Songs reveal hidden post famine history
MULTI TALENTED DOIREANN’S STUDY UNCOVERS UNSUNG HEROES OF OUR PAST
RESEARCH by a musician and singer with strong Múscraí links has uncovered hitherto undiscovered evidence giving first hand accounts of social history in the area during the post-Famine period.
Doctoral student and TG4 presenter Doireann Ní Ghlacaín found the diaries of the renowned song collector Martin Freeman who came to Baile Mhúirne in 1913 as she undertook her thesis on the oral tradition in the period, which includes the Great Famine right up to the War of Independence in the mid Cork Gaeltacht.
The diaries had been sought for many years by local historians but Doireann, a musician and award winning sean nós singer herself, found the documents as she researched her thesis in the National University of Ireland in Galway.
A granddaughter of Cúil Aodha composer Seán Ó Riada and daughter of TG4 reporter Sorcha Ní Riada, Doireann says that her research will highlight the role of singers like Connie Coughlan, Peig O’Donoghue and Abbey Barrett, singers who had come through the Famine and were able, through their songs, to recount the social history of the time.
“You could say that the songs acted as the local newspaper of the time,” she said. “They gave us a real insight into the social fabric, into how political views changed and how the way people lived changed in that period.”
She is hoping to complete the thesis next year and is aiming to publish it to share the fruits of her research with people in Múscraí and beyond.
Doireann’s love of history is not confined to writing a doctoral thesis as she is also a distinguished fiddle player who along with her partner in music, concertina player, Sarah Flynn, released an album of traditional music this year featuring tunes they heard played by long gone female trad players, the likes of Ella Mae O’Dwyer, Nell Galvin, Nora Hurley, Aggie White and Mollie Myers Murphy.
“We grew up listening to men playing traditional music,” said Doireann, whose father Kevin is part of the great Glackin clan of musicians. “So we went to the traditional music archive and found a treasure trove of recordings of music from Sliabh Luachra, West Clare, West Limerick and East Galway.”
“The result is this album, the Housekeepers.” Doireann and Sarah will bring this music to Múscraí this Friday where they will be in concert at Ionad Cultúrtha an Dochtúir Ó Loingsigh i mBaile Mhúirne. Doireann’s life is so busy at present it almost resembles a trad tune being played at breakneck speed.
In her role as a TG4 presenter of traditional music programmes such as Fleadh TV and Tradfest, she’s just completed filming a new series due for broadcast next year on TG4 about the Cork Folk Festival.
“I got to meet so many of my musical heroes, it’s hard to call it work really.”