisers of the three schools for facilitating ITMA staff in making the recordings.

Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Piaras Hoban, 1 August 2015

Dublin musician Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, of Leitrim ancestry, has become internationally known over the last decade for his innovative playing of Irish traditional music on the fiddle, and for his artistic collaborations with musicians and artists in other musics and genres, as well as in Irish traditional music. In recent years he has taken up the viola and Norwegian hardanger fiddle.

But from his teens Caoimhín has also played traditional music on other instruments, whistle and flute among them, and especially also on uilleann pipes (under the tutelage first of Joe Doyle). Having graduated from Trinity College Dublin in physics, he moved for a time to Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, to study the making of uilleann pipes with pipemaker Geoff Wooff.

The selection of videos reproduced here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s uilleann piping represents his playing as it was in 2003 and 2004, and some of his observations on pipemaking. They were recorded mainly in Caoimhín’s cottage in Miltown Malbay during the Willie Clancy Summer School of July 2003 and also at the international William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh city in November 2004, introduced by Eithne Vallely.

With thanks to Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh for permission to reproduce these recordings, and to Eithne Vallely and the William Kennedy Piping Festival for their cooperation.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 February 2012

For all of its forty years to date, the Willie Clancy Summer School has featured traditional dancing of all kinds in natural association with instrumental music and song, following in the footsteps of Willie Clancy himself. Exhibition solo step-dances and set-dancing have been to the fore in concerts, classes and workshops, and in recent years old-style step-dancing from Clare and elsewhere, Conamara sean-nós dancing, and two-hand dancing have been added to the bill of fare.

Reproduced here from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive are documentary dance videos recorded by ITMA staff at the School in the early years of the new millennium, from 2001 to 2008. Included are old-style step-dancer Céline Tubridy from Co Donegal, Aidan Vaughan from Miltown Malbay with an exhibition of Clare battering, Margaret Wray from England with a solo set dance, Mick Mulkerrin from Glasgow and Co Meath and Mairéad Casey from Co Longford with a two-hander of Conamara sean-nós, and the Dublin-based set-dance group Brook’s Academy, which drew its inspiration from the Summer School and has gone on to teach hundreds of dancers in the headquarters of Na Píobairí Uilleann in Dublin over the last thirty years. Appearing here are Terry Cullen, Mary Friel, Sighle Friel, Pascale Gaudry, Vincent Heywood, Irene Martin, Terry Moylan, Mary Murray, Eileen O’Doherty, Jerry O’Reilly, and Gerry Ryan. Musicians include Michael Tubridy, Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, Timmy O’Connor, Bobby Gardiner, and the Mulcahy Family.

With thanks to the dancers and musicians, and to the organisers of the Willie Clancy Summer School.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 June 2012

Is féile bhliantúil d’amhránaíocht ar an sean-nós i nGaeilge í Sean-Nós Cois Life atá ar siúl i gcathair Bhaile Átha Cliath ó 1992 i leith, agus a mbíonn ceol uirlise agus rince ar an sean-nós bainteach léi freisin. Is í príomh-aidhm na féile ná ‘deis a thabhairt do dhaoine amhráin sa stíl dhúchasach a fhoghlaim agus a chasadh’. Cuirtear ceardlanna agus seisiúin ar siúl chuige sin le linn deireadh seachtaine san Earrach, agus tugtar ardán ansin, neamhspleách ar chomórtas, d’amhránaithe nach gcloistear ach go hannamh san ardchathair. Tá clár Sean-Nós Cois Life 2014 le fáil anseo.

Tá Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann ag taifeadadh ag an bhféile seo leis na blianta, agus cuirtear ar fáil anseo roinnt físeán a rinneadh i gClub na Múinteoirí, Cearnóg Pharnell, BÁC 1, agus i dTigh Hughes, Sráid Chancery, BÁC 7, ag an seisiún scoir a bhíonn ann tráthnóna Dé Domhnaigh. ‘Srach’-thaifeadtaí atá anseo – bíonn foireann na Taisce ag iarraidh gan cur isteach ar nádúrthacht na hócáide ar maithe le hard-chaighdeán físe agus fuaime.

