The Irish-Language Traditional Song Collection of Patrick Lynch, 1802–1803

This chapter describes song collecting trips made in Connacht and Ulster in 1802 and 1803 by Patrick Lynch (c.1750s–1838) of Loughinisland, Co. Down, for Edward Bunting and the promoters of the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival. The words of some four hundred Irish-language traditional pieces recorded by Lynch constitute the most important early collection of Irish song. He wrote them in longhand manuscript, mainly in Co. Mayo, and subsequently rewrote them in Gaelic script and translated them into English. His manuscripts are listed here and their history traced; they remain largely unpublished among those of Bunting in the Library of Queen’s University Belfast. In surviving letters and a journal, Lynch also preserved details of his source singers and of his collecting experiences and strategies. The social and political contexts of Lynch’s work are outlined, including his connections with the Irish-language scribal tradition and with Thomas Russell and the United Irishmen movement.

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