“Cork-born William Forde (1797–1850) devoted his life to music as a musician, editor, collector and scholar. A flute and piano player, he spent time in both London and Cork, his wide-ranging musical interests focusing during the 1840s on Ireland. He joined the circle of other Irish antiquarian scholars such as George Petrie (1789–1866) and John Windele (1801–65). In 1844, he launched an unsuccessful subscription campaign to publish a printed music collection, and his Irish legacy remains a substantial and as yet unpublished collection of up to 1,900 melodies, part of the sixteen-volume Forde-Pigot Collection of Irish Music held in the Royal Irish Academy Dublin.”…
The melodies, mostly song airs, were organised systematically by Forde in the manuscripts in order to compare the various versions he had sourced. Unfortunately, as with many other 19th-century collectors, the words of the songs have not been documented. His sources extended beyond Munster to Connacht and Ulster, and in Leitrim he collected approximately 180 tunes from the uilleann piper Hugh O’Beirne.” ITMA
Fiddler or Piper?
Whilst Forde claimed that O’ Beirne was a piper from near Ballinamore;
“Here I have found a Piper, Hugh Beirne, who has given me about 150 airs – no jigs but all Airs – meeting him has detained me here longer than convenience warrants – for, no music without having a hand in the pocket… The piper H.B. has been dying for the last 2 or 3 years, but while ensuring the life of the Airs that w’d have perished with him, I do believe I am the means of giving him life also. Stirabout and bad potatoes were working fatally on a sinking frame – but a mutton chop twice a day has changed Hugh’s face wonderfully. If I may risk a Hibernicism, I have thus killed two birds with one stone.”
…his contemporary P.W. Joyce had him down as a fiddle player.
Hugh O Beirne The Fiddler of Ballinamore copy
Leitrim Guardian 1978
Song Airs
Whichever instrument he played, of interest is that O’ Beirne supplied so many song airs – that must once have had lyrics -and were known around the Leitrim area at this time;
Lamentation for Fr. Charles O’Rodican
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