The Scribe
The Life and Works of James O'Neill

Caoimhin Mac Aoidh

€15.00 EUR

The publication of the various O'Neill collections of traditional Irish music in the first decade of the 1900s was the culmination of a visionary project begun in the 1880s. The chance meeting of Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill in Chicago's Irish neighbourhood of Bridgeport began a working partnership which produced Irish music collections, regarded by musicians as some of the most important primary sources of tunes. Francis O'Neill's high profile life was founded on a distinguished career in public service. James O'Neill, an accomplished fiddler from Co. Down, Ireland, on the other hand, lived a quiet and modest existence. This book documents, for the first time, the life, career and work of one of Ireland's most important musicians. It confirms previously undiscovered links to an important pre-existing work which sets the O'Neill collections in an entirely new light.