Saving Old Sounds (SOS)

SAVING OLD SOUNDS (SOS)
A Wax Cylinder Digitisation Project

The Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin houses some 1,300 wax cylinders containing sound recordings of a range of folk narrative and folk song (in Irish and English) and folk music. These materials form part of the national folklore collection (Irish Folklore Collection) in the care of the Department and are the property of University College Dublin. This collection, covering a time-span of almost fifty years and stemming from all over Ireland, is the best of its kind in existence.

Approximately one-third of the cylinders were recorded by the full-time collectors of the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-1971); the balance consists of donations received by the Commission, the earliest of these being the Feis Ceoil recordings made in Dublin and Belfast, dating back to 1897. Recordings made by such eminent collectors as Fr Donnellan (South Armagh) and Fr Ó Muireadhaigh (Omeath, County Louth) and Fr de Hindeberg (Waterford) are also represented.

These recordings represent intangible culture heritage of the first rank, their venerable age alone rendering them of considerable international interest. They are of the utmost importance for the study of Irish folk tradition in that they contain the earliest audio instances of certain stories, songs or tunes, or constitute the only known examples (or important local variants) of such items. They are equally important for the study of Irish and Hiberno-English dialects in that they provide access to lost

Tadhg Ó Murchú recording on the ediphone from Paddy Óg Liath Ó Súilleabháin, Muing Uí Dhubhda, Co. Kerry. Photo: Caoimhín Ó Danachair 1936. (008)

dialects of both languages from many different parts of Ireland. Their significance in terms of local and regional history and identity cannot be overstated.

Conservation of these voice and instrumental recordings constitutes the first step of the SOS project and is of paramount importance. A grant of €9,000 from the Heritage Council of Ireland has already enabled the Department of Irish Folklore to effect the transfer of approximately 250 cylinders to digital format. The donation of a further €40,000 by Muintir Thír Eoghain/The Tyrone Association will now fund the digitisation of the remaining cylinders, thus completing the first stage of the project.

Only a small amount of the recordings contained on these cylinders has been available hitherto; it is confidently anticipated that digitised access to many of them for the first time will reveal hitherto unknown examples of Irish folk music, narrative and song. The future availability of these materials will have a particularly beneficial impact in scholarly as well as educational and cultural terms, not only in Ireland, but also around the world.

Stages two and three of the project, for which funding is currently being sought, will concentrate on:

• transcribing, documenting and contextualizing the contents of the collection to the fullest possible extent and
• re-mastering and publishing the recordings and ancillary materials which, it is envisaged, will become available for use on educational websites, on CDs, and in other ways.

SOS was launched by Senator Maurice Hayes in Newman House, University College Dublin on 23 June, 2004.

SLÁNÚ OIDHREACHT NA SEAN-TAIFEAD (SOS)
Tionscnamh do Dhigeatú na bhFiteán Céarach

Tá raidhse ceoil, amhráin agus scéalta (i mBéarla agus i nGaeilge) ar na c. 1,300 fiteán céarach atá i seilbh Roinn Bhéaloideas Éireann sa Choláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath. Cuid den bhailiúchán náisiúnta béaloidis (Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann) na taifeadtaí fuaime seo a rinneadh thar achar leath-chéad bliain agus ar a bhfuil ábhar ó mhórán gach cearn d’Éirinn. Tá na fiteáin seo ar an bhailiúchán is fearr dá gcineál dá bhfuil ann.

Ba iad bailitheoirí lán-aimseartha Choimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann (1935-1971) a rinne c. trian de na fiteáin seo a thaifeadadh; bronntanais a fuair an Coimisiún ar a n-áirítear taifeadaí de chuid an Feis Ceoil i mBaile Átha Cliath agus i mBéal Feirste, ag dul siar chomh fada leis an bhliain 1897. Tá fiteáin a rinne na bailitheoirí mór le rá An tAthair Ó Domhnalláin (Ard Mhacha), An tAthair Ó Muireadhaigh (Lú) agus an tAthair de Hindeberg (Port Láirge) i gceist freisin.

