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    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.

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    Hugh Shields
    Home > People

    Hugh Shields

    Shields, Hugh, 1929-2008

    Hugh Shields (1929–2008) was a lecturer in French and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. There his research was mainly in medieval and oral literature. He published a study of folk singing in North Derry (Shamrock, Rose and Thistle) and a collection of old Dublin songs, wrote numerous articles on songs, singing and the ballad press and edited a variety of publications as well as ethnographic tapes and discs of traditional singing in Ireland and in France: the fruit of many years collecting in the field.

    An article by Nicholas Carolan, reproduced here with kind permission of the Folklore Society of Ireland, details Hugh’s immense contribution to Irish traditional music.

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    Hugh Shields and Irish traditional music / Nicholas Carolan

    Carolan, Nicholas, ‘Hugh Shields and Irish traditional music.’ Béaloideas: The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society vol. 85 (2017).

    Please note conditions of use: Copyright of Béaloideas: The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society is the property of Folklore of Ireland Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

    With sincere thanks to The Folklore of Ireland Society/An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann for permission to reproduce this article.

    The Shields Family Collection

    The Hugh Shields Collection (HSH-18739) at the Irish Traditional Music Archive contains an extensive array of multi-media materials which have been entrusted to ITMA over the last number of years by Hugh and Lisa Shields.

    Included in this collection are:
    • commercial/non-commercial audio/audiovisual recordings (230+ reel-to-reels, tape cassettes, VHS etc.)
    • printed items (books, ballad sheets, serials, sheet music, pamphlets and off-prints etc.)
    • personal papers (correspondence (1953—2002)
    • research notes
    • card catalogues
    • unpublished articles
    • radio and lecture scripts
    • manuscripts, typescripts, music transcriptions and notations
    • original illustrations
    • photographs
    • ephemera and newspaper cuttings

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