8 Soeal. 6 ChWl&nr1 Cheol 'l'ire iiraana

~ew.letter of the Polk Music Society of Ireland 111 na lfo11ag 1916 Deoember

COJTE~St Tradition Club avenin« •• etiD«8 in 1971 POlk-80D& collecting in Tory, 00 .

Donegal '''lhe bold lieutenant" "Hibernian journal" 1793 Irlab aueiciane viait the Unit ed "Dirge or k •• n i n iJ6.rOft81 P'orib" ,UhbbeoohalDi na IIlballead1 Polk musio froa Scotlandl

page 2 2

3. 1/1 4 6

States 1 9

10

reoord r eview. 12 Conferefto .. &0 1911 14 The National Arohive ot Irieb folk

IllUde and BOng iiga8 cbecl tire 21 co ... nta

Saturday 18 nee •• ber at 8 p •••

15 16

Ha P!obalr{ ~111e.nD, 32 I.B888X St. DUBLII

S • a n c 0 ·1' cor. 11

" , 0 L J: SOIlGS o. CO U 1 -'1' Y L 0 U ., B " illustrated bi hie; OVD. recordins_

Se8n Corocran i8 an active member of the 11'&41t10n Club (Dubl i n and Drogbeda) .a well as the Sooiety. Por detail. of the Drogheda weekend he is organising in January see p 2.

2 T r a a i ~ i on c 1 u b

Conditions in t he Folk Musi"c a rchiye hous ed at Earls­fort t errace give muoh cause for concern. Readers wil l recall the fire ' threat of last June, and Brean­daD Breathnaoh's statel!lent on present condHions (pages 15-16 below) i s a~hing but reassuring. la it too muoh to hope f or new initiatives by the yro­per authorities in the New Yea::-?

Once again the news letter has reoe ived a superfl u­ity of oontributions. Ther e will be at least One ~ore newzletter i n the present s eason, wbich oan be as lar ge as necessa ry to accommodate a ll contribu~­ora . It .ill aoni ai n a f urther . sound document f rom Junior Cr oban r ecorded and transcribed by Proinoias 6 ConlU3in , thin t ime on the sub j ect of Thady Casey, danCing ~as~er from Annagh, co . Clare.

T R A D I T I 0 ~ C L U B EV 'E !t lIfG

Th e evening on UednesdAy 1 Dece~ber devoted to t he benefit of the Soo i ety was a suooessful one on all oounts (despite a ooncert that night by the Boys of the LOU8h). We are llD!1lensel;y grateful to the - 'l' r adi­t ion Club for giv i ng ue once again 80 generouely their support •.

No less generous were the performers who provided a lively r ange of musio and song: Country and West­ern from the Sackvill e string 'band , and in Irish tra­dit ion, fiddle and pipe music from James Kelly and Terry Moylan and Bangs from Finbar Boyle, Sean Cor­oora-n and li'rank Harts.

The SOCiety extends its warmest thanks t o all who were involv3d.

"RETINCS IN 1 911 l JAN. - A P R I L

22 Janu&r1 D r ag h e d a v e eke n d. Sean Corcor&n is or ganieing a we ekend of tradition­al mU3ic and song to be held 21-23 Janunr,;r 1977 at ' he G. A. A. preQi ses, North Ro~ , Drogheda. in;r-

- C e 0 1 T 1 r e a 3

one who ~ttended the very suocesstul weekend there i n October will look forward to an exoiting In January, traditione will

Meetlnge i n Du b 1 i nf

26 February: TALK ON I NSTRUM~~TAL MUSIC (det aila later )

26 Mar ch: SHORT CONTRIBUTI ONS BY MEMBERS ( eugges-

30 April:

.rune I

SON G S

ti008 to the Secretary please)

Seoi rae Bodley on J'OI,K MUSIC AND THE COKPOSER

Olche cheoil and A. G. K •

FRO. TOR T, C O. DON R GAL

In earlier t imes, ae ProiQDsias 6 Cooluain reminded us in hi s tal k on 21 November, much vas written about Tory by individuals who never eet foot on that often inaccossible island. Proinnsias himself based bis talk on recordings be made during his firat visit to Tory in 1956, when he went into the island in searob of materia l tor documentary programmes tor Radio tir­eann . Tbe BOngS be collected were onee whi oh came his way while engaged on this work • .

