Christy Mc Namara grew up in a musical family in Crusheen, County Clare. He plays accordion and concertina and is a specialist in black and white photography. 

His debut recording ‘ The House I was Reared In‘  was released in (2007). This year sees the release of a new recording of his original compositions ‘The Year of the Blizzard‘. Christy has been part of the session scene over many years and a regular performer at festivals including Scoil Samhradh Willy Clancy and The Feakle Festival.

He was a soloist with live score and orchestra for the screening of the film ‘Barry Lyndon‘ (Stanley Kubrick) at The Kings Theater Brooklyn, New York City in 2017.

His photography of traditional music is featured in his book ‘The Living Note‘ (O Brien Press 1996) with author Peter Woods, it received wide acclaim.

His work has been exhibited extensively at home and abroad over the last three decades and is held in both public and private collections worldwide. He was photographer in Residence at ITMA for 2022.

He is featured in the film documentary  ‘The Job of Songs‘ on traditional music in County Clare.

In 2023 he was invited to do an an exhibition of his photographic work on traditional music and to perform at Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry, Co.Cork

Compositions

1. Another bride for Kevin [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
2. Bóthar na cearta [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
3. McMahon’s of Cappafean [comp. Christy McNamara], jig
4. Night watching [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
5. One for the captain [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
6. Paddy’s haggard [comp. Christy McNamara], jig
7. The day old chicks [comp. Christy McNamara], march
8. The house at the bridge [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
9. The house under the hill [comp. Christy McNamara], reel
10. Turning Mary Browne [comp. Christy McNamara], jig

Compositions

1. A hornpipe for Aoife [comp. Jack Talty]
2. Any day now [comp. Jack Talty], jig
3. On the hop [comp. Jack Talty], slide
4. Ríl Nell [comp. Jack Talty], reel
5. The wily willow [comp. Jack Talty], slip jig

Jack Talty is a multi-award-winning traditional musician, composer, producer, academic, and educator from Lissycasey in county Clare. In 2021, he was appointed to the post of Lecturer in Irish Traditional Music at the School of Film, Music and Theatre at University College Cork. As a performer Jack has toured extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, and Asia, and he has contributed to over 100 albums to date as a musician, producer, composer, arranger, and engineer. A regular contributor to traditional music programming on various media, Jack is also the founder of Raelach Records, a traditional music label that he established in 2011.

An experienced and regular external assessor with bodies such as Culture Ireland, Music Network, and the Arts Council of Ireland, Jack published Navigating the Traditional Arts Sector in Ireland: A Report on Resources, Challenges, and Opportunities. This pioneering report was commissioned by Trad Ireland / Traid Éireann, with the support of the Arts Council. In April 2023, Jack joined the steering committee of the National Campaign for the Arts.

Links

www.jacktalty.com

www.raelachrecords.com

https://www.ucc.ie/en/fmt/music/

Robert Samuel (Robin) Morton

24 December 1939 – 1 October 2021

Listen here to a playlist of music associated with Robin

Robin Morton was among my oldest friends; almost sixty years; that is my first thought, before I think of him as an important figure in twentieth-century Irish song research, or as a significant promoter of the ‘pure drop’ before the term was coined. Yet, it’s possible that, outside of Ulster, he is little known in Ireland.

He certainly was better known in Scotland, where, as a founder member of The Boys of the Lough, the producer of award winning albums by Dick Gaughan, Artie Tresize and Cilla Fisher, founder and principal sound engineer of Temple Records, “The Scottish Record Label”, manager of The Battlefield Band, pioneering producer of records of Scottish harp playing, unaccompanied Gaelic singing, kitchen pipers, fiddle groups and more, Director of the Edinburgh Folk Festival, Chairman of the Scottish Record Industry Association and all round defender of musicians’ right to a decent living and fair treatment, he had a very high profile. Accordingly, in 2008 his achievements were recognised by his being inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame as the seventh recipient of the Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Scottish Traditional Music.

He is remembered differently in Ireland, especially the ten years he spent in Belfast, from 1962. There Robin was a friend, singer and musician, club organiser, song collector who issued his work in books, on albums and in broadcasts, and who promoted traditional music and song, and mentored its practitioners. He was also a ‘media personality’. I’m inclined to think that it was during those years he discovered and developed the qualities that were to serve him later.

He was born in Portadown, (Co Armagh) where his father, John, was an electrician – and a jazz lover. Thus, after a go at the cornet while at school at Portadown College, Robin gravitated towards Leadbelly and then, like almost everybody of his age, Woody Guthrie. That’s what he was singing in 1962 when we first met.

