From 1994 to 2001, Seán Corcoran worked as a freelance collector for the Irish Traditional Music Archive. In that time, Seán made a collection of over seventy field recordings, with musicians, singers and dancers from across the four provinces of Ireland.

An ITMA podcast giving an overview of the field recording work done by Seán Corcoran for ITMA can be heard here.

With the permission of the artists’ families, we are making full length versions of Sean’s interviews available here. This playlist includes interviews with musicians such as Ben Lennon, Kitty Hughes, Tommy Gunn, Michael McNamara, Packie McKeaney & Rosie Stewart, Charlie O’Neill, Tom & Maimie Mackey, and Micil Ned Quinn, amongst others.

Over the course of the coming months, we will continue to add additional field recordings to this playlist made by Seán Corcoran for ITMA.

With thanks to the Heritage Council who have funded the clearance of performers Rights in these recordings.

This month we revisit the collection of the late Tom Davis, a prolific collector of Irish music over 50 years at fleadhs, concerts and private houses.

We begin with Bobby Casey from West Clare who lived in London for many years, playing two sets of tunes recorded in Miltown Malbay, 1973 at the first Willie Clancy Summer School. Also from Clare, Elizabeth Crotty was a renowned concertina player, here recorded in the Pipers Club Dublin in the 1950s. From this famous Pipers club recording, we include piper Seán Seery, a stalwart of Dublin piping under his mentor Leo Rowsome. Peadar O’Loughlin (flute) from Killmaley and Kathleen Harrington (fiddle) were a great duet, once again recorded in the Pipers club.

The late Séamus Mac Mathúna was a central figure in Comhaltas and close friend of Tom Davis, featuring in many of Tom’s recordings playing flute and singing. Here Séamus gives us a rousing song from a session in Conradh na Gaeilge 1980. From a great Listowel Fleadh in early 70s, two great Galwaymen, Joe Burke and Martin Byrnes, play the Steampacket. In Gormanston 1978, Tom captured two fiddle players, Paddy Ryan and Antóin Mac Gabhann (Tony Smith), in perfect unison playing two reels. Anne Mulqueen (Limerick and Ring, Co Waterford) was also in Gormanston that weekend and Tom was lucky to record Anne’s sweet inimitable voice.

Hope you enjoy this selection from ITMA this month. Happy Christmas and let’s look forward to another year of great music, song and dance in 2024.  -Padraic

Tony MacMahon (1939-2021) was a central figure in Traditional Irish music from the 1960s until his passing in 2021. Tony kindly donated his private collection of audio and video recordings to ITMA, and they reveal a rich variety of material ranging from instrumental music, sean-nós and interviews from both live concerts and private home recordings. Our previous MacMahon playlist in August was well received and this second playlist further illustrates MacMahon’s breath of interest and includes Tony with James Kelly and Daithí Sproule in the US, sean-nós singers Joe Heany and Darach O Catháin, the legendary Tommy Potts (two tracks) as well as a treat for flute players with Seamus Tansey, Packie Duignan and Patsy Hanly. Hope you enjoy this selection. -Pádraic

With thanks to the Heritage Council who have funded the clearance of Rights in these recordings.

This playlist once again dips into Tom Davis’ large collection reflecting his central role in recording Irish music at Fleadhs, concerts and private houses over many decades. We are indebted to Tom’s widow Eleanor for donating Tom’s vast collection to ITMA.

This playlist showcases recordings made in the early 1960s in the Pipers Club on Thomas Street, Dublin and at the Fleadh Ceol in Miltown Malbay Co. Clare. These feature major figures in Irish traditional music from that era including Tommie Potts, Paddy Canny, Peadar O’Loughlin, Elizabeth Crotty, Kathleen Harrington and Willie Clancy in great voice rather than piping. The tapes also include the voice of Paddy McElvaney, a stalwart of Comhaltas from its origins in the 1950s, doing introductions in Dublin and Miltown. Hope you enjoy this glimpse into our musical past. -Pádraic

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The Cathal McConnell Tapes

Of all the technological innovations of the twentieth century, it is arguably the cassette tape which has had the most impact upon Irish traditional music. While LPs and CDs allowed for music to be commercialised and to reach a wide audience both in Ireland and abroad, cassette tapes became a dominant common currency amongst traditional musicians. The Dutch company Phillips invented the cassette tape in 1963 and its use would soon be universal. Initially envisaged as a dictation tool, the technology was used in the commercial music business by 1965. Philips innovated further in 1968 with the invention of the car tape deck which meant drivers and passengers could choose their own music while traveling, as opposed to relying on the radio.

The importance of the cassette tape within the traditional music world became apparent during the 1970s. The contents of these tapes varied from bootlegs of commercial albums to recordings of sessions, as well as music recorded from radio broadcasts. Another common use for cassette tapes, which forms the basis of this chapter, is that they were widely used to exchange a kind of spoken letter between friends.

