Pádraig Ó Néill mss

This collection of manuscripts was written c. 1780-1800 by Pádraig Ó Néill (1765-1832), a 'respectable farmer' at Owning, near Piltown, south-west of Carrick on Suir, and coincidentally just down the road from the HQ of the HHSI.

There are four manuscript tune books written by Pádraig, as well as a collection of Dublin printed music with manuscript tunes written on the back, and also a tune book written by Conn (Cornelius), either his son or his uncle. The books contain perhaps 450 tunes, half of them Irish. There are also various printed books owned by Pádraig in Latin and French.

The collection was acquired at auction in April 2008 by the National Library of Ireland. At present no cataloguing or contents details are available. I hope to add more info here as soon as I hear of it. If you have any inside knowledge please let me know!

Simon Chadwick