Brochure of an audiovisual exhibition of the Irish Traditional Music Archive based on an ethnographic study and book The Northern Fiddler by Allen Feldman and Eamonn O’Doherty Ceol, the Irish traditional music centre at Smithfield Village, Dublin 7 19 April – 30 September 1999

The Northern Fiddler exhibition is based on a 1970s ethnographic project by Allen Feldman, Eamonn O’Doherty and Natalie Connolly to document the older fiddle-playing traditions of the musical region spanning south Donegal and south Tyrone.

The project resulted in a valuable collection of sound recordings of music and interviews, and of drawings and photographs, made in the course of a field-recording trip in the two counties during June and July 1977, and other drawings made in 1978 and 1979. All three collectors were responsible for the sound recordings, while O’Doherty created the images. The trip, financially supported by a collecting grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, was the culmination of three years of visits to the fiddle players by Feldman and Connolly. Twenty-five musicians were recorded, all men: thirteen in Donegal and twelve in Tyrone. Most had been born at the end of the 19th century, and most have since died.

A study of the music and musicians entitled The Northern Fiddler, edited by Allen Feldman (general text, music) and Eamonn O’ Doherty (introduction, drawings, photographs, design), which included a selection of music, speech and images was published by Blackstaff Press of Belfast in 1979 and republished by Oak Publications of New York in 1985. Music transcriptions were by Andrew Robinson assisted by Jack Schroevers, and music consultancy was provided by Andrew Dickson, Natalie Connolly and Sandi Miller. A selection of the music recorded by the project from John Doherty was issued on the LP Bundle and Go by Topic Records of London in 1984, and has since been reissued on cassette by Ossian Publications of Cork and on CD by Ossian and Green Linnet of Connecticut. The original field recordings and copies of the drawings and photographs have been lodged by the collectors in the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Dublin, through the good offices of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, for listening, viewing and study by the general public.