Cuid den oidhreacht chultúrtha neamh-ábharach den chéad scoth na fiteáin seo agus díol spéise ar an léibhéal idirnáisiúnta iad i ngeall ar chomh sean is atá siad, gan trácht ar aon ní eile. Acmhainn mhórthábhachtach iad maidir le staidéar a dhéanamh ar an bhéaloideas sa mhéid is go bhfuil na samplaí is luaithe dá bhfuil againn de scéalta, amhráin agus foinn áirithe le fail orthu nó gur orthu atá samplaí d’ábhar den chinéal sin nach bhfuil fáil ar bith air in aon áit eile. Tá an tábhacht chéanna ag baint leo maidir le staidéar a dhéanamh ar Ghaeilge agus Bhéarla na tire seo ó tharla go bhfuil teacht iontu ar chanúintí nach ann dóibh a thuilleadh. Foinsí ríthábhachtacha gan aon agó don stair agus don fhéiniúlacht go háitiúil agus go réigiúnach iad chomh maith.

Ediphone machine with storage case and cylinders

Is í an chéad chéim agus an aidhm is práinní atá SOS ag cur roimhe, na traidisiúin bhéil agus an ceol uirlise atá ar na fiteáin seo a chaomhnú. Chuidigh deontas €9,000 ón Chomhairle Oidhreachta le Roinn Bhéaloideas Éireann digeatú a dhéanamh ar c. 250 de na fiteáin cheana féin. Cuirfidh an deontas €40,000 a fuarthas le gairid ó Mhuintir Thír Eoghain/The Tyrone Association ar chumas na Roinne fuílleach na bhfiteán a dhigeatú agus, dá réir sin, bailchríoch a chur ar an chuid sin den tionscnamh.

Níl ach sciar an-teoranta dá bhfuil ar na fiteáin seo ar fáil faoi láthair. Is cinnte go dtabharfar chun eolais lear samplaí d’amhráin, ceol agus scéalta nár chualathas roimhe seo san taifeadtaí digeataithe. Beidh tionchar sonrach tairbheach ag an ábhar seo ar chúrsaí léinn, ar chúrsaí oideachais agus ar chúrsaí cultúrtha, in Éirinn agus níos faide i gcéin.

Díreoidh an dara agus an tríú céim den tionscnamh, a bhfuiltear ag lorg maoinithe dóibh faoi láthair, ar:

• tras-scríobh, doiciméadú agus comhthéacsú na bhfiteán chomh fada agus is féidir sin a dhéanamh agus
• athmháistriú agus foilsiú na dtaifead agus an ábhair theagmhasaigh sa chaoi is go mbeifear in ann iad a chur ar fáil ar shuímh idirlín oideachasúla, ar dhlúthdhioscaí, agus ar shlite eile.

Sheol An Seanadóir Muiris Ó hAodha SOS i dTeach Newman, An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath ar an 23 Meitheamh, 2004.

Remarks by Senator Maurice Hayes, Chairman of the National Forum on Europe, in Newman House, Dublin on Wednesday, 23 June, 2004 on the occasion of the presentation of a grant by the Tyrone Association to the Department of Irish Folklore, UCD.

Senator Maurice Hayes, Chairman of the National Forum on Europe, speaking in Newman House, Dublin on Wednesday, 23 June, 2004 on the occasion of the presentation of a grant by the Tyrone Association to the Department of Irish Folklore, UCD.

It is a great personal pleasure to preside over this presentation this evening, at the invitation of the Department of Irish Folklore, UCD and the Tyrone Association. The Department of Irish Folklore in this college is, of course, a treasure-house of Ireland’s heritage, one of the richest such treasuries in the world and the envy of folklore specialists throughout the world. It is the successor to the Irish Folklore Commission which was established through a visionary initiative of the Taoiseach of the time, Éamon de Valera. Its first and only Director was a Co. Antrim man, the distinguished scholar and renowned folklorist, Séamus Ó Duilearga, from Cushendall.

The Commisssion had for a brief period, a forerunner, the Irish Folklore Institute. This was set up, as many in the North, still say the Free State, following negotiations with a man not noted as a spendthrift, Ernest Blythe.

