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 […]
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 […]
Centre photo – Rose Ann Sheridan nee Flynn (Great Grandmother), Back left – Paddy Sheridan, (Grandfather) Back right – Julia Sheridan (Grandmother), Baby Joeseph Sheridan (Dave’s Father) and siblings, Maureen, Packie, John, Julia & Eamonn Dave Sheridan is a flute player from Killargue in North Leitrim, immersed in the traditional […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Image courtesy of Old Time Records Margaret McNiff appears in the 1901 census, living in Cornamucklagh North in Drumreilly – she was 15 at the time. Eleven years later, she would marry Michael Locke, also from Drumreilly, in Boston and they set up home in New Hampshire. Margaret was a […]
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 […]
