The third box in the Champions of Ireland Collection. Featuring the Concertina Flute and Mandolin. 

Disc 1:

Concertina

1. Reels: The Chicago Reel/ The Shaskeen Reel 2. Jigs: I Dont Know/ The Harty Boys Of Ballinmore 3. Traditional Air: O Carolans Draught 4. Reels: Down The Broom/ Reevys Reel 5. Jigs: Sliabh League/ The Mug Of Brown Ale 6. Traditional Air: Eamonn An Chnoic 7. Reels: The Bells Of Tipperary/ Gareth Barrys 8. Reels: The Storyteller/ Tom Spillanes 9. Jigs: Paddy Faheys/ The Leitrim Jig 10. Hornpipes: Burkes Hornpipe/ The Long Road Home 11. Slides: Hows Your Granny/ Ballinspittal Here I Come 12. Jigs: The Kerry Jig/ The Rambling Pitchfork 13. Reels: Mothers Delight/ Mulhairs No.6 14. Reels: Paddy Kellys Reel/ The Sligo Maid

Disc 2:

Flute

1. Reels: The Chicago Reel/ The Dogs Among The Bushes/ Toss The Feathers 2. Jigs: The Gold Ring/ The Kesh Jig 3. Reels: The Bucks Of Oranmore/ The Gloggin Reel 4. Hornpipes: The Belfast Hornpipe/ The Harvest Home 5. Jigs: The Swords Castle/ The Grandfather 6. Reels: The Boys Of The Lough/ The Foxhunters 7. Reels: Drowsie Maggie/ The Morning Dew/ The Sally Gardens 8. Jigs: The Hapenny Bridge/ Whelans Jig 9. Hornpipe: King Of The Fairies 10. Traditional Air: The Fair Headed Boy 11. Jigs: The Moate At Rathconrath/ The Cook In The Kitchen 12. Reels: The Salamanca/ The Masons Apron

Disc 3:

Mandolin

1. Reels: The Teetotaller/ Drowsie Maggie 2. Reels: The Musical Priest/ Meylers Fancy 3. Traditional Air: Ar Eireann Ni Neosfainn Ce Hi 4. Polkas: Sweeneys Polka/ The Kerry Polka/ The Springtime Polka 5. Jigs: The New York Jig/ The Cook In The Kitchen 6. Marches: Wrap The Green Flag Around Me Boys/ The Dawning Of The Day/ Sean South Of Garryowen 7. Reels: The Mountain Road/ The Masons Apron 8. Jigs: The Tenpenny Bit 9. Hornpipes: The Belfast Hornpipe 10. Jigs: The Kesh Jig/ The Merry Rover 11. Traditional Air: Eamonn An Cnoic 12. Reels: Tom Steeles/ Bunch Of Keys

The third box in the Champions of Ireland Collection. Featuring the Concertina Flute and Mandolin. 

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Other Champions of Ireland box sets available include:

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CRCDX 4001 - Bodhran / Harp / Uilleann Pipes

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The fourth box in the Champions of Ireland Collection. This box set features the Banjo Fiddle and a Best of the Champions of Ireland series.

Disc 1:

Banjo

1. Reels: The Ballyclare Reel/ The High Reel/ Jug On The Mantle 2. Jigs: Sheehys/ Taylors/ The Siamsa Jig 3. Reels: Top Of The Stairs/ The Clare Reel 4. Set Dance: The Downfall Of Paris 5. Slow Air: Sliabh Na mBan 6. Jigs: Merrily Kiss The Quaker/ The Blackthorn Stick/ The Orphan 7. Reels: The Rosslare Reel/ The Big Wind 8. Reels: The Dunmore Lassies/ Hardy Byrnes 9. Slow Air: Bean Dubh An Gleanna 10. Jigs: The Queen Of Russia/ The Lark In The Morning 11. Hornpipes: The Right Of Man/ The Galway Hornpipe 12. Jigs: Arthur Dalys/ The Eve Of The Roof 13. Marches: Let Eireann Remember/ The Mountains Of Pomeroy

Disc 2:

Fiddle

1. Reels: Reevys Reel/ Noreens Fancy 2. Jigs: Dr. O Neills Jig 3. Set Dance: The Blue Eyed Rascal 4. Traditional Air: An Cuilin 5. Hornpipes: The Golden Eagle/ The Tidy Room 6. Polkas: The Springtime Polka/ The Primrose Polka 7. Reels: The Lads Of Laois/ The First Month Of Summer/ The Castle Reel 8. Reels: The Barmaid/ The Green Fields Of Glentown 9. Set Dance: The Storyteller 10. Jigs: The Cliffs Of Moher/ Dohertys Jig 11. Traditional Air: Lament For Stalker Wallace 12. Hornpipes: The Home Ruler/ The Ideal Hornpipe 13. Reels: Colonel Fraser/ The Gravel Walk

Disc 3:

The Best Of Champions Of Ireland

1. Reels: Reevys Reel/ Noreens Fancy 2. Reels: Crowleys/ The Banshee 3. Reels: Top Of The Stairs/ The Clare Reel 4. Reels: Halfway House/ Copper Plate/ Sliabh Rua 5. Reels: The Fermoy Lassies/ The Mountain Road/ Ril An Ghabha 6. Reels: The Storyteller/ Tom Spillanes 7. Reels: The Boys Of The Lough/ The Foxhunters 8. Hornpipes: Rights Of Man/ Cahirs Kitchen 9. Reels: The Mountain Road/ Masons Apron 10. Reels: The Scholar/ Father Kellys Reel/ St. Annes Reel 11. Reels: The Bag Of Spuds/ Tom Steeles/ The Foxhunters 12. Jigs: The Moving Cloud/ Jennies Chicken 13. Jigs: Sheehys/ Taylors/ The Siamsa Jig 14. Reels: The Salamanca/ Humours Of Scariff/ Man Of Aran 15. Reels: McDermotts Reels/ The Sally Gardens/ The Silver Spear 16. Jigs:The Kerry Jig/ The Rambling Pitchfork 17. Hornpipes: The Golden Eagle/ The Tidy Room 18. Jigs: The Hapenny Bridge/ Whelans Jig 19. Reels: Johnnies Wedding/ The Tamlin 20. Jigs: The Kesh Jig/ The Merry Rover 21. The Eavesdropper/ The Kid On The Mountain 22. Slides: The Castle Island/ Mike Duneens/ Old Kerry Slide

Discover the beautiful mystical sounds of Ireland. Float away and dream sweet dreams of a magical land.

CELTIC AIRS & DREAMS Disc 1

CELTIC AIRS & DREAMS Disc 2

Enjoy the uplifting spirit of Irish traditional music. Jigs and Reels from some of Irelands best musicians.

CELTIC JIGS & REELS Disc 1

CELTIC JIGS & REELS Disc 2

Sean Maguire

" The Master's Touch" 

 CD   ARCD 027

Sean Maguire and fiddle playing have been synonymous in Irish music over the past half-century. During that time, his personal fiddle  style became renowned for exciting and flamboyant playing, Imaginative tune settings with intricate variations, and technical mastery. Sean's full- bodied fiddle tone and unmistakable virtuoso playing carry the hallmarks of supreme musicianship and have attracted legions of loyal admirers, and many imitators. Sean is recognized as a fiddle player of outstanding talent in Irish traditional music. Over the past half-century, the unmistakable 'Maguire Style' has become associated with flamboyance, imaginative tune setting and intricate variations played with breath-taking dash and flair. Sean's highly-devoted technique and complete mastery of the fiddle afforded him the ability to play the most demanding pieces in the dance music repertoire. On this reissue album a collection of classic set dances including  The Garden of Daisies, Madame Bonaparte, and St. Patrick's Day are played in the maestro's inimitable style.

The origins of Sean's music can be traced back to his father, John Maguire, who was born in Mullaghoran, Co. Cavan This area was admired for its rich traditions with singers, melodeon players, fiddlers and flute players. As in other counties in the province of Ulster, Cavan had a strong marching  band tradition which provided a training ground for numerous fife, whistle, and flute players and these were John Maguire's first instruments. During the 1920's John moved to Belfast and married an Antrim girl. They settled in Dunmore Street off the Springfield Road where Sean was born in 1927.The Maguire home was well known for music sessions and Sean grew up listening to Irish music played by Belfast's finest musicians. At the age of Thirteen Sean's father decided that his son's talent for music should be encouraged and violin lessons were arranged with a local music teacher. The young music student later graduated to lessons with Madame May Nesbitt who developed his tone production, technique, and bow control. Not content with mastering the fiddle, Sean learned the most complex of Irish instruments, the uilleann pipes, and in later years he also learned to play the guitar, tin whistle and piano.