In bie talk, Proinnaias r emarked tbat the love eongs whioh be recorded gave the impression of being all versions of one eong. Por example, verses usually as­sooiat ed witb nOnall og oropped up in tbe song begi nn­ing 'Thiar i gConnachta at& mo tbeacb is ~o 16i ad!n' aDd a verse or two of An droigbneaD donn appeared in

continued on p. 14

- 4 b o ld 1 i e u te n a n 1 "

Traditional air

An old woman, Biddy Donaghy, who .lived Dear whe re I was r eared sang a long song to this t une. The stor,y of the song was of a high ranking lady who was court ed by two brothers. I C&l"Jl.ot give all the song but oan give Borne verses which you will see fi t well into t~e musio : -

In London city there lived a lady She was posaessed of a great 8state And she was oourted by ~en of honour Lords. Dukes &: Earls did on her wait. There were two brotbers who became lovers They bQt b admired th is beauty fair And for t o gain her was their endeavour And for to pleaae her was all their oare

After several eventualities &: protestations she de­cided to test them &: 80

Sbe ordered her coachman for t o get r eady As soon as he would sse the break of day And this fair l~v and her men of honour To Tower Hill sure they rode away

_ ... 'j' i. r e, B

wuen they arrived at Tower Hi l l She t hrew ber fa.n in the lion ' :! den Saying he who wishes t o gain a lady Wi ll br ing me back my f a n again

5

Th~ elder brother was not courageouB enough t o r lak it b,ut t he young~ r one : -

Took his broadsword and recovered i t .

And when she saw t hen her hero coming And that no harm t o him was done With open arms she di d embrace him Saying take the pr i ze l ove you have i t won.

Traditional Air

These incompl ete ver ses a:ro erl xoac t ed from a l ett ·· er fr om A le x. K err of Larne, co. Antrim, dated 8 May 196" and addr~ssed t o Breandan Breath­nach, with th,. ap~rop:'ia.te air enclosed. 'rhi6 ie

......

6 H i b e r n i a n j " u rn a 1 1 7 9 1

an i nter~st ing Irish air bere attached - s omewhat unusual l y - to an English broadside ballad often Bung to Youghal harbour, or variants of it, and commonly entit l ed The bold lieutenant (Laws 0 25) . Complet e veraions of the s ong have been published in pr i nt and on r ecor ds I another Ulater one is due to appear on the r eoord Shamrook, r OBe and t hi s tle (songs of &ddie Butoher ) publiehed by Leader Sound.

The original barring of the MS air is retained, tbough bar lines oould be moved f orward one pul se throughout. Notes inadvertently dotted in the ori­ginal MS have had tbeir dot s removed : bars 1 note 1, 4.1, 4.4, 5.1, 12 .1, 13 . 1. Bars 2. 6 - 3.1 Bee~ to h~ve been corrected to &-P f rom B-C .

H I B ERN I A K JO U RNA L

1 79 3 1 4 J a n u a r y

Mrs. MOWltai!l' O Night Being the last Night of her Engagement

On Priday the' 18th of January 1193 wil l ba pre­sented by part i cular Desire , and not act ad th i e Season, the f avourite comic Opera of

PontainebleauJ or, Our way in Prance

. . . . .. End of, Ac t the 2nd, a Con~orto on the Violin by Mr. Mount ain, In which he will int roduce thti admired Air or Auld Robin Gray , and the favour­i t e Rondo of JACY.SON ' s ~orning Brush.

• * .. " ..