However, his mother, Mary’s, influence soon told. Her brother, Tom McCreery, hearing of Robin’s interest in singing took him to a pub, ‘The Head o’ the Road’ at Tartaraghan, almost the centre of the Orange universe and only a few miles from the place of its founding. On Fridays, there was singing, all men and all protestants and mostly Orangemen; Orange songs dominated; The mysterious seven, The Maghery riots (Maghery’s the adjoining Catholic Parish), The first creation, The battle of the Boyne, The crimson banner, Derryad flute band, The Orange maid of Sligo, Annie Moore, Cromie’s Orange buck, Shall we from the Union sever, The siege of Derry, Lisnagade. Other songs were sung too, Scottish ones – like The lad in the Scotch Brigade, The harbour of Dundee and The road and the miles to Dundee; Irish songs – Portadown’s a pretty place, The factory girl, The bonny bunch of roses, Sweet Loughgall, Johnny Harte, The wild rover, Rafferty’s pig, Dafferty’s duck, Ellen O’Connor, My bonny Irish boy, The Irish carman, Dobbin’s flowery vale; recitations like “I’m livin’ in Drumlister and English songs too – all the elements of the song corpus of the north of Ireland but with an unusual bias – unionist-centred but, nevertheless, Irish in form and performance style. Some of these songs had seldom been collected from traditional singers, and some never at all – Sam Henry had actively avoided sectarian songs and the BBC’s recording scheme of the 1950s had steered clear too – further, these men would have been suspicious of collectors called Seán (O’Boyle) or Séamus (Ennis), but Robin was with his uncle who was known and accepted, and Robin was too. He went and he listened and he took part – singing Woody Guthrie songs – and he went back, again and again, and eventually he recorded. He also recorded Frank Mills from Benburb in hospital – Robin had, as he said,, “got a kicking” playing rugby for Portadown against Dungannon and got stuck there for a week. That week he recorded ‘Old Arboe’ from an old man who was too shy to be recorded but was caught as he sang behind a screen sitting on a bed pan.

That would have been 1962/3 when Robin was studying for a diploma in Social Work at Queen’s University Belfast. The next year he spent in London – another diploma – in Psychiatric Social Work at the London School of Economics. He met Ewan MacColl and went to Cecil Sharp House to get copies of the songs (like the ones he’d heard among friends, at The Head o’ the Road) that had been collected in Ulster by the BBC, and was disappointed that they could only be transcribed; Ewan to the rescue, he had copies and was happy to allow them to be recopied. Robin came back to Belfast, started work with the families of children who needed psychiatric help and brought those songs with him but, influenced by MacColl, sang Cosher Bailey and Join the British Army. In 1964 he started a club on the lines of the London Singers’ Club, The Ulster Folk Music Society, very well remembered by a generation.

Belfast was full of fine musicians, many of them migrants from the country, some of the Queen’s students, like Henry O’Prey and Seán Quinn played with them in the McPeake’s Ceili Band and so Robin and the rest of us were introduced to fiddler, Tommy Gunn, piper Seán MacAloon, the ivory flute player, James McMahon, mandolin player Jimmy Grimes and John Rea, hammer dulcimer (that unkind people called ‘the bicycle wheel’, unable to musically reconcile the ringing of its undamped strings). There were many more and they were persuaded to play at the club and they became friends. They introduced Cathal McConnell and our network, and Robin’s began to expand.

The Head o’ the Road led to introductions too – like Sam Higginbottom and Arthur Whiteside, a rabid Orangeman (Vivian Molloy who was a neighbour as a child, will testify), who sang some of the most contentious songs in the Orange repertory – The Protestant Maid who introduced arsenic into the Communion bread and, having informed the celebrant priest, challenged him to consume it and prove Transubstantiation – or about The ladder into Purgatory that led from every popish altar and whose descent was each priest’s last act – but he also sang The darling baby, that Robin took over and loved – about a husband’s inability to quieten a child when its mother was away and which subsided as soon as she returned – ‘the wretch’! These were prizes but the best was to come.

I mentioned the legendary ivory flute – its owner, James McMahon (there’s a Facebook page devoted to memories of him) had an older brother, also living in Belfast, Paddy. Paddy was a singer – The shamrock boys from Kill, Edward Boyle, On board the Victory, Mary Neill – not many songs but among the best. Paddy told of a great singer from near where the McMahons were from, Roslea in Fermanagh – John Maguire and introduced him and Robin. He was a great singer, not a shade of doubt. He was a spellbinder – but that was not all, the fields around his farm at Tonaydrumallard held a whole exultation of singers – more of the family, Biddy, Brian, another sister (probably Ellie) – Robbie Doonan – and Nellie and Peter Mullarkey – outstanding singers and outstanding songs – the wonderful love song, Erin the green, now a staple, is owed to Nellie.

There were other recordings made but these two centres, Tartaraghan and Tonaydrumallard provide the bulk. Robin used them to compile Folksongs Sung in Ulster – and showed another side of his character. He mentioned the idea of putting the songs in a book to a more experienced collector and was advised against it – people will just spoil them, he was warned. This may have been a typical attitude, Robin told of showing the first results of his collecting to the Director of the Ulster Folk Museum. He suggested that he could be lent a decent tape recorder – “… but, Mr Morton, what qualifications do you have for this work?” Robin had none that were acceptable, so he went and bought his own machine – a Uher 4400 Report Stereo – the best at the time. And he published the songs because he thought that people needed to know about them.

Folksongs Sung in Ulster issued in 1970, fifty-two songs (including one from his Aunt Sally, Tom McCreery’s wife) of which twenty appeared on two LPs that came out the following year. It was a unique combination and unique for another reason. Most song collections up to then had concentrated on the texts and tunes, most of the discussion was about other versions of the song. Robin’s focus was on the place the songs occupied in the lives of the singers, and the ways they reflected the lives of the people and the history of Ireland – he did include references but they were relegated to an appendix – and I compiled it.

[We are delighted to learn from Alison Kinnaird that Folksongs Sung in Ulster will be re-published in December 2022 accompanied by a CD featuring 22 tracks of the original singers from Robin’s field recordings].

Perhaps this was because Robin had found a new academic direction. He’d given up his work in social psychiatry to begin a degree in Social and Economic History. Without a regular income he put his tape recorder to work as a freelance broadcaster conducting interviews for BBC Northern Ireland Radio, as Robin Morton. A bit later, Cathal McConnell was puzzled to hear someone called Robert Martin, sounding very like the Robin he knew, interviewing for Radio Éireann. Sometimes Robin sold the same interview, differently edited under three different names to those two outlets and the BBC World Service.

