The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) is committed to providing free, universal access to the rich cultural tradition of Irish music, song and dance. If you’re able, we’d love for you to consider a donation. Any level of support will help us preserve and grow this tradition for future generations.
The Inishowen Song Project was an integrated microsite of some 2,000 connected items all related to the English-language song traditions of the Inishowen peninsula, Co Donegal which was published in 2013. It was a collaborative project between the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Presented here are a selection of the materials which formed part of the original microsite.
The items include audio recordings & video recordings, books and photographs and they constitute a unique presentation of a local strand of Irish traditional music.
The basis of the original microsite was a body of recordings made in Inishowen over some 20 years from the 1980s by Donegal singer and teacher Jimmy McBride and kindly donated by him to the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Material has also come from singer Jim MacFarland of Derry, the Belfast Central Library, the Derry Journal, and Dr John Moulden, among other donors as acknowledged, and above all from the local Inishowen singers and singers visiting Inishowen who are featured in the project. Our thanks to them all. Digitisation, song transcription and metadata cataloguing has been carried out by ITMA staff.
The original project was brought to fruition by the Inishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle with funding provided by the Inishowen Development Partnership, to which ITMA is greatly indebted. ITMA itself is funded by An Chomhairle Ealaíon in Dublin and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in Belfast. The site served people throughout the world who wished to discover and enjoy the song traditions of Inishowen, and especially Inishowen people themselves and their local teachers and students.
The microsite was closed for technical reasons in 2021, but plans are afoot for an even better version. Until this is ready we hope you enjoy some of the elements from the original site.
