This month’s playlist offers an unique opportunity to hear rare recordings made by the late Tom Davis. Tom was a familiar figure at Irish music events for over 50 years since the 1960s, recording music, song and conversation at fleadhs, concerts and private houses. His recording equipment was high quality and over these years he amassed thousands of tapes featuring both well known figures and lesser known musicians and singers. Tom’s widow Eleanor has generously donated Tom’s large collection to ITMA, where work has commenced on exploring and cataloging what is an invaluable resource for the Irish music community. This playlist just offers a glimpse of the breath and quality that Tom’s life’s work has made to Irish music.  – Pádraic

In September and October of 2017, I delved into the ITMA collection to learn more about the ballad sheet trade and street singers in Ireland. Many articles, essays, theses, and books have been dedicated to the history of ballad sheets, the printers of the ballad sheets, and the hawkers and street singers who sold them.

Much of the research about ballad sheets and their history has been committed to print. The ITMA library holds theses by John Moulden, Jen Headley, and Colin Neilands on the subject of ballad sheets. Many books, such as Songs of Irish Rebellion by George-Denis Zimmerman and Narrative Singing in Ireland by Hugh Shields, contain illuminating research on the history of the ballad sheet in Ireland. Articles and essays on this topic appear in a variety of music magazines and academic journals. One example is Maura Murphy’s frequently cited article, which appeared in Ulster Folklife Magazine (Vol. 25).

In addition to the many written descriptions, the collection at ITMA features a few first-hand accounts of the ballad sheet trade and street singing captured on audio recordings. Collectors like Alan Lomax and Séamus Ennis interviewed and recorded street singers from Ireland such as Margaret Barry and John Martin.

Jim Carroll and Pat MacKenzie are two other song collectors who have preserved tales of the ballad sheet trade on tape. Originally from England, they now live in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. From 1973 onward, Jim and Pat recorded a vast store of songs, stories, and folklore from Irish Travellers based in London. They kindly donated copies of all the material they collected to ITMA. Selections of these recordings, including those featuring a particularly rich source of information about ballad sheets and street singing — a Traveller named Mikeen McCarthy — can also be found on the commercial recordings … And That’s My Story and From Puck to Appleby.

Michael ‘Mikeen’ McCarthy was born in Caherciveen, Co. Kerry in 1931. With his wife, Nonie Dooley, he first went to England in 1952 before moving permanently to London during the mid-1960s. Mikeen was skilled in a number of trades, including tinsmithing, horse-dealing, droving, and caravan building. As a teenager, Mikeen also worked as a ballad hawker at fairs and markets around Co. Kerry.

Jim Carroll and Pat MacKenzie first met Mikeen McCarthy in a pub west of London in 1975. They became close friends with Mikeen and regularly visited, spending time with him up until his death in 2004. They collected a wealth of songs, stories, folklore, and Traveller lore from Mikeen — including many enjoyable accounts of his time selling ballads.

In the following audio clip, Mikeen speaks with Jim Carroll about selling ballads.

The Dublin ballad hawker Zozimus wasn’t alone in his ability to attract a crowd to hear his songs and buy his ballad sheets. Many accounts exist of the ability of a street singer to draw a large crowd and to earn a good living by selling ballads.^{1, 2, 3}

In the following clip, Mikeen remembers a singer with this ability: a Traveller named Charlie Reilly.

In this final audio clip, we hear Mikeen recounting a story of one of his most successful days selling ballads.

Want to know more?

The material referenced in this blog is just a portion of what is held in the ITMA Collection related to ballad sheets and street singers. There are many more articles on the topic by people such as William Allingham, Alf MacLochlainn, and Julie Henigan.

Plenty of written material has been published about the 19th-century ballad singer Zozimus, including his own memoir, and, thankfully, street singers from more recent times — like Margaret Barry and the Pecker Dunne — are well-documented in commercial recordings, such as I Sang Through the Fairs and Ireland’s Own Pecker Dunne.

I hope this material in the ITMA Collection will prove as valuable a source of interest and knowledge to others as it has to me.

Patrick’s Arrival

Sung by Barry Gleeson at the Góilín Singers Club, Tom Maye’s Pub, Dorset Street, Dublin, 12 March 2004.

From the Brian Doyle Collection 

You’ve heard of St. Denis of France he never had much for to brag on
You’ve heard of St. George and his lance who killed d’old heathenish dragon
The saints of the Welshmen and Scot are a couple of pitiful pipers
And might just as well go to pot when compared to the patron of vipers
St. Patrick of Ireland my dear.

