The Royal Irish Academy holds a relatively small, but significant, collection of Irish airs, mainly contained in the Forde-Pigot collection. William Forde (1796?–1849/50?) amassed a significant collection of Irish folk tunes that were not published in his lifetime, but which were deposited in the Academy Library. The collection was added to after Forde’s death by the collector, John Edward Pigot (1822-71). The collection contains around 1900 tunes contained in bound volumes; shelf marks RIA MS 24 O 19 – 34.

This collection and a number of other items of musical interest have been described in a chapter on the Academy’s music holdings in Aloys Fleischmann (ed.), Music in Ireland: a symposium (Oxford, 1952), 322-32. The author, Miss Caitlín Bonfield, was Academy Librarian, 1961-9. The publishers of the book (now out-of-print) have kindly permitted us to reproduce the text here. The paper was revised and updated by Siobhán Fitzpatrick in 2008.

In addition to the works cited by Miss Bonfield, a number of other sources are deserving of attention. These are:

  • MS 12 R 35, a Missale Romanum (14-15th century, probably Italian). Folios 139v-147r contain musical notation.
  • MS D ii 2, a metrical dindsheanchas: folio 34r includes an illustration of a pig playing bagpipes.
  • RIA MS 12 X 27:  A 19th-century manuscript containing the airs of Irish and Scottish reels, continental tunes and waltzes and the music of some of Moore’s Melodies.  The document lacks some preliminary and end pages.  It contains notes, in Thomas Moore’s hand, relating to some of the Melodies.  The manuscript was purchased at auction in 2009.
  • Early nineteenth-century chap-books containing songs (shelf mark RIA MS 23 G 32).
  • Albums containing cuttings of ballads and songs (shelf marks RIA MSS 3 C 37; 3 C 38; 3 C 39).

The library also holds the book collection of Thomas Moore, 1779-1852, author of the renowned Irish melodies, published from 1808 to 1834. The collection is mainly literary and historical and may be searched via the Library catalogue. The Academy also owns an Egan harp, formerly owned by Moore.

 

Green harp in a glass case.
Egan harp formerly owned by Thomas Moore MRIA, RIA collection.

Further Reading

Caitlín Bonfield, ‘Manuscript Irish music in the library of the Royal Irish Academy’ in Music in Ireland: a symposium edited by A.G. Fleischmann (Oxford, 1952), pp. 322-332.

Nicholas Carolan, ‘The Forde – Pigot collection of traditional music’ in Treasures of the Royal Irish Academy Library edited by B. Cunningham and S. Fitzpatrick (Dublin, 2009), pp. 256-267.