As a group we quickly mastered the brief, establishing a collection development policy, and delegating the necessary tasks. Site-visits were carried out in relevant libraries, and interviews conducted with librarians/archivists. From my own point of view, it was both an absolute pleasure, and huge learning experience, to interview Terry Moylan from Na Píobairí Uilleann. The final two weeks of the semester have been allocated to trying up loose ends and posting everything up on the group wiki for the event on December 3rd – the day of reckoning.
Having a musical background (not to mention a lifelong passion for Irish traditional music) made this project all the more interesting for me. As such, I felt it was particularly important to treat the subject with the integrity it deserves. I must admit to being somewhat apprehensive of the approach to be taken, given the hijacking of Irish traditional music over the years by a multitude of impostors. Thankfully these fears proved unfounded.
The blog exhibits a solid understanding of the chosen subject with interviews, biographical pieces and music videos representative of some influential styles within the Irish music tradition. The blog acted as a focal point and exchange of information – for example, Daniel Murray's piece about online interactive music scores from the Irish Traditional Music Archive is a resource that I was unaware of but will most certainly be using regularly from now on. I was also delighted to hear Daniel Earls express his new-found appreciation of Donegal fiddling, likening John Doherty's rambunctious, yawping style – with its horde of eldritch eighteenth-century Scottish crossovers – to the guitar-style of Jimi Hendrix. Although, I did think the comparison flattered Hendrix somewhat.
Overall, I believe the project ran smoothly in that everyone approached their work with great diligence and all the goals that we set ourselves were achieved.
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