It was at some point in the early 1970s, we cannot be sure of the date, that Tommy Peoples recorded one of these spoken letters to his friend Cathal McConnell. The second tape was likely recorded closer to the release of The Bothy Band’s 1975 album, as Tommy mentions that he will be going to Dublin to play with Tony McMahon’s band. McConnell, the celebrated Fermanagh musician and singer, was already well-known for his work with The Boys of the Lough, a group which fused Ulster traditional music and song with that of its sister traditions in Scotland and Shetland. He had an extensive tape collection by the early 1970s, reported to cover an entire wall of his home. Amongst the prized recordings in his collections were these spoken letters exchanged with Tommy, and he often played these tapes for visitors to his house. On one such occasion in 1973, a group of musicians from Belfast, including Andy Dickson and Dermie Diamond, learned several tunes directly from the tape, and Dickson was able to take a copy away with him. This was in the time before the double tape deck was invented, and so tapes were duplicated by recording through the speaker of another machine.

The tape contains twenty-two tunes, which seem to span two sessions. Peoples’ fiddle is tuned to E flat in the first portion of the recording (tracks 1-13) and slightly higher on the later tracks (14-22). A wide cross-section of Tommy’s repertoire is showcased on the recording, including tunes of Scottish origin, such as ‘The Highlandman who Kissed his Granny’, likely learned from books and reels like ‘The Mint in the Corn’, which were also captured by Breathnach. We hear Donegal settings of common reels, such as John Doherty’s ‘Drowsy Maggie’ and Tommy’s own reworkings of standard pieces, such as his reel version of ‘Richie Brennan’s Favourite’, normally played as a jig. A number of tunes are also heard which would later feature on commercial recordings that Tommy made, such as ‘The Creel of Turf’ (Molloy, Peoples, Brady, 1977) and ‘The Flowers of Red Hill’ (The Bothy Band, 1975).

The first ten tunes recorded on the tape have been selected from Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, and a further two of the tunes (of which the ‘The Moving Bogs’ was also played by the Doherty family) can be traced to Lowe’s Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, Book 1 (1844–1845, p. 6). Tommy also slips in another of his own compositions in here, ‘An Feochán’ and true to form at the time, he neither names it nor claims it. [1]Other unspecified tunes on this recording were learned from Tommy’s Kilfenora neighbour Gerry Terry McMahon. Tommy reports having transcribed several tunes from McMahon’s whistle playing during a house visit and that several of these tunes ended up on this tape (2015, p. 290).

Cross-referencing the contents of the tape with some important historical collections of traditional music also reveals much about Tommy’s learning practices upon his arrival in Dublin. It’s clear that he spent much time with Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of traditional tunes, incorporating many of these into his own repertoire, while making the tunes his own. The tune commonly known as ‘Tommy Peoples’ Reel’ is found on the McConnell tapes, although much mystery has surrounded its origins. While many have assumed that the tune is one of his compositions, Tommy never claimed it. In fact, he seems to have learned it from Ryan’s where it is found under the title ‘Jenny Nettle’s Fancy’. Tommy alters the character of the tune by rolling the opening note as a sustained ‘B’, allowing for the creation of a B minor tonality, which then contrasts with the D major key centre in the second part. Readers should note that two distinct tunes have become known as ‘Tommy Peoples’ Reel’. This is the second of those, the other being ‘The Milkmaid’, versions of which are found elsewhere in the project.

This reflects Tommy’s established learning process from books (2015, p. 39) where-in he would transcribe a tune from a collection and then re-transcribe the piece with variations and new ideas that suited his own performance style. Tommy was aware that he was indulging in artistic licence in this process, but the results in this particular tune have a transformative effect upon an old melody.

Another tune recorded in this session by Tommy that is found in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection is ‘The Turnpike’ (no.49), a tune that he appears to have introduced to the Donegal repertoire. This recording also seems to mark the first iteration of one of Tommy’s standout pieces, ‘Kitty O’Neil’s’. He plays five of the seven parts here and is obviously still working on it. However, it is what Tommy has done to it that makes it interesting and palatable and it remains a real test piece for fiddle players. It is called ‘Kitty O’Shea’s’ on The Iron Man, however Tommy got the title correct here and there is a great piece of research on the sand dance Kitty O’Neil’s Champion Jig by Don Meade to be found here.

The tape opens with a short greeting:

“Well Cathal, I hope this was recorded alright for you. But anyway, I put on a couple of strange-ish tunes that I have that might be some use to you. And I hope that everyone up there is ok [your] mother and Sandy and Maura. So, I’ll be seeing you anyway sometime soon shortly.”

A significant feature of Peoples’ spoken sections here is the change in his accent in the time since he left Donegal. A much stronger southern inflection is heard in his speech, as can clearly be heard in comparing the RTÉ recording of him as a 13 year old (see Chapter one) to this example.