He sailed to the Emerald Isle on a lump of pavin’ stone mounted
He beat the steamboat by a mile which mighty good sailing was counted
Says he The salt water I think has made me unmerciful thirsty
So bring me a flagon to drink to wash down the mullygrups burst ye
Of drink that is fit for a Saint.

He preached then with wonderful force the ignorant natives a teaching
With pints he washed down each discourse for says he I detest your dry preaching
The people in wonderment struck at a pastor so pious and civil
Exclaimed We’re for you my old buck and we’ll heave our blind Gods to the divil
Who dwells in hot water below.

This finished, our worshipful man went to visit an elegant fellow
Whose practise each cool afternoon was to get most delightful mellow
That day with a barrel of beer he was drinking away with abandon
Say’s Patrick It’s grand to be here drank nothing to speak of since landing
So give me a pull from your pot.

He lifted the pewter in sport believe me I tell you it’s no fable
A gallon he drank from the quart and left it back full on the table
A miracle everyone cried and all took a pull on the Stingo
They were mighty good hands at that trade and they drank ’til they fell yet by jingo
The pot it still frothed o’er the brim.

Next day said the host It’s a fast and I’ve nothing to eat but cold mutton
On Fridays who’d make such repast except an un-christian-like glutton
Said Pat Stop this nonsense I beg what you tell me is nothing but gammon
When the host brought down the lamb’s leg Pat ordered to turn it to salmon
And the leg most politely complied.

You’ve heard I suppose long ago how the snakes in a manner most antic
He marched to the county Mayo and ordered them all into the Atlantic
Hence never use water to drink the people of Ireland determine
With mighty good reason I think for Patrick has filled it with vermin
And snakes and such other things.

He was a fine man as you’d meet from Fairhead to Kilcrumper
Though under the sod he is laid let’s all drink his health in a bumper
I wish he was here that my glass he might by art magic replenish
But since he is not why alas my old song must come to a finish because all the liquor is gone.

Song words attributed to: William Maginn (1794-1842)

Gaelic League London, 1901-1905

To celebrate St Patrick’s Day in 1901, the Gaelic League in London organised a mass at Holy Trinity Church, Dockhead, Bermondsy in which the responses where in Irish. This service proved very popular among the London Irish community and grew to become a regular feature of the calendar.  In 1905 the event moved to Westminster Cathedral.

In the ITMA Collection there are three original booklets from those early masses in 1901, 1902 and 1905. As well as the mass rites in latin, Irish and English, they feature the music and words to familiar hymns in the tradition like Dóchas Linn Naomh Pádraig and Gabhaim Mólta Bhríde and remind us that the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has been an international event for over one hundred years.

Shown below is the cover of the booklet from the first Gaelic service at Westminster Cathedral, 1905.

St. Patrick’s Day Set Dance

Irish dance continues to serve as an enduring emblem of St. Patrick’s Day festivities, lending colour and spectacle to parades across the globe. 

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising to know that there is a dance and tune specifically named after our patron saint and the festival.

St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional set dance that is believed to have originated in Limerick, and has endured as a popular dance among the Irish diaspora.  One of the most common versions of the set dance is credited to the early 20th century composer, Stephen Comerford. 

Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain writes that the aim of the set dance is to highlight “the virtuosity and technical prowess of the individual dancer”. (Terminology of Irish dance, 2008). There is no better exemplar of this, than the late Celine Tubridy. Watch her version of the St. Patrick’s Day set dance featured at the Willie Clancy Summer School in 2004. She is accompanied by her husband Michael Tubridy on flute.

We also thank Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain and Mick McCabe for permission to share an excerpt on the St. Patrick’s Day step dance from their 2018 publication From jigs to Jacobites (https://trad.dance/)

Written, researched and presented by ITMA Staff

Elizabeth (Bess) Cronin, ‘The Queen of Irish Song’ as Séamus Ennis called her, was probably the best-known Irish female traditional singer of her time. Collectors came from far and near to hear and record her singing. Séamus Ennis collected her songs for the Irish Folklore Commission in the mid-1940s, and again, with Brian George, for the BBC in the early 1950s. American collectors also recorded her: Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1951, Jean Ritchie and George Pickow in 1952, and Diane Hamilton in 1956.

