The multimedia materials presented in the Dusty Bluebells exhibition were drawn from a number of different manuscript and sound recording sources in the Shields Collection.   As well as providing substantial editorial advice and hands-on preparation of materials for Dusty Bluebells, Lisa Shields also created this really practical 2019 PDF edition of the songs, rhymes and riddles in the collection.

This searchable index below was prepared by Lisa Shields.  The page numbers refer to the large numbers on the diary pages themselves, rather than the page number in the PDF.

A creel of peats 90 — A harely toats 10 — Ah rah chicka pa 9 — Ah’m, ah’m 63 — A little thing goes wandering about 100 — All in together girls 26 — Archibald bald bald 109 — Around and around goes the ally-ally ship 24 — As I was in the kitchen 29 — As I was going down Glasgow town 30 — Bang, bang the dishes 96 — Bangor boat’s away, The 29 — Beatty you’re a wanting 63 — B’fhearr liom réal beag 59 — Big ship sails, A 14 — Blue bells, cockle shells 27, 111 — Bottle of ink, A 41 — Brass buttons, blue coat 18 — Brian O’Lynn 92 — C, e, l, t, i, c, Celtic 116 — Charlie Chaplin went to France 60 — Chewing gum a penny a packet 54 — Cinderella 26 — Cowboy Joe 101 — Creel of peats, A 90 — Crockery ware 90 — Cuir na ba 104 — Dan, Dan 117 — Denis the menace 52 — Did you ever see the divil 76 — Drawing buckets of water 85 — Early in the morning, before 8 o’clock 94 — Eena meena, macka rocka 54 — Eetle attle blue bottle 9 — Flowers in the garden 40 — Games 33 — God bless the master 103 — Grandma Grandma Gray 8 — Granny in the kitchen 111 — Green gravel 20, 53 — Green grows the laurel 77 — Hally-go-lee-go-lee 43 — Happy birthday to you 72 — Have a cigarette, sir 52 — Here are the robbers 11, 12 — Here I’m sitting sewing 98 — Here’s a health to the company 89 — Here she sits, a lovely creature 46 — I am a guide girl 107 — I’m a little Dutch girl 68 — I’m the wee faloorie man 27, 41 — I’m telling on you 51 — If a fella met a fella 90 — If Moses supposes 30 — I had a little motor-car 96 — I like coffee, I like tea 91 — I live next door to a Highland man 42 — I love my love far better 58 — I’m a lord of high degree 38 — I made you look 49 — I saw teacher sitting on a window 66 — I’ll climb up a high, high tree 85 — In and out goes the dusty bluebells 24, 88 — In and out the windows 61 — Ipsy wipsy spider 49 — Iniskilling dragoon, The 87 — I saw teacher 107 — It’s coming near Christmas 29 — It’s of a row to you I’ll show 65 — ’Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry 75 — Jack Smith a fellow fine 83 — Jacks 63 — Jane McNeill 57 — Jelly on the plate 28, 115 — Jenny Jones 22–23 — Johnny Jow 8 — Johnny O’Connor says he loves her 34 — Johnny over the water 24 — Keep the kettle boiling 91 — Kerry recruit, The 78 — Kneeling on the carpet, so so sweet 100 — Knight of the road, The 80 — Let the wind blow high 72 — Liar, liar 18 — Little Minnie tore her pinny 66 — Little thing goes wandering about, A 100 — Love will you marry me 37 — Lura beag 21 — Maid of Culmore 105 — Mummy, daddy, uncle Dick 50 — Mummy, daddy, uncle Tom 50 — Meta Moore said she’d die 13 — Minnie Picken 57 — Mr Lack broke his back 50 — Mrs Cunning down by the shore 27 — Mrs Kelly broke her belly 50 — Mrs Mason broke her basin 60 — Mrs White got a fright 18, 49 — My aunt Jane 15 — My bonny Irish boy 86 — My daddy goes to Meeting 69 — My mother said 48 — Now Barry and Joan were under a bush 114 — Obadiah 54 — Oh go ye in by yonder town 39 — Oh sing an old time song to me 39 — Old Madam Buntyfoot 90 — Old Roger is dead 17 — On