On Thursday, 24 September 2015, colleagues and friends gathered, in 73 Merrion Square, to mark the recent retirement of Nicholas Carolan, founding Director of ITMA. We hope these photographs convey to you the warmth & respect which were so evident during this wonderful occasion.

The evening began with speeches from Sheila Pratschke, Chair of the Arts Council; Dermot McLaughlin, Chair of ITMA; Fintan Vallely; Grace Toland, ITMA Director, and Nicholas himself. These were followed by the presentation of a fiddle bow on a custom-made plinth, made by Steffen Kuhnla and Dermot Toland, respectively.

Tunes and songs from Dermot McLaughlin, Paddy Glackin, Deirdre Hurley, Éanna Drury, Sinéad Ní Charthaigh and Grace Toland, were a fitting sound track for the evening … as well as the voices of so many friends and colleagues genuinely delighted to have the opportunity to thank Nicholas for his outstanding contribution to the traditional arts in Ireland and internationally.

The photographs featured in the gallery were taken by Dónal Glackin.

A little-known component of the Irish Traditional Music Archive multimedia collections is its unique collection of small artefacts relating to Irish traditional music, items which arise from musical and dancing activity. ITMA views them as a natural, though secondary, part of the general culture of the music and dance.

The selection of artefacts presented here mostly consists of tourist trinkets and souvenirs, gifts for children, or by-products of the promotion of music groups and music venues. In the case of dancing dolls, they can form part of actual music performance. Common artefacts also held in the ITMA collections, but not presented here, are t-shirts, bags, calendars and stickers.

With thanks to donors Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie (dancing doll made by Norfolk traditional singer Walter Pardon, a tradition common to Britain and Ireland), Bill Ochs (Rogue beer bottle), and Tom Sherlock (Altan teddy bear). ITMA would always welcome donations of similar items.

Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 June 2014

Tá na sleachta ceoil seo – foinn traidisiúnta rince agus foinn mhalla a bhí á seinm roimh aimsir an Ghorta – le cloisint thuas leis an bpíobaire uilleann agus an craoltóir raidió aitheanta Peter Browne. Tagann na foinn as bailiúchán mór ceoil a chuir an Canónach James Goodman i dtoll a chéile ar phár sna 1860í. Píobaire uilleann oilte ab ea Goodman, ministir de chuid Eaglais na hÉireann agus ollamh le Gaeilge i gColáiste na Trionóide BÁC, mar a mhaireann a lámhscríbhinní. D’fhoilsigh Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann os cionn 500 píosa traidisiúnta astu i 1998 mar Tunes of the Munster Pipers (TMP), curtha in eagar ag Hugh Shields; tá imleabhar eile d’fhoinn ón mbailiúchán, an t-imleabhar deireanach, curtha in eagar ag Hugh agus Lisa Shields, le fáil ó siopa ITMA.

Sheinn Peter Browne na píosaí seo don chéad uair i Márta 2009 mar léaráidi do léacht ‘An tUrramach James Goodman (1828–96): Fear Eaglasta, Ceoltóir agus Bailitheoir Ceoil’ a thug Nicholas Carolan, Stiúrthóir Thaisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann, mar léacht oscailte na sraithe ‘Foinn agus Focail’. Ba é an daicheadú sraith é de Léachtaí Cholm Cille, a eagraíonn Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh in Ollscoil na hÉireann, Maigh Nuad, chuile bhliain. Ba iad na cainteóirí eile, ar théamaí a bhain leis an 18ú agus an 19ú haois, Patrick F. Devine ar cheoltóirí Éireannacha i gcomhthéasc Eorpach, Úna Uí Chuinn ar an mbailitheoir amhrán Pádraig Ó Loinsigh, Lesa Ní Mhunghaile ar an údar agus aistritheoir amhrán Charlotte Brooke, Proinsias Ó Drisceoil ar an bhfoilsitheoir amhrán agus ceoil Seán Ó Dálaigh, Deirdre Ní Chonghaile ar lámhscribhinní ceoil a bhreac George Petrie agus Eoghan Ó Comhraí in Árainn, Domhnall Uilleam Stiúbhart ar an mbailitheoir Albanach amhrán Alasdair MacGilleMhícheil, and Ruairí Ó hUiginn ar an mbailiúchán amhrán Amhráin Chlainne Gaedheal a foilsíodh i 1905 ag Mícheál agus Tomás Ó Máille as Gaillimh.

