About the Project

In the early to mid-20th century, the Kilfenora area had a vibrant traditional music scene. House dances were a common occurrence, where families and individuals would gather in the evenings to play for set dancing and share stories and tunes.

The project Sounds of Kilfenora delves into the area’s musical history, curating an extensive online archive.

The project and an exhibition based on it was launched in April 2025 as part of the Kilfenora Music Festival.

The project was made possible by funding from the Arts Council and in collaboration with the Irish Traditional Music Archive.

Interviews were an integral part of the process, capturing stories from local people who remember the house dances and the individual musicians, singers, and dancers featured in the archive.

This project builds on the remarkable thesis completed by Garry Shannon in the year 2000 on the origins of the Kilfenora Céilí Band.

project creator – Aoife Kelly

Aoife Kelly is a traditional Irish musician and concertina teacher, as well as an illustrator, website designer, and graphic designer. She is also a researcher with a particular interest in Irish traditional music and folklore, and she has a deep love for collecting and preserving local stories.

She has strong ties to Kilfenora, where her mother, Mary Kelly (née O’Donoghue), is from. Her father is the well-known fiddle player John Kelly Jnr from Dublin, and her grandfather was the renowned fiddle and concertina player John Kelly Snr of West Clare.

You can see more of Aoife’s work here: https://aoifekelly.com/

Aoife Kelly - 2023

Photo by Michael Burch

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The idea for this project began while clearing out my grandparents’ house in Lickeen, Kilfenora. Among the things we found was a striking photo of local musicians playing at a house dance.

My grandfather, Jimmy O’Donoghue, confirmed it was taken at his family home around 1955. He could name nearly everyone in the photo and spoke about a lively local music scene, with many musicians in the area at the time.

Jimmy and his friend Judith O’Donoghue (née Lynch) remembered the dance as an American wake for their neighbour Tessy Hegarty, who is pictured dancing. These were farewell gatherings for those emigrating to the U.S.—called “wakes” because people often didn’t return.

After renovating the house in 2022, my husband Charlie Le Brun and I hosted a party there and recreated the photo in the same corner of the same room. We were lucky to have both Jimmy and our good friend Judith—who had been at the original dance—join us again, 67 years later.

We’re not sure who took the original photo, but we think it may have been Paddy Lynch, my grandmother Bridget O’Donoghue’s (née Lynch) brother. Bridget is also pictured dancing in the first photo.