Steeped in several genres of music, playing saxophone and clarinet throughout his life, Tralee’s Billy Curtin was born into a musical family, and from the young age of 12 he was performing with a band. In this podcast he describes working with many showbands and dancebands, playing jazz, rock, blues and country and western.
The Gaisford St. Lawrence family lived at Howth Castle for 800 years. This long connection was brought to an end with the death of Christopher Gaisford St. Lawrence on 29th October 2023. We compiled recordings with Christopher in 2020; with his wife Meryl in 2014 and with his son Julian in 2020. This is their […]
We were saddened to hear of the recent death of Liam Connellan with whom we were privileged to compile an oral history recording some years ago. This is riveting testimony by a man who played a pivotal role in the development of the Confederation of Irish Industry, having come from the IMI in 1972 in […]
Heritage Week 2022 brought us to Kilcormac, Co. Offaly for the launch of an oral history project entitled “Capturing Their Story”. Recordings were compiled with a selected number of the local residents who provided wonderful and descriptive testimonies of life down through the years. The project came about due to a collaboration between Creative Ireland […]
Enniscoe House, on the shores of Lough Conn in North Mayo was built in the 1740s. One of Ireland’s historic Georgian Houses, the estate now includes the Heritage Centre recently visited by US President Joe Biden. This podcast reveals the story of the history, management and upkeep of this historic house and estate. The voices […]
In 1709, several hundred families from the German Palatinate were settled in Ireland. These Palatines established roots in Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford.”In came the brass-coloured Palatine from the ancient bank of the Swabian Rhine” P.W. Joyce.Their story is fascinating, and can be related to the immigrants from Ukraine to Ireland today.
This podcast records the recent occasion when Harry McCalmont agreed to hand over some family papers to Local Studies at Kilkenny Library HQ. Declan Macauley and Alicia Dunphy of Kilkenny Library met myself and Harry McCalmont at his home at Norelands Stud, originally part of the Mount Juliet estate.
In 2002, with the permission of school authorities, I visited primary schools in South West Ireland and handed my microphone to the children so that they could ask questions of a very knowledgeable person in their community. The questions asked ranged far and wide, and some wonderful recordings were compiled as a result.The schools visited […]
This podcast tells the story of those involved in bringing about the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. You will hear the voices of Dr. Martin Mansergh, special advisor on the North, who was involved in discussions between the Nationalist parties and the Irish Government, and Bertie Ahern who worked tirelessly to bring an end […]
This podcast relates to a recording compiled with Paddy Hayes who recalled initially his climb to the top of the Ford factory in Cork before having to close the factory on 13th July 1980. He was then headhunted by Waterford Crystal, became Chairman of the company and again finding himself in a situation where, in […]
