A register of traditional musicians, singers and dancers in Clare is to be compiled by Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann as part of the cultural organisation's efforts to build a regional archive.
The movement, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is building up its archive centres at Sligo, Tipperary, Westmeath, Tyrone, Kerry and Wexford. It is also setting up centres in London and Boston. The archive will be accessible on the group's website.
The first centre, established in Ennis 10 years ago, has about 1,500 hours of audio and video recordings of hundreds of musicians, including some commercial recordings.
In a LEADER-assisted scheme, half the £50,000 needed had to be raised through local funding efforts, according to Mr Frank Whelan, head of the archive.
"When we first set up the archive and identified people in their 80s and upwards, we recorded their music. Those recordings, even though they are only 10 years old, at this stage are priceless."
Helping Mr Whelan are a photographer, a projects officer, a secretary and a treasurer. "The big problem is it is totally voluntary. It is difficult to make progress."
The aim is to create an accessible archive for researchers. "If someone wants to do research in Clare, it is available in Clare, and easily available. It is not one of those archives that gathers dust, that is next to impossible to get into. In fact, the material that we have collected has been used by a good number of students doing research and all sorts of theses," Mr Whelan said.
The latest project is to get personal details and a social history of every artist aged over 16 connected with the music or folklore, and to include them on a Co Clare Comhaltas website. Mr Whelan, a flute player, said he hoped to have sound samples of every musician.
Schoolchildren will be enlisted to help build the archive, in a follow-up to a project begun two years ago when local musicians and singers were brought into the classroom to explain their art. The scheme is being run with the Clare Education Centre.
"It is a way of building up the archive. The more people we make contact with, the more we hear there are private collections here and there or we find a pocket of people of a particular age group we had not heard of." The archive has outgrown the room in the Cois na hAbhna dance hall it occupies in Ennis, and negotiations have begun with Clare County Council to acquire a derelict 17th-century house nearby which would become the new location for the tapes, manuscripts and 78 r.p.m. records.
"It has been a great 10 years. When you look at where music has gone, I think Comhaltas has been the silent partner in the success story," Mr Whelan said.
Yesterday a plaque was unveiled at the former Pipers' Club in Thomas Street, Dublin, as part of the 50th anniversary activities, and a series of commemorative stamps has been designed by An Post. A celebratory concert will be held at the University of Limerick at Easter, and 14 ceili bands will perform at the Fleadh Nua festival in Ennis in May.
The classes and competitions the organisation has run since the earliest days have played an important role in keeping traditional music alive, according to the director of Comhaltas, Senator Labhras O Murchu. There are 600 music classes in the Republic and the North, and 25,000 people participated in music competitions, the fleadhanna cheoil, last year.
With more than 4,000 hours of music and story-telling recorded, the importance of regional styles and variations, and the regional archives, have come to the fore. "Clare and the surrounding counties are a rich repository of the music and the type of musicians we are talking about," he said.