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New edition of Paddy Tunney’s “Where Songs Do Thunder: Travels in Traditional Song” launched in ATU
A new edition of “Where Songs Do Thunder; Travels in Traditional Song” by the late great Irish traditional singer, poet and songwriter Paddy Tunney was launched in Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Galway on Thursday 21 May by Dr Orla Flynn, President of ATU, attended by members of the Tunney family, ATU staff, students and invited guests.
Launched in partnership with the ATU Department of Heritage & Tourism and the Tunney Song Tradition Trust, the book has been out of print for over 30 years. This new edition will make what is a classic collection of stories, songs, folklore and memory available to a new generation.
The author and former head of Na Píobairí Uilleann, Terry Moyland, describes Paddy Tunney as “one of the most important singers, collectors and creative voices within the song tradition in Ireland.’ Dolores Keane, Paul Brady, Planxty, Andy Irvine, The Chieftains, Altan, Dervish, Steel Eye Span June Tabor and Dick Gaughan represent only a small selection of the artists and groups that have recorded songs that they attribute to him.
The new edition features an introduction by Paddy’s youngest son, Dr John Tunney, ATU Heritage lecturer, himself a traditional singer and songwriter, who describes it as “primarily dedicated to the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, and communicates the enthusiasm of this whole era, from the buzz of the early Fleadhanna Cheoil to the excitement of the Folk Revival and the exhilaration of the great ballad boom. We meet heroes of the Irish, Scottish and English traditional and folk music scenes of those decades on almost every page”.
Dr Peadar Mac Gabhann, University of Ulster, provides a thoughtful foreword. By comparison with the original, chapters have been amalgamated and reordered. Ten songs left out of the first edition have been included bringing the total number of songs to 51. Historic photographs have been incorporated that tie directly to the text. The glossary has been expanded, and an extensive index has been added. All these features enrich the text significantly.
The book cover is designed by Ennis designer Ian Malone. It depicts a corncrake, one of Ireland’s endangered species—the bird’s feathers melding into a 1960s London street scene, red buses, black taxis and all. It captures its essence which is bringing the rich tradition of Donegal and West Ulster to international audiences, across Britain and even to the United States.
The Tunney Song Tradition Trust has already republished volume 1 of Paddy Tunney’s song book trilogy “The Stone Fiddle” which is in hardcopy, eBook and Audiobook. The Trust is working with the Irish Traditional Music Archive to create new recordings of the 64 songs in that book, and these will be available in the Trust’s archives. The trilogy will be completed within the next two years when Dr John Tunney finishes work on his father’s third book, the previously unpublished “Sing Another Story”. By the time the entire project is complete, the Trust, working with the ITMA, will have recorded and made available over 160 traditional songs, many of which have never been recorded before, some of them having been passed down, generation to generation, since before The Great Famine. It is a heritage project of some scale, and today’s publication is an important step along the way.
About the Tunney Song Tradition Trust (TSTT)
Founded in 2023, the Tunney Song Tradition Trust is a CLG set up Paddy Tunney’s children and grandchildren and is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the collected works of Paddy Tunney. At its core, the Trust exists to honour and sustain a living tradition. By safeguarding Paddy Tunney’s body of work and the wider song and folk heritage it represents, the Trust seeks to ensure that these songs continue to be heard, learned, and cherished. The TSTT’s work is guided by the belief that traditional song is not something fixed in the past, but something that lives and grows through sharing.
Read about Paddy Tunney here
Picture captions:
Photo 1: (L to R) Dr Amelia Au-Yeung, Dean of Faculty of Business, Diarmuid Ó Conghaile, Head of Dept of Business & Accounting, Gayle Tansey, Head of Dept of Heritage, Tourism, Languages & Humanities, Dr Orla Flynn, ATU President, Cathal Tunney, Dr John Tunney, Mary Tunney, Maura Tunney and Noel Hill, at the book launch in ATU Galway.
Photo 2: Dr Orla Flynn, ATU President, Mary Lillis, AWARE, and Dr John Tunney, ATU, presenting a cheque to AWARE.
For media enquiries, contact:
Regina Daly
Communications and Press Officer
Tel: 087 961 8355
E: regina.daly@atu.ie
