Point taken on all counts Vic.
"Seamus Ennis spent most of the war years collecting in ireland and travelling by bicycle to do so. Fact."
The bulk of Ennis's recording work came after the war, which was what I was referring to.
Even so, the ground Seámus covered in the period from which you are taking your information, 1942 to 1946, would have made it impossible to have been carried out on a bike - rural Ireland had bad roads, the terrain in places like Connemara was extremely difficult and Seamus was carrying an Ediphone recorder and other equipment.
He may well have cycled to some of the more difficult areas, but the major part of his work necessitated a car - the one you were given comes from the cover of the book, 'Going to the Well for Water' (pretty sure it was taken a mile from here, in Miltown Malbay.
The Seamus Ennis field diary 1942 -1946 by Rionach ui Ógáin which I have in front of me.
Seámus's skill at musical annotation was legendary and his handwriting impeccable, as can be seen from the book's illustrations, but all the collectors from the invention of the recording machine resorted to its use as more efficient, more accurate and a damn sight more convenient.
The use of a recording machine would not have been optional to Ennis; his employers, The Folkore Department would have insisted on it.
Tom Munnelly used to use a wonderful photograph of a collector in Clare in the 1930s with a wheelbarrow piled five feet high with recording equipment
This is one of the entries to Seámus's diary:
Thursday 20.6.46.
"We enjoyed the dance and arrived back in Carna very tired at three oclock in the morning. The dance had finished at two oclock. The young men were very grateful to me as a day like that was a great novelty for them. Just like myself, they were unable to make their way around when th war came and cars were taken off the road. I was proud to give them their first experience of driving as a pleasant method of travel."
(ui Ógáin p.347)
Rionach's book contains some of the best descriptions of collecting from source singers and musicians I have ever read; Ennis not only loved the music but he was extremely sociable and won the respect of everybody he worked with (though, like Ewan, he could over-awe people at times).
If asnybody is considering acquiring it, make sure you get the English language translation.
Jim Carroll