On the town: The late song collector and architect, Frank Harte, was remembered by many on the opening night of the ESB Beo Celtic music festival this week. Harte, who was a tireless and legendary collector of traditional airs, knew about 15,500 songs "at his last reckoning", recalled his daughter, Orla.
"And he could sing most of those," said his widow, Stella Harte. He especially loved "the songs of struggle", they agreed.
"He used to say people in power write the history and people who suffer write the songs - and we have a lot of songs," added Orla.
Donal Lunny sang the love song, Siún Ní Dhuibhir, in tribute to Frank Harte: "D'éirigh mé ar maidin ag tarraing chun aonaigh mhór" ("I rose one morning and set out for the fair").
The sixth annual ESB Beo festival opened with Mozaik, a group featuring Lunny and Andy Irvine, with fellow musicians Bruce Molsky (from Brooklyn), Rens Van Der Zalm (from Rotterdam) and Nikola Parov (from Budapest).
The memories continued when the band played a nostalgic song about the years "when we used to go down to west Clare in the 1960s". Irvine's song recalled the time "when the music flowed so free in the sweet Co Clare".
More than 6,000 people were expected to attend the five-day festival, which features more than 100 musicians.
Among those who came to the opening night concert were Simon O'Connor, of the Jimmy Cake, with his friends, Andrew Fogarty and Annie Tierney; and Louisa Murphy, from Cobh, Co Cork, with her boyfriend, session musician Daragh O'Reilly.
The ESB Beo festival at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, finishes tonight with a concert by Capercaillie.