TITLE: North American Influence on a North Ireland Song Collection
SPEAKER: John Moulden
EVENT DATE: 05/02/2007
FORMAT: Video + Captions
RUNNING TIME: 59 minutes
TRANSCRIPT: View Transcript (link will open in a new window)
DESCRIPTION:
John Moulden, singer and author from Ulster, presented a lecture titled "North American Influence on a North Ireland Song Collection" as part of the Rediscover Northern Ireland Program at the Library of Congress co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center and The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure/Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Included in his lecture was discussion of the Sam Henry Collection, the largest collection of Irish songs ever to be published.
Speaker Biography: John Moulden is one of Ireland's leading authorities on traditional song and also a well-regarded singer. A teacher by trade, he retired, in 1992, as principal of one of Northern Ireland's Integrated Primary Schools, which are designed to educate Roman Catholic and Protestant children together. Since then he has been working on songs full time--researching, writing, lecturing and publishing. He has recently received his Ph.D. from the NUI Galway and the dissertation topic was the cheap printing of songs in Ireland on ballad sheets and in eight-page songbooks. His articles and essays have appeared, among others, in Canadian Folk Music Journal, Sing Out!, Irish Folk Music Studies, Folk Song Research and Folk Music Journal. His publications include "Thousands are Sailing: A Brief Song History of Irish Emigration" (Portrush, 1994) and "Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831" (Portrush, 1992). His major work has been on the Sam Henry Collection, the largest collection of Irish songs ever to be published. He has lectured widely throughout Ireland, Britain and the United States. As both singer and scholar, his talks are characterized by his own performances and by his informed enthusiasm.
