‘That’s the O’Neills singing in Killucan’

Oral audit of Westmeath turns up invaluable finds

A recording of songs made more than 60 years ago at a house in Killucan, featuring the King, O’Neill and Kierans families, gives a glimpse into what rural family life was like in years gone by.

Emma Laffey unearthed the find in her grandmother’s house in Drogheda, and it has now been chronicled as part of Audit of Oral Heritage Recordings in Westmeath, carried out by Dr Tomás Mac Conmara.

“My Grandmother was May Kierans. She lived her married life in Drogheda, but grew up in Navan. After she passed, both my aunt and I were cleaning out her house when we found the recorder in a small cupboard in the box room,” said Emma.

“My nan always had great foresight about heritage and family, recordings and pictures and all the rest of it.

“I pulled out this blanket and it was weighted and inside was an old reel to reel recorder. I played it and my aunt recognised it straight away, she said; ‘That’s the O’Neills singing down in Killucan’.

“She knew who they were because she would have been down there with them as a child. She’s on it singing as well, an old Irish song, when she was only four.”

Oral audit

Emma found the recording a few years ago and didn’t know what to do with it, but knew it was of some value. When she came across the fact that Dr Mac Conmara was undertaking an oral audit of Westmeath, she immediately got in touch.

“This is about identifying what’s been collected in Westmeath in the oral tradition over the last 80090 years,” Dr Mac Conmara told the Westmeath Examiner.

“From the ’60s onwards, people were more aware of the traditions being passed down and possibly disappearing.

“They were also aware of the technology available to them. A lot has been recorded in that time, whether by individuals, organisations or community groups, but it’s all in isolation.

“There hasn’t been one point of access for these recordings up until now. So we are compiling data on every recording across Westmeath – what the recording’s about, what format it’s in , and if it’s available to the public.

“We have received a positive response from the people of Westmeath so far,” he says, “And we really want to let more people know about it as this project will be continuing until November at least.”

Summers in Killucan

Emma continued: “I emailed Tomás and told him what I had. I didn’t know if it was of any significance, but he came and had a listen, and it’s important in the singing tradition that would have been done a lot at night time when there would have been no TVs and all that kind of stuff.

“My nan and my grandfather, Seán Kierans, used to go down to Killucan on their summer holidays. They go to my grandfather’s aunt Maggie’s house (Seán’s mother’s sister). Maggie had married Joe King, they lived in Millarstown House just outside Killucan.

“You can hear Paddy O’Neill singing on it, and some of the children as well. You see, Joe King had a sister Elizabeth, who married William O’Neill. That’s where O’Neills come into it. That’s the family connection on all sides.

“They all used to meet down there for the same two or three weeks every year, helping out on the farm, with the hay and doing whatever needed to be done. They loved it down there.

“In the evenings, there would always be singing and stories told, and that’s what appears on the recording.

“There’s a lot of old rebel songs on there which they would have been singing at the time, because it would have been roughly 50 years since the War of Independence.

“Nan must have brought her recorder down to Killucan, singing shillelaghs and doing farm work, they were on their holidays, as far as they were concerned.”

Emma explained that after trying to get in touch with the O’Neill family for years, it turns out that a neighbour living near her in Galway was related to the family.

“I was trying to find these O’Neills to give them a copy of the recordings and would you believe there was a man called Fergal O’Neill living around the corner from me. It turned out that it was the same O’Neills, and that an uncle of his is now living in Millarstown House in Killucan!”

Big or small

Dr Mac Conmara is clear that he wants no recording “big or small” left out of the project.

“It could be somebody’s grandmother reflecting on her life over the last 90 years, it could be stories, conversations, songs. It’s all vitally important, not just to the families themselves, but to scholars and historians who might be researching a particular time in our history.

“We are documenting these recordings and the hope is that at some time in the future, Westmeath County Council will make a depository of every recording out there. For now, however, all we are doing is collating a database of the material.

“We want to ensure that as many people know about this as possible, we want to spread the message, every recording, no matter how small it may seem, is valuable.”

• If you have any information on oral heritage recordings or collections on County Westmeath topics, people or places, please contact Mac Conmara Heritage Consulting on 087 916 0373 or by email at macconmaraheritage@gmail.com.