Richie Piggott

Irish Music Historian & Author

For the past twelve years, Richie has been researching and collecting the legacies of traditional musicians of the Irish diaspora in Chicago. He has now written and published a book, entitled Cry of a People Gone, covering Irish musicians in Chicago from 1920-2020.

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Use the search box or click on a button below to begin exploring the archive.

Manuscripts

Recordings

Videos

Storytelling

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Cry of a People Gone

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Piggott augments and extends O'Neill's documentation into the 21st century... an impressive amount of information... a rich, detailed view of the lives of people who came from Ireland and made a life in Chicago...  Piggott's work is sure to become a classic in Irish musical history and preserves the legacy of those who loved, collected and played Irish music.
​– Irish Edition (Nov. 2022)

Latest News

30/05/24 
A further un-published letter of Francis O’Neill & recording of a historic meeting between two great Sligo Fiddle Masters.

Un-Published O’Neill Letter:
The family of Patrick O’Leary recently presented me with another letter originally sent by Francis O’Neill to his friend Patrick O’Leary in Adelaide, Australia.

The letter is dated Nov. 8th, 1904, following the publication of O’Neill’s first book Music of Ireland in 1903. Unlike those previously received from the O’Leary family, this letter was typed by O’Neill or one of his staff at the City of Chicago Department of Police, when he was General Superintendent. The letter was accompanied by a limited-edition copy of the Music of Ireland (“morocco bound, only 100 volumes were thus bound”), which is my first ever indication Francis O’Neill published a Limited Edition (100 copies) of Music of Ireland.

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Recording of two Sligo Fiddle Masters
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On 4th April 1987 John Frank Vesey, the great Sligo fiddle player, took the journey north from his home in Philadelphia to visit his good friend and fellow Sligo musician, Martin Wynne, who lived in New York...

The Recording

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