Ahead of a Drawing From The Well celebration hosted by the Irish Traditional Music Archive at the National Concert Hall, Seán Potts celebrates the life of Breandán Breathnach, piper, author, collector and 'powerful advocate' for Irish traditional music.
Dubliner Breandán Breathnach was a pivotal figure in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music in the twentieth century.
An uilleann piper, author, collector and powerful advocate, he was the driving force behind the foundation of Na Píobairí Uilleann in 1968 and the establishment of a national archive of Irish folk music in 1972. Breathnach's papers formed the bedrock of the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA), which opened in 1987, two years after his death.
ITMA, in association with the National Concert Hall, will celebrate Breandán Breathnach’s rich legacy with the ninth staging of the Drawing from the Well concert series on Sunday 15 March 2026. A host of leading traditional artists will perform music, song and dance relating to Breathnach’s work, particularly the transcriptions published in the Ceol Rince na hÉireann series.
A child of the Liberties, Breathnach was obsessed with the uilleann pipes and dedicated his first collection to his long-time mentor John Potts, a piper whose house at No. 6 The Coombe was a mecca for traditional music in early twentieth-century Dublin. Piper Willie Clancy was a frequent visitor to the Potts house and another of Breathnach’s sources for Ceol Rince Cuid 1. John Potts’s great-great-grandson, piper Fiachra Potts, will perform a selection of Willie Clancy tunes from Breandán’s seminal 1963 work.
The influence of Dublin box player Sonny Brogan, a prolific source for Breathnach during the 1940s and 1950s, will be reflected in the performances of Charlie Harris and Conor Connolly, while leading set dancer Edwina Guckian will perform the 'Cake Dance', inspired by Breandán’s writing. Other well-known dancers featured on the night include Cáitlín Nic Gabhann, Aidan Vaughan, Molly Grady, Brian O’Brien, Niamh Doherty and Bridie Flaherty. Award-winning piper Pádraic Keane, a descendant of the West Clare piping tradition so dear to Breathnach, will perform for the dancers, as per tradition.
The music of Sliabh Luachra on the Cork–Kerry border holds a special place in the Irish music canon; some of its greatest exponents, Denis Murphy and Johnny O’Leary, feature in the Breathnach collection. Johnny’s grandson, Bryan O’Leary, TG4’s Ceoltóir Óg na Bliana 2014, will perform music from that region.
Breathnach’s work was the inspiration for many other eminent archivists, collectors and writers — among them Nicholas Carolan, founding Director of ITMA; former NPU archivist Terry Moylan, who transcribed and published tunes from Johnny O’Leary; piper and music historian Seán Donnelly; and Jackie Small, who edited the final volumes of Ceol Rince na hÉireann.
He recorded many Donegal fiddle players, including the legendary John Doherty, and that regional style will feature on 15th March in the playing of Donegal fiddler Nia Byrne. Fiddle and concertina duo Doireann Ní Ghlacáin and Sarah Flynn are champions of the great female players of the last century, such as Limerick-born musician Ella-Mae O’Dwyer and Sliabh Luachra fiddler Mollie Myers Murphy, whose music featured on their 2019 release The Housekeepers. Recordings of O’Dwyer featured in Breathnach’s index of Irish traditional dance music, while Myers Murphy collected many tunes from Tom Billy Murphy, which she provided to Breathnach for Ceol Rince. In fact, Breandán said of Mollie that she made "by far the biggest contribution ever made by a woman player in any collection of Irish music."
The third volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann, published in 1985, is comprised of tunes transcribed from commercial recordings of legendary traditional musicians such as Tommy Peoples, Séamus Ennis, Seán Keane, John Doherty, Jackie Daly and Roger Sherlock. Two players who featured prominently in that book were Mary Bergin and Matt Molloy, both of whom will perform at the Drawing from the Well concert. Mary will be accompanied on bouzouki by Libby McCrohan.
Acclaimed singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Ian Lynch regularly harnesses archival material to inspire his creative process. A folklorist by profession, Ian has long held an interest in the Breathnach collection and will perform a song published in the first issue of Ceol in 1963. He also cites the influence of musicians such as piper Tommy Reck, another regular in the home of John Potts.
The concert will recognise and honour Breandán’s deep love of the Irish language and the sean-nós singing tradition through the performance of Ciarán Ó Gealbháin, singer, musician and decorated folklorist from Gaeltacht na nDéise.
Breathnach often delegated field-recording duties in the 1960s and 1970s to talented young musicians such as Seán Keane, James Kelly and Noel Hill. Hill, who completes a compelling line-up for the Drawing from the Well concert, is equally inspired by the great traditional artists of Breathnach’s era - Clancy and Ennis in particular.
Drawing from the Well: The Breandán Breathnach Collection, presented by ITMA and NCH, takes place at the National Concert Hall on Sunday 15th March - find out more here
