Offaly accordion legend Paddy O’Brien joined ITMA Director Liam O’Connor in our studios to conduct an interview for ITMA’s Saoithe interview series.

Paddy talked about his musical life, playing in Offaly, Dublin and America. He also spoke about his tune collections and some of his own compositions.

The episode will be posted online in the coming months. In the meantime, you can catch up with all past editions of Saoithe here: https://youtube.com/playlist?l…

Coming all the way from America, piper, flute and whistle player Seán Gavin visited the archive this past month. After spending a day researching in the building, Seán sat down for a video interview for the archive, where he discussed his background in Irish traditional music and the music of Kevin Henry, one of his biggest mentors and influences.

This spring, we traveled to Fermanagh, Derry, Belfast and Armagh to collect field recordings from local musicians and singers as part of a ‘Traditional Music During the Time of the Troubles’ project.

This initiative encouraged a range of musicians from across Northern Ireland to share their unique experiences as performers of Irish traditional music, song and dance who lived through the period known as ‘The Troubles’. The participants shared personal musings on the Troubles’ impact, told stories that reflected that lived experience and played selections of tunes and songs. This collecting project will be a valuable store of information for future generations. We look forward to making the footage available in the near future.

We’d like to thank all the musicians and singers for their generous time and contributions to the project, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their continued support, and Barry Kerr for conducting a selection of the interviews.

Des is a long-time friend of ITMA, and has provided many images to the collection over the years. Some examples of his work are already available on the ITMA website. Des travels extensively to live music events, recording and documenting with his camera. This is how he describes the process in his own words.

My main interest is in “The Music Makers”
As I listen through the lens I am captivated by the music and the performance of the artists.
The musical style matters little – be it Traditional Irish from West Clare or Conjunto from West Texas, it’s the magic of the moment that counts.
These artists can lift us up and transport us to somewhere special “beyond the surface”.
I hope my images capture the textures of the various genres and the magical enthusiasm of the artists.

We very much look forward to working with Des over the course of the year and adding his wonderful images to the collection.

As well as performing in the show, Thomas also played a central role in the development of the show, which depicts elements of Irish Traveller culture and the role of Irish Traveller people at different stages throughout Irish history.

ITMA’s Artist Liaison and Field Recording Officer, Alan Woods, travelled to Paris to see the show at Théâtre Equestre Zingaro and document Thomas’ experience in Paris. A podcast featuring songs and chat with Thomas recorded during Alan’s visit to Paris will be forthcoming.

Cuireann an léarscáil seo na bailte fearainn agus na ceoltóirí in iúl a chuir le saibhreas an cheoil i gCiarraí Thiar. Is léir go bhfuil fíor thabhacht bainteach idir duine agus áit nuair a mhúnlaítear ceantar ceoil.

Ar an léarscáil seo, tugtar ualach eolais: ainm an bhaile fearainn, an ceoltóir atá bainteach leis an bport, eolas fén bport féin, nascanna breise agus sampla den bpíosa, seinnte ar an gconsairtín ag Nicole Ní Dhubhshláine ón nGráig. Tugann Nicole guth chomhaimseartha don stór ceoil seo agus na poirt foghlamtha aici ón nglúin roimpi.

Scéim piolóta gurb ea an tógra seo. Tá súil againn gur féidir le muintir an dúthaigh cuir leis amach ansa. Beidh sé ar fail do dhaoine óga agus iad ag fiosrú de cheol na háite, tugann sé achoimhre ar cheol na háite do dhaoine le suim sa chultúr agus san oidhreacht agus beidh muintir na háite in ann cuir leis an eolas agus an ceol atá ar fail chun learscáil níos doimhne a chruthú.

Tá an léarscáil ar fáíl saor in aisce ansa: https://view.genial.ly/63cab6fc16d9fe001038f06e/interactive-image-learscail-idirghniomach-chorca-dhuibhne

Ár mbuíochas le foireann Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh as ucht an cuireadh a thabhairt dúinn, le Niamh Ní Bhaoill agus Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, Dómhnall Ó Bric a mhaisigh an léarscáil agus le Nicole Ní Dhubhshláine as a cuid cheoil a roinnt linn.

