Máire Ní Scolaí came to my attention from the three opening songs on "Amhráin Ghrá," a Gael-Linn compact disc anthology issued in 2011. These three tracks, like many others on this recording, were previously issued on earlier productions on the Gael Linn label. The notes with this collection referenced the vinyl long-playing album, titled "Máire Ní Scolaí," which Gael Linn released in 1971: at this point Ní Scolaí was nearly at the end of her life. It occurred to me to question when these studio tracks were actually recorded: her voice sounds in good estate, and it is hard to believe at that advanced age she could still sound quite that flawless.

So I looked around to see if I could discover anything, since the "Amhráin Ghrá" album notes do not say when Ní Scolaí actually went into the studio and sang for Gael Linn....if indeed that was what she did.

Here is what I have unearthed. This comes from www.ainm.ie, where the biographical entries are in Gaelic -- not one of my languages, but there are online tricks to using a translator program. Anyway, ainm.ie has a lengthy, detailed biographical sketch for this singer.

My English translation from the Máire Ní Scolaí biographical page:
"On her long-playing vinyl album ["Máire Ní Scolaí"] issued by Gael Linn, the song recordings for Side One came from the RTÉ archives.
The selection of recordings for Side Two was made from old His Master's Voice records [HMV]."

It seems correct to presume that ALL of these recorded performances, be they for RTÉ or HMV, may predate the 1971 release of the Gael Linn LP by some time, perhaps a rather long time. And it may require a lot more digging before I can find anything specific documenting the vintage of those studio recordings.
Remember, Maire Ni Scolai was born in 1909 and died in 1985. In 1971 she would have been sixty-two years of age.