The Musical Priest

Chairperson of the Old Drogheda Society, Seán Corcoran, has just produced a radio documentary on an aspect of Irish Music History and it is now available on SoundCloud.

Sean Corcoran at play

This fine production, The Musical Priest, was first broadcast @ 7pm Sun 29th December 2013 on Waterford Local Radio FM (WLRFM.com. A 48min radio documentary it was funded by the BAI Sound & Vision scheme and surveys the extraordinary life of Richard Henebry of Portlaw (1863-1916): funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

Richard Henebry, a farmer’s son from Portlaw, Co. Waterford became one of the leading figures internationally in the fields of Celtic Studies and of Irish Music studies at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Richard Henebry

Ordained a priest in 1892 he spent most of his life researching Irish Music and Celtic languages. An accomplished fiddler and a piper, Irish music was one of the great passions of his life and his historic contribution was that he was the first to carry out field recordings of country musicians and singers using the newly invented phonograph in 1903.

Edison Standard

This programme uses interviews with family members and experts and drama-documentary techniques to re-create the life of this extraordinary character.

Phonograph horn

• Writer, director, producer and presenter: Seán Corcoran
• Sound design:  Ronan Browne
• Actors: Diarmuid DeFaoite, Fred McCloskey
• Fiddle: Breda Keville
• Uilleann pipes: Ronan Browne
• Mandocello and vocals :- Seán Corcoran
• Music from Henebry adapted and arranged by Seán Corcoran

•  Old Drogheda Society - History, Archaeology & Heritage - Millmount, Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland. Tel. 041-9833097 & 041-9833097