A momentous publication … a treasure trove of words, a cultural and social history, a work of great tenderness and bighearted loyalty. Proud and heartbroken, it is an heroic attempt to remember.

Michael Longley

A Hidden Ulster – people, songs and traditions of Oriel by Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin – now in its third print – was published by Four Courts Press (Dublin) in 2003, to widespread critical acclaim. Shortlisted for the 2005 Michaelis-Jena Ratcliff Prize in Folklore and Folklife, it was also listed among the Books of the Year both in the London Times and the Irish Times.

It was launched in the National Library Dublin, by Cathal Goan, in the Linen Hall Library Belfast by the poet Michael Longley and Dr Pól Ó Muirí, in Oriel by Dr Diarmaid Ó Doibhlin and Dr Tom Collins, and by Dr Tom Munnelly at the Clare Festival of Traditional Singing 2003.

Song

As the song tradition does not exist in isolation, this research places it at the heart of the social life of the people with its traditions, singers, musicians and rituals, which are chronicled and recalled in great detail.

Much of this material survived in disparate, fragmentary form, mainly hidden away in libraries, archives, museums and private collections, and in most instances the song airs were lost, but following extensive research by the author, who is also a traditional singer, a once vibrant and vital song tradition was recreated.

Harp

Another feature of this work is the inextricable link between the literary, song and harp tradition, showing poets and harpers in close collaboration (AHU pp.337-57), and songs of the poets and the people surviving in the harpers repertoire collected by Edward Bunting c.1800 (AHU p.372-3). Included were detailed biographical information on poets and harpers from c.1650 – 1863. It shows how both genres can inform each other in relation to repertoire and interpretation.

Blind harper Patrick Byrne circa 1943
Patrick Byrne (1876- 1883). Photograph c. 1843.

Tunes

Although Oriel is known as an area very rich in traditional music, other collections emerged during research that had not been published before in mainstream collections, notably the Patrick McGahon and Luke Donnellan collections (AHU pp.435-507). They are published in A Hidden Ulster in manuscript facsimile form, and are finding a way back again into the national repertoire of tunes. There is an extensive list of the repertoire of a piper called Philip Goodman, as well as song airs and tunes published in the County Louth Archaeological Journal.

Omeath fiddler
Omeath fiddler c. 1912 © Oriel Arts 2021

People

Due respect and credit is paid to the last keepers of the oral Gaelic tradition in Oriel – singers and storytellers and the many collectors, photographers and transcribers who had the wisdom, patience and endurance to record these valuable treasures for posterity (AHU pp. 358-416).

The outcome of this publication is a new awareness in the wider national community of one of Ireland’s richest sources of song and music; a sense of pride and ownership in the local community of a noble and ancient inheritance; a plethora of television and radio documentaries, recordings, new research, awards and events celebrating this magnificent national treasure trove has followed.

Sections of A Hidden Ulster have been reprinted in various literary anthologies, and it is essential reading on the music, language, anthropology and folklore courses in various faculties of third level institutions throughout Ireland.