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Mike McHale (1934 – 2023) was born in Tulsk, Co. Roscommon. His upbringing was surrounded by music, and he took up the tin whistle and later the flute, both at a young age. After winning the senior All-Ireland tin whistle competition and Connaught flute competition in 1958, McHale emigrated to the United States the next year in 1959.
When he initially landed in the States, Mike lived in Boston playing with the New State Céilí Band. After settling down, he moved to East Durham, New York in 1967 where he would become a staple in the Irish traditional music scene there for over five decades. McHale was instrumental in the success of the first annual Catskills Irish Arts Week in 1995, teaching at it regularly in the years that followed.
In 2000, he released an album titled, “The Schoolmaster’s House” with guitarist Mary Coogan, which was met with high acclaim from fellow musicians. He later released two volumes of tune books in 2017 titled, “Mike McHale’s Favourites”. With assistance from Benedict Koehler and Hilari Farrington Koehler, these books include settings of tunes that Mike taught in workshops as well as his original compositions.
The Mike McHale collection was donated to ITMA in 2024 by his widow, Kathleen McHale. The donation was facilitated by one of Mike’s longtime friends, Benedict Koehler. ITMA intern Andrew Caden drove over 10 hours to Montpelier, Vermont to hand deliver these materials. Work on the collection was also completed by Andrew, with guidance and oversight by ITMA’s Digital Archivist, Dr Adam Girard. Significant time was invested becoming familiar with the collection and emerging themes in the material were identified through an iterative process which later influenced how the collection was structured.
The Mike McHale collection consists of 140 cassettes, 17 reel-to-reel tapes, one VHS tape, and one LP test-pressing after appraisal. All the original media were labeled, and their relevant audiovisual contents were digitised by Andrew using ITMA’s state of the art equipment. The goal of this process was to ensure that the contents of these materials could be captured and safely preserved. Once digitisation was completed, original media were rehoused in acid-free boxes for long-term preservation and digital files were uploaded to ITMA’s digital preservation system.
The collection was organised into 3 series. One exclusively for material recorded in the Catskills area, as well as 2 broader series containing “concerts and public performances”, and “sessions, parties, and practice tapes.” Below each series, all items were described in detail, and cataloguing was completed according to internationally recognized guidelines. When given, dates, locations, performers, and instruments were catalogued to make the collection as searchable as possible. Tune identification was then meticulously done for much of the collection to make the recordings more useful to listeners.
This playlist was put together to further enhance user experience with selections from the Mike McHale collection made by Andrew Caden. The 22 tracks feature music from Mike himself, as well as his younger brother Tom McHale, and over 40 other performers, providing a window into the soundscape of the Catskills region and the legacy of Mike’s musical life encapsulated in his collection. The rest of the collection can be accessed via ITMA’s archival catalogue.
A special moment captured in the McHale collection happens during one of the concerts at the 1996 Catskills Irish Arts Week. Mary Bergin and Mike McHale share the stage accompanied by John Doyle and Myron Bretholz. The performance shows the respect that such a well-known musician as Mary had for Mike, and they play one of Mike’s favourite sets, “The Skylark” and “Roaring Mary.”
Mike made the effort to take younger musicians under his wing, some of which are now quite prominent players in the Irish traditional music scene today. There is a lovely recording of Mike playing a concert at the American Legion in Rhinebeck, New York in 2005 alongside a very young Dylan Foley on fiddle, Dan Gurney on accordion, and Ellen Smyth on flute. The recording is a testament to how much Mike gave of himself to bring these young musicians up to his level, leaving an impact on further generations by sharing his knowledge and love of the music with them firsthand.
While the majority of the McHale Collection consists of recordings made by Mike himself, there were also numerous recordings that had been sent to him. One of the more interesting recordings was a cassette made by Paddy O’Brien, sent to Mike from Tipperary. It has remarkably good sound quality considering it was recorded on a cassette, and the music on it is top notch as well. It is a noteworthy recording in the collection signifying that Mike and his music remained relevant in the lives of top musicians playing in Ireland despite spending most of his life in the United States.
When speaking with Kathleen McHale about Mike’s music, she emphasized that Mike “lived his music,” and how this brought him many long-lasting friendships. One such friendship was the great fiddle player from Killaloe, Co. Clare, Séamus Connolly, who Mike and Kathleen were close friends with for many decades. It seemed fitting then to include a selection of the of Mike and Seamus playing together at a concert recorded in Rhinecliff, New York, 1998.
Another person who frequently sent recordings to Mike from Ireland was his brother Tom McHale. Tom was also a prolific tin whistle and flute player, and the recordings sent between himself and Mike are likely one of the primary sources of contact with his brother. While there isn’t too much chatter to be heard on most of the tapes, one can still get a sense of the playful relationship between the brothers. Following the set of reels included on the playlist, Tom McHale can be heard saying in a message to Mike, “You have a lot of good music to hear on the tape. I played two slow airs and about 10 reels afterwards; and if you can do better than that, you send the tape back to me!”
I’d like to thank Kathleen McHale for donating her husband’s collection to ITMA, and to Benedict Koehler and Hilari Farrington Koehler for facilitating the donation, helping ITMA to honor Mike McHale’s legacy. I would also like to thank Dr Adam Girard and Iarlaith Mac Gabhann for their time and patience walking me through the processes involved with preserving the McHale Collection at a high archival standard from start to finish.
– Andrew Caden
Keating, P. E. (2023, January 22). Remembering catskills legend Mike McHale . IrishCentral.com. https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/mike-mchale
Neely, D. (2023, January 23). Mourning treasures early in 2023. Irish Echo Newspaper. https://www.irishecho.com/2023/1/mourning-treasures-early-in-2023