Bess, who was my grandmother, was born on 30 May 1879, the eldest of five children of Seán ‘Máistir’ Ó hIarlaithe and Maighréad Ní Thuama. Her father was headmaster in the school of Barr d’Ínse (hence the epithet ‘Máistir’, schoolmaster), in the Fuithirí (Fuhirees) area of West Cork, near the Cork-Kerry border. Bess had four sisters and one brother, as well as two half-brothers by the Master’s first marriage. In her mid-teens, however, Bess was sent to help out on the farm of her uncle, Tomás Ó hIarfhlaithe (Tomás Bheity), and his wife, who were childless. It was during those formative years, first with her parents, then with her uncle and aunt, that she acquired most of her songs.

In a recorded interview with Alan Lomax, Bess recalled how she had learned most of her songs:

Well, I learned a lot of them from my mother; and then I learned more of them from … We had … Well, we used to have lots of servants, you know. There’d be servants at the time. You’d have one now for, say, five or six months, and so on; and maybe that one would leave and another one would come. There’d be some new person always coming or going. Or a girl, cousins and friends, coming along like that and all, you know anyway?

On another occasion, Bess recorded how she first came to learn the song called Mo Mhúirnín Bán.

She was asleep in bed one night when she was woken by a strange noise, which she thought at first was the sound of ghosts! She hid under the bedclothes but poked her head out after a while and listened: the sound was that of the women below churning butter! Her mother had to attend a funeral the next day, and had to have the butter churned and ready for collection before she left the house. An elderly neighbour had come to the house that evening (unknownst to Bess) and she and the other women spent the night sewing and then churning, with the old woman singing songs all the time. Bess heard her singing:

Ní sa chnoc is aoirde a bhíonn mo bhuíon-sa
Ach i ngleanntán aoibhinn abhfad ó láimh;
Mar a labhrann a’ chuach faoi chuan san oíche ann …

She jumped out of bed, ran downstairs, and told the startled women what had been going through her head upstairs in the bed. She then insisted that the old woman teach her the song, which she duly did, there and then,

The old woman recited the song three or four times, and Bess had it before the breakfast, along with many more (d’fhoghlamaíos seó acu uaithe an uair chéanna), but some of these she later forgot (do chailleas ’na dhiaidh san cuid acu).

In 1946, Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy), Director of the Irish Folklore Commission, conceived a plan to send collectors to the various Gaeltacht areas of the country, in order to record (in written form and in sound) samples of the story-telling and folklore of those areas, in particular, where the Irish language was felt to be in danger. Beginning in 1947, under the supervision of Seamus Ennis, the first field trips for song-recording were undertaken. The pioneering nature of this scheme deserves to be emphasised: the BBC, for example, did not undertake extensive field operations until the advent of portable tape recorders in the early 1950s.

The 1947 ‘expedition’, however, had been undertaken in cooperation with the BBC, whose Director of Recorded Programmes, R.V.A. (Brian) George — himself a Donegal-man and a singer — ‘was largely responsible for persuading the BBC to take the initiative’ of establishing its own archive of folksongs and folkmusic. The results of the Irish trip were sufficiently successful to convince the authorities in London that much material still remained to be recorded and the result was a five-year project for systematic field recording throughout Britain and Ireland, which was undertaken between 1952 (when Seamus Ennis was recruited from Radio Éireann) and 1957. (Seamus was with the Commission from 1 June 1942 until 1 August 1947, when he went to Radio Éireann, where he was Outside Broadcast Officer.)

These CBÉ and BBC field trips recorded songs from Bess Cronin in May and August 1947 and at various dates subsequently, up to August, September and November 1952. Something of the excitement of these recording sessions can be felt in the descriptions of them that Bess included in the letters she wrote to my father at the time:

‘The Old Plantation’, Tuesday, 25th Nov., 1949.

… We were watching and waiting all the week, and no one coming. We were nearly after forgetting about them. We heard Seamus came to Macroom on Wednesday: tomorrow week. Mick was in town, and Johnny was gone with them, and the old Mrs Lynch came down with Jocey (as Seamus calls her). He couldn’t ask questions, but they said the party were gone out to Keeffe’s place. We were waiting on.

