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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Competitions Scór competitions were established by the GAA in 1969 “to promote Ireland’s traditional pastimes and culture while offering club members the chance to meet up, have fun and represent their club during the winter months while Football and Hurling had ceased.” There are eight events in Scór that cover […]
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, […]
The name “Joe Mooney” is probably best associated today with the renowned traditional Irish music summer school that takes place in Drumshanbo each July, but the man behind the name was involved with many other organisations that furthered the cause of traditional arts in Leitrim at a time when the […]
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 […]
