promoting the social singing tradition of (mainly the north of) Ireland
Books for singers, story tellers and students
Ulstersongs Publications
The Trim Little Borough: Songs of the Coleraine area and the Causeway
Coast: Compiled and edited by John Moulden: Published by Coleraine
BoroughCouncil, Department of Leisure and Tourism. (12 pages, card cover,
A5)
Price: Out of print - for the real enthusiast I have
about five copies left £2.00
Eight songs, with music, supporting notes and an introduction.
The songs were chosen to represent the richness of song within the Coleraine
area and the notes and introduction are intended to put the reader in touch
with the wider spectrum of song within Ireland and the English speaking world.
The songs are drawn from the Sam Henry and other collections.
Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831: (ISBN 1 898437 00 9):
selected, set to music and annotated by John Moulden (Ulstersongs, Portrush)
(24 pages, card cover, A5)
Price: £2.00
Seventeen songs with music, notes, an introduction and
references. Hugh McWilliams was born in Glenavy Co Antrim c 1783, taught
near Newtownards Co Down from 1800 to 1815 and in Clough, Co Antrim from
1819. He published two books, each entitled "Poems and Songs on Various Subjects"
in 1816 and 1831. Uniquely among Ulster Folk Poets a substantial number of
his songs entered the oral tradition; others of them are worth singing
today.
Thousands are sailing: a brief song history of Irish emigration: (ISBN
1 898437 01 7): compiled by John Moulden (Ulstersongs, Portrush) (48 pages,
card cover, A4) Price: £5.00
20 songs - from tradition and ballad sheets, the latter
set to a variety of airs; with pictures and extracts from documents illustrating
Irish (but mainly Ulster) emigration to the USA and Canada in the 18th and
19th centuries.
Thousands are sailing: a brief song history of Irish emigration:
(USCASS01), sung by John Moulden (Ulstersongs, Portrush). (C85 Audio
Cassette)
Price: £6.00
All the songs in the book of the same name sung unaccompanied
in traditional style by John Moulden, who has been described in Ceol na
hÉireann (Journal of Na Píobairí Uilleann) as "a well
regarded singer". The cassette is presented as an aid for teachers who wish
to use the songs in the classroom, the general reader who wishes to hear
them and for singers who want a starting point for their own
performance.
Forthcoming: Songs of the People: Part Two:
From 1928-1932 the newspaper series founded by Sam Henry
was edited by others. This book, researched and designed by John Moulden,
draws on the newspaper archive, the personal papers and memories of one of
the collectors and incorporates additional local information. The plagiarism
of one of the editors is proven and fully described.The roughly 100 songs,
which were not pirated, were collected in Antrim, Derry and Donegal and are
presented with musical notation, notes and references and even a few
pictures.
approx. 160 pages, Price approx. £12, publication intended 1998,
more information later.
Sam Henry's "Songs of the People": (ISBN 0 8203 1258 4): edited by
Gale Huntington, Lani Herrman with contributions from John Moulden. (University
of Georgia Press)
HARDBACK and dust cover: £30.00 + £5.00 p&p PAPERBACK
£11.00 + £4.00 p&p (Original price: (paperback) £27.00
(hardback) £54.00)
Songs of the People was a series which ran from 1923 to
1939 in the Coleraine newspaper "The Northern Constitution". For twelve of
those years the editor was Sam Henry who contributed upwards of 500 songs
of high quality. Previously highly regarded but known only from scrapbook
copies compiled by Sam Henry for the Belfast Public Library, The National
Library of Ireland and the Library of Congress, this, the first book publication,
has been presented with the music in staff notation, an introduction, notes
and references and extensive indices. The basic collection for the North
of Ireland.
Dust Jacket for the hardback above, with the map, photographs of some of the singers and biographical outlines of the compilers; specially produced by Lani Herrmann. Price: £2.00
BOOKS FROM OTHER PUBLISHERS
Fuller descriptions of specified items will be made
available on receipt of a stamped addressed envelope, by telephone or e-mail.
Priced individually. Others can be ordered; please inquire.
This selection consists largely of difficult to obtain or out of print or
remaindered items which may not be known to everybody.
Some of them are available more cheaply in shops if you like to go
hunting!
