Claddagh Records

Claddagh Records is a record label, based in Dublin's Temple Bar area, founded in 1959 by Garech Browne and Ivor Browne. It specialises in Irish traditional music, song and spoken word. Garech Browne had been taking uilleann pipe lessons at the time from maestro Leo Rowsome, whom had made many of the earliest Irish music recordings in the 1920s and 1930s through His Master's Voice and Decca; Rowsome went on to be the debut artist featured by the Claddagh label with his album "Rí na bPíobairí" ("King of the Pipers"; also the name of a traditional tune), producing virtuosic recordings. The second release by Claddagh was The Chieftains' debut album, a band who has made history as, arguably, the most globally well-known and longest-running Irish traditional group.

Some Claddagh records feature poets reading their own works, amongst whom include Patrick Kavanagh, John Montague, and a young Seamus Heaney. Liam O’Flaherty's 1981 record was to be the only one of him reading his own work record… More