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.
In 2023, Pádraic Mac Mathúna began work cataloguing hundreds of hours of recordings from a variety of older collections in the Archive. Each month, he’ll pick out a special selection of tunes he’s discovered from these recordings.
Tony MacMahon (1939-2021) was a central figure in Traditional Irish music from the 1960s until his passing in 2021. Brought up in 1950s Co. Clare he was influenced by the major musical figures of that era, but most notably by Joe Cooley, the legendary accordion player from Galway who later emigrated to the USA. Tony was highly regarded as an accordion player and in particular for his passionate renditions of slow airs. It was as a radio and TV producer that Tony made a lasting contribution to Irish music broadcasting in such programmes as ‘The Long Note’ and ‘Bring Down the Lamp’.
Tony kindly donated his private collection of audio and video recordings to ITMA, and they reveal a rich variety of material ranging from instrumental music, sean-nós, interviews from both live concerts and private home recordings. This playlist is just a brief sample of MacMahon’s breath of interest and includes Tony and Joe Heaney in California, Con Greaney from Limerick, his old friend Barney McKenna, Joe Ryan with Eoin O’Neill, Nan Tom Teaimín (sean-nós) as well as Tony and Steve Cooney live in Belfast. There will be more from the MacMahon collection at a future date. Hope you enjoy this selection. -Pádraic
With thanks to the Heritage Council who have funded the clearance of Rights in these recordings.