In 1951 the great American folksong collector, Alan Lomax, began the collecting that was to result in the publication of the Irish volume in his Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music (New York, 1955), which contained songs recorded from Bess, amongst many others. Lomax had been introduced to Bess by Séamus Ennis and he recorded songs from her in both English and Irish. He also had interesting conversations with her, snatches of which are reproduced on the recording. When asked, for example, where and when she sang, Bess replied:

I sang here, there and everywhere: at weddings and parties and at home, and milking the cows in the stall, and washing the clothes, and sweeping the house, and stripping the cabbage for the cattle, and sticking the sciollán’s [seed potatoes] abroad in the field, and doing everything.

It is interesting to note, however, that not every song appealed to her, and in fact she surprised one BBC collector (Marie Slocombe) by singing the opening verse of Lord Randal and no more. When asked if she had the rest of the song, the following conversation ensued:

MS — ‘Do you remember any more, what happened (in the song)?’
BC — ‘No, no, no, I don’t. I often heard it. I often heard it.’
MS — ‘Where?’
BC — ‘I often heard it.’
MS — ‘You haven’t heard it all.’
BC — ‘I often heard it, but I never learned it, no. I don’t know, I didn’t care for it, or something. I didn’t bother about learning it, but just that I had that much, now.’

In addition to these other collectors, of course, there was also the material collected by my father, Donncha Ó Cróinín, on his regular visits home from teacher-training college in Dublin, and by my uncle Seán Ó Cróinín, who, from 1939 to the year of his death, in 1965 (with a break during the War), was full-time collector for the Irish Folklore Commission in Co. Cork.

The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin

‘Tis twenty long years since this book first appeared’ could be the opening line of a Bess Cronin song (perhaps sung to the air of ‘Tis ten weary years since I left Ireland’s shore’). It is hard to believe that two decades and more have passed since The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin was first published, but although the original edition went through two print runs, it sold out quickly and is now exceedingly hard to find, either in the second-hand bookstores or online.

The first edition contained everything relating to the songs that I was able to find among the surviving paper and printed records, from family memorabilia and from sources such as the Irish Folklore Commission archives (now the Department of Irish Folklore in University College Dublin) and the recordings of her singing made by the IFC, the BBC and by various American collectors. The two CDs of Bess’s songs, both in Irish and in English, that accompanied the book offered a representative selection of her song repertoire and of her singing style. The intention was to offer the interested reader — as distinct from those who simply wanted to hear Bess’s singing, without regard to anything that might have to do with her own family background or the origins of her songs — something approximating to a complete dossier of information concerning the surviving parallel written tradition of the songs that she herself had picked up by ear from the singing of her family, friends and neighbours.

I first became involved in the production of the book and the accompanying CDs after my father Donncha passed away in 1990. Among his surviving papers were transcripts (some hand-written, some typed) of various songs, mostly in Irish, which he had made from the recordings that he had to hand in the years before his death. (He was, for whatever reason, never aware of the treasury of recordings that Jean Ritchie and George Pickow had made.) According to a letter that he wrote to me (dated 2 June 1989), most of these recordings had been put together for him in the 1950s and ’60s, by Leo Corduff, then technical assistant in the Irish Folklore Commission, from original IFC acetate disks or from whatever BBC recordings were to hand. These originally acetate or reel-to-reel recordings were subsequently transferred to miniature cassette tapes, with a corresponding further decline in their audio quality.

The most significant modern advance on all previous efforts to put together a collection of Bess Cronin songs was represented by the decision to acquire the services of Harry Bradshaw (then working in Radio Teilifís Éireann) to re-master all the recordings chosen for inclusion in the publication, and to recruit the expertise of Nicholas Carolan (then director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive) and his young colleague, Glenn Cumiskey, in order to put together a representative selection of the re-mastered recordings and arrange them in the two accompanying CDs.

At the end of one of the several launches that took place to mark the original publication of The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin (this time in Cúil Aodha, near Bess’s home place), I was approached by a man who identified himself as Seán Ó Muimhneacháin, of Cúil a’ Bhuacaigh (parish of Kilnamartra, Co. Cork). He produced a small brown envelope that contained an old school copybook, the last few pages of which were filled with handwritten songs by Bess Cronin. Seán explained that the copybook had been borrowed many years previously by Bess’s good friend, John O’Connell, but was forgotten and never returned. It had come down, however, through the hands of a distant relative. Now, through Seán’s generosity, the copybook that had somehow survived all those years was finally returned, and from it I have been able to add six more items to the original collection of 196 songs, four of them different versions of songs that were already in the collection, while in the case of two songs the texts are appearing for the first time.

