ITMA's Dusty Bluebells website launched by Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Dusty Bluebells: Children's Songs & Rhymes Collected by Hugh Shields

Dusty Bluebells: Children's Songs & Rhymes Collected by Hugh Shields is a new online exhibition highlighting the musical world of the playground.  Based on field recordings made by Hugh Shields in 1961-1975 from informants aged from four to eighty seven, the website showcases the rhymes and riddles that generations of Irish school children sang, shared and grew up with.  The Irish Traditional Music Archive have digitised over 170 of Hugh Shields' original reel-to-reel recordings and made them available for today's generation to hear again in a rich, curated online exhibition.  I was lucky enough to have a role in bringing this wonderful resource to the public.  On 17th October, 2017, the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, TD, launched the exhibition at Holy Cross School, Dundrum.  Explore the songs and much more at www.itma.ie/dustybluebells