Ireland - Comhaltas Archive

A register of traditional musicians,singers and dancers in Clare is to becompiled by Comhaltas Ceolt6iriEireann as part of the culturalorganisation's efforts to build aregional archive.The movement, which is celebratingits 50 th anniversary, is building up itsarchive centres at Sligo, Tipperary,Westmeath, Tyrone, Kerry andWexford. It is also setting up centresin London and Boston. The archive willbe accessible on the group's website.The first centre, established in Ennis10 years ago, has about 1,500 hoursof audio and video recordings ofhundreds of musicians, including somecommercial recordings.In a LEADER-assisted scheme, half the£50,000 needed had to be raisedthrough local funding efforts,according to Mr Frank Whelan, headof the archive."When we first set up the archiveand identified people in their 80s andupwards, we recorded their music.Those recordings, even though theyare only 10 years old at this stage arepriceless."Helping Mr Whelan are aphotographer, a projects officer, asecretary and a treasurer."The big problem is it is totallyvoluntary. It is difficult to makeprogress."The aim is to create an accessiblearchive for researchers. "If someonewants to do research in Clare, it isavailable in Clare, and easily available.It is not one of those archives thatgathers dust, that is next toimpossible to get into. In fact, thematerial that we have collected hasbeen used by a good number ofstudents doing research and all sortsof theses," Mr Whelan said.The latest project is to get personaldetails and a social history of everyartist aged over 16 connected withthe music or folklore, and to includethem on a Co. Clare Comhaltaswebsite. Mr Whelan, a flute player, saidEibhir Mulqueen, Irish Timeshe hoped to have sound samples ofevery musician.Schoolchildren will be enlisted to helpbuild the archive, in a follow-up to aproject begun two years ago whenlocal musicians and singers werebrought into the classroom to explaintheir art. The scheme is being runwith the Clare Education Centre."It is a way of building up the archive.The more people we make contactwith, the more we hear there areprivate collections here and there orwe find a pocket of people of aparticular age group we had notheard of."The archive has outgrown the roomin Cois na hAbhna it occupies inEnnis, and negotiations have begunwith Clare County Council to acquirea derelict 17 th century house nearbywhich would become the newlocation for the tapes, manuscriptsand 78 r.p.m. records."It has been a great 10 years. Whenyou look at where music has gone, Ithink Comhaltas has been the silentpartner in the success story," MrWhelan said.Mr Frank Whe/an, head of the cct archive ofmusicians and storytellers at the Cois nahAbhna library in Ennis, Co. Clare. Themovement is building up its archive centresacross the country. Photo: Se an CurtinlPress 22.A plaque was recently unveiled at theformer Pipers' Club in Thomas Street,Dublin, as part of the 50 th anniversaryactivities, and a series ofcommemorative stamps has beendesigned by An Post. A celebratoryconcert will be held at the Universityof Limerick at Easter, and 14 All-Irelandwinning ceili bands performed at theFleadh Nua festival in Ennis in May.The classes and competitions theorganisation has run since the earliestdays have played an important role inkeeping traditional music alive,according to the director ofComhaltas, Senator Labhnis 6Murchu. There are 600 music classesin the Republic and the North, and25,000 people participated in musiccompetitions, the fleadhanna cheoil,last year.With more than 4,000 hours ofmusic and story-telling recorded,the importance of regional styles andvariations, and the regional archives,have come to the fore. "Clare andthe surrounding counties are a richrepository of the music and thetype of musicians we are talkingabout," he said.9