Important news for Rolling Wave listeners: From Sunday November 20th we've been rebroadcasting a historic 1963 radio series “Our Musical Heritage” by Seán Ó Riada which examined many aspects of Irish Traditional music and song. It was very important at the time and since then it has never been heard in full on radio. Now 48 years later, this archive series will be available to RW listeners each week in “The Rolling Wave – Our Musical Heritage”

Programme 6: 5th February 2012

Episode 10 in Seán Ó Riada's groundbreaking 1960s radio series Our Musical Heritage, which explored Irish traditional music and song.
Tonight, the flute in the Irish tradition. Peter Browne will be joined by guest Emer Mayock.

Programme 5: 29th January 2012

Episode 9 in Seán Ó Riada's groundbreaking 1960s radio series Our Musical Heritage, which explored Irish traditional music and song. Tonight, the second of two programmes on the fiddle-playing tradition. Peter Browne will be joined by guest Dermot McLoughlin.

Programme 4: 22nd January 2012

Episode 8 in Seán Ó Riada's groundbreaking 1960s radio series Our Musical Heritage, which explored Irish traditional music and song. Tonight, the first of two programmes on the fiddle-playing tradition. Peter Browne will be joined by guest Martin Hayes.

Programme 3: 15th January 2012

Episode 7 of Our Musical Heritage (on traditional dance music as played on the uilleann pipes) first presented by Seán Ó Riada on Raidió Éireann in 1963 with a contemporary view of the programme from piper and musicologist Jackie Small.

Programme 2: 8th January 2012

Episode 6 of Our Musical Heritage (focussing on slow airs played on the uilleann pipes) as originally presented by Seán Ó Riada on Raidió Éireann in 1963 and afterwards we hear the views of piper and academic Tomás Ó Canainn, author of the 2003 biography Seán Ó Riada - His Life and Work.

Programme 1: 1st January 2012

Episode 5 of Our Musical Heritage (the first of 3 on the uilleann pipes) presented by Seán Ó Riada and first broadcast on Raidió Éireann in 1963 with present day commentary from piper and broadcaster Robbie Hannan.

Lashings of Music

A documentary programme on the life and times of one of the country's most famous uilleann pipers, Willie Clancy. Visit the site

About the Show

We will have regular reviews of newly released CDs and new publications, we’ll be talking to musicians and singers about their music and song, where they learned and how they like to sing and play. We will also visit the RTÉ Sound Archive for rare recordings from the past and also pick up on older commercial recordings which are not widely available. Feature items and discussion of current issues will form part of the programme brief and there will certainly be plenty of good music.

Contact Us:

We have an email address therollingwave@rte.ie and are keen to know what your views are on the current state of the traditional music world and also on the sort of material we will be broadcasting on the programme.