At the same time, he had recognised that John Maguire was a genius, not just as a singer, he certainly was that – there was a concert at Belfast’s Whitla Hall, where John held an audience breathless for the entire first half – he seemed to bring his life onto the stage as if in his kitchen – his part is remembered and the headline act has been forgotten – and, again when, singing a song over to himself before a television appearance, he stilled a studio full of hard-boiled sound and lighting technicians, cameramen and floor managers who applauded when he’d finished. But another aspect of John’s genius was conversation. Robin decided he was worth a book. Come Day, Go Day, God Send Sunday: The songs and life story, told in his own words, of John Maguire, traditional singer and farmer from Co. Fermanagh, was published to acclaim in 1973. It was among the folklore books of the year, narrowly failing to win the Chicago Folklore Prize. It was reissued in 2017, by Routledge at a massive £76.00 in hardback but, much more reasonably, £23.11 paperback. An accompanying LP was published by Bill Leader, Leader Records rather later, 1975, I think. It contained 12 songs and is another gem. I had half a dozen that I’d bought for £1.00 each about twenty-five years ago and gave them away to friends last year. It’s time for a CD reissue.

However, that was almost the end of Robin’s work as a collector though he did pursue an interest in issuing a similar book about the fiddler Tommy Gunn and interviewed him extensively but eventually decided it would not have held the same interest. In any case, by that time his life had changed utterly.

It was his own fault. He had such a range of abilities, he could have been a broadcaster, even a Television Personality – for a while he was a continuity announcer for BBC Northern Ireland – or an academic historian or ethnographer, indeed, when he finished his degree in Social History he started a PhD in Edinburgh, comparing the history of the concept and treatment of ‘madness’ in Ireland and Scotland, but the music won out.

In 1967, he’d formed a group with Cathal McConnell (flute, whistle and songs), Tommy Gunn (fiddle, lilting, dancing and songs), and himself (concertina, bodhrán and songs). They’d ‘done’ festivals across Britain under their three names until a promoter in Aberdeen demanded something easier and they became The Boys of the Lough, after the reel. Tommy, then in his sixties, eventually found it too much but not before Robin and Cathal, who’d made an album, An Irish Jubilee, together, in 1971, had met, and enjoyed instant friendship with Aly Bain, a brilliant young Shetland fiddler, and singer-guitarist Mike Whellans who were playing as a duo. The Boys of the Lough was reborn and with Robin and Cathal, Aly and Mike, and when Mike was replaced by Dick Gaughan and then he by Dave Richardson, enjoyed unparalleled success – the first professional folk band – before Planxty, Altan or Dervish – until Robin left in 1979.

That meant another new beginning. He had met and married Alison Kinnaird, an exceptional artist in two fields – harp playing and in engraving on glass – in 1974, and in order to live and work in one place on their very various pursuits, had bought and were converting a disused church at Temple in Midlothian, in the hills to the south of Edinburgh.

Touring with the ‘Boys’ didn’t occupy all Robin’s time and, having produced the LPs for his books and An Irish Jubilee, he recorded Alison’s Harp but none of the existing ‘folk’ labels, Topic, Leader, Transatlantic would take a risk on the, up to then, unheard, sound of a solo Scottish harp. Temple Records was born – The Harp Key: Crann Nan Teud was published in 1978, their first issue. Robin had met the Battlefield Band in 1972 and had produced their first album, in 1980 he became their manager, which he remained until his death. Temple Records enjoyed over a hundred releases, many of them pioneering efforts, scoffed at by others because, like harp music, they were unfamiliar or uncommercial – unaccompanied Gaelic singing, ceol beag (dance music on highland pipes) and piping recitals, groups of fiddlers, early Scottish music. The unifying feature was quality; on which Robin refused to compromise. He loved music but it had to be good music.

In parallel with Temple releases he produced albums for other labels, in many cases launching careers. Some of the Scottish ones were mentioned at the outset but his contribution to Irish music was also of substance. He produced Cathal McConnell, Len Graham, Kevin Mitchell and Geordie Hanna & Sarah Ann O’Neill’s debut albums. Records of fine musicians followed John Rea (Dulcimer), Seán MacAloon (pipes), flute players, Packie Duignan, Séamus Tansey and Josie MacDermott and fiddlers, Séamus Horan and Vincent Griffin, all for Topic.

Seamus Tansey (1943–2022) especially was a labour of love. He and Robin had met in the 60s but hardly again until they encountered one another at the great first “Crossroads Conference” of 1996, when Tansey delivered a blistering attack on the forces of ‘innovation’ in Irish music, and Robin was astonished to learn that this, among the greatest of Irish flute players, had not made a record in twenty years. That was soon rectified and the result is still in the Temple Catalogue.

This led to his, lending his recordings to be digitally copied by ITMA , and later giving them to the Archive where every song or tune, every person mentioned here, may be heard to the benefit of, as Robin always hoped, musicians, singers and researchers alike; untold riches await!

Robin Morton was a pioneer, with Sam Henry and Hugh Shields, among the most important song collectors and disseminators in twentieth century Ulster. His collection is small but his treatment and assessments of the songs and their singers was exemplary. He thought of them as friends, and the mutual respect was palpable.

As a student of song, I appreciate all that, but, as I said, he was my friend – for almost sixty years and his death brought me great sadness but it’s also a matter of great joy that, in his life, my friend made such a difference, to so many and in so many ways!