To be sold , a Chamber Organ , with three Barrells, i n complete Or der, plays t hirty Tunes - The low­est Pr ice Tw~nty Pounds. Inquire at t he Print -·

i ers . ___________ -1

C e 0 1 T ! r e 8 7

I R ISH M 0 SIC I ~ N S V I 5 I T

T H • UNITED S T AT E S

In July this year a ~oup of twenty- f ive I r ish musicians, dancers and singers arri ved in Washing­tOn D.e . t o partic i pate in the Feat i val of Ameri­can Folkl ife under the a usp i ces of the Smithsonian I nsti t ut ion and assisted by a gener ous grant from the Cultural Relations Commit t ee . T~m Munnol l y and Ciar an Mac M'thUns acted aB presenters: we had at the I nstit ution ' s invitation eel eoted tho per­fo r mers , having been asked to gather as represent­ative a group as possible within the numerical limitation.

So within our number we had a ' tight ' ~nd a le­gato style piper from Dublin , f i ddlers f r oln Gahmy and Kerry , tox players from Kerry, Cork snj Galway, f lute and whistle players from Dublin, Clare, Sl i­go and Galway. ' rom '-u1lagh in co . Clare we had a group of set dancers . The s i nger s repr esented the traditions of Donegal, Fermanagh, Louth , Clare and Dublin . He had a concert ina pl~er, f r om Clare of course, and a bl1r .'lIonica player f r om Cavan . All t hc ae were tradit ional ists i n t he st ric~er sense of the word. The Galway based group, De Danaan , r epresented current trends in our music : thsi r choice of instruments may appear somewhat exotic

- the bouzouki for example - but tbei r playi ng adheres closely to accepted tradit.ional norms .

OUr t i me i n Washi ngton was spent i n the 'Old ways in t he New 'tlor ld ' sect ion of the festival which was situated i n loIall between the Wa.shington ~onument and the Lincoln Memor i a.l . Here w~ spent five days playing, singi ng, dancing , stor ytelling, lecturing and just having a good time vi th the score or so l r iah- Amel'ica:t musicians who wer e per­tici~t ing · ... 1.th us.

8 M u sic i a n s vi s i t the u. S .

As well as meeting our ·Ir ish- American count er ­part s we al ao had t he great pleasure of meeting and observing tradit ional performers from Yugoslavia , Pakis tan. Germany, Br azil and Portugal . Add to t his the r epr esenta tives of t he Africa n countries, the nat ive a nd r egional Amer i oa ns , exhibi t ions of cra ft s , cus toms and cooking from all over t h e world . Cons ide r tha t th i s f estival ran for three months wit h a turnover of about 450 partiCipants per week and you may begin to gra op t he enormi t y of the gar gant uan venture. There were doz ens of t eams re ­cor di ng and fi l ming a round the clock and the re­s ulting cor pus of mat erial should go t o make the most i mpressively comprehen~ i ve a r chive of fol k mus i c of the world in t he wor ld.

Dur i ng oar stay i n Washington we were t he guest s of the I ri sh ambassador at the embassy . It may 'oe dif fi cult t,o i magine a n infor mal s ess i on f itting i n to such august surroundi ng3, h owever thi s ia exact­l y wha t took place . ~t began a s a few tun~s be­i ng played fo r t he sake of politeness aoon gat her ed .'Iloment um as more and more musicians j oined i n, and the dancers discover ed t hat the embas sy patiO was about as good 'as a f l ag floor for batter i ng out sets.

Fol l owing t he Was hington week the tour went on t o Philade lphia, For t Dodge ( I owa) , Ch icago and Bal t i ­more, staying a f ew days in each place . Generally t he s chedule was f luid enough to gi ve us t i me to see a nd experience a t l e~st s ome of the ambiance of the areas we vis i t ed.

On the conc tusion of the t our t he Smithsonian In­s t i t ute had thi s t o say ; 'The I r ish participants re­pr esented the lavel of root tradi t.ion f or which we s trove througbou~ the Fest i val . I n that sens e , the Iri sh pr ogram was a model .le wisb nlore of the f or­e i gn groups r~d re sembled. We believe thi s pr ogram haR alrea dy promoted int erna t i onal understanding a s well ~ s reinf orced t b~ Ir i sh-Amer ioans' pri de i n t he i r cultura l he r i t age . '