The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin Traditional Irish Singer. 2nd rev. ed. (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2021) with 2 accompanying CDs is now available to purchase online from ITMA or in person at 73 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

ITMA would like to thank Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Sam Tranum and the staff at Four Courts Press for their assistance in preparing this blog.

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My name is Catriona Gribben, I am 21 years old and come from Gaoth Dobhair in County Donegal. As a final year BA Hons Music & Audio Production student at Queen’s University Belfast, I had the opportunity to undertake a part-time placement as one of my modules.

I was looking for somewhere I could use my skills in both music and audio, as well as my other passion, the Irish language. A fellow Donegal musician suggested ITMA and I knew it would be the perfect match. Not only would it offer me the ideal opportunity to be immersed in Irish music and song, but the fact there is a Recording Studio in the building meant that I would be able to put some of the audio production skills I had been learning into action. Keen to make contact with ITMA, I sent my CV and was thrilled to be invited to Dublin to discuss projects and areas of work that would be suitable for me as an intern. This visit was invaluable as it allowed both parties to prepare a structure for the internship which would be mutually beneficial. I was motivated to make the most of my experience at the ITMA but at the same time offer something concrete and worthwhile in return.

Since a very young age, I have always been passionate about Irish traditional music and its preservation. I was delighted and inspired to be in 73 Merrion Square which is such a treasure trove of Irish heritage. My weekly visits reminded me of my rural Donegal roots. I have always felt privileged to have been brought up in a place steeped in Irish culture, music and heritage where the Irish language is so vibrant. I feel particularly grateful to have been raised in Gaoth Dobhair because, although neither of my parents are originally from there, it has hugely influenced the person I am today. I know that my upbringing there gave me opportunities and gifts that I would not have gained elsewhere, like my fluency in the Irish language and my love of traditional music.

As a young child, I attended singing and tin whistle lessons in An Chrannóg and went to the summer camps all through the medium of Gaeilge. Although many people initially got involved because their school friends were going, I was enamored from the start and knew it was where I wanted to be. 

The classes were, and remain, very popular and most young people locally can say that they went along to these lessons at some point in their childhood. In retrospect, we just accepted it as part of our childhood without thinking about what we were singing or playing, how rare the airs we were singing were, or how important it was that we were learning them. Most of the time the songs were learned phonetically by ear, and it was only later as we grew up that we realised what the lyrics were actually about. 

Learning other instruments came naturally to those of us who persevered with the singing and tin whistle lessons. I tried out most of the instruments for a term or two and decided somewhere along the way that I would focus on the piano accordion. In 2008, after long hours of practise and years of being told ‘na bí ag labhairt i mBéarla!’, a group of young musicians, under the direction of Caitlín Joe Jack, emerged called An Crann Óg. Ever since, we have been collaborating, performing and touring together across Ireland, Scotland, Germany and even the Catskills in New York state. Our ongoing role as a group is to promote and encourage the Irish singing tradition as well as to entertain.

The Gráinne Yeats Collection at ITMA

One of the first projects I worked on in the Archive was the Gráinne Yeats Collection. Gráinne Yeats (1925-2013) was a harpist, singer and researcher from Dublin. The material in this collection was donated to ITMA by the Yeats Family. 

My first task was to sort through and broadly sort the published books and journals in the collection into English language, Irish language/other Celtic languages. After this, I began checking the ITMA online catalogue to see if any of these titles were already in ITMA. I created metadata for the new material and isolated the copies.

Field Recording Experience at ITMA

I was also given the opportunity to do some filming and improve my Adobe Premiere Pro film editing skills. Brian Doyle and Alan Woods invited me to join them on a couple of ITMA field recording trips. The first outing was in October 2019 to the Glenties Fiddle Weekend. This was a brilliant night for Donegal fiddle music and I was able to film performers like Roisin and Ella McGrory from Culdaff on the Inishowen Peninsula. I also assisted Alan Woods with the filming of two fantastic gigs in the Amharclann Ghaoth Dobhair over the course of the Scoil Gheimhridh festival in December 2019. These were performances by FIDIL and Julie Fowlis. 

The Brían Ó Domhnaill Collection at ITMA

A few weeks after commencing my work placement in the Archive, a very interesting project arose which I knew would undoubtedly become very important to me. 

This project was ‘The Brían Ó Domhnaill Collection’ – AKA ‘Brían Danny Minnie Collection’.

