It’s coming up! This year’s Francis O’Neill Irish Arts Week is only 2 weeks away. This will be the 9th annual Irish Cultural Summer program at the Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago.
Did you know the Chicago Ronald McDonald House was once Francis O’Neill’s home?
Although Francis O’Neill left a memoir, it contains very little mention of the tragedies of his personal life: he and his wife Anna lost 6 of their 10 children. Most Read More …
There has been a lot of competition for Jigs to Jacobites by Orfhlaith Ni Bhrian and Mick McCabe since this wonderful book arrived at our house. This is an excellent Read More …
An interesting discussion on thesession.org about Irish (or more broadly traditional) music in works of fiction led to the following list. The last item is my own, as yet unpublished, Read More …
Do I have a forgotten collection (and a very lengthy one at that) of O’Neill’s to announce? Perhaps recently found in an attic in the Mid-West like O’Neill’s wax cylinder Read More …
The above is a recording of Dr Aileen Dillane discussing Francis O’Neill at the Irish-American Heritage Center in Chicago. The title of the talk is “Sounding out Chicago in the Read More …
Francis O’Neill’s story is that of an amateur musician that took his passion to great heights when many had lost faith in the music of the “Old Country”. How many Read More …
Today, January 28th, is the 83rd anniversary of Francis O’Neill’s death in 1936. He was 87 when he died of a heart attack. Anna Rogers O’Neill, his wife of many Read More …
A talented musician, from Northern Ireland originally, James O’Neill (no relation) was a friend of Francis’s who became his most valuable accomplice in music collecting. In his book Irish Traditional Read More …