DELARGY: THE 1954 CONGRESS RECORDINGS

DELARGY: THE 1954 CONGRESS RECORDINGS

Researching links between Professor J H (Séamus) Delargy of the Irish Folklore Commission and the Isle of Man I came across references to recordings made at the Celtic Congress in 1954 by Radio Eireann of Manx speakers and also Manx songs.

The Congress was held in Dublin and at a farewell function Delargy paid a spontaneous tribute to the Isle of Man and to the late J. J. Kneen, who he described as ' that great scholar; that splendid Manxman '. Apparently Miss Winifred Kneen, the daughter of J. J. Kneen was part of the Manx delegation to the Congress which heard the tribute.

Earlier in the week long Congress Radio Eireann made recordings of Mr David Craine the Congress President at the time (and chairman of the Manx branch) speaking in Manx. A young Brian Stowell was also present, speaking in the language during the debate. Brian apparently gave a fourteen minute speech in Manx and it was recorded he “held his own with accomplished Scots and Irish linguists present”.

Radio Eireann recorded David Craine singing Manx songs and these recordings were broadcast in the week after the Congress.

Delargy's links with Mann were lengthy. He is of course well known for his involvement with Kevin Danaher in the arrangements for the recording of the Manx native speakers but decades earlier he was focused on Mann and on 27th February 1932 for example he gave a lecture of Irish-Manx Folklore at the Manx Museum.

I’ve found some other material on Delargy’s work with Danaher on the Manx Folk Life Survey which mentions the appointment of Leslie Quirk (funded by Manx Museum and National Trust) and his training by Danaher on the recording equipment in Donegal in 1948. I hope to write a piece on this when I’ve done a bit more digging.

Going back to the Celtic Congress (1954) Manx recordings, it would be interesting to know if these were archived by RTE which according to my good friend Tom Hanley has quite a repository of such material.

There is an interesting biography of Seamus Delargy at this link:

https://www.dib.ie/biography/o-duilearga-seamus-james-hamilton-delargy-a...

Image: Professor J H Delargy

Bernard Moffatt