John Moulden

ITMA would like to thank all those who have contributed to this blog especially Robin’s wife Alison Kinnaird for her generous permission to use the sound recordings in the playlist. We extend our continuing sympathy to Alison, her family, and all Robin’s friends and admirers.

With thanks to Pete Heywood for permission to use images of Robin Morton.

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The Irish Traditional Music Archive began experimenting with studio recording in 1993, soon after it had moved from a single room in Eustace Street to new rented premises on two floors of 63 Merrion Square in central Dublin. No structural alterations could be carried out on the historic building, but under the supervision of Brian Masterson of Windmill Lane Studios, a basic recording facility was installed in two rooms of the top floor. The aim was to produce audio recordings for public listening within the Archive of performers who hadn’t been widely recorded. Aidan McGovern and Glenn Cumiskey were sound engineers, and Derry fiddle player Dermot McLaughin, then Traditional Music Officer of the Arts Council and now Chief Executive of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust (and Chairman of ITMA), was the subject of early experiments.

Two small and low-tech video cameras, remotely controlled by the engineers or by then ITMA secretary Sadhbh Nic Ionnraic, were wall-mounted in the performance room to make a simple visual record of performance for the use of students. The purpose was not to produce material for television or video publications but to record for study such elements of performance as posture and movement, and elements of technique such as bowing and ornamentation.

Each recording session lasted a few hours and, as well as recording music and song, interviews were conducted by Nicholas Carolan with the musicians and singers regarding their own musical history and their influences. The full audio and video recordings are available for reference listening and viewing within ITMA.

ITMA is grateful to Dermot McLaughlin, to Clare concertina player Mary MacNamara (who was then teaching music in Dublin, as she is now in Tulla, Co Clare), to singer Jim Mac Farland of Derry (then also living and working in Dublin), to singer Barry Gleeson of Dublin, and to the Four-Star Trio of Cork (Con Ó Drisceoil, accordion; Johnny McCarthy, fiddle; Pat Ahern, guitar) for permission to bring these ITMA 1993 video recordings to a wider audience.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 December 2011

When composing, you are always on a quest to find that elusive motif or melodic idea which will entice you to complete the tune. The beauty of this artform is that you have so many avenues to explore, and you can sometimes surprise yourself along the way. Two of my CDs Irish Music on the Clavichord 2015 and Irish Music on the Harpsichord 2018 were a case in point.
Both albums with funding from the Arts Council, were inspired by early harp music. These two albums featured eleven of my own compositions, in this ancient harping style. Even though I did not set out to record so many of my own compositions, the pieces evolved out of a love for each respective instrument and the associated repertoire.
Three compositions here are transcribed with a left-hand part suitable for harp or piano. In practice, I prefer sparse accompaniment that is almost part of the overall melodic texture, enhancing the melodic line, never dominating harmonically.

I also enjoy writing standard jigs and reels etc, but there are so many beautiful melodies already in existence, that this can seem futile; unless they are played and accepted by other musicians.

I recorded the hornpipe Tom’s Delight for the CD with John Weir and Eithne Ni Dhonaile and my recent recording with my sister Breda features two newly composed jigs. Composing for SATB choir is another passion of mine but that’s another story.

I hope you enjoy this selection of tunes.

Claire Keville, March 2023

Compositions

1. Tom’s Delight [comp. Claire Keville], hornpipe
2. Rain on the Roof [comp. Claire Keville], jig
3. The Little Flower [comp. Claire Keville], jig
4. Lament of Loss [comp. Claire Keville], air
5. The Friary Bell [comp. Claire Keville], harp piece
6. The Bell Tower [comp. Claire Keville], harp piece
7. The Silent Black River [comp. Claire Keville], harp piece

Luke Cheevers, from the old Dublin fishing village of Ringsend, is a dramatic and entertaining singer specialising in Dublin songs, and he has been a familiar performer at singing festivals in all parts of Ireland since the 1970s. For many years he has also been a stalwart of the Góilín Singers Club which has met regularly in a variety of Dublin venues since the early 1980s. Luke is also a photographer, and he has donated a selection of his photographs taken at musical events in the 1990s to the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

Those reproduced here were taken mainly at the Góilín Club when it met in the Ferryman pub at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the Liffey and later in the Trinity Inn on Pearse St; others come from the Féile na Bóinne festival in Drogheda, and elsewhere.

With thanks to Luke Cheevers.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 August 2011

After the concertina had been introduced to Ireland from Britain by concert recitalists of the 1830s, and was sold, manufactured and taught in Dublin from the 1850s, it spread throughout the country, in various forms, as a mass-produced instrument of popular music. By the end of the century, it had also been taken up widely by players of Irish traditional music, and its adoption coincided with the growing popularity of quadrille-style set dances among traditional dancers.

But the concertina began to fall from favour in the 1920s, eclipsed in most parts of the country by the new louder accordions, and by gramophones as sources of music for dancers. It retained its popularity however in Co Clare, to such an extent that by the 1960s it was being thought of as a purely Clare instrument. This popularity is reflected in the gallery of concertina images presented below from the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

In the last three or four decades however, with increasing prosperity, the growing availability of high-quality tuition and instruments, and of recordings by virtuoso players, the concertina has once again become a national Irish instrument.

With thanks to photographers and photograph donors Fran O’Rourke, Liam McNulty, Joe Dowdall, Chris Corlett, Orla Henihan, Danny Diamond, Steven de Paoire, & Susie Cox, and to Mick O’Connor for information. ITMA would always welcome the donation of other photographs of concertina players.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 February 2014

As usual, 2013 was a busy year for the recording staff of the Irish Traditional Music Archive who were at work at festivals and concerts, recitals and lectures throughout the country. Hundreds of hours of music, song and dance were captured on audio and video, and have been transferred to user-friendly formats, and catalogued, for access by present-day visitors to ITMA and for posterity.