Tom Munne lly

.- C e 0 1 T ! re , B

D I R G E

B AR 0 N 8 Y

o R K El 11: N

FOR T H

9

I N

In thi s cass t he widow laments, no t only the death of her husband - Joan (John) but al so that ot ~heir hor~e (Brageen) which was accidentally drowned in a well called the Kampst one (Crooked 3tone). It io peculiarly cnaracteri atio of the Barony Forth, Her pathetic a ddr ess runs as fol1-OWSI

o faade shal loh do now at aI, a t al? Thaar i s Joan deed, an ' Charn e left a l one o ;oan thee yar t d~ed an Brageen e dr ent e wal la 0

Xaop stone

o Joan thou yart thaure cole as aye s tonej l~~ t heeziI was me guds plowa re, mea guds Sowar e, my gude rupar e, m~ gude moware and mea gude eippen maakare,

o Joan thee yart t haure an lch am Glone, Joan thee yart deed , an Drageen e dren~ e well 0

ICarupstone

- Hat . Li b . MS 10614, a co11eot10n made by William O' Jrei ll, 3choolmaeter , Kil r ane , Woxford, c . 1816. Wo owe the refe rence to Mise Mary Kenoe, O'Nei11's great - granddaughter. The MS was pr epare d fo r publi­cation but not publ ished (by Joseph Lloyd?); doct ­orin8'!of the t ext by means of wei rd orthographic changes have not been noted. The three ~ections are O'Neil1's , but he wrote them as pr ose ; the line di­vision is indicated by a l ater hand , which has a lso made 3 insertions I above l i ne 1 ' Gr!eeveen BBronyo Vorthe'i after line 1 'To fome can ioh maake moane?/ I s i t to ruoke or~ sthoane?'; after line 4 ' Och JOane thou heath l ei ght me s aloane :'. Li ne 4 thaure is an e lteration (by O'Neill? ) of In l ines 5, 7, theezil and zippeD maakare glosses 'yourself ', ' stack maker'. Add t o these:

10 't h the ') c .. ~ i r. t ,

/1 ~ m b ail a ad?

l ine 2 pIe ) j well'.

' Cham 'I am', e ~ 9 e drent e

left ' left ' (past welle ' drowned in

partici ­the

There are no musical indications or indications of performance.

!!ugh Shields

A T H B H E 0 C H A I N T N A M B AIL t AD?

N6ta beag ar l ea\hanch a h-aon de ShinD P~in, 9 lui1 1913 :

As we announced in Irish last week, t he National Council proposes to i ssue a series of Ir i sh songs in ba l l ad fo rm s uit able fo r distribution in the Irish-sp~aking dis trict s. The f irst i mpr ession of 5 , 000 will be ready in a day or two, and copies

Iwi ll be available f or vi s i tors t o the Oireachtss I in Gal way . I t is hoped with the cooperation of ; our readers in Ir ish-speaki ng d i stricts t o induce i t he young t o read the cal lads f or t heir elders , : and so to re-int er est the ol d f olk in the songs of ! t heir youth. The first iasue is a. well- knOwn and : popular l ove BOng, by some supposed t o have an al ­I legorical meaning . Bundles of a dozen ballada will l be f orwarded on r eoeipt of 2d. i n stamps . I

Is fi~ a r i ar dtuls naob f!or go raibh f~gra bhfeachtas ~eo in uimhir na seachtaine roimhe .sin Shinn Fein. Ac h da r ndoig~ ie minic nach leann st i ttrthoir1 irise na p10sai Gaeilge a fhoills{onn , ' , eia.d chun dualgae a. chomh.honadh . MeOD 10ntach ain-eolach at barnil a t a le Bonnrd san alt sin thuae.

Leagan de Bhelin an fhir ruaidh ata i gceis·t ans o . Thainig fu!ll each an eagrain e80 go dtl an Leabhar­l ann Naishmta le paipei.r! .tine, Bean U{ Cheannt , naoh maireann. Is lair 0 nota beag sna paip~ir{ s in ~be Bamonn Ceaont a bhl t aobh t hiar den bhfeach t as .

C e 0 1 or { r e . 8

Ulmhlr a h,Aon.

