Tom Munnelly

Tom Munnelly (25 May 1944 – 30 August 2007) was an Irish folk-song collector.

Early years

Tom Munnelly was born in Rathmines in Dublin, and went to Clochar Road technical college. He took up factory work at the age of 15. At a scout camp he became intetersted in folk songs. To enlarge his own repertoire he acquired a tape recorder. In 1965 Munnelly met an Irish Traveller John "Jacko" Reilly and recorded "The Maid and the Palmer". He called it "The Well Below The Valley". It was the first time this song had been collected from Oral tradition in 150 years. Christy Moore in the magazine "Swing 51" (1989) recalled that "British folklorists ... wouldn't accept that it was genuine. They reckoned it was a put-up and they couldn't accept that this song had appeared in the West of Ireland because it had never appeared there before." In 1972 Munnelly played the tape to Christy Moore who subsequently performed it on Planxty's album "The Well Below The Valley". Planxty also sang "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy". Again the source was Munnelly's recordings of Reilly. Later Sinéad O'Connor was inspired by Munnelly's recording of "Lord Baker". Her own version is based on the singing of Reilly.

Academic appointments

A. L. Lloyd introduced him to D.K. Wilgus, professor of Anglo-American folk song. In 1969 Munnelly became Wilgus's assistant. In 1970 he founded the Cumann Cheoil Tíre Éireann (the Folk Music Society of Ireland) together with Breandán Breathnach. In 1971 he joined Breathnach at the Department of Irish folklore at University College Dublin. In 1976 he was asked to recruit performers for the United States Bicentennial. His collection started appearing in commercially available form: "Paddy's Panacea" (Topic, 1978) and "Mount Callan Garland" (1994, but recorded 1984).

He recorded over 1,500 tapes (over 20,000 songs) of folksong and folklore. According to "Irish Philadelphia.com", it was the "largest ... collection of traditional song ever compiled by any one person". He then proceeded to transcribe and catalogue every note.

County Clare

In 1978 he relocated from Dublin to County Clare. He married Annette and had two sons, Colm and Tara, and a daughter, Éadaoin. He was chairman of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin from 1987 to 1993. On 19th June 2007 he received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland at Galway for services to Irish traditional music. He died in Miltown Malbay, County Clare.

Writings

He wrote occasional articles for the "Folk Music Journal", the International Ballad Commission and the on-line magazine "Musical Traditions". Early in 2007, Anne Clune edited a collection of his essays, and tributes to him, "Dear Far-voiced Veteran (Essays in Honour of Tom Munnelly)", with contributions from Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Fintan Vallely.

Discography

Recordings made by Tom Munnelly

* "The Bonny Green Tree - Songs of an Irish Traveller" (John "Jacko" Reilly) 1978
* "Paddy's Panacea: Songs Traditional In West Clare" (Topic, 1978)
* "Songs of the Irish Travellers" (various artists) (1983)
* "The Mount Callan Garland: Songs from the repertoire of Tom Lenihan of Knockbrack, Miltown Malbay, County Clare" (1994) - book plus cassette

Bibliography

* "Breandan Breathnach" (2002) by Tom Munnelly and Nicholas Carolan

References

* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2448364.ece Obituary, the Times]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2162974,00.html Obituary, The Guardian]
* [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/obituaries.cfm?id=1403742007 Obituary, the Scotsman]
* [http://www.irishphiladelphia.com/munnelly Obituary, Irish Philadelphia]
* [http://www.theirishworld.com/article.asp?SubSection_Id=11&Category_Id=2&Article_Id=2882 Awarded Doctorate]
* [http://www.belfastfolk.co.uk/reflections/index18.asp?p=1&rf=11 Belfast Folk]
* [http://www.answers.com/topic/tom-munnelly?cat=entertainment All Music Guide]