The selection of audio recordings presented here from just some of the ITMA 2013 recording trips are a sampler of what is available to visitors. The recordings were made variously at the Inishowen Singers International Folk Song and Ballad Seminar in Donegal in March, at the Cruinniú na bhFliúit gathering in west Cork in April, at the Willie Clancy Summer School in west Clare in July, at the Frank Harte Festival in Dublin in September, at the William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh in November, and at the first-ever ITMA concert the same month in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.

With thanks to the artists for permission to reproduce their performances, and to the organisers of the various events for their cooperation in facilitating ITMA’s recording activity.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 December 2013

Jim Carroll, of Liverpool Irish descent, and Pat Mackenzie, herself an Anglo-Scot, have been immersed in traditional singing and in other oral traditions since their earliest involvement in the 1960s. They were both members of Ewan McColl’s influential Critics Group in London, and their study of traditional song there brought them in 1973 to the ongoing tape-recording of Irish Traveller singers in London and, a related project, of traditional singers in west Clare, as well as of English and Scots singers. They have lived in Co Clare since 1998. Their private collection is now one of the largest in Irish music, and they have generously deposited copies of it in the Irish Traditional Music Archive, the British Library, and other public repositories.

A wide selection of their recordings have been published on LP, cassette and CD since 1978: Paddy’s Panacea (singer Tom Lenihan, Clare, 1978, LP), Early in the Month of Spring (Irish Travellers singing & story-telling in London, 1986, cassette) incorporated in From Puck to Appleby (Irish Travellers singing in England, 2003, 2 CDs), ‘… and That’s My Story’ (British & Irish story-tellers, 1991, cassette), and Around the Hills of Clare (Clare singers, 2004, 2 CDs). Royalties have been kindly donated to ITMA and other institutions.

The selection of sound recordings given here represents only the main categories of the Carroll-Mackenzie Collection: their Traveller recordings, their Clare recordings, and their recordings of Irish musicians in London. All of the Collection is freely available for listening and study in ITMA.

With thanks to the singers and musicians presented here, and to Pat Mackenzie & Jim Carroll for their donations of digitised sound recordings, printed materials, & information over many years.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 December 2012

They Love Music Mightily’: Contemporary Recordings of Irish Traditional Music – An Ceol Comhaimseartha was a joint cross-border audiovisual travelling exhibition of the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum in Cultra, Holywood, Co Down, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin. It was on display in various venues from 2000 to 2004. The exhibition was intended to emphasise that Irish traditional music is an exciting and varied contemporary artform. It consisted of stands with giant back-lit transparencies of thirteen leading contemporary singers and musicians, and sound recordings on headphones of the featured performers. The title of the exhibition is a quotation from the writings of William Good, an English observer of the Irish in the 1560s.

The exhibition was initiated by Robbie Hannan (then Curator of Music at the UFTM), advised by Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin of the University of Limerick (former Chairman of the ITMA Board). It was designed by Michael Donnelly of the UFTM, and featured specially commissioned photographs by Paul McCarthy (an independent photographer) and sound recordings by Glenn Cumiskey (then ITMA Sound Engineer), with additional recordings by Robbie Hannan, Niall Keegan (UL), and Paul Dooley, one of the featured performers. It was curated by Robbie Hannan in Cultra and by Nicholas Carolan (Director of the ITMA) in Dublin, with the assistance of Orla Henihan (then ITMA Visual Materials Officer).

The exhibition catalogue (produced by Robbie Hannan and Glenn Cumiskey) was a CD with the recordings and photographs featured in the exhibition, and with notes on the performers and material. It was only on sale in conjunction with the exhibition, and is now presented above.

After being opened in the UFTM in November 2000 by Roisín McDonough, Director of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, ‘They Love Music Mightily’ remained on exhibition there for a year before moving to the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin. Managed there by Mairead Dunlevy, Keeper of Art & History in the NMI, and architect Niall Parsons of the Office of Public Works, in cooperation with ITMA staff, it was opened in November 2001 by Dr Ciarán Mac Mathúna of RTÉ Radio and Dr Pat Wallace, Director of the NMI. The exhibition was enlarged for its Dublin appearance by an exhibition of musical instruments from the collections of the NMI and ITMA, a film compiled from the Archives of RTÉ Television (with the cooperation of Cathal Goan, then Director of RTÉ Television and Chairman of the ITMA), a series of public talks – ‘What is Irish Traditional Music?’ (Nicholas Carolan), ‘Traditional Singing in Ireland’ (the late Tom Munnelly, Dept of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, and former ITMA Chairman), and ‘The Story of Irish Dance’ (author Helen Brennan) – and a recital by Robbie Hannan, uilleann pipes, and three of the featured musicians: Mary MacNamara, concertina; Paul O’Shaughnessy, fiddle; and Paul Dooley, harp. In 2002 the exhibition ran in the Fermanagh County Museum in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh; in 2003 in the Glór music centre in Ennis, Co Clare; and from 2003 until 2004 in the Millennium Forum, Derry City. Having been dismantled and ended its terrestrial life, it begins a virtual existence on this website.

A gallery of the exhibition photographs by Paul McCarthy is available below.