ITMA Executive Assistant Kyle Macaulay travelled to Corca Dhuibhne on the 17^th February to present a new interactive map to an engaged audience at Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh. This map gives an overview of the significant musical collections and recordings from the area. It draws from the extensive work carried out by local collectors and musicians and presents the information in an accessible format, with additional links that allow the user to research more deeply.

The map highlights a selection of the bailte fearainn (townlands) and the musicians that have contributed to the rich tapestry of music in the area, signifying the importance of both place and person in shaping the musical landscape.

Each interactive area provides the user with the name of the townland, the associated performer, some information about the tune, the performer and the source material, supplementary links and a short clip of local concertina and flute player Nicole Ní Dhubhshláine performing the tune. Through Nicole, these historical collections are voiced by a contemporary performer who has inherited the music of her area.

This map was designed as a pilot project to explore the potential for mapping music from a specific locality. It is hoped that this initial launch can inspire further research and contributions to the project. It has potential to engage younger people with the music of their local area, ignite new and renewed interest in traditional music from the local community and seek additional information about musicians and their music from local experts.

The map is freely available to view here: https://view.genial.ly/63cab6fc16d9fe001038f06e/interactive-image-learscail-idirghniomach-chorca-dhuibhne

ITMA would like to thank Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh for their invite to the festival, Niamh Ní Bhaoill, Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, Domhnall Ó Bric who designed the image and Nicole Ní Dhubhshláine for her valuable contribution to the project.

UCC student Gobnait Kiely is the first recipient of the Consairtín Student Research Bursary in association with the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Gobnait will research the music of concertina player Ella Mae O’Dwyer from west Cork and will present the results of her research in an illustrated lecture at the 2023 Consairtín festival on Saturday 15 April in the Holy Family School, Ennis, Co Clare.

Gobnait is a concertina player from Béal na Bláth, Co. Cork. She is currently a third year student in University College Cork, studying music and Irish. Though primarily a concertina player, Gobnait also sings, plays the piano and the tin whistle. She began learning the tin whistle at the age of six in her local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and took up the concertina and piano soon after. Gobnait was awarded the UCC Dónal ‘Doc’ Gleeson award for solo performance in 2021. Over the years, she has participated in a variety of performance ensembles such as céilí bands and grupaí cheoil. She is currently a concertina tutor in the Lee Valley School of Music, Macroom. Her proposal was selected for the bursary following a competitive process that began in October 2022.

For more information visit the Consairtin website.

Originally from Hamilton, Canada, Robert Mackenzie is a multimedia journalist and editor, with work appearing in publications such as the Toronto Star, Vice and The Verge, among others.

Robert came to Ireland in 2018 to complete a Masters of Interactive Digital Media at Trinity College. Before coming to the country, he studied journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University and worked as a freelance contributor for Maclean’s, The Hockey News, CBC and other publications. He also worked as an associate producer on the award-winning 2016 documentary, Eastern. Throughout his career, Robert has experimented with storytelling over multiple mediums, including audio, video, data visualisations and interactive mapping.

Prior to ITMA, Robert worked as an editor at the audio journalism startup Noa, and as a Communications Officer at the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

In his new role as Digital Communications and Engagement Officer, Robert will utilise his unique background to help ITMA grow its digital presence.

Robert said:

“I’m honoured to be joining the archive and am excited to help continue to grow the impact and reach of Irish traditional music, song and dance.”

For more information on this, and other projects at ITMA, please stay in touch by signing up to our monthly newsletter.

You can also follow us on:

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube

Chaith sé a shaol ar fad ina áit dhúchais, i mBaile na bPoc i nGaeltacht Chorca Dhuibhne in Iarthar Chiarraí agus d’iompar sé cultúr, traidisiúin agus teanga na dúiche chun cinn ar fud na cruinne.

Ag fás aníos i dteaghlach mór ceoil, do thosnaig Séamus ag seinnt ar an mbosca mar dhéagóir agus ní fada go raibh sé ag seinnt leis an gclann i halla rince ar an Muiríoch. Ón tús do thuig sé go maith an ceangal tábhachtach atá ann idir an ceol agus an rince agus chuaigh sé i gcion ar rinceoirí seite na háite ina dhiaidh sin.

