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, […]
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 […]
Phil Fitzpatrick: Leitrim Poet, NYPD Officer, and Immigrant Hero Philip Fitzpatrick was born in Aughavas, County Leitrim, in 1892 and educated locally in Clonsarn. He belonged to a generation shaped by enormous change. Rural Leitrim at the turn of the twentieth century was a county marked by small farms, emigration, […]
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 […]
Patrick Fitzpatrick was born in Carrigallen around 1860. According to Francis O’ Neill in his publication Irish Minstrels and Musicians: “A rarity among pipers, Mr. Fitzpatrick is not only abstemious, and economical in his habits, but a thrifty business man as well. Unafflicted with artistic temperament in the slightest degree, […]
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 […]
William Sweeney (accordion), Eddie Sweeney (Flute), Sean Sweeney (boy, back centre), Anne Sweeney (girl, front centre) The Sweeney Family of Drumnamore are steeped in traditional music. Their father William, pictured here would fill the long winter nights with tunes, as his wife Katie sang a song or two from a […]