With thanks especially to the thirteen performers who took part in the exhibition, to all listed above and otherwise who contributed to its success, and to the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum and Robbie Hannan, Head of Folklife and Agriculture at the UFTM.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 October 2009

Meath concertina player Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh and Kerry accordion and melodeon player Danny O’Mahony have been attracting much favourable attention in recent years for their spirited and impromptu duets, and their collaboration resulted in 2012 in a well received CD As It Happened. They recently played at the inaugural Scoil Gheimhridh Ghaoth Dobhair, in Gaoth Dobhair, Co Donegal, where they were recorded on 29 December 2014 by Irish Traditional Music Archive staff in An Gailearaí, Áislann Ghaoth Dobhair. A selection of their pieces are presented here with the kind permission of the musicians.

One of the accordions regularly played by Danny O’Mahony belonged formerly to his late relative Tom Carmody, an accordion and fiddle player who performed professionally in New York from the 1920s.

For further information on the As It Happened CD click here. For the winter school Scoil Gheimhridh Ghaoth Dobhair click here.

With thanks to Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh & Danny O’Mahony, and to Scoil Gheimhridh Ghaoth Dobhair for facilitating the recording.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 February 2015

A selection of ITMA recordings of concertina players performing at recitals of the Willie Clancy Summer School over recent years in Halla an Phobail, Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.

While different kinds of concertinas have been played traditionally throughout Ireland since the mid-19th century, the musicians of Co Clare seem to have had a particular affinity for the instrument and many of its leading contemporary traditional players hail from that county.

Not surprisingly therefore, the concertina is a featured instrument at the premier summer school for Irish traditional music, the Willie Clancy Summer School held annually in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. Ever since the School was established in 1973, recitals, lectures, workshops and classes have been regularly given there on the concertina

The Irish Traditional Music Archive has been field-recording annually at the WCSS since 1993, soon after its own establishment, in cooperation with the directors of the School, and its audio and video recordings documenting the School are accessible on a reference basis for listening and study within the ITMA premises.

This following selection of ITMA recordings of concertina players performing at recitals of the School over recent years in Halla an Phobail, Miltown Malbay, indicates something of the range of material available from players young and old.

ITMA gratefully acknowledges the kind permission of the players (or their families) who have allowed their individual recordings to be made freely available for listening here; the help of Ted McGraw, Angela Connaughton, Joe Rynne and Muiris Ó Rócháin with this presentation; and the cooperation of the directors of the WCSS in the making of these recordings.

Nicholas Caloran & Danny Diamond, 1 June 2009

These ITMA audio recordings feature four Clare musicians who performed for and spoke to students at the 1999 Willie Clancy Summer School, and who have sadly since died
Since the late 1990s Kerry fiddle player Máire O’Keeffe has organised morning recitals and question-and-answer sessions with older source fiddle players and other musicians at the Willie Clancy Summer School. This is done for the enrichment of the fiddle players attending the School’s classes in St Joseph’s Secondary School, Spanish Point, Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. With the generous agreement of the performers, Máire and the School have facilitated the Irish Traditional Music Archive in recording many of these sessions, at first in audio and later in video.

ITMA audio recordings from its 1999 recording session are reproduced here. They feature four Clare musicians who performed for and spoke to the students that year, and who have sadly since died. They are the east Clare fiddle player Paddy Canny from Tulla, and, from west Clare, Bobby Casey from Miltown Malbay and London on fiddle, Tommy McCarthy from Kilmihil and London on concertina, and Joe Ryan from Inagh and Meath on fiddle.

With thanks to the performers, Máire O’Keeffe, the McCarthy family, and the organisers of the Willie Clancy Summer School.

Nicholas Caloran, Ian Lynch & Danny Diamond, 1 June 2012

Drawing from the Well for September 2021, features the Hurley Sisters as they explore connections between tunes, songs and stories associated with the famed “Petticoat Loose” of Co. Waterford.

The premiere of “Petticoat Loose: A Wicked Woman of Irish Folklore, Music, and Song” took place Wednesday 15 September 2021. It is now available to view on:

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Our investigation of Petticoat Loose began when, after playing the tune together, a half-remembered fragment of a story came to mind. We searched the wonderful resource that is www.duchas.ie which houses the National Folklore Collection UCD Digitization Project, including the Schools Project. A search revealed multiple stories about Petticoat Loose – we read these voraciously and discovered a real woman often named as Mary Hannigan of Co. Waterford, who committed crimes of varying degrees of severity. A common theme is her death and subsequent return to haunt the locality, before being banished for all eternity to undertake a Sisyphean task, like weaving ropes from sand or emptying a lake with a thimble.

These various tales led us deeper into the world of folklore, finding motifs and symbols such as the spirit of Petticoat Loose crying “Pull the Knife and Stick it Again!” as she is stabbed with a black-handled knife – a phrase we know from the title of a jig played by Matt Molloy on his 1976 recording on the Mulligan Label. We located that tune in the Breandan Breathnach collection Ceol Rince na hÉireann Volume 3, the notes of which directed us to an interesting account by Eugene Ó Curry published by George Petrie in Ancient Music of Ireland (1855) of the Cailleach Bhéil Atha (the Hag of Balla) in Co. Clare.

Petrie’s sentiments match our own to some extent as we have deviated from music into folklore: “And although the subject may be considered as not strictly in accordance with the primary purpose of this work, I trust that few of my readers will object to my securing in this place remarks of so much interest”

The following are some excerpts from O’Curry’s account. There was a belief, strongly held at the time of writing, that the “Tuatha de Dananns…were in possession of a mortal immortality — and that they had the power to carry off from this visible world men and women in a living state, but sometimes under the semblance of death.”

