Recovering Lost Songs – Enlivening a Local Song Tradition

Savage, Colleen (2025) Recovering Lost Songs – Enlivening a Local Song Tradition. Masters thesis, Dundalk Institute of Technology.

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Abstract

South Armagh has a strong sense of local identity, influenced by an awareness of a historical Gaelic culture and the imposition of the border. However, the local Irish-language dialect and related heritage is not part of the lived experience for many in the region. This study aims to draw attention to forgotten songs and local singers of the region and, in particular, enliven through creative practice, the early twentieth-century song collections of John Hannon (1867– 1931) of Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh and related Irish-language repertoire. Collected by Hannon from a network of over fifty local singers that belonged to the last generation of native speakers living in the greater Crossmaglen district, the songs in the Hannon collection are in the Irish language but were mainly written out phonetically and capture and preserve a local dialect of the language. Despite their value as a record of a local dialect and treasury of local folklore, the songs have largely disappeared from local repertoire. The project utilised Participatory Action Research (PAR) involving a group that seeks to re- establish these songs in the repertoire by connecting them with airs from historical sources or composing new airs for the lyrics in the collection. The research identifies songs with local themes and concealed meanings, highlighting their relevance to the local community. The project critically reflected on recordings of singers in the tradition who provide local touchstones for the tradition and demonstrate different approaches to performing local songs. It explored and tested mechanisms for sharing the material and connecting it with a community from which the songs originated. By examining processes for creative engagement with archival sources, informed by the concept of the second life of folklore, and compositional and performance practice, the project enlivened the forgotten aspect of the musical and linguistic heritage of South Armagh.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Irish song, traditional music, Ulster, John Hannon
Subjects:	Arts and Humanities Social Sciences > Geography Arts and Humanities > History Arts and Humanities > Music
Research Centres:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	David Kearney
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2025 07:29
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2025 07:29
License:	Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0
URI:	https://eprints.dkit.ie/id/eprint/939

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