Perghaps I may quote some extracts from a letter sent by Séamus Ó Duilearga to Dr Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, Professor of Folklore in the University of Lund, Sweden, where Ó Duilearga had spent time learning his trade. It goes as follows:

“My Dear Wilhelm,

I write you this letter with a light heart. We are to have an Irish Folklore Institute and I am to be in charge of it! On Nov. 23rd after a certain amount of negotiation had been done, I, in company with Prof. Tierney, a member of Dáil Éireann” and as we know, for long a formidable President of this College – “waited on Mr Blythe, the Minister for Finance and put the matter before him. He received us very kindly and asked me what I proposed to do. Well, Wilhelm, I was nervous before the interview took place but when I was asked this question I forgot all about Blythe and saw only a long procession of old Irish speakers tottering towards their graves with their lore unrecorded, and I made an appeal which surprised myself, and Blythe also, for he surrendered at once! He is a man like myself from the Black North and I think he appreciated the fact that I, a Northerner, was prepared to tackle a big job and get the work of collecting Irish Folklore done at once and in a businesslike way.”

An bailiúchán béaloideasa atá anois faoi chúram an Choláiste seo, tá sé ar na taiscí is luachmhaire atá again in Éirinn. Na bailitheoirí a chuaigh amach ar na bóithre agus na bóithríní, ar na sléibhte agus na gleannta, ar na hoileáin agus na leithinsí, faoin dtuaith agus sa chathair, rinne said éacht. Agus é sin go léir de ghrá na scoláireachta agus na hoidhreachta, agus le spiorad tír-ghrá gur deacair do dhaoine, b’fhéidir, a shamhlú, sa lá atá inniu ann.

Agus, má bhíodar ó am go céile, ag ceannródaíocht maidir le teicneolaíocht, ba mhinic gur trealamh trom, achrannach a bhí le hiompar acu, in áiteanna iargúlta, gan coir iompair ceart, murab é. b’fhéidir, and “pony and trap”.

Those collectors have left us a wonderful, a precious legacy. But as we have heard some of it is very frail. The oldest of the wax cylinders made on Phonograph and Ediphone machines goes back as far as 1897. These recordings amount to a store of music, of song and of stories, the like of which is not to be found anywhere else in the world. It embraces material from every part of Ireland.

Baineann a lán de leis an Tuaisceart agus leis na contaethe cois teorann – Aontram, Ard Mhacha, Lú, Muineachán agus, ar ndóigh, Tír Eoghain. Is i nGaeilge atá cuid mhaith de seo agus tugann an t-ábhar léargas dúinn ar na canúintí den dteanga a bhí san bólaí sin, léargas nach mbeadh le fail anois murach an bailiúchán seo.

As I say, a lot of the material is in frail condition, The Department here has wished, for some time, to digitise these records but had lacked the funds to do so. But no more. For in a farseeing gesture that shows great generosity, but also a deep consciousness of the value of our heritage, the Tyrone Association has decided to make a grant of €40,000 to the Department which will allow the digitisation programme to go ahead.

I know that their gestures stems from the sense of confidence and self-esteem that has flowed from the heroic achievements of the team led by Peter Canavan and the late Cormac McAnallen. Last year, the National Forum on Europe, which I chair, held a meeting in the conference facilities in Croke Park, where that great team’s achievements reached the pinnacle of success. On that occasion, the Forum members observed a minute’s silence, as a gesture of sympathy on the tragic loss of Cormac McAnallen, an outstanding young sportsman and Irishman, who gave such a wonderful example to all our young people. I consider that the making of the grant we celebrate tonight is very much in the spirit of Tyrone pride that was so well exemplified by Cormac.

That said, I am sure that the decision to make this wonderful gesture was not entirely uninfluenced by the fact that the Department of Irish Folklore is headed by a good Tyrone man, Professor Séamas Ó Catháin, from Drumquin, who has given remarkable leadership in the conservation of the priceless collection here, as well as, of course, in the scholarship and dissemination of programmes based on the material.

So in making this presentation, I conclude with the old war-cry – “Lámh Dearg Abú!”