Those taken from the living world were often infants, taken for the childless of the Tuatha de Danann, or else young men or women in their prime, often on their wedding days, to be given to an otherworldly lover, or in some cases, “fresh, well-looking nurses for their nurseries”.

The exchanges happened in different ways – in some cases, those taken were swapped for a sickly looking child, or old man or woman as the case may require. In others, the human subject died to all appearances, but people guessed it was not a real death and began to take steps to rescue their loved ones from the good people (i.e. the fairies). In yet more stories, the human is whipped off the brink of a river or lake, or out to sea by a gust of wind – but then taken down to a “noble mansion and plain, over which the water was but a transparent atmosphere”. It was generally believed at the time that “fairy captives are redeemable within a year and a day, but after that they are lost forever”.

“The black-hafted knife was the only formidable mortal weapon in fairy warfare – a single thrust or stab from it was fatal; but a second rendered the first one harmless.”

O’Curry recounts the story of the Cailleach Bhéil Atha (the Hag of Balla) who would watch from her seat in an old fort between Kilkee and Doonbeg, Co. Clare for a passing gentleman to capture. As she leapt onto the horse of one such candidate, the man plunged a black-handled knife into her left side. “Tarraing agus sáigh arís” – draw and plunge again – said the hag. But the man neither answered nor obeyed, and she immediately fell off the horse and disappeared. In the morning, the man returned to the spot with some neighbours, “where they found the black-hafted knife stuck in a small lump of jelly, resembling what the peasantry call a fallen star”.

This article also gives us an insight into O’Curry’s own beliefs, and those of his family – he tells the story of a priest who was drowned around 1812, and whose mother and brothers “who were sensible and well-informed men, continued not only for a year and a day but for seven years, to put in action the available anti-fairy force of the whole province of Munster for his recovery, and this with a confidence that was sickening to my father and mother, who were the only people I ever knew in that country who were total unbelievers in such doctrines. It is hardly necessary to say that poor Fr. Molony never came back”.

As we looked into the tune Petticoat Loose, we discovered printed versions of the tune from 1748 onwards, but one that we selected to play in our episode of Drawing from the Well comes from a collection by a piper named John Murphy, which was published in Edinburgh in 1809 – you can access the score in the archive of Na Píobairí Uilleann.

We also find a version of the tune in the Canon Goodman collections “Tunes of the Munster Pipers” – one in Volume 1 and another in Volume 2. The tune later published in O’Neill’s Waifs & Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922) is similar to the tune in Volume 1, and is another we selected to perform in our episode.

A completely unrelated tune entitled Petticoat Loose can be found in O’Neill’s 1001 Dance Tunes of Ireland – we enjoyed listening to Dermot & Joe McLoughlin playing this tune in this YouTube clip. This is similar to the tunes The Rooms of Dooagh, Brian O’Lynn, and The Maiden that Jigs it in Style; however, it’s the version of this tune that’s found in the P.W. Joyce Collection ‘Old Irish Folk Music and Songs’ under the name ‘The Banks of Glenoe’ that really struck a chord with us – the interactive score can be accessed on the ITMA website here.

We had a great chat with James Kelly about the origins of the title for the reel he calls Petticoat Loop on his 1989 recording Capel Street, a tune he says came from Johnny Doherty. That investigation proved inconclusive in terms of relationships with Mary Hannigan or any of the jigs we’ve previously discussed, but one thing we know is that there is a tune also called Petticoat Loop in the Grier Collection, also in 4/4 time.

More recent recordings of the tune we commonly think of as Petticoat Loose include Conal O’Gráda’s rendition on his 1990 album The Top of Coom – we enjoyed his sleeve notes in which he says “The tune is also known as Strop the Razor. I learned it from Séamus Glackin, a member of the fiddle playing family from Dublin, when we shared a caravan at the All Ireland Fleadh Ceoil in Ennis. This was long before either of us had use for a razor or any knowledge of petticoats, loose or otherwise.”

Further immersion in the many books in the ITMA Reading Room led us to uncover the mention of a song, along with the lyrics, in an article on Petticoat Loose by Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin in An Linn Buí, Iris Ghaeltacht na nDéise, Uimhir 5. The song was listed as being in manuscript 23 E 1 in the Royal Irish Academy from the James Hardiman collection – collected by an unnamed scribe for Hardiman, likely in 1834, but no earlier.

The lyrics of the song place it in Dromana, a few miles from Cappoquin, in County Waterford. It features many recognisable elements of the story from our earlier explorations of the Schools’ Collection. Petticoat Scaoilte is represented as a handsome, well-dressed pub landlady, with an appetite for drinking and dancing. Her ‘layabout’ husband sits at home, awaiting her return, and when he enquires as to her whereabouts for the night, she replies ‘I’ve been drinking and revelling, and I’ve paid the reckoning!” Our priest figure features here too, and we’re told that there isn’t a brother, priest or clergy in the land who wouldn’t dearly love to absolve Petticoat of her sins.

We were delighted to learn about this song, and even more so when we got access to the Royal Irish Academy to uncover a further manuscript which combined lyrics and printed music for ‘Peticóat Sgaoilte’. This revealed that the song was sang to a melody very similar to the tune first printed in London as Petticoat Loose in the mid 1700s. It is unclear whether the tune originated there, or was perhaps brought to London by travelling Irish musicians, but at the very least we can see that this melody of Petticoat Loose was conflated with the story of the wild, wicked Petticoat Loose in Co. Waterford by the early 1800s.