Mar cheoltóir, chuaigh boscadóraí móra na linne i bhfeidhm air cosúil le Joe Burke, Johnny O’Leary agus Finbar Dwyer. D’eisigh sé taifead iomráiteach le Gael Linn, An Ciarraíoch Mallaithe, lena dheifiúir Máire i 1973. Bhí clú ar mar amhránaí ar fud na tíre chomh maith.

Do bhain sé cáil amach go forleathan nuair a d’eisíodh an taifead ceannródaíoch Meitheal le Steve Cooney in 1992 agus bhí tóir air mar bhoscadóir agus amhránaí le grúpaí agus ceoltóirí éagsúla ó shin – Jim Murray, Tim Edey, Téada, Mary Black, Mike Scott agus The Chieftains san áireamh.

Do bhronnadh gradam Amhránaí na Bliana air ag Gradaim Cheoil TG4 in 2013.

Bhí tionchar ollmhór ag Séamus ar ré nua ceoltóirí agus éisteoiri ó Chiarraí Thiar agus i bhfad i gcéin. Ní fhéadfaí grá a bhí aige don cheol a shárú agus do roinn sé an grá san le gach uile duine a bhuail sé leis. Fós, ag 73, bhí Séamus amuigh ag seimint sa Daingean gach aon oíche le muintir a chlainne agus ár gcomhghleacaí Kyle Macaulay, ag insint scéalta, ag amhráin agus ag roinnt a stíl álainn bríomhaire ceoil atá aitheanta ar fud an domhain.

Ag labhairt ar bhás Shéamuis, dúirt Liam Ó Conchubhair, Stiúrthóir TCDÉ:

Is mór an chailliúint do phobal an ceoil é. Fear ann féin do bea é, ceoltóir, amhránaí agus fathach mór na Gaeltachta agus táim ana bhuíoch go raibh deis agam bheith i gcuideachta leis go minic agus go deimhin port a sheinnt le chéile. Chuaigh a chuid flaithiúlachta go croí ionam i gcónaí.

Is cúis mhór bróin dúinn go raibh coinne againn le Seámus taifead a dhéanamh sa Taisce i gceann coicíse chun a shaol agus a fhealsúnacht ceoil a léiriú. Go deimhin bhí cuireadh faighte aige seinnt sa Cheoláras Náisiúnta do TCDÉ lena iníon Méabh i Mí Márta.

Ar son na Taisce ba mhaith liom ár gcomhbhrón a dhéanamh lena bhean Máire, a chlann mhac Niall, Eoin agus Breanndán, a iníon Méabh, a dheartháireacha agus deirfiúracha agus a cáirde go léir. Laoch mór an ceoil ar lár.

Séamus Ó Beaglaoich 1949-2023

The Irish Traditional Music Archive is deeply saddened at the loss of Séamus Begley one of the tradition’s most significant musicians and singers.

Born in 1949 and one of nine children in a powerful musical family, Séamus spent his entire life in his native Baile na bPoc in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht. As a musician he was to transport the unique culture, language and traditions of the area all over the world.

A farmer, he learned the accordion as a young teenager and went on to play regularly in the Begley dance hall in Muiríoch. That connection with dancing from a young age was something very important in his life and he went on to have a profound influence on the set dancers in the area.

In 1973 Gael Linn commissioned the famous recording of Séamus with his sister Máire, An Ciarraíoch Mallaithe.

His pioneering duet with guitarist Steve Cooney and their seminal recording Meitheal in 1992, catapulted Séamus onto the international stage and he went on to perform and collaborate with a host of musicians and groups like Jim Murray, Tim Edey, Téada, Mary Black, Mike Scott and The Chieftains.

Séamus was hugely encouraging to young musicians and his love of music was infectious. Up until his death he was performing nightly in Dingle playing, singing, telling stories and sharing his beautiful, compelling style of music now recognised worldwide.

