The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) is committed to providing free, universal access to the rich cultural tradition of Irish music, song and dance. If you’re able, we’d love for you to consider a donation. Any level of support will help us preserve and grow this tradition for future generations.
The operations of the Irish Traditional Music Archive are overseen by a Board of Directors with performing, collecting, broadcasting, and archival experience in Irish traditional music, and with financial, marketing and management expertise.
The three Chairmen of the ITMA Board to date have been noted experts and lecturers in Irish traditional music and song: the late Dr Tom Munnelly, Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Dr Cathal Goan. Tom Munnelly, from Dublin, was a folklore collector with the Department of Irish Folklore of University College Dublin, and made the largest field-collection of Irish traditional song ever compiled by any individual. Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, from Clonmel, is a musician and composer, and Professor of Music at the University of Limerick. Cathal Goan, from Belfast, is Director-General of RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster, and has a particular expertise in the Irish-language song of Ulster.
A sample audio recording of a lecture from each is given below with the kind permission of Ms Annette Munnelly, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Cathal Goan. The recordings were not originally made at the time for archival preservation in ITMA, but as basic reference recordings for future summary in publications of the Folk Music Society of Ireland. Meant to capture content, they also incidentally catch a sense of occasion and personal style.
Tom Munnelly: ‘Traditional Singing in Ireland’, public lecture as part of lecture series in conjunction with National Museum of Ireland exhibition They Love Music Mightily (in association with Ulster Folk & Transport Museum and Irish Traditional Music Archive), NMI, Collins Barracks, Dublin 7 (12 May 2002), 67 minutes
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin: ‘Creativity in Irish Traditional Music: Phrasing, Rhythm, Pitch and Structure’, lecture to Folk Music Society of Ireland as part of its annual lecture series, 6 Eustace Street, Dublin 2 (29 October 1988), 50 minutes (over-head projector running; best listened to through headphones). Written by Nicholas Carolan and Danny Diamond.
Cathal Goan: ‘The Year of the French: Irish-Language Songs of 1798’, lecture to day-seminar of Folk Music Society of Ireland on Songs of Conflict, Kinlay House, Lord Edward Street, Dublin 2 (25 May 1991), 26 minutes
Nicholas Carolan & Danny Diamond, 1 December 2008