'C.1 f' .1l3 ~'A 1'.1'0 5"1' et'! r .5 ,Un fOe""" I mtll'0IS

C.I rI ,\l3 '0 ' .1 11.,\'0 SUI' cu b~!lln C.;I.n.;l. 11'" I)pOS·

CJ. r' ''~ ~'a 1'.1'0 C. ,j,Ile 51'.1'0 50 l3CU5 cll 'OM' cil l ,

CI'O SO I)FuIl re.(ll' le r-'S.(Ill 'S lelr ",n cJ.lll lll r tie"," .1" f. 1' ll U.(Il'O.

1')0 t us ... r n")m ml 1 Upl"0p:'n, ce",ns,\lLce Cf\U",,'O,

b olC.(II'O "'I' mo e")Ol",,1) ~L"r mile 5t"'r "f rll~ r""'r,

t "'O"l'r.\lnn· re p 'Oe m "' lI (; ."t)"{'F'~'O e,~l.\ COlf CU""",

le Fonn 13() I)e ll~- r lnca

11

Slor le lIe')n.\11 t'l' nuo,\' 'O . . • •. ...•...• ( 3 v . eile) -.~n::-~.a:-:.=pa::-"tCuOiC'=.=iCoCnC.:-:a=tC''''Ce:c'-.CoCnCnCru=":..': .. =n-'-'n~~CtCa--tbu&e . t~

; , r; e~ le s onnru ean mbloc-llne ata ag barr an 'ballad ' ( ie l~ i r gur eaghas clodoireachta ata i gceiet acu nuair a deir eiad ' ballad form ' ague n60h genre 11-tr1ocht&) . TB ai nm an ealat ontor a ar a n mbloo , rud nach bhfe i ofea &riamh ar an mbailead traidis iUnta. N!l ~bhar na l'araide traidisiUnia 80h cbomh beag l fear sidil ag 16amh bai laid do bbean a' t{ no ag iarraidh e db lo1 leithi.

Ailfri d Mac Loohlainn

12 \iecurd rev i e W 8

5 CO T L ! N D

1 LI ZZIE RIGGINS. UP AND AWA' WI' THE LAVEROCK. Topic 12TS260 stereo, London 1915 .

F 0 L l( !II U SIC FRO M

2 JOHn MAGOONALD . 'r KS SINGING MOLECATCHSR OF NORAI­SSIRE . SCOTS BA LLADS, BOTHY SONGS AND MELODEON TUNES. Topic 12TS26) ster eo , London 1915. 3 THE stL~~ BOW. S~LAND FOLK ~IDDLING. Vol . 1. Tom ! nderaon, Aly Dain, Trovor Hunt er, ]avi e Tull­oeb , fiddles; Violet 'l'ulloch, piano . Topic 12T3 281 stereo, London 1976.

1 Some s inger s have voi ­ces of such piercing and plangent quality ti'..at they would make the bai r etand en your bead, like a sudd­en rattle of hailstones thrown on the pane by a. cold northern blast. 'l'he late Jaante Robertson bAd such a v01ce - her render­ings of tbe Child ballads were unforget table. Htir

,4." .. \,* ..... J , ~",,: i ~ Higgi ns , do es not p08uess such dark tOlles, but she sings with equa l a.rtist ry , replacing plangency with ornamentation I the south ~in~ , aa it veTe, eddying through the s ummer trees . Lik~ ne~ mother, 8h~ can make tri t e and unin8pir~d words seem almost noble; she turns the lachrymose Mao­Donald of Glencoe int o a stately elegy and bervel'-8ion of Lord Lovat is as gripping as ber mother 's . It i s al~of great er melodic interest becaus e of tbe profuse ornament. Tbe oraament i s derived, Li~~ie says , from pipe music and appears to be her own inventio~. The recor d ~ontain8 e l even s ongs, a wel l -balanced seleotion of ballads , ligb~hearted di t ti es and ono slightly ba~ song, sung like a l amont. '['hera a r e i nt ers3 :ing !\otOA en Lizzi 3' s lif~ and C3~ear, on her stylu of sinG~D~ and on the

-C e 0 1 T 1 rill. 8 13

songs, but no texts . However the s inging is clear and the patient will get used to the lberdonian pro­nunc iation and the oocasional Scots word .

