Rake Type: Video

Joe Liddy– Fiddler & Composer

One of Leitrim’s best-known musicians and composers of traditional tunes was fiddle player and composer Joe Liddy. Born in Killargue in the early 1900’s, Joe, known as “The Leitrim Fiddler” came from a musical family and played with many of the greatest players from Leitrim and further afield. Liddy’s Loft […]

Flddle player Vincent Harrison

Vincent Harrison – Fiddle Player

Born in 1927 in Tullycooley, Dromahair,  fiddle player Vincent was influenced in his youth by his mother, Mary, who sang and played the fiddle and by his mother’s brother, Hughie Travers, who was also a musician. Photo copyright Steven de Paoire, courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive Hughie Travers Vincent’s uncle […]

Margaret O’ Rourke – Ballad Singer

Margaret O’ Rourke was born in Ballinagleragh in the townland of Drumnafinla. She sang with various groups and bands in her early years but she gained much recognition when she began singing with the Hi-Lows Showband in the late 70’s. https://irish-showbands.com/Bands/Hi-lows.htm Shanagolden Margaret later sang with Paddy Kelly from Cloone, […]

Josephine McNamara – Ballad Singer

Josephine McNamara was born and raised in Aughavas, Co. Leitrim, in a musical family. She has very fond memories of hearing her father sing around the fireside and as he was working, when she was a young girl. She, herself, developed the same practice of singing as she worked and […]

Bernard Gray – Poet and Ballad Writer

One of the most prolific collections of poems, ballads and songs from County Leitrim is that compiled by poet Bernard Gray and printed by John Rourke and sons in Carrick on Shannon in 1909 – “Songs and Stories of Leitrim” As well as many poems and ballads written by Gray […]