Rake Category: Composers

Shannon Waters Flow

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 […]

Seán Mac Diarmada

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 […]

Lovely Leitrim & Phil Fitzpatrick

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, […]

Sheemore and Selton

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 […]

Mohill’s Musical Scéal & All That Jazz

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 […]

Rakes More Music, Song & Dance

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 […]

Hugh O’ Beirne – Fiddler/Piper

“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 […]

Tom Creamer – Ballad Singer

Article from “Leitrim’s Republican Story” – Cormac O’ Súilleabháin Tom Creamer – Lahard Fr. Dan Gallogly interviewed Tom Creamer of Lahard, Ballinamore when Tom was 84 years old and only days before Tom passed away. We are left with a lovely store of songs that paint a picture of Ballinamore […]

Ben & Charlie Lennon & Family

From Kiltyclogher, the Lennon family need no introduction. They are renowned the world over for their contribution to traditional music through compositions, performances, teaching and mentoring. Ben “The eldest of fours sons, Ben Lennon was born in the village of Kiltyclogher, Co. Leitrim in 1928. There was music on both […]