Seinneadh na sleachta seo arís le Peter Browne agus taifeadadh iad i stiúideo na Taisce le Danny Diamond ar 2 Márta 2010, agus do chéad-foilsíodh iad ar an Idirlíon ar 26 Márta nuair a bhí leabhar léachtaí 2009 Foinn agus Focail: Léachtaí Cholm Cille XL á fhoilsiú in Ollscoil Mhaigh Nuad, oíche oscailte an chéad sraith is daichead de Léachtaí Cholm Cille. Tá an t-imleabhar curtha in eagar ag an Ollamh Ruairí Ó hUiginn, agus foilsithe ag An Sagart, Maigh Nuad (162 lgh., ISSN 0791 8658, ISBN 1 9033896 60 6). Tá sé le fáil díreach ó Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh, Ollscoil na hÉireann, Maigh Nuad, Co Chill Dara (nua.ghaeilge@nuim.ie).

The selection of pre-Famine traditional dance music and airs played above by the well known Dublin uilleann piper and radio broadcaster Peter Browne comes from the large music manuscript collection compiled in the 1860s by Canon James Goodman from the Dingle area of Irish-speaking west Co Kerry. Goodman was an expert uilleann piper, a clergyman of the Church of Ireland and professor of Irish in Trinity College Dublin, where his manuscripts are held. Over 500 Goodman tunes from oral sources were published by the Irish Traditional Music Archive in 1998 as Tunes of the Munster Pipers (TMP), edited by Hugh Shields; a second volume, edited by Hugh and Lisa Shields, was published in 2013 and is available from the ITMA shop.

Peter Browne first performed this selection in March 2009 to illustrate the opening lecture – ‘An tUrramach James Goodman (1828–96): Fear Eaglasta, Ceoltóir agus Bailitheoir Ceoil’ by ITMA Director Nicholas Carolan – of the fortieth series ‘Foinn agus Focail’ of Léachtaí Cholm Cille, an annual Irish-language lecture series organised by the Irish Department of the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Other contributors to the series, on 18th- and 19th-century themes, were Patrick F. Devine on Irish musicians in a European context, Úna Uí Chuinn on the song collector Patrick Lynch, Lesa Ní Mhunghaile on the author and song translator Charlotte Brooke, Proinsias Ó Drisceoil on the song and music publisher John O’Daly, Deirdre Ní Chonghaile on Aran islands music manuscripts by George Petrie and Eugene O’Curry, Domhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart on the Scottish song collector Alastair Carmichael, and Ruairí Ó hUiginn on the 1905-published Galway song collection Amhráin Chlainne Gaedheal.

The selections here were played by Peter Browne and recorded in the ITMA studio by Danny Diamond on 2 March 2010, and were first published on the Internet to coincide with the book publication of the 2009 lectures Foinn agus Focail: Léachtaí Cholm Cille XL in NUI Maynooth on 26 March, the opening night of the forty-first series of Léachtaí Cholm Cille. The volume, edited by Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn, is published by An Sagart, Maigh Nuad (162 pp., ISSN 0791 8658, ISBN 1 9033896 60 6). It is to be had directly from Scoil an Léinn Cheiltigh, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Maigh Nuad, Co Kildare (nua.ghaeilge@nuim.ie).

With thanks to Peter Browne and Ruairí Ó hUiginn.

Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 April 2010

The fifteen tracks in our audio playlist this month are a selected snapshot of newly composed tunes and songs commercially released by Irish traditional musicians and singers between autumn 2015 and spring 2016.  The collection highlights the wide spectrum and diversity present in contemporary Irish traditional music and song.  Performers/composers featured are Irish, Australian, English, Finnish, Polish and American and bring different approaches in terms of style, arrangement, instruments and sources of inspiration. This collection also highlights ITMA’s remit to collect traditional music in a broad and inclusive way reflective of each generation of performers.

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