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 […]
Rake Category: Musicians
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 […]
Paddy Sheridan & The Sheridan Family, Killargue
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 […]
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 […]
Sprees, Dances & Capers
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 […]
Pat Fitzpatrick – Flute Player, Uilleann Piper, Band Leader
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, […]
Sweeney Family Drumnamore
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 […]
Pat “Phildy” McGowan & James Doherty – Musicians, Play-actors & Great Characters
Pat “Phildy” McGowan James Doherty Great Characters Described as “great characters” who are “in a class of their own when it comes to story-telling or entertaining… or play-acting”, Paddy McGowan and James Doherty are introduced in this radio programme which focuses on the pair who were from Geaglom, Drumkeeran and […]

