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

The landing page for the Bunting harp project

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.

5ú Bealtaine 1919 – 5ú Deireadh Fomhair 19825 May 1919 – 5 October 1982

John Moulden

Hello, my name is Stephanie, and for the next three months I am the project archivist 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.

"From the Bridge: a view of Irish 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.

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 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.

2020 sees a Saint Patrick's Day that we could scarcely have imagined. Wherever you are we hope you will enjoy this small tribute to the day from the Staff at ITMA. Stay safe and well.