Digitally reformatted audio recordings from the song collection of Tom Munnelly.

UCDscholarcast provides downloadable lectures, recorded to the highest broadcast standards to a wide academic audience of scholars, graduate students, undergraduates and interested others. Each scholarcast is accompanied by a downloadable pdf text version of the lecture to facilitate citation of scholarcast content in written academic work. Series Editor: PJ Mathews Scholarcast theme music by: Padhraic Egan, Michael Hussey and Sharon Hussey. Development: John Matthews, Brian Kelly, Vincent Hoban, Niall Watts, UCD IT Services, Media Services Series 1 and 2 Consultant Producer: Cliodhna Ni Anluain, RTE

Over the last three decades Bill Whelan has been at the heart of many exciting moments of extraordinary innovation in Irish music across the genres from traditional to rock. Here he documents and considers his varied career to date, from jobbing session musician in the early 1970s to Grammy Award winner in 1997. Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine are recalled as seminal influences on his music during the Planxty years while the founding of Windmill Lane Studios in the 1980s is seen as a landmark moment in the evolution of Irish music across the spectrum. Whelan reflects on Riverdance from inception to global reception. At a time of rapid cultural change he welcomes the creative possibilities brought on by recent immigration to Ireland and argues for the importance of a robust Irish musical tradition.

In this Scholarcast Paul Brady reflects on his early childhood encounters with music and on the importance of popular music in the 1960s to the formation of his own musical consciousness.  He recounts his earliest experiences playing with various  R ‘n’ B bands during his time as a student at UCD. In 1967 Brady joined The Johnstons whose combination of traditional Irish music with newer trends in folk music brought international success. Having distinguished himself as one of the most talented singers and accompanists of his generation he was invited by piper Liam O’Flynn to join Planxty in 1974.  Although deeply committed to traditional music, Brady stresses the importance of individual musical vision and the constant need for renewal and innovation.

[Slow air - Sé fáth mo bhuartha, played by Sean Seery in Tionól na bPíobairí Uilleann, An Gríannán, Termonfeckin, County Louth]

[Jig - The Geese in the Bog, played by Mickey Connors, a Traveller, who was camped at Clonegal, County Carlow]

[The Harvest Home, played by Jim Prendergast, in O'Connor's Pub, Blackwater, County Wexford]

[Hornpipe - The High Level, played by Michael Connors, a Traveller, who was camped at Holylands, Dublin]

[The Rocks of Bawn/The Sea, oh the Sea, sung and played by Tom Berry in Labre Park Travellers Camp, Ballyfermot, Dublin]

[Tonight is our last night together, sung by Bridie Whelan, housewife, at Chapel, Clonroche, County Wexford]

[Reel - The Maid of Lough Arrow, played by Larry McDonagh, a small farmer, in Cosgrove's Pub, Gurteen Road, Boyle, County Roscommon]

[Reel - Paddy Cronin's reel, played by Seán Ward, in Grehan's pub, Boyle, County Roscommon]

[Reel - Muldoon the Solid Man (The Teetotaller), played by Larry McDonagh, a small farmer, in Cosgrove's Pub, Gurteen Road, Boyle, County Roscommon]

[Reel - The College Groves, played by Joe Cuneen, a farmer, in Dwyer's Pub, Quilty, County Clare]

[Photograph of Thomas Kettle with University College Dublin Choral Union, seated in a garden.]

The Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) is a digitisation project launched in UCD in January 2005. The project was conceived as a means to increase and facilitate access to UCD’s cultural heritage repositories through the adoption of digitisation technologies.