UCC pays €500,000 for Ó Riada archive
University College Cork paid €500,000 for the Seán Ó Riada archive, which includes documents, papers, correspondence and instruments belonging to the late musician.
“This is a collection that is immensely important in the cultural and musical history of this country,” said UCC president Gerry Wrixon.
Mr Ó Riada achieved national prominence in the 1960s with the score for Mise Éire, a documentary on the War of Independence. He founded a group called Ceoltóirí Cualann, which helped to revive Irish traditional music.
Three of its members - Paddy Moloney, Martin Fay, and Sean Keane - went on to form the Chieftains.
Mr Ó Riada died in 1971 at the age of 40 from sclerosis of the liver. His family preserved his collection at his home in Ballyvourney, a Gaeltacht area in West Cork
The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism provided UCC with the €500,000 required to acquire it from the family, as well as another €100,000 to pay for conservation and public display.
UCC is building an extension to its library which will include a reading room named after Mr Ó Riada.
Arts Minister John O’Donoghue said: “It is timely that his work and legacy will be permanently safeguarded and displayed in UCC as Cork begins its period at the centre of Europe’s cultural life, as European Cultural Capital 2005.”
UCC librarian John FitzGerald said the collection had attracted the attention of other institutions abroad. “There’s great satisfaction that it’s staying in Ireland,” he said.
Mr Ó Riada studied music at UCC in the 1950s and taught there as a lecturer in the following decade.
“His biggest achievement was to modernise or re-interpret Irish traditional music,” said Mr FitzGerald.
