Decade of Centenaries Programme 2020-23
Shannon Waters Flow Songs, Stories & Cultural Change in 1920s Leitrim The Shannon has always carried more than water. It carried people, memory, music and ideas — flowing outwards from Leitrim to the wider world and back again. Shannon Waters Flow brings together songs, stories, people and moments from a […]
Cumann na mBan Cyclist Corp – date unknown Military Archives Cumann na mBan, founded in 1914, emerged at a defining moment in Irish history. Created as a women’s organisation aligned with the ideals of national self-determination, it became a vital force in the struggle for independence. Its members were fundraisers, […]
Jimmy Gralton – Unkown source Jimmy Gralton and the Dance Halls Act (1935) In the early decades of the Free State, music and dancing were never just “a bit of craic” — they could be read as politics, morality, modernity, and power, all happening under one roof. Few stories show […]
Picture courtesy of Leitrim Observer Seán Mac Diarmada (1883–1916) – A Leitrim Revolutionary Seán Mac Diarmada was born in Kiltyclogher, County Leitrim, a small village whose landscape, people and traditions shaped the values that would guide his life. Though much of his revolutionary work unfolded in Dublin and beyond, Mac […]
Memory, conflict and the songs that carried the people through In the spring of 1921, County Leitrim — often remembered as a quiet border county — found itself drawn directly into the final, most intense phase of the Irish War of Independence. Two events in particular, the Sheemore Ambush and […]
Northern Bank Mohill thought to be around 1905. Picture – National Library Ireland Sweet Mohill for Me “Through famed County Leitrim, I’ve travelled for sights / Its valleys so deep and its great mountain heights / No spot in the county, my longings could win / Like the fair town […]
Picture courtesy of Val Fitzpatrick, Mohill – taken at Leitrim Fleadh 1983. Back Row (l-r) Felix Gallagher (Drumshanbo), Tom Mulligan (Bornacoola), Barney McCormack (Drumshanbo), John Daly (Jamestown), Patricia Coffey aka Bangles (Dublin). Front Row (l-r) Packie Duignan (Arigna), Mick Clancy (Manorhamilton), Jack McGrath (Carrick-on-Shannon), Peter “Pee” Fitzpatrick (Aughavas/Mohill) Lilting Nobody […]
When times were hard, good times were simpler – and whether an occasion was serious or not, wherever people gathered, there was a bit of craic. Here Charlie McTeague from the Ballinamore area remembers May Day customs and bonefire night. He also speaks about the pattern at St. Brigid’s […]
The Good People “Long ago, there lived a lone girl in a house on the side of Clooncarne rock. Beside the house was a fairy tree where the fairies used to stay. So one day the girl had a very bad fire and she went out gathering sticks to put into the fire. When […]
Michael O’ Rourke, born in January 1920, was a familiar sight (and sound) around the rural roads and streets of Carrick on Shannon for many years. A fine singer of traditional ballads, Michael earned the very apt nickname “the singing postman” and was a regular at Fleadhanna and singing competitions […]
