Decade of Centenaries Programme 2020-23
Born in June 1877 in Aghoo to James McGoohan and Margaret O’ Donnell, Phil McGoohan was a well-known writer of ballads and poetry who composed many songs that give us a little insight into life in the early 1900s that we don’t often get from more formal history books. One […]
Fleadh in Mohill – Pee Fitzpatrick on fiddle Picture courtesy of Val Fitzpatrick Mullingar – where it all began! It happened, that in January 1951, representatives of the Thomas Street (Dublin) Pipers’ Club went to Mullingar for a meeting with traditional music enthusiasts from County Westmeath, i.e. Cáit Uí Mhuimhneacháin, […]
Tom P. Mulligan was born in Currycramp, Bornacoola in 1915 into a family of two brothers and four sisters. He had a unique regional style of fiddle playing which was influenced by his father, also Thomas and by his neighbour, fiddle-master, Jack Conboy. Tom came from musical ancestry – his […]
Come All Ye Gallant Sportsmen “Come raise three cheers for the Hugh O Neills That brave and gallant band. And double three for the captain bold Who holds them in command. Of all the Irish Gaelic boys Of stalwart limb and frame The Bornacoola slashing team Has earned the greatest […]
Joe’s Background “Joe ‘Lacky’ Gallagher was born in 1918 in the townland of Cloonamurgal near Drumkeeran, Co. Leitrim. Lacky comes from the shortened form of his father’s name, Malachy. This was a way of distinguishing him from other Gallaghers who may also have been called Joe. As well as being […]
John McKenna is regarded as one of the most influential flute players of the 20th century. Born in a small cottage in the townland of Tents, Tarmon near Drumkeerin in 1880, McKenna emigrated to New York and became a prolific recording artist during the 1920s and 30s. These 78 recordings […]
Whilst not a whole lot is known about Francis J. Cox’s early years, we hear him tell Tom Munnelly in 1971 that he had a brother and sister and that he was the youngest in the family. He mentions that his brother was shot in Flanders and that his mother […]
Famous composer and harpist Turlough O’Carolan spent much of his life in Leitrim. In the 1680s, he moved to Carrick on Shannon with his family where his father was a blacksmith and farm hand on the St. George Estate. It was the McDermott Roe family in nearby Alderford that offered […]
Descended from the once powerful Leitrim clan, O’ Duigenan would be considered as a master of tradition, history, music and song. His ancestors would have been bards and official historians to the O’ Connors and O’ Rourkes and one of the four masters was an O’ Duigenan Access the Annals […]
The collector Stephen Grier (1824-1894) who was also an uilleann piper and a fiddle player lived for much of his life in Gortletteragh where he collected and transcribed over 1,000 tunes. Short Biography Born around 1824 in North Longford, Grier moved to Gortletteragh once he married Rose McGivney in 1852. […]