Upon completion of the first tune, Peoples demonstrates further unease:

“Cathal, excuse the slips here and there because… I haven’t them off too well myself yet, you know. So, and maybe some of them you have too but sure if you have them I’ll play them anyway.”

As widely referenced by both Paddy Glackin and Séamus Gibson in the interview materials, Tommy was known to regularly mine printed collections for new repertoire. Gibson in particular speaks of the prestige of music books within the east Donegal tradition, with both Irish and Scottish collections being prized assets. Indeed ‘[if you couldn’t read music] you wouldn’t have been considered a musicians’ in the area.

Influence of the Recordings

By following the breadcrumbs of these tunes, Tommy’s influence on Irish traditional music becomes apparent. Cathal McConnell and his band The Boys of The Lough recorded numerous tunes that Tommy sent him on these tapes including ‘Tommy Peoples’ on In the Tradition (Topic, 1981).

These tapes had a huge influence on Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy as they recorded ‘The Milkmaid’, ‘The Turnpike’, ‘The Blue Eyed Lassie’ and ‘The Roving Bachelor’ on Ceol Aduaidh in 1983 and on subsequent Altan albums with ‘An Feochán’, and ‘Larry Lavin’s Choice’.

Brian Rooney, the Leitrim fiddle player exiled in London, recorded two of the tunes from this source, ‘Tie the Bonnet’ & ‘The Galway Rambler’, as a set on his well-known recording, The Godfather (Racket Records, 1999). Seán Keane’s setting of ‘Bonny Ann’, which influenced Tommy’s version heard here, was not commercially recorded until 1975 (Gusty’s Frolics, Claddagh Records, 1975). It is likely that Tommy learned it from Seán in his Dublin days.

‘Mulqueeney’s Hornpipe’ is a composition of Jim Mulqueeney, an original member of the Kilfenora Céilí Band that was formed in the 1920s. Tommy learned it shortly before this tape was made, during some of his initial ventures to north Clare from 1969. His version here can be viewed as something of a ‘draft form’. The tune would later became so well associated with Tommy’s playing after both the 1976 CCÉ album and on Molloy, Peoples, Brady (Mulligan, 1977). ‘Arkle Mountain’ was composed by Anthony ‘Sully’ Sullivan.

Tune transcriptions

A selection of tunes from the McConnell tapes transcribed by Siobhán Peoples and synced to the audio of Tommy’s playing.  The controls below each tune can be used to slow down the recording.  Pitch names (ABC notation) are hidden by default but can be shown by clicking on the three dots and changing the appearance.

Tony MacMahon (1939-2021) was a central figure in Traditional Irish music from the 1960s until his passing in 2021. Brought up in 1950s Co. Clare he was influenced by the major musical figures of that era, but most notably by Joe Cooley, the legendary accordion player from Galway who later emigrated to the USA. Tony was highly regarded as an accordion player and in particular for his passionate renditions of slow airs. It was as a radio and TV producer that Tony made a lasting contribution to Irish music broadcasting in such programmes as ‘The Long Note’ and ‘Bring Down the Lamp’.

Tony kindly donated his private collection of audio and video recordings to ITMA, and they reveal a rich variety of material ranging from instrumental music, sean-nós, interviews from both live concerts and private home recordings. This playlist is just a brief sample of MacMahon’s breath of interest and includes Tony and Joe Heaney in California, Con Greaney from Limerick, his old friend Barney McKenna,  Joe Ryan with Eoin O’Neill, Nan Tom Teaimín (sean-nós) as well as Tony and Steve Cooney live in Belfast. There will be more from the MacMahon collection at a future date. Hope you enjoy this selection. -Pádraic

With thanks to the Heritage Council who have funded the clearance of Rights in these recordings.

Larry Redican (1908-1975) was a central figure in the traditional music scene of New York City from the 1930s to 1970s. Originally from Dublin, his parents were from Roscommon and steeped in music. Larry himself learnt fiddle from the famous Frank O’Higgins before emigrating to the US in 1929. Over the following decades Larry helped form the New York Ceili band with many musical friends Andy McGann, Jack Coen, Felix Dolan and Paddy O’Brien when Paddy lived in New York City. Luckily Larry made recordings of musical sessions with his friends in New York in the 1950s and 60s as well as sending and receiving private recordings with personal greetings and music from the Pipers Club in Dublin. He also was a close friend of Ciarán Mac Mathána, who privately made some of the recordings below for him, and a vital link to facilitating Ciarán’s recordings in the US for Radió Éireann in the early 1960s.

Larry’s grandson, Larry Jr, has kindly donated his grandfather’s tape collection to ITMA and this playlist represents a selection of those recordings capturing both the vibrant music scene in New York at the time and also recordings made in Ireland and sent on to Larry. Hope you enjoy the music.

Pádraic Mac Mathúna, July 2023

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