The Irish Traditional Music Archive was saddened to learn of the death on 4 August 2025 in Terenure, Dublin, of musician and music scholar Caitlín Uí Éigeartaigh (Kathleen Hegarty, née Gallagher, 1934–2025). It extends its sympathy to her family and friends on their loss, and especially to her daughters Fionnuala and Caitríona and son Éamann. In recent years Caitlín had co-edited two important collections of pre-Famine Irish traditional music for ITMA, comprising over 1,500 melodies from the 1840s: The Forde Collection: Irish Traditional Music from the William Forde Manuscripts (2021) and The Pigot Collection: Irish Traditional Music from the John Edward Pigot Manuscripts (2024), and she had begun work on another similar publication.

Caitlín was from a musical family in Drumcondra, Dublin, of Mayo and Donegal background; her sister Mary Gallagher O’Rourke was a much-admired violinist and orchestra leader. Educated in Scoil Chaitríona and trained in classical music on piano at the Read School of Music (now part of the Royal Irish Academy of Music) and the École Normale in Paris, and a Feis Ceoil prize-winner featuring on solo radio recitals as early as 1954, Caitlín studied music, Irish and French at University College Dublin where she graduated BA and BMus in 1955 at a time when the music course there was largely one of classical music. Her postgraduate MA study of 1966 however was focused on Irish traditional music and foreshadowed her ITMA publications: Thematic Index and Analytical Investigation of the Joyce Manuscripts (Nat. Lib., Nos. 2982–3). This postgraduate thesis was one of the first-ever on Irish traditional music; her supervisors included the Irish music scholar Donal O’Sullivan, which linked her to the Irish Folk Song Society of 1904–39. Her musical life would henceforth be devoted both to classical and traditional music.

Married to the educationalist and Irish-language poet Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh (1931–2005) in 1959, Caitlín was the first musicologist appointed to the staff of St Patrick’s teacher-training college (now Dublin City University). She specialised in Irish traditional music there from 1972 to 1985 and immeasurably raised the standard of teaching in the subject. In those years she also lectured part-time on traditional music in the School of Music, Trinity College Dublin, and on music pedagogy in the Education Department of University College Dublin. From 1990 to 2000 she was a lecturer on music in the Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama (now Technical University Dublin Conservatoire) and was sometime Head of Keyboard Studies there. She also taught music in Scoil Chaitríona and for many years set music questions for the state examinations.

In 1971 Caitlín was a founder member of the voluntary Folk Music Society of Ireland / Cumann Cheol Tíre Éireann, with Hugh Shields, Breandán Breathnach, Seóirse Bodley, Tom Munnelly, Alf Mac Lochlainn, Terry Moylan and others. She was a diligent Hon. Secretary of the Society from 1973 to 1977, writing for its newsletter Ceol Tíre and its journal Éigse Cheol Tíre / Irish Folk Music Studies, and was its meticulous Hon. Treasurer from 1980 to 2000 while contributing to and participating in its annual series of lectures, seminars and recitals.

Nicholas Carolan, 10 August 2025