The Grassy Green Pillow
On a recent visit to West Cork, I had the fortune to properly explore Tralibane and the surrounding area. I was bowled over by the hospitality of the people there, Read More …
Tag: Cork
Bantry Chief O’Neill Festival 2019
Bantry is a beautiful town in West Cork, not too far from Tralibane where Francis O’Neill was born. This year’s 2019 Chief O’Neill festival kicks off tomorrow (September 6) in Read More …
The Tragedy of Tralibane Bridge
If you closely read O’Neill’s work, Tralibane bridge turns out to be personally very important to him, as a place and a tune.
The Boys From The East
I have been struck recently by a number of remarkable historical connections between Japan and West Cork (and even Bantry in particular). Of course, O’Neill visited Yokohama in his early Read More …
Chief O’Neill Traditional Music Festival in Bantry
O’Neill released a major work of historical and contemporary research on the topic of Irish music in 1913 titled Irish Minstrels and Musicians. Not only did it advance the serious Read More …
Bantry Bay Revisited
Return to Bantry Bay. Just as Francis O’Neill returned in very different circumstances from when he left at 16— in his mid-fifties as a newly retired Chicago Chief of Police. Read More …
Ronan O’Kelly’s Ireland
As we move into summer and hopefully better weather, time to think about what to do on the holidays. A music festival is always a good option and, as I Read More …
The Mist Covered Mountain
Many of the tunes O’Neill collected made reference in their names to the fairy folklore of Ireland: The Fairy Queen, King of the Fairies, The Fairy Boy etc. In Victorian Read More …
Queenstown or Cobh
Cobh, or Queenstown as it was known until 1920, is where Francis O’Neill left Ireland as a teenager destined to travel around the world. The picture above dates from about Read More …
The Mardyke
The broad Lee river flowing through Cork city is prone to flooding. At the point near University College Cork and The Presentation Brothers Secondary College (where Francis O’Neill might well have Read More …