Folk music

Date

1971-09/1972-07

Extent

46 items

Location of original

Original items located in National Folklore Collection.

Repository

National Folklore Collection

Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive

Language

English

Scope and Content

This project's aim was to digitise the first year of the song collection of Tom Munnelly in order to make the material more easily accessible and to preserve it into the future. Tom worked as a full-time song collector for the Department of Irish Folklore from 1971 up until he passed away in 2007. In this position, Tom recorded over 1,500 tapes (over 20,000 songs) of folksong and folklore. It is one of the largest collections of traditional song compiled by a single individual and represents a significant contribution to the field of Irish folk music. Tom's early collection work was conducted using reel-to-reel machines and the difficulty of maintaining these machines in the face of changing technologies makes the digitisation of this collection particularly urgent.

Arrangement

The recordings digitised under this project span the period from September 1971 to September 1972. Although all of the songs recorded have been digitised, for reasons of copyright and fair usage of material collected, only a sample (in sound bite form) have been made available through the IVRLA. The sound bites selected cover the recording period up to July 1972 and give a fair representation of the collection, containing many aspects of the song tradition, as well as lilting and instrumental music. The first year of the collection covers a wide geographic area from Cork in the south to County Fermanagh in the north as well as various regions in the midlands. Tom recorded in singer's houses, various pubs, tents or even the back of a van where necessary and the intimate nature of these recordings provides us with a snapshot in time of a live tradition. The collection recordings are arranged alphabetically by song title or tune type but can also be searched under either the subject headings at the end of this page. Subject headings include the general headings for folk song and folk music as well as specific headings for music or instrument type.

Note

Rónán Galvin at work digitising some of Tom Munnelly's song collection. Image courtesy of the National Folklore Collection.

Subjects

Folk songs--Ireland

Folk music--Ireland

Accordion music

Flute music

Harmonica

Mouth music

Penny whistle music

Reels (Music)

Uilleann pipe music

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Record source

Finding aid encoded in EAD by the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA) - M.S..December 2009.

Finding aid author

Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA)

Conditions Governing Access to Original Materials The National Folklore Collection at UCD welcomes visitors to the archives during public opening hours and will offer any assistance, subject to time and space considerations. Visitors are asked to complete an application form before using the archives. Access to certain materials may from time to time be affected by conservation, processing of documents or other archival requirements. For further information on accessing original items in this collection, please contact the National Folklore Collection at UCD directly.

Conditions Governing Access to Digitised Materials Digital surrogates are made available by the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive (IVRLA), subject to the terms and conditions outlined on this website.

Copyright All digital material is copyright of the IVRLA and the National Folklore Collection at UCD and may not be reproduced for any purpose without permission. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions section of this website for further details. Copyright of the original material resides with individual rights holders; please contact the National Folklore Collection for further details.