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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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.

Martin Wynne & John Frank Vesey

Robin Hiteshew

Photograph: ©Robin Hiteshew