Jim Cotter, a member of the NUIG Chemistry staff, gave a talk on Saturday on the life and music of a famous Irish music collector. The talk was one of many events as part of Trad Fest 2010 which took place at the weekend on campus and in Galway City. Jim, originally from Schull, Co Cork is a tin whistle player and works as Senior Technical Officer in the School of Chemistry. He spoke about the life of Captain Francis O’Neill who is from near Bantry, Co Cork, about 17 miles from Jim’s homeplace. O’Neill gathered together a large collection of Irish music while he was working as a police officer in Chicago from the 1870’s to the early 1930’s. “His publications are regarded as the greatest single personal influence in the course of Irish music in the past century,” said Jim. “Anyone with any interest in Irish music should come along. It will be a celebration of O’Neill’s life,” he added. Nicholas Carolan’s book, pictured below, is regarded as the definitive biographical version of O’Neill’s life.
Jim’s greatest musical influence was the late Tommy Nolan, with whom he played with for 25 years. “I’m really pleased to see a great revival of our musical culture in NUIG,” he said. The talk was held in the Large Acoustic Room in Áras an Mac Léinn ib Saturday February 13th at 4pm. Click on the below link for a rendition of Chief O’Neill’s hornpipe played by the Dubliners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIEy7s_GAcM&feature=related
By Mairéad Ní Chaoimh
