Inishowen Music

A Podcast Series about the archival

work of Inishowen Traditional Music Project

Founded in 1999 Inishowen Traditional Music Project (ITMP) has been deeply involved in collecting, recording and developing the traditional music of the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland.

It has built up an extensive archive of music recordings, manuscripts, photographs, film and other materials. In 2026 ITMP has received funding from The Heritage Council to develop and protect the archive by upgrading the cataloguing and digital preservation of the material, along with a conducting a website upgrade which is currently in progress.

This podcast series explores the ideas behind the archiving of traditional music along with three episodes dealing with three of the main figures in the collection.

Episode 1: Thursday 12th November 2026

Why Archive ?

an overview of the Archive of Inishowen Traditional Music Project

This is the first episode of a four part series.

In this instalment, co-founder of Inishowen Traditional Music Project and fiddle player Roisin McGrory talks about the beginnings of the project, along with the reasons behind the need for archiving the music of the peninsula.

This episode also includes discussions with Caoimhin Mac Aoidh and Conor Caldwell about their work with Cairdeas na BhFidiléirí and the importance of music archiving.

Archivist and singer Grace Toland will also give an overview into the role and the organisation of archives, and her work on the cataloging and organisation to ITMP’s archives.

Composer and musician Paul Harrigan talks about the interactive learning resources he developed for ITMP.

Episode 2: Thursday 26th November 2026

Honoria Galwey (1830-1925) - a forgotten collector.

ITMP has since 2016, been exploring and developing the study of this important female collector who collected in and around Moville in the mid to late1800s.

In 2025 ITMP commissioned a documentary film Between Two Worlds - Honoria Galwey- A Portrait.

This film included historical research along with a new arrangement of tunes and songs from her collections. Also included was recently uncovered material, which was discovered during the research for the project.

Episode 4. 12th December 2026

Seamus Grant (1934-2005)

ITMP recorded Seamus’s one and only commercial recording.

ITMP’s archive holds a wealth of archive material relating to this important fiddler.

This episode will explore Seamus’s legacy as a fiddle player through interviews with musicians who played with Seamus and an overall perspective on his position within the tradition.

Episode 4. 23rd December 2026

Dinny McLaughlin (1935-2004)

ITMP worked with this noted musician, composer, poet and choreographer on many projects over the years prior to his death.

He was the main focus of Féile na hInse 2026 which took place in April.

This episode will explore the wealth of material that ITMP holds relating to Dinny from recordings, stories, poetry and photographs. It has a substantial collection of material shot during the production of the documentary Ark of Tides (2013) which it would like to make available to the public.

This series is produced and presented by Neil McGrory, Macruari Audio and Film.

Inishowen Traditional Music Project

www.inishowenmusic.ie

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