Brían, hailing from Anagaire, Co. Donegal, has always been a huge part of the local music scene in west Donegal. Our group has played many sessions with him in his family restaurant, ‘Danny Minnie’s’ and he is well known for his vast repertoire of songs. An important factor of song tradition is understanding the ‘where and when’ of a song. This is where Brían shows his knowledge, as he is teeming with information and stories about all his songs.

Brían has gathered this information together in four large folders, with 500 + songs arranged alphabetically by song title. As a pilot project he left the first folder with ITMA to investigate how the information he collated could be documented and made available to other users. 

My work began on the Brían Ó Domhnaill Collection before Christmas 2019. I set up a spreadsheet and entered all the song titles that appear in the first song folder. I identified the photocopied book and CD sources he had been using by searching in the ITMA collection and then asking Brían about any obscure articles or books that were not found in ITMA. After this, I began the process of scanning all the original manuscripts and typescripts that were included in the folder.

Sometimes the song was the version from a specific singer at a session or often it was a song that he had jotted down from memory. Like many singers, he added additional verses to songs. There are many instances within this folder where Brían creates new versions of songs by manually cutting and pasting verses from different songs with similar themes. I later found out that he did this in order to make a song longer for competitions and even just for his own amusement.

When I began to go to events like Oireachtas na Gaeilge, I would watch people going up, singing short enough songs, they might only have had a couple of verses! They would be in competition with people from Connemara and people from other areas who would have eight or nine verses to their songs, and I would say to myself, well where did the verses go? 

Other times, maybe you’d find a verse from somewhere else at home and you’d add it in. I remember there was a time at the Oireachtas when competitors sang six songs, they were advised to only sing four verses of each song. So, for example when Annie Eoghain Eamainn and them competed, they would only sing four verses. For this reason, songs became shorter and I would say, the verses were lost.
I wanted to put extra verses to songs to bulk them up. I found different versions of the same songs and picked out verses that I could add, but some verses that I found were in different songs with similar themes. 

So, there’s lots of interesting things going on in the extra verses.

Brían Ó Domhnaill interview 2020, translation by Catriona Gribben

Bádaí na Scadán

In the folder, there was one sleeve that particularly interested me. This was the collective research on the song Bádaí na Scadán. 

There were snippets from articles and what seemed to be a thesis. Brían had even printed off old emails from 2004! Who was Nuala from IT? I was confused to say the least. Up to this point it had been a fairly standard procedure of scanning song lyrics/manuscript or typescript. I was intrigued by the material and felt I had to put the puzzle pieces together.

After some investigations on my part, I discovered he had gathered information from Irish Times journalist, the late Nuala O’Faolain; The Donegal Annual 2000, and Lillis Ó Laoire. I felt like a detective, but what I eventually found was a remarkable story and a heart wrenching tragedy. 

The Inishfree Letters, were a series of letters found in an attic in America in 1981. They were addressed to a Miss Elizabeth Mc Connell, wife of Mr John Dugeon from Ranafast who emigrated to America in the 1820s. The letters were dated 1822-1828 so were over 150 years old when they were discovered.

In one of the letters, Alex Mc Connell writes to his sister, Elizabeth, bearing the awful news of a drowning that happened on New Year’s Eve 1821 on Trágh Éanna. The song tells the story of five young boys who set out on a fishing trip. After a tremendous wave hits their boat, all but one of them is drowned. In the song, Billy Duffy, the boy who managed to stay above water cries out for help. All the bodies were recovered apart from one, a young boy called Fergal. There is a very poignant line that goes;

 A Fheargail a dheartháir má tá tú I bhFlaitheas na Naomh, Iarr fortacht ar an Ard Rí do bhfáil in san chladagh seo thíos

Brother Fergal, if you are in heaven, please ask the High King to find you on this shore

This tragedy gave us the song, Bádaí na Scadán, a song from Ranafast which was first associated with Máire Ní Dhubhtaigh.

I then learned and recorded the song myself in the ITMA Studio.

After working with the songs in the folder for a few weeks, I had numerous questions that I wanted to ask Brían himself, so we arranged for him to come to ITMA for an interview at the end of January 2020.

In the wide-ranging interview, Brían gave great insights into song-collecting. He discusses how and why he started the project, and what the future of the project might look like. Ideally, all the songs would be recorded and made available online. With over 500 hundred songs in the four folders a solution would be to prioritise ‘at-risk’ songs. Brían is genuinely afraid that once his time on earth has passed, these unique old songs will also disappear forever. 