Speaking about Séamus, ITMA Director Liam O’Connor said:

Seámus is a significant loss for the Irish music community in Ireland and all over the world. He was a unique personality, a wonderful singer and musician. A major figure in the Gaeltacht, the Irish language has sadly lost one of its great native speakers.

Like so many musicians and lovers of our tradition, I am so grateful to have shared his company on many occasions and to have played music with him. I was always humbled by his generosity and sense of fun.

Tragically ITMA had arranged to film and record Séamus before the end of January to capture his life in music and indeed he was booked to perform with his daughter Méabh, our colleague Kyle Macaulay and set-dancers from West Kerry at the ITMA Drawing from the Well Concert in March.

On behalf of ITMA, I would like to extend our sympathies to Séamus’ wife Máire, his sons Niall, Eoin and Breanndán, his daughter Méabh, his brothers and sisters. We have lost a giant of our music.

The recordings on these disks contain a wealth of traditional music and song, as well as historical interviews documenting the founding of Irish colleges and seminal Irish language publications. Special thanks to Pádraic Mac Mathúna, who’s spent countless hours in the archive cataloguing these discs.

Here are three of the manyhighlights found on these recordings, picked out by Pádraic:

Recorded in 1953, a young Paddy Tunney sings Easter Snow, accompanied by an unidentified artist on piano accordion: https://www.rte.ie/archives/co…

Recorded in 1949, two men sing in Irish. The disc label reads ‘Reacaireacht i gCeol ó Cúl Aodha’. It’s one of a number of recordings possibly made from Cúil Aodha (Coolea): https://www.rte.ie/archives/co…

Recorded in 1940, Treasa NicChormaic plays ‘Where Were You All The Day’ and ‘The Banks of Ahasnach’, on the harp: https://www.rte.ie/archives/co…

In May, Pádraic went on Radió Na Gaeltachta to discuss his work on the collection: https://www.rte.ie/radio/rnag/…

ITMA unequivocally condemns sexual abuse, bullying and harassment in any form within traditional music culture and practice and stands with all those women who have experienced and been traumatised by such behaviour in the traditional music community.

Irish Traditional Music is a vital and valuable part of the cultural heritage of Ireland. It is a source of joy, friendship, community and creative fulfilment for so many. It has grown exponentially in popularity, accessibility and reach, in Ireland and internationally. It makes all the more disturbing the revelation of a very different experience of many women within our community.

We commend the bravery of the women who, at some personal cost, have come forward with their individual accounts of abuse. They should be aware that their testimony has been of inestimable value to the traditional community. It has broken a taboo of silence maintained around the issue for many years. For this, we and the traditional music community owe them a debt of gratitude. It will now be possible to move forward and begin to create an environment in which sexual abuse, bullying and harassment can be eliminated in our community.

The FairPlé movement, established in 2018, has committed to raising awareness of the effect of gender on participation in traditional music, increasing the visibility of women players and tackling gender biases in the programming of concerts, gigs and festivals.

ITMA is committed to the principle of gender equality and will ensure that our current rigorous internal policies and practices with regard to gender equality and the provision of a safe environment for all be extended to our users. We hope this will be reflected in the wider traditional music community.

Cathal donated three large boxes, totaling 668 commercial & non-commercial cassettes for digitisation and cataloguing. This collection contains a wealth of significant private recordings that capture prominent figures in traditional music from the north of Ireland. A previous donation of 66 cassettes was received from McConnell in August 2022.

Alan and Kyle also captured the second of two short interviews featuring McConnell. The first interview took place in August 2022 on ITMA’s first visit to Scotland. This important set of field recordings give a glimpse into Cathal’s life, musical influences and his unique approach to flute playing, whistle playing and singing.

A message from ITMA Director, Liam O’Connor

Gabhaim buíochas leis an fhoireann agus le Bord TCDÉ.

