Sliabh Luachra - Music and Literature

Music and Literature

Today Sliabh Luachra is recognised as the bedrock of traditional Irish music, song, dance, and poetry.

The area has produced some of Irelands greatest poets including Geoffrey Fionn Dalaigh who died in 1387, Aogán Ó Rathaille and Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin. The charismatic Gaelic poet Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748 - 1784) whose many exploits live on in the folk memory as do his poetry and Ashlings and the solo set dance Rodneys Glory which was composed in 1783 following his exploits after being forced to join the British Navy. Sliabh Luachra was also the birthplace the folklorist, poet, and translator Edward Walsh (1805 - 1850), An tAthair Padraig Duinnin who compiled Dineens Dictionary which is to this day the bible of the Irish Language, and An Brthair Toms Rathaille, Superior General of the Presentation Brothers 1905-1925 who wrote two books of Irish poetry An Spideog and An Cuaicin Draoideachta. This tradition of poetry continues to the present time with Bernard O'Donoghue now a lecturer in Oxford University winning the prestigious Whitbread prize for a collection of poems in 1993/94. Little wonder that Professor Daniel Corkery author of The Hidden Ireland wrote that Sliabh Luachra was the literary capital of Ireland.

This region has a unique musical style which makes heavy use of the polka and the slide. Indeed, most of the polkas and slides in Irish traditional music derive from this region.

Musicians from the area include Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford, Paddy Cronin, Padraig O'Keeffe, Johnny O'Leary, Jackie Daly, Con Curtin and Donal Murphy.