Sean-Nós Cois Life is an annual festival of Irish-language ‘old-style’ singing that has been held in Dublin since 1992, with an admixture of instrumental music and dance. The main aim of the festival is to give an opportunity to people to learn and sing Irish-language songs in traditional style. To this end, workshops and sessions are organised over a weekend in the Spring, and singers who are seldom heard in Dublin are given a non-competitive platform for their art. The programme for this year’s festival is here.

The Irish Traditional Music Archive has been recording at this event for some years, and a selection of videos made in the Teachers’ Club, Parnell Square, Dublin 1, and in Hughes’s pub on Chancery St, Dublin 7, at the Sunday afternoon parting session is presented here from the ITMA collections. The videos are ‘grab’ recordings, as ITMA staff do not wish to interfere with the natural flow of the occasion for the sake of making perfect recordings.

Buíochas leis na hamhránaithe a thug cead dúinn a dtaifeadtaí siúd a chur suas anseo, agus le Antaine Ó Faracháin & Siobhán Ní Laoire.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 April 2014

The William Kennedy Piping Festival held annually in Armagh is an international celebration of Irish and global piping traditions. It is organised by the Armagh Pipers Club who themselves are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2016. ITMA has field collected regularly at this event capturing an important range of performers and traditions. As well as featuring individual pipers, duets, trios and groups form an important part in event programming at the festival.

In 2006 uilleann piper Robbie Hannan and fiddle player Dermot McLaughlin performed at a concert in the Market Place Theatre, Armagh. As they said themselves this was ‘the third concert in a world tour that had begun two years previously and had already taken in Donegal and Cork!’

ITMA will be field recording at the 23rd William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh, 17-20 November 2016.

With thanks to Robbie Hannan and Dermot McLaughlin for permission to make this recording available online.

Treasa Harkin, Piaras Hoban & Grace Toland, 1 October 2016

ITMA are delighted to make available a digital edition of Micheal Tubridy’s A selection of Irish traditional step dances (2018).

The steps in this book come from people who learned their dancing in the old school, in the early part of the 20th century, and this form is generally described as Traditional Irish Step Dancing. It is a form of dancing which is not really competition orientated, even though the odd competition is held, so there is no need for a stiff body posture. The arms may hang loosely by the side, the body be held in its natural upright position, and the legs should always be bent slightly at the knees, to give a bounce or spring or easy style to the step.

Michael Tubridy, from the introduction to the 2nd edition

In 1998 Brooks Academy published the first edition of this book, which used a unique notation system devised by Michael to describe step dances which he and his wife Céline had learned from dance masters Dan Furey (1910−1994) and James Keane (1917−2000). Both men, from Labasheeda, Co Clare, perpetuated an older style of traditional step dancing. Michael and Céline brought this local tradition to another generation through teaching in Ireland and abroad. In 2007 they released an instructional DVD Step Dancing with Céline and Michael Tubridy. In 2018 Micheal published a second edition of the book and another DVD, with a further 9 dances.

Michael Tubridy has generously allowed ITMA to publish the DVD recordings and his notation, and this page brings together the learning tools for all 18 dances from the book.

For each dance there is a video recording at normal dance tempo first, followed by a performance at a slower tempo for learning purposes. Individual steps are isolated and slowed to highlight certain phrases of the dance. Voice-over instructions can be heard from Michael and Céline throughout the videos. Links to the individual steps are available when viewed on the ITMA YouTube channel.

Each dance also has a PDF download of the steps in notation, as it appeared in the printed book. A PDF download of the full book is also available.

ITMA would like to thank Michael Tubridy, and his late wife Céline, for permission to publish this material on its website.

Although the wooden concert flute is now widely played in Irish traditional music, before its late-20th-century revival it was much associated with the counties of north Connaught, Roscommon among them, and its tradition is still strong there. The reasons for this association are still obscure; it may simply be that sufficient instruments were in circulation for influential musicians to set a tradition in motion.

