A number of Donegal musicians are included among thousands of RTE radio recordings from the 1930s to 1970s which were published for the first time this week.
Those featured include the famous fiddler, Mickey Doherty, and Gaoth Dobhair singer Cití Ní Ghallachóir who were recorded in March, 1949.
Cití, taped by Seamus Ennis, can be heard singing ‘Coinleach glas an fhómhair’ and ‘An Maighdean Mara’.
Mickey ‘Simi’ was recorded playing the reels ‘Roaring Mary’ and the ‘Swallow’s Tail’ which he got from ‘The Croaghs’, a remote Irish-speaking hamlet between Glenfin and Glenties. Mickey was a brother of the legendary fiddler and raconteur, John ‘Simi’ Doherty. They were brought up near Fintown and spent a lot of their adult lives in the Ballybofey area.
The recordings are taken from acetate discs, the earliest sound recording format held by RTÉ, which were used in the production, recording and broadcast of programmes for Radio Éireann. Over the last three years, RTÉ Archives has been creating digital files from thousands of fragile acetate discs.
The online archive now contains a treasure trove of musical items.
The collection also includes recordings of major cultural and political figures such as Maud Gonne and Douglas Hyde.
The specialist digitisation and cataloguing work was supported by Comisiúin na Meán and carried out by RTÉ’s archive specialists in partnership with the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
Commenting on the publishing of the collection, Bríd Dooley, Head of RTÉ Archives, said: “We are delighted to open up this hugely evocative collection from the earliest decades of broadcast recording technology. It will take audiences back to the mores, sounds and voices from 1937 onwards as the new Irish State was emerging, many decades before television itself came along. It provides a unique insight our audiences can now enjoy and will be a source of important discovery for researchers, programme makers, historians and educators alike.
To view the entire collection, visit https://www.rte.ie/archives/collections/acetate-disc-collection/
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