Adare Press
Doreen McBride (ed): Great Verse to stand up and tell them
modern Ulster vernacular verse; a tradition updated
£5.00
Appletree Press
Paddy Tunney: The Stone Fiddle see Green Linnet for complementary
album
£ Out of print
Paddy Tunney: Where songs do thunder sequel to The Stone Fiddle;
second of a trilogy £4.00 (note price reduction)
Ciaran Carson: Irish Traditional Music the infamous pocket
guide under a shortened title - packs more good sense into a small compass
than anything else in the genre
£4.00
Blackstaff Press
Sam Hanna Bell: Erin's Orange Lily excellent outline of
Ulster/Scots culture + short stories
£8.00
David A Wilson: Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle starts bibulously
at Whitehead, among savages, and gets worse
£8.00
Crana Publishing Company
Jimmy McBride: The Flower of Dunaff Hill and more traditional songs
sung in Inishowen
£6.00
Drumlin Publications
Caoimhín MacAoidh: Between the jigs and the reels history,
personalities, styles in Donegal fiddle music
£10.00
Aidan OHara: I'll live till I die the life of the pioneering singer
of Irish songs, Delia Murphy £10.00
Folk Music Society of Ireland
Hugh Shields: A short bibliography of Irish folk song list
of books and articles containing songs and commentary
£2.50
Nicholas Carolan: A short discography of Irish folk music a list
of recordings with general commentary
£2.50
Hugh Shields: Old Dublin Songs mainly from ballad sheets and song
books of 18th and 19th Centuries, some with music
£4.50
Hugh Shields: Oliver Goldsmith and Popular Song reprinted article
outlining an aspect of the connection between the literary and the oral
£1.50
Seán McElgunn
Songs of the Winding Erne Vol 2: Songs from the Cavan Fermanagh
border collected by Seán McElgunn -very good; vol 1 out of print;
words only but Seán has recordings of some items and will provide
them, perhaps for a nominal charge. (One left)
£6.00
Institute of Irish Studies
Peter McNamee:
Traditional Music: Whose
Music? Report of a conference on sectarian perspectives
on music in Northern Ireland
£3.00
Mercier Press
Carmel OBoyle: The Irish Children's Songbook wide ranging and
useful collection £6.00
David Hammond: Songs of Belfast slim but interesting with children's
songs, mill songs general songs and (!) some politics
£3.00
Frank Harte: Songs of Dublin a mixture chosen by the man who sings
them all; very enjoyable
£4.00
Manus and Sean Og OBaoill: Ceolta Gael vol 1 many of the best
known songs in Irish, simply presented
£4.00
Manus and Sean Og OBaoill: Ceolta Gael vol 2
£4.00
Eamonn Jordan: Whistle and Sing vol 1 songs and tunes,
simply presented for teaching
£4.00
Eamonn Jordan: Whistle and Sing vol 2 the best of their kind
£4.00
Roger Millington
Packie Manus Byrne: My Friend Flanagan: tall tales told by
PMB outrageously funny £5.00
Packie Manus Byrne: Recollections of a Donegal Man autobiography
of a living cultural treasure
£7.00 See Veteran Tapes below for complementary
album
Sáirseal - Ó Marcaigh
Muireadhach Méith: Amhráin Chúige Uladh
songs in Irish with music from south Armagh and north Louth
£ Out of print and no further prospect
Various
From time to time other books, new or second-hand may become available but
supply of these will be irregular. Copies of the following are NOW available
- please check before remitting:
Cathal OBoyle: Songs of County Down (Gilbert Dalton, Dublin,
1979) slim paperback - 64 pages, 27 songs, staff notation, notes, introduction.
Cathal OBoyle is a son of Sean O Baoill, brother of the compilers of Ceolta
Gael and brother-in-law of Carmel - see the Irish Children's
Song-book.
£6.00
Colm OLochlainn: More Irish Street Ballads (Pan Books, London,
1978) originally published in Dublin in 1965, this is a poor paper facsimile
reprint of the second volume of the only substantial collection of songs
to be available at that time (each volume had one hundred songs. Enormously
influential in its time and still a great source, the volume is decorated
with woodcuts from street ballads and includes an introduction, brief
notes and an appendix of othere texts sung to the tunes in this and the first
volume.
£6.00
Roy Palmer A Touch on the Times (Penguin Education) English
songs of social change (1770 - 1914) mainly from ballad sheets - edited by
the highly energetic former headmaster who dominates the current lists of
books about English song.
Books of Local Poetry
Ulster has a tradition of local poetry reaching back to the late 18th
Century, in parallel to, but somewhat more recent than that in Scotland.
Little books are still being published, some frankly awful but others have
quality, and some show a real affinity with the song tradition. Here are
three which I like, all second hand, I am considering keeping stock of some
of those currently available.
John (Paul) Kelly (1884-1944) In Crockmore's Shade This is
the second selection of John Paul's verse to be published by Ballinascreen
(Draperstown, South Londonderry) Historical Society. Kelly was a self taught
man, with a particular interest in folklore, whose work combines keen local
observation and a keen appreciation of the past as it affects the
present.
56 pages £5.00
Patrick McQuillan: The Tenth Glen and other ballads. (Impact,
Coleraine, 1978) McQuillan, from Glenravel, often called the tenth glen of
Antrim, was a schoolmaster who died in 1963. His poems were extracted from
the newspapers in which they (like the work of many another country poet)
were published. Closer to literature than most of their kind, these poems
are yet very close to the ground from which they sprung.
£6.00
Liam McAllister and Mick McAtamney: Honey to the Ear (South Derry
Poets of the past) (Maghera, Irish World Citizen Organisation, nd - Foreword
by Seamus Heaney) I'm proud to have helped with some of this - Mickey McAtamney
was a friend of Sam Henry's who preserved many of his poems and numbers of
photographs. A "returned Yank" he wrote one of the best short poems about
Irish politics in more innocent times:
At the time I was a Yankee
My heart was full of joy;
You wouldn't call me swanky
But a rather nifty boy.
And the worst was in my noodle,
Against any King or Queen,
Was to whistle Yankee Doodle,
And The Wearing of the Green.
Liam McAllister set out to study medicine but circumstances required his
return to the family farm and he farmed the rest of his life. His poems are
well founded in his own experience and interests if slightly more formal
than McAtamney's. Both men provide a deal of pleasure and an interface between
the oral song tradition and the vernacular written tradition of (especially)
the north of Ireland.
£6.00
The full catalogue with is available by e-mail to: John Moulden or may be downloaded.
The address for orders or to be sent a catalogue is:
Ulstersongs
10 Apollo Walk
Portrush
Co Antrim
Northern Ireland
BT56 8HQ
Pricing Ordering and Postage
Go to Order form
Revised: 2nd July1998
Other elements of the Catalogue
Ballad
Sheets by the Bogside Ballad Company c. 1990
Popular items
in fact and in form (accompanied singing, groups etc.
Recordings
containing music
Recordings
containing performances of traditonal unaccompanied singing in
English
Recordings
containing singing in Irish
Stories,
and the vernacular poetic tradition
Unplayed
or next to unplayed vinyl lps of Ulster singers or musicians
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