2 J ohn MacDonald s i nge fift een Bongs and playe four seleotions on his Honner Tricnord Ill. He is a fine straightforward ~inger but he l aoks the mag­j ~ ~f Liz~ie Hig~ins . In ~~9t of the songs he ac­companies himself on the mel odeon, whioh is a pity. Ris voice and styl e are best suited t o the bothy songs and oornkint er s, it would b e churl i sh to ob­ject to the melodeon i n t hem, but ballads suob &8 Lord Ronald (sung hel~to an unsuitable var iant of Villikens and his Dinah) and The bonnie ho ose 0 '

J. i r lie lose a l ot of their dr3.mat ic 'power whe n ac­comFanied . (There a r e exceptions of course; navie Stewart's Th~ dowie dens of Yarrow, accompanied by mel odeon , is mor e electr ifying than John MacDonald!:l. unacoompani ed version.) John MacDonald is, ' of course , an i mportant tradition bearer , and t he r e­oor d contains what Hamisb Henderson oal l s in his notes la potent dram of s't l'ong Scotch spi rit ' . Af ­ter which it is sad to report that The ball of Kir­r i emuir bas ' a good splash of burn water added to ·the raw spirt t ' • It ha.s boen bowdlerised out of r ecognition.

3 The four Shetland fiddlers play in pairs, or all t ogetber , and aocompanied, in t en of the 15 bands , by the pianist . A piani st m~.~.t .:t?.1. ~ome. Q.e __ ..... .. consider~d nsce.!:1sary to keep t he: band and the feet together i n a or owded dance-hall, but listening to tbe r ecord one soon t ires of the monotonous thump, and feels sorry fo r the ~ianist. It 'i a no coinoid-enoe t bat the mos t i ntereot ing tunes (the onas t hat don ' t sound like Irish dance music) a r e unaoco~pan­i ed. They al so appear to be the ~lde st and to be relat ed t o t he f i ddle music of Norway_ ~be MUsicians all play witb gusto and t be record ~kee pleasant listening. ' he notes and some of the tunes are by tom Anderson himself, who ie 'the f iret teacher of traditional f iddle musi c in Shetland to be employed

14 C O:1.fe r e n ces , _ 1 9 17

by t he Educat ion ~utbority' • . I hope fi~8t doss not mean only .

Douglas Sealz

C 0 H FER E N C ~ S & c. 1 9 7 7

)-5 Hay, Seat t l e, Was hington, USA , KORDIC AND ANGLO­AMERICAN BALLAD RESRARCR. A~erican coordinators t Svsn H. Rossel and Pat riois Conroy, Univer sity of Washi ngton, Saatt la, Washin~ on 98195 .

9-15 May, SchloS9 Segg6u, L c ibnit ~ , Aust r ia, Pifth Seminar of the Study Croup on Resaa rch in Fo l k Mus ic Sources: INDIRECT FOLK-MUSI C SOURCES BBPORE 1600 . Informat iOn: Wol f gang Suppan , Inat l tut fUr Mus ikethnologia a n d&r Hochachule fUr Musik und daratellende Kunat, A-8010 CRAZ, Laonhardatr. 15 P. Meran.

13-18 August , Honolulu, Hawaii, International Polk ~u8io Counci l Conference r THEMES , 1 Interrela­t ions betwe en folk music a nd other forma of musio, 2 Musicr change , innovation and accul turat i on, 3 Polk mus i c and dance in education and soc1a li8&­tion, 4 Musio' and dance in national and ethnio identity. Secretary I Prof . Gr abam George, IPMC, Music Department, Queon's CollAge , Kingst on , On­tar-io, Canada.

~ ° n g a • fro m T ° 1" 1 •

bontiaued ·from p 3

1 Pbaidt a ghr' . All of these SODge, Proinnsiae 'pointed out, ar e 80ngS ol unhappy , unrequited lova in which the narrator, probably a girl, bawails her aepar ation f rom her eweetheart~ and thie theme could hardly fai l to havo a Part icular appeal t o Tory women who were, and are , often s eparat ed fo r long periods from ~he ir menfolk .

