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.
Finbar Boyle (1951–2018) was drawn to Irish traditional music from his teenage years in Dundalk, Co. Louth, and he was an excellent singer in the Northern style and an occasional writer of comic songs. After some years as a national school teacher and in the public library service, he worked for ten years for the Department of Irish Folklore in University College Dublin, specialising in the conservation of audio materials. He worked subsequently for Claddagh Records in Temple Bar. From the early 1970s he was an organiser of the influential Tradition Club in Slattery’s of Capel Street and from the late 1970s he was a columnist and reviewer for In Dublin magazine. Finbar was also an organiser of the 1970s Dublin Folk Festival, a radio researcher, and, from 2006 to 2009, the programmer of traditional music for the Temple Bar Trad Fest. He also served on the ITMA Board.