In the Sound Archive of the National Folklore Collection, we have a wide range of audio material and carriers, from wax cylinders, acetate discs, open reels, to more recent carriers such as MP3s, DATs. Today we’ll speak about the wax cylinders we have at the NFC. While most of the collection was recorded by staff members, we have also received a lot of material from generous donors over the years.
Feis Ceoil Belfast 1898 programme, from the ITMA
Among the earliest recordings we have, donated to us from the Feis Ceoil, are recordings from the Feis Ceoil held in Belfast in 1898. The inaugural Feis Ceol was held in Dublin the previous year in 1897. These are believed to be the earliest samples of traditional music recorded in Ireland, and this piece was included in the application we submitted to achieve UNESCO Memory of the World status. In the audio below, Mrs Bridget Kenny is on the fiddle.
Front Cover of the first edition of Béaloideas: The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society, June 1927
The collection of material began with the establishment of the Folklore of Ireland Society in 1927, before the Irish Folklore Commission hired full-time collectors in the mid-1930s. One of the pieces we are preserving in the Sound Archive is this piece (listen below) from 1929. The informant is Eoin Ó Cianáin from Creggan in County Tyrone, who was 72 years old when the recording was made. Seamas Ó Duilearga himself is the collector, and the title of the song is “Cuach mo Londubh Buí”.
Following the Society, or rather alongside it, was the Irish Folklore Institute, established in 1930. They collected a lot of material, some of which we still have in the Sound Archive, and these are part of the earliest recordings we have. The major effort to collect material didn’t start until the days of the Commission in 1935, but there was significant work done before that by both the Society and the Institute. This piece was collected by Éamonn Ó Tuathail back in 1931 during the Institute’s era. We don’t have information on the informant unfortunately, but it’s an early piece in English that we have recorded, although material in Irish was the main interest at that time. This is “The Vagabond Song” on wax cylinder:
Mícheál Ó Murchadha is pictured here using an ediphone in 1935
When the Irish Folklore Commission started back in 1935 and sent out collectors to gather folklore from around the country, the ediphone was the primary tool they used. Sound recordings were made on wax cylinders so that interviews could be transcribed. After transcription, they were sent to the main office in Dublin, where the wax cylinders were shaved so they could be used again. It was a recycling process. It’s from these transcriptions that we have the manuscripts that are in the main collection of the National Folklore Collection.
The main advantage of the ediphone was that it didn’t require electricity to operate, which was necessary in remote areas in the Gaeltacht in the 1930s and 1940s, many parts of which didn’t have electricity. They never intended to keep the physical cylinders themselves, so there wasn’t a sound collection initially, but between 1935 and 1938 the Commission kept specific cylinders, as Seán Ó Súilleabháin wrote in 1938:
Over 400 Cylinders which had a special linguistic or stylistic interest have up to the present been preserved.
Those 400 cylinders grew to the 1300 cylinders we have in the sound collection today. They have been digitized, and efforts have begun to preserve them long-term.
Éamonn de Burc with the collector Liam Mac Coisdeala. Éamonn has the longest
story in the NFC, 30,000 words
Who were the informants who were so generous with their time when members of the commission came knocking at their door? The person who stands out the most for me is Éamonn de Burc who told the story of Eochair, Mac Rí Éireann, the longest story we have in the Collection, 30,000 words (!) recorded over three days with collector Liam Mac Coisdeala.
Who were the collectors who went out to gather this material, for little pay, seven days a week if necessary, in Irish weather, with a heavy ediphone and a box of cylinders strapped to their backs? There were nine full-time collectors at any one time and many part-time collectors.
Tadhg Ó Murchadh with his bicycle and the device he built for it
One of the collectors, Tadhg Ó Murchú, created a device for his bicycle so he could carry the ediphone itself and all the cylinders he needed, taking it with him wherever his travels took him that day. They would go over hills and rivers in all kinds of weather. And if we think about how much could be recorded on one cylinder, between around two and a half to four minutes, a lot of cylinders were needed in one day of recording. Imagine how many were needed for a story like Éamonn de Burc’s!
The Commission continued to record on the ediphone until the late 1950s, but it was in the 1940s that the next step in the evolution of the Sound Archive in the Irish Folklore Collection took place but we’ll have to wait until later this year to hear that story!
This post was written by Éamonn Ó hAdhmaill, Cultural Heritage Collections Audio Specialist, National Folklore Collection / Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann
Excellent post. The bicycle photo is a classic!
Great story Éamonn. Their dedication was phenomenal!