Sources & Thanks
On this page, I would like to try to acknowledge and thank the contributors to this project of which there have been many. This project could not have been completed without the people who filmed, recorded and took photos and took an interest in our culture.
I have noted them below but a huge thanks must be given to my family who have listened and helped me complete this huge task.
Also, to the people who knew my grandfather that have been so giving of their time and knowledge and stories, thank you very much. I have grown up hearing about the many stories to do with my grandfather, and I am lucky to be able to share my families knowledge like this.
This was very much a group project and I am indebted to the many people who helped me along the way. Those who helped in a small way and also those who helped in a larger way, buíochas mór ó chroí.
A special thanks for this project must be given to The Arts Council. It would not have been possible without the funding and support from them. It took many hundreds of hours work to complete and I would not have been able to do the project without the funding. I received a Deis grant from them in June 2017 and I am very grateful to those within The Arts Council who made this possible.
John Kelly
My father, John Junior has been a huge help and source for this project. From the outset he has been supportive and generous of his time.
He kept lots of his father’s personal documents and photos which are to be seen nearly on every page of this site. And he was also a prolific photo and video taker which I have also made use of throughout the project.
Without his recordings, this website would not have nearly as comprehensive as it is. He has shared his memories and knowledge with me every step of the way and I could not be more grateful to him.
Mary Kelly
My mother, Mary Kelly née O’Donoghue, is from Kilfenora in County Clare. She has been a huge source of material for this website and has spent hours searching her house for documents and old photos so that I could put them on the website.
She doesn’t play music herself (although she is a set dancer), so when her husband or children were playing music she was always taking photographs and videos and has amassed an extraordinary archive throughout the years. I have used her and my father’s archive of recordings and images extensively on this website and I cannot thank her enough for all she has done.
James Kelly
James has been a significant help to the research of this website. He has researched the history of tunes for me and gone through the website with me to help with anything I needed. His musical knowledge had been key for me and had added another dimension to the website that would otherwise not be there.
Has has been a great source of memories of my Grandfathers and had supplied me with photos and other material for this project for which I am very grateful.
Charlie Le Brun
My husband Charlie Le Brun, who is from Brittany, has spent a long time on the notation of each of the tunes on the website. He is a talented trad player on the flute, but used his classical background to notate the settings of tunes my grandfather played. This was an arduous task that took up a lot of time but he did it with ease and good humour.
He also helped in many other ways, from listening to me talk about the project, to helping to write some of it.
Barry Taylor
From the very beginning of this project Barry Taylor was kind and extremely generous with his own recordings of my grandfather which are all over this website.
He had the foresight in the 1970s to record some of the early talks and lectures that were given at the Willie Clancy and I cannot thank him enough for this.
His book ‘Music in the Breeze’ about the music in West Clare has been invaluable to me when checking facts on this website. He has always been encouraging and helpful to me and this website is so much better because of his contribution.
If you would like a copy of his book you can contact him by clicking here.
Marianne Foye
My auntie and John Senior’s daughter, Marianne was a great help to this project. She is a keeper of family folklore and I relied heavily on her memories of her father and her time in Capel Street.
She gave me lots of old photos for this website and has been very helpful to me throughout the project.
Thank you very much Marianne.
Elizabeth Maguire
A daughter of John’s sister Nonie, Elizabeth is a wealth of knowledge of our family in West Clare. From details about John’s immediate family to memories she has been available to me right up the launch of this project.
She had scrapbooks of old family photos and more recent photos that I have used extensively. Her input into this website has been greatly appreciated.
Mick O'Connor
Mick O’Connor is the most supporting and helpful man and I am lucky to have him in my life. Our families have been friends for years, from him playing music with my Grandfather to with me learning the concertina from his daughter when I was younger.
I went to Mick for many details and clarifications and he shared everything with me willingly. He also gave me photos and recordings which have added to the overall project. I am indebted to him for his contribution and exceptional support of me and this project.
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
CCÉ have an extensive archive and I am very grateful that they shared some of my Grandfathers recordings with me. Their archive is wide ranging and very easy to use and I would highly recommend people with an interest in Irish music to visit it.
Seamus MacMathúna
I am indepted to Séamus for doing so many of the recordings that are on the Comhltas Archive. Him and my Grandfather were great friends and I am keen to show my appreciate of him here.
Bill Crossland
At the Corofin tradfest in 2017 Bill overheard me talking about this project and has been very generous in giving me access to different materials. He and Neil Wayne gave me the extra tracks from John’s ‘John Kelly Fiddle & Concertina Player’ album, Topic Free Reed Records, which really adds to this website.
Neil Wayne
Neil gave me the extra tracks from John’s ‘John Kelly Fiddle & Concertina Player’ album, Topic Free Reed Records. He also supplied me with gorgeous photos that I have used again and again throughout this website for which I am very grateful for.
Emmett Gill
Emmett who is a talented piper and also works for Na Píobairí Uilleann has been very helpful to me from the start of this project. He has shared knowledge of tunes with me and helped me in other aspects of the website and I am very grateful to him for this.
National Folklore Collection
For each of the tunes on the website I used an image to showcase the tune. I used the National Folklore Collection’s website Duchas.ie to illustrate many of the tunes on this website with old photos that are freely available there. These old photos really add to the colour and texture of the website.
Michael Tubridy
Michael has been a huge source of information to me regarding some of the tunes and other areas of this website and has freely and unreservedly helped me along the way with each question that I asked.
He also took part in the short film that I did for this website which I am very thankful for.
Peadar Ó Riada
Peadar helped in many ways with this website. He shared a great deal of photos and information that make up this website.
I also interviewed him as part of the video that we recorded for this website. Go raibh míle maith agat Peadar!
