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Dublin photographer Steven de Paoire documented a host of Irish traditional singers and musicians in the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield, Dublin 7, over a number of years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They include regular and visiting performers, some of whom are now deceased. His collection of photographs were taken both in the main bar where the regular sessions are held and in a former performance space upstairs, and selections from them decorate the pub. He has kindly donated a selection of these images to the collections of the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
The Cobblestone, on Smithfield Square in north central Dublin, has been a traditional music venue and a meeting-place for traditional musicians over recent decades. Owned and run by musician Tom Mulligan, member of a well known Leitrim-Dublin musical family (the youngest teenage generation of which now plays frequently there), the Cobblestone hosts nightly (and sometimes daily) informal sessions and has a regular scheduled programme of musical events, notably the monthly concerts of Na Píobairí Uilleann.
With thanks to Steven de Paoire for the donation of digital images to ITMA & for permission to reproduce a selection of them here.
Nicholas Carolan & Treasa Harkin, 1 February 2013