Sean's early stage performances were at ceili dances with his father in the famed Malachy Sweeny Ceili Band but success as a soloist in the Oireachtas brought the aspirins young fiddle player to national attention. A recording of Sean's prize-winning performance at the Oireactas fiddle competition in Dublin in October 1949 survives in the Radio Eireann archives and provides an insight into the adjudicator's unprecedented marks on that occasion and allows us to hear Sean's highly developed fiddle playing at the age of twenty-four. Competition success brought Sean to the attention of the record companies and his impressive recording career began with a 78rpm vinyl disc made for the ill-fated Irish Recording Company and for HMV in Dublin in 1956.

This reissue comes from those times and features a collection of set dances which Sean recorded in Dublin with  Eili Ni Mharcaigh. They  have been digitally  re-mastered and you would think they were only recorded yesterday.

The set dance is a stately dance rhythm played at a medium pace in  4/4 or common time although it was also occasionally performed in jig time. The form is very similar to the hornpipe but they differ in there second parts where the set dance is half as long again as the hornpipe- twelve bars are played in the second part of the set dance as opposed to the eight corresponding bars in the hornpipe.

The medium pace of the set dance was ideally suited as an exhibition piece and the form became popular as a show-case to demonstrate the skills of virtuoso dancers and musicians. Many of the classic set dances were composed in the mid -18th and early 19th centuries during the golden age of the dancing  master. The Blackbird, for instance, which Sean plays on track 3, can be traced back to 1750. Some set dances recall major events of those times; Rodney's Glory for example commemorates the navel victory of Admiral George Rodney over the French fleet in the West Indies in April 1782, and , Madame Bonaparte is one of many dance tunes which recall the Nepoleonic era and its musical links with Ireland.

Other set dances included in this collection of "The Masters Touch" such as Jockey to the Fair, The garden of Daisies, and The Hunt have lost their historic significance for us today but are nonetheless a fascinating part of the Irish folk music repertoire.

The Track List is

1.  The Garden of Daisies  2.  The Hurling Boys  3.  The Blackbird  4.  The Kilkenny Races  5.  Jockey to the Fair  6.  Humors of Bandon  7.  King of the Fairies  8.  The Three Sea Captains  9.  The Hunt  10. St. Patrick's Day  11.  Rodney's Glory  12.  Madame Bonaparte  13.  The Lodge Road

Sit back relax and listen to the master at work

"An Album to Treasure Forever"

"The Best Traditional Irish Sessions in the World" 

 CD   ARCD 032

 Blackwater

The date was set, the venue was selected; The Marine Bar in Dungarvan on the N25, one of the most renowned Irish Traditional Music Pubs, not just in County Waterford but in the entire Country. Traditional musicians were invited to a Session to be recorded

Christy O'Neill, the affable mien-host said "This is going to be great-just imagine all these great musicians in the one place at one time playing music that is the heart and soul of Ireland"

 There is a common bond in Irish traditional music. Music in itself is a universal language that helps us to understand one another. When you have musicians playing together in a session but totally different styles this shines through even more-so. This album underlines the joy in their faces and you realize that their understanding of each other is that much more obvious when you see them playing together. Christy says "Music for me is a social thing, first and foremost; you get together as people and then you make music." Hence this album was born and Blackwater was formed One music critic said about this album "It is the most authentic live recordings of Irish Traditional Music he has ever heard"

The Track List is

1.  Sporting Paddy Set  2. The Copperplate-The Old Copperplate  3. The Tar Road to Sligo-The Lilting Banshee  4.  Sliabh Luachra Selection  5. Smiths Hornpipe-The Tailors Twist  6.  Padraig O'Keeffe's- The Happy One-step 7.  Whelan's Jig-Pay the Reckoning-Atholl Highlanders 8. The Banks of Loch Gowna-When Sick is it Tea You Want 9.  Jackson's No.9 Set  10.  Ril Sheain Muig Uidhir Set  11.  Britches Full of Stitches Polkas 12.  The Galway Rambler Set  13.  The Bucks of Oranmore- Jenny's Chickens

Click Here to listen to track Sporting Paddy Set