When asked to sing a song at the end of my interview with him, Brían chose a few verses of ‘Tom Glas Coilleadh’ heard from an old woman from Mín Doire na Slua named Cití Mhary Thaidhg. 

In my opinion, Brían Ó Domhnaill’s Collection is of great historical and cultural significance and must be preserved and cherished. Although my time here in ITMA has come to an end, I would like to continue working on this project in the future. This pilot project has been invaluable in setting out the value of such a project but also the time and investment it will take. 

My period of work experience at the ITMA has been of great benefit to me on both a professional and personal level. I have developed many new and important skills such as archiving, recording, interviewing and researching. Furthermore, I believe that as a person I have become more resourceful, driven and confident in my own work which will hopefully improve my employ-ability in the future. 

I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff who work at the ITMA. They were always welcoming and ready to help me achieve my goals. I have felt inspired by their genuine interest and involvement in the work they do to preserve and archive our unique traditional music heritage. 

I would like to thank Brían Ó Domhnaill for coming to ITMA and sharing his in-depth knowledge of the song collection.

I would also like to give a special thanks to Grace Toland, Brian Doyle, Alan Woods and ALL the staff at ITMA, for kindly welcoming me and always providing help in any way that they could, so that I could make the very most of my work placement. 

I would like to thank the Director Liam O’Connor for facilitating this placement in the Archive.

This blog was researched and written by Catriona Gribben.

It was presented by Grace Toland.

May 2020

ITMA would like to thank Cathal for his donation to the archive as well as Sharon Creasy, Déirdre Ní Mhathúna and Duncan Woods for their instrumental work in connecting ITMA with this material.

Over the years Lisa O’Neill has quietly built a reputation for herself on the Irish and international scenes and now has a growing following with her unique folk sound, strong song-writing and distinctive voice.. Her debut release ‘Has an Album’ was followed in 2013 by Choice-nominated ‘Same Cloth Or Not’. Her third album ‘Pothole in the Sky’ was released to critical acclaim and is filled with tension and emotion, contextualising themes of love, loss, heartache and sorrow today through referencing tales from the past with beauty, honesty and defiance. Lisa’s last release on the Rough Trade imprint River Lea, ‘Heard A Long Gone Song’ has garnered huge acclaim both at home and abroad. It was Choice Nominated has a 5/5 star review from the Guardian on release and a coveted ‘Best Folk Album of 2019’ from the same publication. She was also been nominated in 4 categories at the 2019 UK Folk awards and 5 categories at the 2019 Irish Folk awards, winning one for best original folk song. Late last year Lisa signed a new album deal with Rough Trade and is currently working on new material for that album.

Amhránaí ar an sean-nós í Sarah Ghriallais as Muiceanach i nGaeltacht Chonamara. Bhuaigh sí Corn Uí Riada ag Oireachtas na Gaeilge i 1984, agus bronnadh TG4 Gradam Ceoil Amhránaí uirthi i 2022. Le dhá thaifeadadh déanta aici, is amhranaí í a bhfuil an-mheas uirthi ar fud an domhain.. Amhránaí ar an sean-nós í Sarah Ghriallais as Muiceanach i nGaeltacht Chonamara. Bhuaigh sí Corn Uí Riada ag Oireachtas na Gaeilge i 1984, agus bronnadh TG4 Gradam Ceoil Amhránaí uirthi i 2022. Le dhá thaifeadadh déanta aici, is amhranaí í a bhfuil an-mheas uirthi ar fud an domhain.

Christy Moore is a singer and songwriter, born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare, to Andy Moore from that town, and Neans de Paor of Yellow Furze, Navan.. From his mother he learned to sing, and became absorbed in rock ’n’ roll initially, then was deeply moved by the Clancy Brothers. He learned guitar in 1961 from Dónal Lunny, and while still in his teens he formed with him a duo, The Rakes of Kildare. He worked briefly in the Bank of Ireland, but left during the strike of 1966 to tour folk clubs in England, during his stay there recording his first album, Paddy on the Road, with Dominic Behan as producer.