A group of five Co Roscommon flute players gave a recital as part of the programme of the 2007–2008 Scoil Gheimhridh Frankie Kennedy in Gaoth Dobhair, Co Donegal, and recordings from the recital made by Irish Traditional Music Archive staff are presented here, courtesy of the performers. The players are, in order, Patsy Hanley from Kilrooskey; Tommy Guihan from Keadue; Catherine McEvoy, born in Birmingham of Roscommon parentage; John Wynne from Kilteevan; and John Kelly from Fivemiletown. They first play solo and then in relay, finishing in ensemble. Also in shot is Donegal fiddle player and singer Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh who introduced the musicians.

With thanks to the five players for permission to present their music, and to the organisers of the Frankie Kennedy Winter School for facilitating ITMA in making the field recording.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 June 2014

Co Clare fiddle player Joe Ryan (1928–2008), from Inagh, lived for most of his life in Dublin and in Co Meath, and also spent time in London. A regular session player, he was a prizewinner from the early 1950s at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil and the Oireachtas cultural festival, and a member of several ceili bands, notably the Fiach Roe in Clare and the Castle in Dublin. His regular playing companion was fellow-Clareman, fiddle and concertina player John Kelly.

A personal friend of Willie Clancy’s, Joe taught at the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, since its inception in 1973. Beginning in 1999 he was one of the older players whom Kerry fiddle player Máire O’Keeffe brought in every year to play for fiddle students at the School and to talk to them about their music and their life in music. For five years Irish Traditional Music Archive staff filmed these musical and oral history occasions, as unobtrusively as possible in the midst of the other ongoing music classes and all the hubbub of the School. A selection of music and talk is presented here from Joe Ryan’s contributions to these unique events.

With thanks to Joe Ryan, to the organisers of the Willie Clancy Summer School, & to Dr Máire O’Keeffe (who presented an illustrated lecture on this aspect of her work to the 2013 WCSS).

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 August 2013

The revival of interest in sean-nós (old-style) step dancing which has been on the rise since the late 1980s has been driven mainly from Conamara in Co Galway. This loose, partly improvised, solo exhibition form is of uncertain origin and antiquity, but it contrasts with the rigidity and programmed control normally associated with Irish solo dancing.

Two leading young Conamara sean-nós dancers were filmed by Irish Traditional Music Archive staff at the 2006–2007 Frankie Kennedy Winter School/ Scoil Gheimhridh Frankie Kennedy in Gaoth Dobhair, Co Donegal: Seosamh Ó Neachtain of An Spidéal and Róisín Ní Mhainín of Rosmuc. They danced to a range of rhythms played on accordion by Colm Gannon of Boston and Conamara at an event of the School entitled ‘An Damhsa’.

ITMA has been recording at the Frankie Kennedy Winter School since 2004–2005, and the results are available for listening and viewing to visitors to 73 Merrion Square, while some recordings have been made available on the website.

With thanks to Róisín Ní Mhainín, Seosamh Ó Neachtain & Colm Gannon for permission to reproduce their performances, and to Scoil Gheimhridh Frankie Kennedy for facilitating the recording.

Nicholas Carolan and Treasa Harkin, 1 June 2013

Tony Kearns, Nutan, Colm Keating and Peter Laban have each spent many years taking photographs at the festival and are regular visitors to Miltown Malbay. As part of ITMA’s contribution to the virtual Willie Clancy Summer School for 2020 we published a selection of images from their collections. Also included in this gallery are images from Danny Diamond, Orla Henihan, Liam McNulty and Mal Whyte.

Peter Laban has been beavering away in Co. Clare over the past few months as ITMA’s inaugural photographer-in-residence. He has been preparing images for donation to ITMA, and in the first of three galleries we give you a preview of this wonderful addition to our Images Collection.

Peter describes these images as a “random selection” but he did pick out two particular images in a nod to recent pandemic times.

The final two images were picked on purpose. Tony Linnane and Danny Mahoney were the last concert before the lockdowns. Covid was looming and nobody knew what to expect, things were just new and uncertain. … Sorcha bookends the lockdowns nicely, emerging happily from that phase.

Ephemera from the Góilín Singers Club

Each of the singers pictured in this gallery featured within the Góilín Song Project.

Each of the singers pictured in this gallery featured within the Inishowen Song Project.