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heritage · Saturday 15 August 2026 · 3:00pm 
The Rev. Daniel J. Murphy Song Manuscripts
At Galway City Museum · Spanish Parade, Galway
At Galway City Museum · Spanish Parade, Galway
This free Heritage Week talk brings to life one of the most remarkable - and least-known - acts of cultural preservation in Irish history. A priest from Kilmacteige in Co. Sligo, