Grandson gives fresh life to Bess’s rich song legacy

“I don’t normally revisit things. I have a phobia about it,” says historian Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, “But in this case, there was such a drumbeat of requests that it made sense.”

He’s referring to the launch of a new edition of a book and double CD set, entitled the Songs of Elizabeth Cronin: Irish Traditional Singer, which was first published in 2000 by Four Courts Press and which he edited.

Elizabeth Cronin (1879-1956) who was from the West Cork Gaeltacht of Múscraí, was renowned for her vast collection of songs “in Irish and in English and in both languages,” explains Dáibhí, Professor Emeritus at NUIG, and her grandson.

Those who have been influenced by her legacy include Christy Moore, Maighréad and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and her grandnephew, Iarla Ó Lionáird of the Irish supergroup, The Gloaming and formerly of the Afro-Celt Connection.

The first edition of the Songs of Elizabeth Cronin sold out within three months of publication – Nicholas Carolan and Glenn Cumiskey of the Irish Traditional Music Archive  were involved in selecting the songs and Harry Bradshaw of RTÉ remastered them.

While Dáibhí could have satisfied the ongoing demand for the songs by reissuing them online, he felt that wouldn’t do them justice. Hence the decision to reprint the lot.

“The book is there for a reason – it gives a background to Bess.”

It also contains new material which Dáibhí was gifted after the original publication was printed.

“After a launch I attended in Cúil Aodha, a man came up to me with a brown envelope and it contained an old copybook, the type we used in school. Bess had written seven or eight songs in it.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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