2022 saw very significant progress on an archiving, artistic and public engagement fronts. While ITMA’s Annual Report 2022 will give a much more detailed account of our achievements, activities and performance, I would like to share some of the major developments users can expect to benefit from in 2023:

1. ITMA will launch a new website with significant new functionality in Q2 2023. I believe it will revolutionise how users engage with our digital content and offer a more personalised experience and scale-up the body of archival material accessible to online users.
2. Significant development of the premises to improve the space we offer to archivists, artists, researchers and visitors.
3. ITMA will continue to ramp-up its digitisation capacity for both physical paper-based materials and audio materials. This will enable us to transform our collections from physical to digital and to further democratise access to the archive.
4. ITMA will continue to foster its relationships with local communities, national bodies and develop new international partnerships.
5. ITMA will continue its interrogation of our internal processes and policies while liaising with external international experts as we seek to be at the forefront of international best practice in archiving, library and digital preservation standards. The archival team have developed new work flows, conducted significant research and identified new ways for ITMA to continually embrace, tailor and implement best international practice throughout our archival and digital operations.
6. ITMA will develop a new Strategy that articulates our vision, mission and maps out our plans for the coming five years.
7. Drawing from the Well in all of its various manifestations will be brought to new audiences on TV, online and on concert stages. Artists will be commissioned to engage with archival material to inspire new works that can be shared with the public.
8. Saoithe, in-depth long format interviews with master musicians, singers and dancers will continue to grow as we prioritise collecting and preserving rare and at-risk knowledge from the tradition bearers and key exponents in our living tradition.
9. Saothar, new tunes for the tradition, will continue to feature composers of new melodies in the traditional idiom.
10. New digital exhibitions on the Séamus Ennis manuscripts, Tommy Peoples, a film with Brendan Gleeson documenting the traditional music community in Hughes Pub are among the projects ITMA will be making publicly accessible in 2023.
11. Pigot Manuscript Collection is being edited for publication in 2023 as ITMA bring another important 19th century manuscript collection to the public.

I would like to thank all of our friends and donors who helped ITMA in 2022. Without the additional donations, we could not have realised our ambitions on many projects in 2022.

I would like to acknowledge two very significant financial donations which will open up extensive new opportunities to grow the Archive in 2023 beyond our current funding limitations. These were truly transformative and come at a time when the Archive needs to broaden its funding envelope beyond the existing model.

A special word of thanks to our friends and supporters in New York and the US who are helping to promote the work and aims of ITMA to a new audience.

I’d like to thank everyone who has engaged with the Archive, from the artists, researchers, partners, visitors, online users and all those who worked with us on projects.

We are very grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland who remain ITMA’s primary funder since 1987. Led by its Director, Maureen Kennelly, its Traditional Arts Officer Paul Flynn and his team, the Arts Council have supported ITMA in realising many of its ambitions by awarding ITMA’s largest ever funding in 2022. We are also grateful to the OPW who provide us with the beautiful premises at 73 Merrion Square and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland for their annual funding.

Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise daoibh go léir

Liam O’Connor

A message from Brian Montague, chair of the ITMA Board

2022. Another busy year for the ITMA team! Too many highlights to list though always at the heart of our work are new collections and this last year has seen some extraordinary material trusteed to us including the Larry Redican and Henry Family Collections, truly exceptional lifetime material, Dr John Cullinane’s unique dance archive and even this week, we were honoured to receive Len Graham’s and Padraigín Ní Uallacháin’s collections, one for all lovers of the Ulster song tradition.

We received the exciting news in recent weeks that we are to be the recipient of funds under the Shared Island Initiative which will enable us to redevelop our Mews building into a residential facility for artists and to invest further in our digitisation capability which firmly establishes us as the leading sound digitisation facility in the country.

It was also hugely fulfilling to bring to the National Concert Hall two wonderful concerts, one to celebrate the life and music of Liam O’Flynn, whose collection we house, and the other to celebrate the artists and material from our Drawing from the Well series.

These showcases bring to life often previously unheard material which, in the hands of gifted artists, is presented to a wide audience trough real-time performance and, in perpetuity, on-line.

In doing so Drawing from the Well shares these extraordinary treasures from the Archive and encourages more people than ever to access the material.

We are excited about the opportunities that the New Year will bring, supported by greater in-house facilities, a talented and dedicated team and the strongest funding base ever for the organisation.

I invite you all to participate in that journey.

Beannachtaí na Nollag

Brian Montague