Feilimi O'Connor
Feilimí O”Connor is a very talented musician and singer and did the highly professional video intro that is on this website. He came on a tour around West Clare and West Cork to film it and was a joy to be around.
He did the final video with very little input from myself, he just innately understood what I wanted it to be and delivered that. His video was hugely important to this project and I am very thankful for all the time he spent on it and for his talent as a producer, director and cameraman.
You can contact him by clicking here.
Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie
Jim & Pat were very kind to allow me to use recordings of my grandfather from the John Joe Healy Collection that is housed on the Clare Library website. It is an amazing resource, thank you both very much.
The Traditional tune archive
This is a wonderful resource that I discovered when researching the tunes on this website and I relied heavily on during this project.
Breandán Breathnach
His notes from the tunes he collected have been invaluable to me and I have so much appreciate for his ‘Ceol Rince na hÉireann’ collection and the work he put into it. I have just 50 tunes on this website and that was a very large undertaking so I have renewed reverence for the man and the many contributions he made to the traditional Irish music scene.
Marcus Dow
Marcus has a index like memory with of information of tunes and he helped me enormously in researching some of the unnamed tunes I have and checking others. Thank you so much Dow!
Leah Kelly
My sister has been a huge help throughout this project. And she was also part of the filming for the short film we made. Thanks for everthing!
Johnny Kelly
My brother was part of the short film and has been helpful in lots of ways for this project. Thanks Johnny!
Cathy Potter / Kelly
Thank you to my sister in law took part in the filming for this website. We are delighted to have a harp player in the family to make us all sound better!
Caoimhín MacAoidh
Caoimhín gave me the oldest picture of my grandfather which I have on this website. Thank you very much for this.
Jonny Dillon
Jonny who works in the National Folklore Collection has given me his time and research skills to add to this website. His knowledge in how to take on a project like this has been invaluable.
Conal Early
Conal was the one who first pushed me to getting funding so I could undertake this website. So it would not have happened at all if it was not for him. Thanks Conal!
Noel Hill
Noel did a very interesting interview with my grandfather the year before he died in 1988 at the Willie Clancy Summer School. It has some very interesting parts to it and I am very grateful to Noel for doing this intervview.
Lisa Shields
Lisa readily assisted me with this website by providing me with access to articles and documents that were useful to me. Her own website Folk Music of Ireland was also a great resource for me.
Ciarán Kelly
Ciarán is a musician, a photographer and a prolific archivist who has shared hundreds of videos from years gone by of musicians on his facebook page. He has gracefully allowed me to use some of his videos on this website which I am very thankful for.
Oidhreacht an Chlár
I have used a few images that I could only find on the Oidhreacht an Chlár website and am grateful be have been able to use them here.
Harry Hughes
Harry has helped me at every stage of this project and has been kind and generous throughout. He has an amazing knowledge of Irish music and I cannot thank him enough. He also participated in the short film we did for this website.
Ciarán Ó Maonaigh
Thanks to Ciarán input for helping me find out about the history behind the tune Caher Rua.
Patti McMahon
Patti is the last woman who lived on Scattery island and she spoke to me about life on the island. She is a warm and very witty woman who was also very sharp. I am very grateful to her for sharing her memories with me.
Tony O'Shea
I have been searching for good photos of the interior of the horse shoe shop and one of the few that I have was taken by photographer Tony O’Shea. Tony kindly let me use this photograph on the website. You can see the photo here.
Fintan Vallely
The book that Fintan was the editor of ‘Companion to Irish Traditional Music‘ has been a mainstay on my desk for a few months now and I am very grateful to him for the knowledge in it that I could check some of the details on this website with.
John Coffey
John took some amazing photos of my grandfather that I have used throughout this website. He has been very kind in allowing me to use them on this website.
Michael Mulkerrin
Michael is John’s nephew and supplied me with quite a few good old photos for this website, thanks very much.
Tony Kearns
Tony has kindly allowed me to use some of his images on this website. He has been taking amazing photos at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy for many years now. And he also has digitized photos that were taken by Liam McNulty and made them available to me also. Thanks so much Tony.
Liam McNulty
Liam’s beautiful photos can be seen on several pages on this website. Thank you very much Liam for taking these photos and allowing me to use them on the website.
Seamus Ennis Centre
Thanks to the Seamus Ennis Arts Centre for providing me with a photo of Seamus Ennis for this website.
Éamon Galdubh
Thanks to Éamon who gave me a photo and details about his grandfather Ned Stapleton.
Brid O'Donoghue
It was very difficult to source, but thanks you Bríd O’Donoghue for finally getting me the photo of Gilbert Clancy.
Clare Library
I used the Clare Library website for my research on numerous occasions. And they have put me in touch with many people so I could get permission to use things on the website. I am very grateful to them.
Éamon McGivney
Éamon has great memories of my grandfather which he shared with me for the short intro film we did. Thank you very much Éamon.
ITMA
The Irish Traditional Music Archive is an amazing resource and I am grateful to them for filming the launch of the website.
Seán Keane
Seán played with my grandfather a lot throughout his life in different bands and he shared some of his memories with me for the short intro film we did. Thank you very much Seán.
Seán O Sé
Seán was also part of the short intro film we created for this website and gave some great insight into my grandfather. Go raibh míle maith again Seán.
Liam Browne
Laim Browne and his father reached out to me with old videos from the programme ‘Donnacha’s Travelling Roadshow‘ that I have used on this website that I have used on this site. I would like to thank them very much for giving me access to these.
Scattery Island Tours
Scattery Island Tours brought us out to the island to film as part of the video for the website. They were generous with their time and shared with us lots of knowledge about the island. They have amazing tours of the island also which I would highly recommend.