Tom Munnelly, singer, song collector, archivist and widely-respected authority on Irish traditional song, died on August 30th last after a long illness.
His influence stretched far and wide, touching the countless students whom he supervised at the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, the numerous participants of traditional music institutes and summer schools, and the many singers from whom he collected songs and with whom he struck up lasting friendships.
As well as being a lifelong meticulous collector of song and folklore, Munnelly was a gregarious conversationalist, raconteur and humorist who, above all else, relished the capture of a song previously unknown, or of folklore hitherto left to languish in the recess of memory. Ann Clune, who alongside Tom was a member of The Old Kilfarboy Historical and Archaeological Society in Clare, published a festschrift in June.
This was a collection of writings in his honour, with contributions from colleagues in academia, his friends and admirers across the traditional music world.
Essays In Honour Of Tom Munnelly: Dear Far-Voiced Veteran is as close as one could ever hope to get to a detailed profile of Munnelly. It characterises his strength and colourful personality, his unquenching commitment to, and love for, the world of traditional song - and English-language song in particular. Munnelly was born in Rathmines and grew up in Crumlin. His parents, Tom Munnelly and Christina Gannon were Dubliners. From an early age, his love of singing was evident, whether in the midst of family gatherings or while hostelling with An Óige.
Leaving school in his mid-teens, he worked throughout the 1960s as a storeman, machine operator and bookkeeper in a knitwear factory. A regular visitor to Molesworth Street's Coffee Kitchen and O'Donoghue's in Merrion Row, he found himself in like-minded company, upon encountering such great singers and musicians as Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, Séamus Ennis, as well as the renowned song collector, Frank Harte.
His appetite for collecting songs sprang from a desire to expand his lyrical knowledge. From the 1960s, Tom was drawn towards Travellers in particular, whose song store was largely preserved by a combination of influences: low literacy levels and late exposure to radio and television.
One of Munnelly's richest discoveries was Roscommon Traveller John Reilly, whose store of medieval ballads he preserved and promoted by meticulously archiving them.
Munnelly pursued his love of song collecting through informal studies at the National Library of Ireland, and his early writings were published in the Dublin Folk Magazine and other local pamphlets of the day.
In 1969, he was employed as research assistant to DK Wilgus, professor of English and Anglo-American Folksong at the University of California, Los Angeles, to catalogue and describe songs from the collection of the Irish Folklore Commission.
Tom pursued song collection in earnest from 1971 when he was invited by Breandán Breathnach to become a field collector of songs in the national traditional music collecting scheme, under the auspices of the Department of Education.
Munnelly moved to Miltown Malbay in Clare to live permanently in 1978. He did so in order to get closer to the sources he so loved, and from there he pursued a lifetime of singing, collecting and storytelling, officially as an employee of the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, but also instinctively, as a lover of songs and of the people who sing them. He taught many a fledgling collector the fundamentals of field collection - the interpersonal dynamics of which rarely garner sufficient attention in academic journals. His voluminous contributions to the world of traditional song and folklore, was marked with an honorary Doctor of Literature by the National University of Ireland Galway earlier this year.
Despite bouts of what Irish Traditional Music Archive chairman, Nicholas Carolan described as "spectacular ill-health", Munnelly injected passion, wit and a keen intellect into his work. He epitomised the happy marriage of enthusiasm and zeal, leaving an incomparable legacy of over 20,000 songs recorded, indexed and transcribed, as well as a wealth of folklore for the delectation and delight of future generations.
He is survived by his wife, Annette, his sons Colm and Tara and his daughter Éadaoin, and by his sisters Bridie and Betty.
Tom Munnelly: Born May 25th, 1944; died August 30th, 2007