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Píobaire, An, Volume 2, Issue 28, Page 2

Píobaire, An, Volume 2, Issue 28, Page 2
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periodical Publisher
Na Píobairí Uilleann
periodical Editor
Chairman, NPU
periodical Title
Píobaire, An
volume Number
2
issue Content
BreandnWhen Ceol Rince 4 comes out then Ill bestarting on a new series, An Fear s a Cheolbeginning with Micho Russell, then Ennis,Denis Murphy and Johnny Leary. The workon Goodman is ging ahead, de Noraidh ishung up at the moment, but Cool 22 isready I or publication and Ive just finishedtranscribing a hundred of Junior Crehanstunes. Ill put them in the post for you be-lore I go to the Arts Council meeting inBelfast next week. I was thinking of doinganother draft of the history of the weaversin the Liberties as soon as Ive finished theexpanded edition of Irish Folk Music andDances . Henrietta Street will be finishedby Christmas, I was looking at the housenext door....Now, about the Summer School,can we talk about what you want me to dofor this new Foundation Course? On and onBreand n went, idea tumbling out after idea,as we sat by the blazing fire in The Com-modore on Saturday afternoon during abreak in the half-yearly meeting. It was justas well he retired, I thought, now he canget three times the amount of work done.In the score of years I had known him hetook on more and more work every year, andnow in his seventy-third year he showed nosign of letting up.My first meeting with him was in 1963or 4 when I was running a concert of tradi-tional music in St Anthonys Hall. Heappeared backstage with a bundle of a newmagazine he had just produced, andasked that we mention that it was for saleduring the interval. I think he got rid ofabout twenty copies.Our meetings over the next few years be-came more and more frequent as I becameaware of his phenomenal knowledge of Irishmusic and song. The equivalent of a weekswork in the National Library could often begained over a couple of pints with him inO Neills of Merrion Row. And many ofthese nights we spent in macaronic conver-sation with Breandn talking to Mirtin OCadhain in Irish and to me in English. Itmay have sounded like the Tower of Babelbut we got along well enough. At the timeI was working in a knitwear factory andwhen shiftwork would allow it I spent muchof my time in the Folklore Commission doingresearch on English-language song in Ireland.Many days Breandn and I shared the sametable together working away in the basementand our social life became even more en-meshed. In the late 1960s, Hugh Shields,Breando and I decided it was time to moveon the foundation of a Folkmusic and SongSociety. God knows we had talked about itlong enough, but in 1971, after many meet-ings, we finally got it going, a task whichjust would not have succeeded withoutBz-eandns influence. It was around this- A Personal Memoirtime too I began to realize what a wheeler-dealer he was, no matter what needed to bedone in any area whatever, he knew someonesomewhere.The Department of Education inaugurateda song collecting project in September 1971after many years of being pushed by Brean-d an. As he was aware of my work withfolksong he asked me would I be interestedin joining thQ project for a year to collectEnglish folksong throughout Ireland. Would Iwhat? I packed up the job in the knitwearfactory immediately and without regrets.Se 4 n Corcoran was also appointed for athree month period, his brief being to con-centrate solely on his native county of Louth.That the project proved to be a tremendoussuccess is another story; what I want to re-mark on here is the farsightedness and thecourage of the man who embarked on such ascheme much to the bewilderment of hissuperiors in the Department of Education.There is absolutely no doubt about Breand ans devotion to the Irish language and thesongs in that language. However, his actionin putting the songs of English speakers for-ward as a subject for serious study was onewhich caused much confusion in the Depart-ment. Difficult as it may be to credit, oneDepartmental luminary was so puzzled thatsongs in English were being collected that hemade the suggestion that they should betranslated into Irish for publication!After some years the project was takenover by the Department of Irish Folklore inUniversity College, Dublin. We both thoughtthis was the beginning of a proper archiveof Irish traditional music, but for variousreasons this was not to be. The time spentin Ear lsfort Terrace included a period whenour friendship was at its lowest ebb, for if2
issue Number
28
page Number
2
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
1986-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Píobaire, An, Volume 2, Issue 28

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