Dr Hugh Shields (8 September 1929 – 16 July 2008) was an authority on Irish traditional music and a founder member of the Folk Music Society of Ireland and the Irish Traditional Music Archive. He was also a senior lecturer in French at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. He wrote a number of works on Irish music and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

Early life and academic career

Shields was born in Belfast and attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, where he specialized in French and Spanish. He became a junior lecturer there in 1954 and a full lecturer in 1965. After his retirement in 1994 he continued teaching for another four years in the school of music, where he had worked part-time since 1982. In 1953, Shields first met the traditional singer

Eddie Butcher Eddie Butcher (8 May 1900 – 8 September 1980) was an Irish traditional singer, folk-song collector and songwriter from Magilligan, County Londonderry. He had an extensive repertoire of songs that he performed in a sturdy, earthy style. ...

and started collecting traditional music. He also collaborated with the Dublin collector

Tom Munnelly Tom Munnelly (25 May 1944 – 30 August 2007) was an Irish folk-song collector. Early years Tom Munnelly was born in Rathmines in Dublin, and went to Clogher Road Technical College. He took up factory work at the age of 15. At a scout camp ...

, and edited his recordings for several record companies and for the

Ulster Folk and Transport Museum The Ulster Folk Museum and the Ulster Transport Museum are situated in Cultra, Northern Ireland, about east of the city of Belfast. The Folk Museum endeavours to illustrate the way of life and traditions of the people in Northern Ireland, past ...

. Shields also contributed articles to a number of national and international journals.

Folk Music Society of Ireland

Shields was a founder member of the Folk Music Society of Ireland or FMSI ( ga, Cumann Cheol Tíre Éireann). He was its first honorary secretary, and edited both the society's journal and newsletter. The society was founded in Dublin in April 1971, with the aims of encouraging interest and promoting research in the traditional music, song and dance of Ireland. It was involved in organising a programme of public lectures, recitals and seminars. By 2003, the society brought its main activities to an end, though it continued to act in its publishing capacity, and maintained an archival website of digitised material. The society's publications included its journal, ''Éigse Cheol Tíre / Irish Folk Music Studies'' (ISSN 0332-298X), and a newsletter titled ''Ceol Tíre''. The latter was published from November 1973, initially with Shields as editor, and continued by him and Nicholas Carolan (who was secretary of the society 1977–1992) until December 1989. The 33 issues of the newsletter have subsequently been made available as PDF downloads from the FMSI and Irish Traditional Music Archive websites. Books and collections published by the FMSI include, ''A short discography of Irish folk music'' (1987) by Nicholas Carolan, and ''Blas: the local accent in Irish traditional music'' (1995) edited by Thérèse Smith and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.

Publications

A number of books on Irish folk music, songs and musical history were edited by Shields and published by the FMSI. These include: * ''Shamrock, Rose and Thistle: Folk Singing in North Derry'' (1981) *''Old Dublin songs'', ed. Hugh Shields, 1988. (out of print but pdf download now available from FMSI website) *''Chants corréziens—French folk songs from Corrèze'', collected & ed. Hugh Shields, 1988, booklet & audiocassette. ISBN 0--9524197-0X (pdf download of booklet now available from FMSI website) *''Ballad research. The stranger in ballad narrative and other topics. Papers read at the European Ballad Conference.Dublin 1985'', ed. Hugh Shields, 297 pp. (1986). *''Popular music in 18th-century Dublin'' (articles by Brian Boydell, Breandán Breathnach, Nicholas Carolan and Hugh Shields, 1985, out of print) *''A short bibliography of Irish folk song'', by Hugh Shields (1985)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Hugh 1929 births 2008 deaths Irish musicologists Irish folk-song collectors Musicians from Belfast Academics of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of Trinity College Dublin 20th-century musicologists