Music and Dance Page
Between the years 1980 and 1985, the Trustees of Muckross
House were involved in a project to record the traditional
Music, Song and Dance, of County Kerry. This
project was the brain-child of one of the Trustees of Muckross
House, Mr Ian O’Leary. He worked closely with Mr Edmond (Ned)
Myers, the then Manager of Muckross House, in instigating this
work. Their objective was to document, record and preserve for
the future, the Music, Song and Dance, of the older inhabitants
of County Kerry.
This project received support from the Kerry Board of
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and the American Irish
Foundation. Technical advice and support was provided by Dr
Micheál Ó Súilleabháin of the Music Department at University
College Cork, Mr Tony Perrott of the Audio-Visual Department,
also at University College Cork, Mr Tom Munnelly collector with
the Department of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin
and Fr Pat Ahearn of Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk
Theatre of Ireland, Tralee, County Kerry.
In 1980 and in 1981 two collectors, Catherine Foley and
Geraldine Cotter, were employed. These were later joined by:
Mary Mitchell, Patricia Connery and Mary O’Flynn. Collecting
generally took place over a period of ten or twelve weeks every
summer. Reel to reel, full-track magnetic tapes, were used to
record the Music and Song collection, which was also fully
transcribed. A selection of that audio material is now
available on our Music Page.
It was the wish of the Trustees of Muckross House that this
Music, Song and Dance Collection would serve to commemorate
their colleague Mr Ian O’Leary (d. 1981).
Links

Mr Ian O Leary
You can hear Ian talking about the music project on
'The Long Note', a radio programe broadcast on RTE
radio in October 1980.
"Click here to Listen"



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