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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My sincere thanks to the great grandchildren of Patrick O’Leary for sharing this correspondence and book details which again will be of great interest to O’Neill scholars.

Recording of two Sligo Fiddle Masters
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. Vesey was accompanied on that journey by his friend Robin Hiteshew of Philadelphia, as he wanted Robin to record the meeting between the two musicians. Robin has the recording for almost 40 years and, to my great surprise and delight, he has now donated the master tapes to me for inclusion in my Archive. Robin also kindly allowed me to interview him, to include as part of the introduction to the recording, and he sent me one of the photos of the two musicians he took that day, to supplement the introduction to this historic recording.

A wonderful collection of Irish music Acetates
 
I recently received a gift, from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, of a wonderful collection of Irish music acetates. They date from roughly mid-1940s to mid-1950s and are primarily fiddle music. The donor, who received these acetates over 50 years ago from John Frank Vesey, the great Sligo fiddle player, wanted me to add them to my Archive as he “admires what I am doing to share the old music.”  Vesey, who was based in Philadelphia, came to Chicago on a number of occasions to act as judge at the IMA Fleadhs in the mid – 1960s. While in Chicago, he stayed with his former neighbor and student back in Co. Sligo, Phil Durkin.  The musicians playing on these acetates are:
Eddie Cahill (flute), Patsy Cawley (fiddle), Daniel Costigan (song), Paddy Cronin (fiddle), James “Lad” O’Beirne (fiddle), Paddy O’Brien (accordion), Tom Potts (fiddle), Ed Reavy (fiddle), John Frank Vesey (fiddle) and Martin Wynne (fiddle). Where we are almost certain, but cannot say definitively, the name of the musician playing a specific track we have “maybe” after the name. There are a few unknown musicians (Anon Violin) with at least one unknown tune (Gan Ainm) and I would love to hear from anyone who may recognize and name the Anon Violin or “Gan Ainm”. 

Sincere thanks to my anonymous donor for the gift of this great music, to Alan Morrisroe for digitizing the acetates (the final 6 tracks were digitized by the donor) and to those who helped identify names of musicians & tunes, including Seamus Connolly, Sean Quinn, Eileen O’Brien*, Nicki McAuliffe, Don Meade, Brian Conway and Emmett Gill.