Stephen Grier (c.1824–1894), a native of north Longford, moved to Newpark, Bohey, Gortletteragh, in south Leitrim in 1852. An uilleann piper and fiddle player, he compiled a collection of over 1,000 melodies, transcribed mainly in the 1880s.

Highlighting three more tracks, Liam O'Connor continues his exploration of the 1952 reel-to-reel recording of Cork fiddle player Séamus O'Mahony (1900–1991). ITMA is indebted to Brendan E. O'Mahony, Seamus' son who has generously allowed ITMA to freely share these recordings with the traditional music community.

Trad Cherubs Day 1 Guess Who

There was great reaction to the blog and recordings of Cork fiddle player Séamus O’Mahony (1900–91) released in our September 2019 Newsletter.  This month, ITMA is sharing three more tracks from the same recording session made in 1952.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Séamus O’Mahony (1900–1991) was regarded as one of the leading fiddle players in Ireland. Captain Francis O’Neill held Séamus O’Mahony in such high esteem that he included the young fiddle player in Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913) despite Séamus being just 13 years of age at the time of print. Yet, in recent decades, O’Mahony’s music has almost been forgotten.

Even though Séamus O’Mahony lived to reach the grand old age of 91, his name is seldom mentioned in discussions on fiddle playing in Ireland. There are several reasons for this: O’Mahony did not make solo commercial recordings and he grew increasingly reluctant to perform in public or commit to broadcasts in the mid-twentieth century. However, the quality of his fiddle playing evident on the following tracks may prompt the question “How could a musician this good be forgotten?” 

My name is Deirdre McGrory and I am twenty-years old. I am from Culdaff, Inishowen in the North of Donegal. Luckily enough I have been brought up in a musical family and lived across the road from a legendary music venue, which at the time was in ownership of my father, aunt and uncle. This exposure to music over time played a huge part in my choices for the future and choice of University. 

Project Archivist, Fionnuala Parfrey, reports on ITMA’s current digital preservation project

Explore Your Archive is an annual campaign sponsored by the Archives and Records Associations (ARA). The goal is to promote the archival collections held by organisations like ITMA and help users to find out about some of the incredible resources that exist on their doorsteps (both virtual and real). For seven days in November, we posted highlight from ITMA’s digital collections on social media. This blog brings all of our posts together in one spot to help you “explore your archive.”

On Thursday, 20 June 2018 at 7pm, poet Mary O’Malley and uilleann piper Tommy Keane are taking the stage in Poetry Ireland to explore the oblique angles and intersections between words, sounds, and people. Discover what's in store through examples of Mary and Tommy's poetry and music.

On Thursday, 20 June 2018 at 7pm, poet Mary O’Malley and uilleann piper Tommy Keane are taking the stage in Poetry Ireland to explore the oblique angles and intersections between words, sounds, and people. Discover what might be in store through examples of Mary and Tommy's poetry and music.

In March 2018, the Archives and Records Association of Scotland challenged archives from around the world to get to know each other a bit better. They suggested taking to Twitter and posting on a different theme everyday, all Starting on April 1, ITMA took up this challenge with a series of tweets