A monthly series showcasing compositions of tunes by contemporary composers in the traditional idiom.

In 2016 Music Network gathered ten of Ireland's leading harpers in the studio of the Irish Traditional Music Archive to record tunes collected by Edward Bunting (1773–1843) at the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival and published in his 1797 "A General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland [Volume 1]". These recordings, and the digitised printed volume were to become the source of inspiration for a commission awarded to internationally acclaimed artist Aideen Barry by ITMA and Music Network in 2020. Oblivion / Seachmalltacht / ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓐᓃᖅᑐᑦ, a multimedia installation premiered at Limerick City Gallery of Art in December 2021, and has continued to tour nationally and internationally.

During the summer of 2022, UCD Irish Folklore and Ethnology MA interns Juliana Zepf and Samantha Brandal, played a central role in a pilot project to develop protocols for the long-term preservation of physical reel-to-reel tapes in ITMA.

Hi everybody/Dia Dhaoibh! My name is Gwendoline Lemaitre, I am currently doing an internship at ITMA, working mainly on the Irish music manuscripts in the Derek Bell Collection.

5 Bealtaine/May 1919 – 5 Deireadh Fómhair/October 1982

Singer, musician, collector, writer, and record producer Robin Morton died on the 1 October 2021. To mark his first anniversary, his friend over many years John Moulden recalls the breadth and richness of a life dedicated to traditional song and music. This tribute also includes a curated playlist of music associated with Robin.

Hello, my name is Stephanie, and for the next three months I am the project cataloguer for the Cullinane Archive Collection (CAC) at ITMA. Time flies and I can’t believe it’s only been 3 weeks since I started, so much has happened already!

ITMA was delighted to hear in April 2022 that it had been awarded a Community Heritage Grant from the Heritage Council for its project “Physical to Digital: A Complete Scanning Solution for the Irish Traditional Music Archive.” This funding has enabled ITMA to purchase a state-of-the-art specialised large format archival scanning system.

ITMA's latest digital exhibition "From the Bridge: a view of Irish traditional music in New York" has been richly enhanced by video footage recorded by Terry Rafferty in New York between 1986 and 2002. Married to Mike Rafferty (1926–2011), a hugely influential east Galway flute player, Terry attended most of Mike's music gatherings and decided to record as many as possible on video. In this blog their daughter Mary shares some personal background to Terry's unique contribution to traditional music collecting in New York.

The first year of the pandemic, 2020, was a difficult year for many, and it was the year that we lost a much beloved and talented fiddle player, Brendan McGlinchey. This blog by Aoife Kelly, takes a look back at his life with reflections from some people who knew him best.

This guest blog was written by Orla Dillon, a student on the Masters in Musicology at Maynooth University. As part of her course Orla completed a five-week internship in ITMA and undertook the task of listing Northern Irish harper Derek Bell’s previously unlisted and unexplored manuscripts of classical compositions, donated as part of the Derek Bell Collection.

This guest blog was written by Laura Mannion, a student on the Masters in Performance and Musicology at Maynooth University. As part of her course Laura completed a five-week internship in ITMA and worked with ITMA staff to prepare a digital version of the 2nd edition of A selection of Irish traditional step dances by Michael Tubridy. In the process, she also conducted an interview with Michael about his life and music.

To mark the anniversary of the death of Liam O'Flynn, 14 March 2018, Neil Martin shares his memories of a deeply enriching friendship and musical journey with the master uilleann piper spanning over five decades.

To celebrate International Women's Day 2022, Mick O'Connor pays tribute to the role of Sligo fiddle player Kathleen Harrington, née Gardiner, in promoting Irish traditional music during her lifetime.

To celebrate Lá Fhéile Bríde/St Brigid's Day 2022, the Irish Traditional Music Archive, in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs, commissioned three traditional artists to compose new works inspired by lore relating to Brigid: Louise Mulcahy (uilleann piper and flute player); Síle Denvir (harper and sean-nós singer), and CaitlÍn Nic Gabhann (concertina player and dancer).