Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request

Subject: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 21 - 06:39 PM

Does anybody know a source for recordings of Seamus Ennis on the BBC or Radió Éireann from the 1940s and 50s?

There doesn't seem to be any good recordings online. I have read that Ennis produced a lot of work for both broadcasters so I'm presuming there must be some surviving recordings.

Thanks

J Roy

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 03:14 AM

Material Ennis recorded for his work do survive, the actual programmes seem scarce enough.

BBC and RTE archives will be your best option, if anything at all survives.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 05:12 AM

On re-reading your post, it's not completely clear if you're looking for the work he did as a presenter (as I initially assumed) or his own playing and singing. If it's the latter I would assume you're familiar with the RTE acetates and the compilation cd RTE put together.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 06:26 AM

Thanks for the reply Peter,

I'm familiar with the individual recordings Ennis made in Ireland and Scotland. From talking to relatives I know that he was on BBC and RTÉ Radio alot in the 50s so I was hoping there would be some complete broadcasts available.

I have managed to track down recordings of a couple of series that Ewan Maccoll and AL Lloyd made for the BBC but no episodes of 'As I roved out'. I suppose its very possible that the tapes were recorded over or destroyed.

I don't know if there's a way of contacting the archives of both broadcasters but I'll look into it.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 06:34 AM

Sorry for not being clear Peter,

Yes I am looking for his presenting work. I have copies of most of his LPs, and especially enjoy 'Féidhlim Tonn Rí's Castle' so was hoping there were a few examples of his presenting and storytelling in that style.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 06:35 AM

I went over the Ennis holdings in the Charles Parker archive some years ago, mostly looking for recordings of Ennis' own playing. My recollection is hazy but there may have been radio programmes there as well.

RTE archives are here: https://www.rte.ie/archives/about/ with a contact

Someone like Peter Browne will have looked into that sort of thing but he is retired from RTE now.

You can try ITMA as well.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 06:43 AM

Had a look at the ITMA catalogus, they seem to have the complete BBC field recordings, not the programmes as broadcasted.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 30 Oct 21 - 07:32 AM

Thanks for the help Peter,

It looks like the Charles Parker archive have some of the programmes made with Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy. I'll contact them to see if they have digital copies.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 01 Nov 21 - 12:49 PM

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 02 Nov 21 - 10:18 AM

Not sure why my last post didn't show? I just have a memory of Seamus Ennis talking about the day he was asked to start recording traditional music by Radio Eireann.

From memory, he said something like

'they gave me an 'oul stub of a pencil, a penny jotter and an oul' rusty bicycle, and told me to head west and record what you can find, and record it before the next musical wave from America washes it all away'.

That was maybe a little tongue-in-cheek, but the equipment provided wasn't exactly state of the art even in the 1940s.

One of the musicians he recorded around 1948 was Malachy (Lacky) Gallagher, an excellent Leitrim fiddle player from Drumkeeran. Ennis's recordings of this fine player were issued several years ago by the John McKenna Society in Drumkeeran.
It's called 'The Leitrim Cake' and if you have any interest in the older Irish music and it's still available on johnmckenna.ie- highly recommended

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 02 Nov 21 - 10:35 AM

The bicycle and pencil bit was about his job in the folklore commission Jim. All that is in the collector's diaries.

His broadcasting days came later. There are some comments he made about that too. At one point he started doing broadcasts about lesser known places, not necessarily focused on music. I believe with Prionsiass O Conluann. The first of these was entitled Leitrim of the lakes. One of the comments that was made at the time was that if Leitrim was neglected and not as well-known, there was probably a reason for it. (This and other comments were made in a series of programmes Peter Bowne produced for Rte during the 80s, The Seamus Ennis story. They sold these as a double cassette, which I still have)

Recording musicians for rte, building on the contacts he made during his previous job, he did get some stunning material together.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 11:43 AM

Hi Peter,

Thanks again for the advice. Do you happen to have made a digital copy of that cassette? I can barely find any mention of it online. I would really like to hear it.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 01:58 PM

I have not digitised it.