the mountains Caly Daly 67 — On the hillside stands a lady 101 — On the mountain stands a lady 99 — On the top of yon heathery mountain 69 — One potato two potato 9 — One two buckle my shoe 9 — One two three 112 — One two three alery 10 — One two three a-plainsy 112 — Our queen can burl her leg 7 — Our queen up the river 7 — Our queen won 47 — Our queen won the medal 47 — Paddy on the railway 107 — Paddy Tunney 50 — Policeman, policeman 61, 113 — Poor little sandy girl 88 — Poor Toby is dead 16 — Porridge and whey 13 — Postman, postman 26 — Pounds, shillings & pence 73 — Queenie-o 33 — Raddy addy and we’re not beat yet 48 — Real beag, B’fhearr liom…… 59 — RIDDLES — — If there were twenty sick sheep 12 — — How many feet has 40 sheep 12 — — As I went ower Corny Hill 12, 13, 64 — — As I was going to St Ives 12 — — As I went up a slithery gap 21 — — Wee Jinny with the red nose 21 — — Riddle me riddle me randy bo 31 — — What goes over the water 31 — — What goes round the house (2) 31 — — There was a fiddler in Dublin 31 — — As round as a riddle 31 — — The cuckoo, the tittle 32 — — Hard bread 32 — — Tá bean bheag amuigh 102 — — D’ith damh dubh uibh 102 — — Teachtaire beag 102 — — Chuaidh mé amach 102 — — What goes through the wood 32 — — As I went through yon guttery gap 32 — — As white as snow 32 — — Queen Victoria built a ship 52 — — A pair of hames 52 — Rocking the cradle 62 — Round and round goes the gilly….. 24, 106 — Sailor went to sea sea sea, A 110 — Sally Wan 51 — Saturday night is Halloweve night 59 — Says he to me “Is that you?” 91 — See that thumb 51 — Seo ba 62 — Seven little gipsies 74 — Shilly with the wee girls 18 — Silk satin 29 — Skip, skip, skip to Maloo 88 — Someone’s under the bed 91 — Some say the divil’s dead 53 — Sonsy Ann she won the game (“Jacks”) 64 — Tarry trousers 73 — Tea pot, tea pot sitting on the sand 49 — Teacher, teacher with a stick 107 — Teddy bear 66, 113 — Tell tale tattle 18 — Thart fa dtaobh den bhaile 61 — There came an old woman riding 27 — There came three gypsies riding 27 — There came a poor woman from Sandy Row 38 — There’s the one that broke the barn 83 — There was a little man 13 — There was a man, a man indeed 19 — There was an old woman 37 — There were two sisters going to school 40 — Three grey geese 48 — Three wee roo-ra curly-munted pigs 90 — Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor 9, (27), (29) — To my grief and woe 70 — Tree in the ground 71 — Twelve beats the eleven, The 82 — Twenty, eighteen 26 — Two, four, six, eight 116 — Two little dicky birds 24 — Two little sandy girls 102 — Under the ban bushes 110 — Walls of Jerusalem, The 55 — We’ll join our hands together 81 — Wee dog Buff, The 60 — Wee Magee 79 — When I was young I had no sense 62 — Wind, the wind, the wind blew high, The (13), 34, 35, 44 — Woman at the churchyard gate 114 — Yonder stands a bonny, bonny lassie 108 — You’re a wee bonny wean 62

The recordings of children’s songs, rhymes and riddles in the Dusty Bluebells exhibition are part of a much larger collection of field-recordings made by Hugh Shields. The article below prepared by Hugh and Lisa lists in detail the Shields recording collection as of 1972. The original recordings have been donated to ITMA and are now digitised. —

“Irish folk-song recordings, 1966—1972: an index of tapes in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum” by Hugh and Lisa Shields. Ulster folklife, Vol. 21 (1975), pp. 25—54.

Hugh Shields’s article for children on Mumming is given here as background material for the Dusty Bluebells Songbook and Playlist May Queens and Mummery.