In celebration of our March 2026 Drawing from the Well concert in the National Concert Hall (NCH), ITMA is delighted to share a selection of audio recordings from the Breandán Breathnach Collection, which served as inspiration for the artists’ performances in the NCH. The recording dates range from the 1950s to the 1980s, and the recording locations cover all four provinces of Ireland and include household names such as Willie Clancy, John Doherty, Johnny O’Leary and Micho Russell, while also highlighting potentially lesser-known but vital sources for Breathnach’s work. 

We begin with Willie Clancy playing the reel ‘Rakish Paddy’, a tune which Breathnach attributed to Clancy in his 1963 publication Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1. This tune is commonly associated with the great travelling piper Johnny Doran, who’s playing heavily influenced Willie, which can be heard in this performance. 

Next, we travel to Dublin, to St. Kevin’s Hospital. Here we find a recording made in 1963 of one of Breathnach’s most prolific sources, Dublin accordion player Sonny Brogan. Also present in the room are the piper Tommy Reck as well as fiddler Tommie Potts, who is recorded later in the evening in a rare duet recording with Brogan. 

In September 1965 Breathnach located and recorded the great travelling fiddle player John Doherty in Bonner’s, Reelan Bridge, Co. Donegal. Doherty plays a reel, ‘Bean a’ tí ar lár’, most associated with the Donegal fiddle tradition.  

For our next recording we find ourselves in the home of Molly Myers Murphy, Glen Collins, Co. Cork in September 1967. Breathnach remarked that Murphy made ‘by far the biggest contribution ever made by a woman player in any collection of Irish music’. ‘The Butchers’ March’, which is one of 14 tunes transcribed by Breathnach from her, was included in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2. 

Larry and Michael Joe McDonagh of Ballinafad, Co. Sligo, are the source for this lively version of the common reel ‘The Pigeon on the gate’. The transcription in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2 references a recording made by Tom Munnelly in Easter 1972. Here we have a recording of the same version made by Breandán at a later date. 

To Castlemahon, Co. Limerick, where in 1965 Breandán Breathnach recorded fiddle player James McEnery, who at the time was ‘over 80 years of age’. McEnery plays ‘The Unfortunate Rake’, and unusual version of the common tune ‘Apples in Winter’ which was notated in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland.  

Breandán Breathnach was committed to the collection and publication of Johnny O’Leary’s music but sadly passed before the work was completed. Johnny O’Leary from Sliabh Luachra, Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry border was subsequently published by Terry Moylan in 1994. ‘Éireann go Brách’, which was recorded here from Johnny by Breandán at Na Píobairí Uilleann’s headquarters at 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin, features in this publication and Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2. 

It is from the fiddler Jack O’Connell from Ballydesmond that Breandán Breathnach received a manuscript of Padraig O’Keefe’s with this untitled jig. Micho Russell is credited as the source for the tune name ‘Is Fearr Paidir ná Port’, a version of the same jig played in Co. Clare in the key of D. Here we have an interesting recording from Earlsfort terrace in 1980 where Micho relays a story regarding this two-part tune being part of a larger jig. 

‘A stór mo chroí’ is a song written by Brian O’Higgins and published in 1929. The song is heavily associated with singers such as Joe Éinniú and Sean ‘ac Dhonncha. While we began with a sample of his piping, here we have a rendition of this song from Willie Clancy, in fine voice, recorded in 1958. 

We finish with the classic reel ‘The Foxhunter’s’, recorded and transcribed by Breathnach from the late Seán Keane in 1968. Keane himself learned the tune from Patrick Kelly, from Cree, Co. Clare. Here we have a recording of Kelly in his home in 1966 playing the same tune. Breandán makes note of Kelly’s tuning – ‘G, D, G, D’, lowering the 1st and 2nd string a tone. 

ITMA looks forward to presenting more tracks from Padraic Mac Mathúna’s monthly playlists next month, as he delves deeper into the collections of music, song and dance housed at the ITMA.