Music
Ireland has a wonderfully rich musical heritage and all aspects of the music found in here are represented in the Museum's music collections. There are musical instruments, significant collections of sound recordings, recording apparatus, music books, sheets and manuscripts. They relate especially to traditional Irish music and to the band tradition.
Some items of are of special interest. For example, the Museum has a small collection of barrel organs, and harmoniums, both of which were once used to produce church music./Collections/Music/the-CORK_hornpipe.aspx)
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Manuscripts shown are
transcriptions of The Cork Hornpipe and The Donegal Reel made by Richard Lewis O'Mealy for a Mr McWilliams of Groomsport Co. Down. O'Mealy made a set of pipes for Mr McWilliams in 1945 (see photograph) and also sent him some musical transcriptions of versions of tunes based on his own playing. He also gives advice on how to play a certain passage in The Cork Hornpipe. O'Mealy recorded both of these tunes for the BBC in 1943. These recordings can be accessed in the museum's sound archive./Collections/Music/L-4170-8.aspx)
Archival Recordings
The museum's sound archive contains many notable recordings of traditional music and is frequently accessed by researchers with an interest in this area. The collection features recordings of singers such as the late Eddie Butcher from Magilligan who was recorded extensively by Hugh Shields. There are also recordings of many other musicians and singers covering a range of styles and repertoires
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Pictured right is Eddie Butcher (1900-80), who was brought up in Magilligan, Co. Derry and had an extensive repertoire of traditional songs which he freely shared with singers from all over Ireland and further afield. The noted collector Hugh Shields generously donated copies of the field recordings he made of Eddie Butcher to the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum for listening and study by the general public.
In 1966 The Ulster Folk Museum, as it then was, issued the first published sound recording of Eddie Butcher, a 7" extended-play disc entitled Adam in Paradise. It contained four songs still very much associated with Eddie, The Enniskilling Dragoons, I Long for to get Married, Adam in Paradise and The Cocks are Crowing.
The disc introduced Eddie Butcher to a new and appreciative audience outside his own area and brought a new world of Ulster singing to public attention all over Ireland and Britain. Many songs from his repertoire were taken up and indeed receorded by a number of leading traditional singers. This recording was issued jointly as a CD by The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and The Irish Traditional Music Archive in 2005 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Eddie Butcher's death and can be purchased from the museum.
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Commercial Recordings
The range of commercial recordings in the sound archive takes the form of cylinder recordings, 78 rpm records, vinyl records and CDs. These cover a range of musical genres.
Musical Instruments
The museum has a significant collection of musical instruments and one of the most interesting is a violin made by Thomas Perry of Dublin c. 1796.
O'Mealy Pipes, pictured below:
Set of uilleann pipes which is probably one of the last instruments made by Richard Lewis O’Mealy(1873-1947.
A native of Templecross, Co. Westmeath, O'Mealy spent most of his life in Belfast. /Collections/Music/O-Mealy-set-(McWilliams).aspx)
The set is pitched in C#, which was particularly favoured by O’Mealy, and are of boxwood with ivory mounts and brass fittings. They were made c.1945 for a man by the name of McWilliams ( his forename is at present unknown ) of Groomsport, near Bangor. Co. Down.
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