Over the course of our research, we noted the many parallels between the ways the tunes and folklore have varied over time and in different regions. While hugely indebted to those who worked to preserve our tradition, any understanding we can piece together today is also undoubtedly shaped by the influence of the collectors and scribes of our oral tradition.

We thought that a good place to end this reflection might be with some words from Micho Russell, found in the introduction to his book of tunes ‘The Piper’s Chair’:

“Anybody learning these tunes is free to play them their own way. I’ve given you what you call the bones of the tunes, but everybody is free to make up different versions. You can doctor it up yourself. Just be sure you use the correct time”.

Mairéad & Deirdre Hurley – September 2021

Click here to view a zine featuring Petticoat Loose, created by Mairéad Hurley, including illustrations by Ríona Ní Riagáin. 

Sisters Mairéad and Deirdre Hurley grew up in a musical household in Ballymote, Co. Sligo, and were immersed in the music of their locality from a young age.

Mairéad was the winner of the All-Ireland senior concertina title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2006. She has performed on stages and taught concertina master classes in Ireland and the UK, as well as in various locations across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In 2014, she was the resident Irish music tutor at the Gaelic Club in Sydney, Australia. In 2016, Mairéad, John Blake and Nathan Gourley released a trio album entitled The Truckley Howl, the name coming from an enigmatic phrase uttered by legendary piper Séamus Ennis.

Deirdre has also performed extensively at home and abroad, including appearances in Áras an Uachtaráin, Liberty Hall and further afield in Switzerland, Lithuania and Slovakia. She appears on The Thursday Sessions album released by The Cobblestone Pub, where she has been a regular feature on the session scene for a number of years. She has also made appearances as a singer at NPU’s Session with the Pipers, as well as at the Frank Harte and Sean-Nós Cois Life festivals.

Both sisters have made numerous television appearances, and performed together as part of Slí na mBeaglaoich on TG4 in 2021.

Drawing from the Well is a monthly series connecting artists with archival material to inspire new art. It is supported by Bank Of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund in partnership with Business to Arts.

Find information on artists who have featured in the series and upcoming artists https://www.itma.ie/drawingfromthewell

The Drawing from the Well series is supported by Bank of Ireland #Begintogetherarts fund in partnership with Business to Arts.

Every donation, no matter the amount, helps support the preservation of Irish traditional music, song and dance. If you would like to help, please click to support us https://www.itma.ie/contact/support

Claire Keville was born in Co. Galway. She is a multi instrumenatlist but is probably best known as a concertina player and composer, pl;aying in the distinctive East Galway style. Her formal music qualification comes from UCC and she has spent time as a broadcaster and TV presenter.

Sisters Mairéad and Deirdre Hurley grew up in a musical household in Ballymote, Co. Sligo, and were immersed in the music of their locality from a young age.. Mairéad was the winner of the All-Ireland senior concertina title at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2006. She has performed on stages and taught concertina master classes in Ireland and the UK, as well as in various locations across Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In 2014, she was the resident Irish music tutor at the Gaelic Club in Sydney, Australia. In 2016, Mairéad, John Blake and Nathan Gourley released a trio album entitled The Truckley Howl, the name coming from an enigmatic phrase uttered by legendary piper Séamus Ennis.

Both sisters have made numerous television appearances, and performed together as part of Slí na mBeaglaoich on TG4 in 2021.

Cormac is concertina player from the west Kerry Gaeltacht and plays 13 concertinas ranging from bass to piccolo register.. The music on his acclaimed debut album and his latest solo work, entitled ‘B’ are central to the award winning show Mám (directed by Micheál Keegan Dolan) and to Pat Collins’ film, ‘The Dance’. He performs with musicians Liam O Connor, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Martin Hayes and Liam Ó Maonlaí, Rushad Eggleston (cello), Lisa O Neill and Ye Vagabonds and has recorded with artists including Lankum, Stephen James Smith, Ré, Jack Talty, Ye Vagabonds and Lisa O’Neill. He is the founder of Airt, a residential school in West-Kerry, the award winning Tunes in the Church live series in Galway, and an outdoor concert series from his campervan, the ‘Beauty’. Cormac trawled through the archives to explore and learn more about the Jew’s harp as part of his Drawing from the Well.

Concertina player, dancer and composer Caitlín Nic Gabhann is a regular performer nationally and internationally. A former troupe dancer with Riverdance, her compositions have been performed in the Cork Opera House and NCH. She has performed with the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, Paddy Keenan, Liam Ó Maonlaí, and at ‘Ceiliúradh’ in the Royal Albert Hall as a guest of President Michael D. Higgins. Her debut solo CD release “Caitlín” was labelled the “top Irish traditional album of 2012” by The Wall Street Journal.

Caitlín is currently concentrating on musical collaborations with the award-winning fiddle player and documentary maker, Ciarán Ó Maonaigh. She is also involved as musician and dancer with bands NicGaviskey, Birkin Tree, The Irish Concertina Ensemble and original theatre production Mag Mell.

Lisa Shields is a graduate in modern languages from Trinity College Dublin, and worked for the Irish Meteorological Service for many years as Librarian and translator. She plays concertina, whistle and uilleann pipes.

Composer

1. The Copper Mines of Killarney [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], jig
2. Deoraíocht an t-Saighdiúra [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], lament
3. The Rogues’ Gallery [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], polka
4. Cúil Uí Chorrbuí [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], reel
5. The Devil’s Ladder [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], reel
6. Flush of Success [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], slide
7. Rhubarb and Ginger [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], slip jig
8. The Fairy Step [comp. Niamh Ní Charra], slip jig
9. Waltz for Rosie [comp. Niamh Ní Charra]