Just came across the following announcement from John Moulden:
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Hugh Shields, song collector, friend and mentor of a generation of singers and students of song in Ireland, passed away this morning, 16th July 2008. He was born in 1929. Funeral arrangements are not yet clear but the service of thanksgiving for his life will take place at St Bartholomew's Parish Church, Dublin with cremation at Mount Jerome, Dublin on Friday or Saturday.

Hugh Shields was the most incisive commentator on Irish song of the last century. He combined a love of songs and singers with great intuitive understanding of the workings of tradition and its contributors. His capacity for analysis was unsurpassed and his work is beautifully and concisely descriptive; every sentence deserves repeated reading.

His books together with the recordings of traditional singers he was instrumental in issuing will be his memorial. No student of song should neglect his "Narrative Singing in Ireland".

John Moulden