Out of Ireland he was influenced by music heard in pubs in Fulham, Camden Town, Cricklewood, Moss Side, Glasgow and Blairgowrie. Singers John Reilly, Luke Kelly, Ewan MacColl, Martin Carthy, Hamish Imlach, Joe Heaney and Annie Briggs also influenced him. Planxty. He returned to Ireland in 1971, and recorded Prosperous, released in 1972. With three of the musicians who played on that album – Liam O’Flynn, Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine – he formed the group Planxty, the most popular band of the 1970s. When they split in 1975 he pursued a solo career; they re-formed in 1978, but within a few years Moore and Lunny had left to form Moving Hearts. He left after that band’s second album and developed a successful solo career, playing to huge audiences at home and abroad.

An uncompromisingly political singer, Moore has espoused such causes as the Carnsore Point anti nuclear protest, H-Block hunger strikes and the lot of the ordinary worker. His lyrics are intense, rhythmical in a ‘talking blues’ style, and when not (as sometimes), bitingly sarcastic, moralistic, sentimental or angry, can radiate an intense humorous understatement. Other members of the Moore family are involved in music. Brother Barry performs as ‘Luka Bloom’, nephew Conor Byrne plays flute (album Wind Dancer). Moore performed on all of Planxty’s recordings and on Moving Hearts (1982) and The Dark End of the Street (1982) with Moving Hearts. By 2009 he had recorded twenty-six solo albums, as well as six with Planxty and two with Moving Hearts. Although Moore retired from public performance in 1998, like many others he returns to the stage intermittently.

In 1994 Hummingbird recorded Christy, a documentary for RTÉ on his life and music, and another, Live at the Point, in 2006. His choice of songs, including his own lyrics, are recorded in Frank Connolly’s 1984 Th e Christy Moore Songbook, and his own autobiographical One Voice in 2000.

Saileog is a musician, sean nós singer and composer, who has played traditional and classical music on piano from a very young age, and also plays traditional music on fiddle and viola.. Her father Peadar is a sean nós singer from Connemara, her mother Úna Lawlor is a classical violinist and her siblings Eoghan and Muireann are also singers and musicians. She has a BMus degree from UCC, where she studied many different kinds of music. Having graduated with a BMus (2009), UCC awarded her the Seán Ó Riada Prize, for a study of the Songs and Singers of Iorras Aithneach.

She has released two albums to date – I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche and Roithleán. I bhfíor-dheiriú oidhche, is an album of sean nós songs which Saileog learned from Seamus Ennis’ collection, (housed in the National Folklore Collection, UCD) from various singers in Iorras Aithneach, Connemara. The songs were collected in the early 1940s, and are a combination of songs that are no longer sung and unusual versions of more well known songs, chosen from the collection.

Roithleán is a mostly solo album of traditional music, sean nós songs, and also features some tunes composed by Saileog, with guest musicians on some of the tracks, including Muireann Ní Cheannabháin, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Jack Talty, Marie McHugh, Tim McHugh and Eoin Ó Beaglaoich. Roithleán was awarded Albam Thraidisiúnta na Bliana (Traditional Album of the Year) by Nós magazine in 2018.

In 2014, she did research work for the project Amhráin Ó Iorrus, a compilation recording of songs from Erris, North Mayo, which were collected from Mayo singers in Chicago at the beginning of the last century. The project was initiated by Séamas Ó Mongáin and Síle Uí Mhongáin.

Saileog also features as a guest on Ensemble Ériu’s debut album (2011), on the Tunes in the Church compilation album (2013), on Treasa Ní Mhiolláin’s Lán Mara album (2019) and on the Rogha Raelach Volume 1 compilation (November 2020).

In 2018 Saileog and Maitiú Ó Casaide composed and arranged music for Darach Mac Con Iomaire’s play, Baoite. Some of the music was composed between both musicians, and other parts in collaboration with sound designer Steve Lynch. Baoite was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, and performed for ten days in An Taibhdhearc, as part of the Galway# International Arts Festival 2018. In 2019, the play was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre and performed again for several nights in the Peacock Theatre, Dublin, in May 2019.

In February 2020, Saileog took part in Úna Monaghan’s Aonaracht project at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, performing a piece for piano and electronics.

One of Saileog’s ongoing projects is arranging sean nós songs from Connemara and Rinn Ó gCuanach, along with Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha and Pádraic Keane.

Saileog also teaches classical and traditional piano, traditional Irish fiddle and sean nós singing. She has been teaching privately and also giving occasional workshops since 2009.

Saileog is currently NUI Galway’s 2021 sean nós singer in residence, and is also currently working on some new solo compositions.