There were a few similar programmes recently, on the occasion of the anniversary of his death, that used quite bit of the same material Peter Browne used during the eighties. Eamonn de Butleir did a film on Ennis called Miles and Miles of music, where Ennis spoke shout his life and collecting and broadcasting days. A lot of that material was recycled time and again. Lovely thing to watch in itself.
One of the programmes ran on rte on the Sunday morning archive programme and had some lovely material Ennis recorded on the Hebridies. I believe it was discussed on the forum, Jim Bainbridge mentioning it, I believe. Those should be archived on the rte website. I will have a look later (posting this from my phone, which not al too convenient). Will see what I can do about the S.E. story bug do not expect it too soon.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 02:06 PM

Come to think of it, Doireann Ní Bhriain did a couple of very nice TV documentaries on Traditional musicians. The one with Ennis is very much worth seeing, she had great rapport with him. That could perhaps be online somewhere, I downloaded it at some point anyway.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 04:42 PM

Is this it, Peter Laban?

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 05:07 PM

That the one.

I saw Ennis a few times during the week before the Lisdoonvarna appearance that's shown in that film, which was his last (he died two months later). In fact Tony MacMahon filmed one of those occasions for another TV thing and interviewed me after that. I only got to see that twenty five or so years later. But that's a whole other story.

Eamonn de Buitleir's one is on YouTube, not the best of copies but watchable. Beautifully made film and it shows both his (EdeB's) background as a maker of nature documentaries and as a musician.

I'll try chase up the radio links when I have the computer fired up.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 06 Nov 21 - 05:42 PM

Here is the link of the first of John Bowman's Sunday morning programme on rte:

John Bowman 28 April 2019

There were two more dealing with Ennis, on May 5 and 12 to mark his centenary. I have the links but it's awkward on my phone going back and forth to copy/paste and going back to the post.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 07 Nov 21 - 04:52 AM

Looking again at the link Thompson posted above: that is only a small part of the programme I was referring to. Just a clip of it, not the whole thing.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 07 Nov 21 - 01:57 PM

I am on the computer now, so there you are:


John Bowman - Sunday 5 May 2019

John Bowman - Sunday 12 May 2019

The Rolling Wave - 28 April 2019

The Rolling Wave marked Ennis' centenary with more programmes the following two weeks, which had a cocnert fro9m the Seamus Ennis centre in The Naul. I didn't link those but they are easily found once you get to the first programme, linked above.

The version of Doireann Ní Bhriain's 'Hand me down' I have runs just short of an hour. I don't know if there's still a full version available online. I downloaded mine from TG4 at the time.

TG4 had quite a few bits connected to the centenary, including the bicycle diaries, those are now no longer online.

I did notice, but didn't watch, they had a programme earlier this week covering Lomax's 1951 field trip that Ennis assisted on. I believe I have seen it before. It's here on the player : Lomax in Éirinn but it looks like it's Ireland only so you may need an identity cloaker or whaever you use for that sort of thing.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 09 Nov 21 - 11:51 AM

Here are the details for the Seamus Ennis story:

First broadcast as a four part series in the 'Airmeán' programme on RTE radio 1 in spring 1988, presented by Peter Browne and produced by Julian Vignoles. Sold as a double cassette RTE MC115 by RTE.

These programmes used some material taken from broadcasts by Ennis, mainl;y one he produced about his own life. The programmes I linked above made extensive use of the material from this series as well as the older material.

I made a scan of the cover of the cassettes and meant to put it on an image hosting site but am gettign server errors at the moment. I can try later, if anyone is interested.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 09 Nov 21 - 01:23 PM

Hi Peter,

I would defintely be Interested in any Ennis related material you have that copyright will allow you to share. I have all his LPs apart from the 'Ceol, Scéalta agus Amhráin' on Gael Linn. Though I may have to give in and get the CD for that as the LP seems to be impossibly rare.

The radio programmes you posted the links to were excellent, I can't imagine the BBC ever making such good use of their sound archive in a traditional music programme. Its a shame that the 'Hand Me Down' documentary is only a clip as the full film doesn't seem to be available anywhere on line any more. I'll have to check if the ITMA has a copy next time I'm in Dublin.

If you have any leads on where I could get a copy of the Ennis Story Cassette please let me know.

Thanks

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 09 Nov 21 - 03:22 PM

The Hand me down copy I have is 386 MB. And I am on West Clare broadband (i.e. 0.1 Mb upload speed) so I am limited in what I can do, I am afraid.

Do you have the Leader lp where he tells stories and plays the tunes after?

The Gael Linn lp does come up every now and again, I got a good copy off ebay for a tenner a few years ago. Mind you, it took a bit of patience. The Collector EP also comes up, although a lot of the time now at silly prices.

I finally managed to get the scan up: Seamus Ennis story, cover No guarantee on how long it will stay there but you can get some information off it anyway.

I have a lot, and I mean a lot, of Ennis' music all sorts of informal recordings, archive material and whatnot.

You could try pipers.ie Na piobairi uilleann, there's a good bit of his playing in their online archive. I supplied a fair few recordings that were used for the book of his dance music.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: Jehane
Date: 16 Mar 22 - 04:51 PM

>> J Roy >> I have managed to track down recordings of a couple of series that Ewan Maccoll and AL Lloyd made for the BBC

I am very interested to hear these, please would you PM me

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,J Roy
Date: 11 Apr 22 - 03:49 PM

Hi Jehane,

Link for the AL Lloyd series is below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?gz5hw80fo5oer

I do also have recordings of something Martin Carthy did in a similar vein but I would have to email that to you and I'm not currently a Mudcat member so don't have access to PMs. I will look to address that issue.

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,A.L. Loyd
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 12:37 PM

These are Songs of the People kindly donated by one JC.

http://www.mediafire.com/?gz5hw80fo5oer

BBC Genome

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/20/20?q=%22songs+of+the+people%22+lloyd#search

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 5 January 1972 11.30
Wednesday 4 October 1972 21.30

Songs of the People from far and wide
Presented by A. L. LLOYD

1: The World of Children

Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 12 January 1972 11.30
Wednesday 11 October 1972 19.30

Songs of The People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

2: When you go courting illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 19 January 1972 11.30
Wednesday 18 October 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

3: All in a day's work illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 26 January 1972 11.30
Wednesday 25 October 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

4: Ships and Sailors
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive Recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 2 February 1972 11.30
Wednesday 1 November 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

5: Man on the Move illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 9 February 1972 11.40
Wednesday 8 November 1972 19.30

Songs of the People presented by A. L. LLOYD

6: Of Crime and Criminals illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 16 February 1972 11.30
Wednesday 22 November 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

7: Great Events and Small 
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 23 February 1972 11.30
Wednesday 29 November 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

8: Gone for a Soldier 
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 1 March 1972 11.30
Wednesday 6 December 1972 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

9: Birds and Beasts 
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 8 March 1972 11.30
Wednesday 13 December 1972 21.15

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

10: Songs of Myth and Legend 
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 15 March 1972 11.30
Thursday 11 January 1973 19.30

Songs of the People presented by A. L. LLOYD

11: Sounds of Revelry 
Illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 22 March 1972 11.30
Thursday 18 January 1973 19.30

Songs of the People presented by A. L. LLOYD

12: The Highway to Heaven
BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

BBC Radio 3
Wednesday 29 March 1972 11.50
Thursday 25 January 1973 19.30

Songs of the People from far and wide presented by A. L. LLOYD

13: The Seasons of the Year illustrated by BBC Sound Archive recordings

Producer MADEAU STEWART

===

Files

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/gz5hw80fo5oer/Songs_of_the_People_-_A.L.Lloyd

====

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,SB666
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 12:57 PM

"I did notice, but didn't watch, they had a programme earlier this week covering Lomax's 1951 field trip that Ennis assisted on. I believe I have seen it before. It's here on the player : Lomax in Éirinn [https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/play/?pid=5834894750001&title=Lomax%20in%20%C3%89irinn&series=Lomax%20in%20%C3%89irinn&genre=Faisne] but it looks like it's Ireland only so you may need an identity cloaker or whaever you use for that sort of thing."

Plays in UK OK. OBS would capture the stream.

====

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 23 - 11:36 AM

I have a copy and happy to sell for a sum that suits both parties.
2 x cassettes in a plastic case. If there was a booklet, it's not there now.
Happy to take pics etc for any potential buyer.

gavin dot paterson at ntlworld dot com

Subject: RE: Seamus Ennis Radio Recordings Request
From: GUEST,DeadlyHen'sOffspring
Date: 14 Dec 23 - 11:58 AM

I believe there is a copy of at least one episode of 'As I Roved Out' in the Irish Traditional Music Archive.
It's a homemade recording on cassette.

Here are the ITMA identifier numbers for the cassette

CID: 49680
ITMA Reference:        3356-ITMA-CS

Title:        
General Music. Cassette 114. Recording of BBC radio broadcast and field recording of music and singing [sound recording] / [various performers]

Contents:        
[Recording of BBC radio broadcast, 'As I Roved Out'. Featuring Seamus Ennis]