Ca l tlin U{ ~igearta1gh

C e 0 1 T { re, 8 l'.

-----------------~-------------------------------T H • NA T IO NAL

I R ISH F 0 L K

ARCHIVE

III U SIC A • D

o. I SO N iI

The Depart ment of Edueat ion terminated its uneasy re­lation witb Irish traditional music t wo years ago when i t t ransferred the national archive of Irhh fol~ ~~21c and song to University College Dublin. rt ~as a condhion of' t he Move tbat the College aut hor­i ties would provide adequate office and working acc~ '

modation f or ~b e archive. Creating a bigger and bet ter arobive by combining the Department's oollec­tion with the materlal gathered hy the old Folklore Commission wae a most excit i ng prospect but when month after month went by without the College making good its undertaking, the prospec t took on a differ ­ent complexion .

When at last wor king space was provided it conei s-, ted only of one r oom which was to s erve as a etudio 1 and as a rapodtory for the In\:.sic colleotion. Its US II as a studio may be gauged from the fac t t h~t i t was not sound-proofed and was ·theref ore of little use f or reoording. ~he College flatly refus ed \0 adapt t he room f or tbe purpose. As a space f or keeping Rroh l v. mater ia l i t did not even meet the basic minimum re­quirements. It was !lot dust-free , it .",as not t eltlper.-. ature or bumidity oontrolled. and it was not fl r e- • proof .

' he ~eoeasity for t his last r equirement was brought startl ingly to our notice when a f ire broke out in the basement of the Col lege' bu ilding at Narlsfort Terrace where the arohive is housed. I t is no exag­geration to Gay that the whole oollection was within imminent danger of beir.g lost by f i re. Readers can judge what a trage~ this would have been by be ing t ol d t hat the ·colleot i on has first - hand recordings of Denis ~urphy , Patrick ielly , .icky Doherty, Folix Doran and a score of other muuioians who have depart­ed , as Capt a in O'Neill grandiloquently put it, to join

16 '1' b e n a t ion a 1 a r c hiv e --the heavenly choir. A measure of t he indiffer~nc e of tbe 9011ege authorities may be had from the f act tha~ it took al~ost three weeks b~dgering to gat a cl eaner to alean tbe shelving in tbe s tudio and although thie fire ocourred in June last not a single step has heen taken since t o minimis e the ~isk of f ire.

The Department of Education did not think up t he idea . of creating a national archive and the arohive haft been brought to its present atate by the zeal and energy of the staff, the 'snthusiastic oo-operation of t he mus i oi an. and singere, and the help and encour­arrement of privat8 wellwiabers. .The Department of Eduoation i e under an obligati on to these people aDd to all who a r e interested i n the promotion of Irish fo l k musio and song. When the state hand~ over to some other body a nat i onal aS8et it does not shed its r esponsibility for s eeing that the objeot transferred Or bequeathed i s adequately safeguarded from deterior­ation and deoay. The Department of Education is aware of the treatment it. oolleotion of musiC and song has had in Univeraity College Dublin. It must not he~i­tate to exerciae ite r.aponaibility in re.pect Qf this collection. It would be a tragedy if a oollec­tion of the natiye folk muaic of auoh value and i m­portanoe, nationally and iuternatlonally, were left in the hands into whioh unfortunately it was oommitt­ed bY:' the Department of Education.

Breandan Breathnaoh

gIG"B " C R B 0 L , t a • 2

Cpeeenta fros correspondentss '.lrdnlholadh ag duI daoibh as imleabbar 2 ' - an tA.tb. p&draig 6 hEa18.!, Manuat. 'Congratulations on Irish folk .ueio studies 2. It i. very veIl produced ••• ' - J. K', Douglas, DelPDJ"· 'la mor an Chreidiuint dtbh ~igse . cheol tire 2' -, 6 ' Seasus Duilearga, Baile Atha elt.th.