A lavish, large format book about Claddagh Records, the pioneering Irish record label which released key albums by The Chieftains and Seán Ó Riada, will be published this September.
Real to Reel: Garech Browne & Claddagh Records by James Morrissey will be published with a vinyl box set celebrating the life of Guinness heir Garech Browne and his quest to preserve Ireland's musical and spoken-word heritage with Claddagh Records.
With contributions from President Michael D. Higgins, Bono, Garech’s housekeeper Margaret Traynor, his librarian Mary Hayes, friends Anthony Palliser, Tara MacGowran, and Mary Finnegan, among others, the book provides an insight into the life of a man dedicated to preserving Ireland’s music heritage.
Browne, who died in 2018, established Claddagh Records in 1959, and made it his life’s work to preserve Ireland’s musical and spoken-word culture against the backdrop of an emerging pop-culture scene in the UK and further afield.
"Garech Browne knew what he wanted to achieve with Claddagh, namely, the preservation of Irish traditional music, song and spoken word," says the book’s author James Morrissey.
"He wanted the recordings to be simple and made in a manner that was sympathetic to the roots of the Irish tradition. It was a goal that was perceived as audacious by some and a folly by others, but what others thought bothered Garech little."
The 228-page book, which will be published on 29 September and costs €99.95, is accompanied by Masters of Their Craft, the Claddagh Collection LP, presenting 17 remastered tracks from Claddagh’s catalogue, including a never-before-released poem from Pulitzer Prize For Poetry and T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet, Paul Muldoon.
The hardcover book, 12" vinyl and poster presented in a rigid slipcase together chronicles the stories of both Claddagh Records and the life of Garech Browne.
Over the years, his Luggala country estate in County Wicklow, gifted to him by his mother Oonagh Guinness - one of the famous 'Golden Guinness Girls' - hosted parties attended by the likes of Mick Jagger, Brendan Behan, Brian Jones, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Seamus Ennis, Picasso, Samuel Beckett, Anita Pallenberg and Lucian Freud
Real to Reel: Garech Browne & Claddagh Records started as a collaboration between Browne and Morrissey.
"He was aware that his relentless pursuit of the highest standards in the quality of the sleeve design and in the writing of sleeve notes, caused headaches for others through frequent delays to the finished product," says Morrissey.
"However, he felt that these elements were just as important as the quality of the recorded material itself.
"Garech’s life was a journey of discovery and learning, far from the mundanity of the daily grind of most peoples’ lives. He thrived on a combination of chaos, conflict, and creativity.
"He could be as erratic as he was eccentric. Claddagh Records was a precarious project which defied business norms. And Garech loved it all the more for that."
The 228-page book is accompanied by Masters of Their Craft, the Claddagh Collection LP, presenting 17 remastered tracks from Claddagh’s immensely rich catalogue, including a never-before-released poem from Pulitzer Prize For Poetry and T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet, Paul Muldoon.
Claddagh Records was recently relaunched along with a new webstore, following the signing of a worldwide licensing agreement with Universal Music Ireland.
Over the last 18 months, a full inventory of the Claddagh Records archive, including over 60 boxes of material stored in the Bank of Ireland vaults for several decades, has been completed.
Over 300 historic recordings, some of which have never been released, have been fully catalogued and will now be re-mastered and digitised to ensure their preservation. These recordings will be made available both nationally and internationally to those interested in Ireland’s cultural history.
The revitalised label will also be releasing, including the music of new folk artists including Niamh Bury, for the first time in almost twenty years.
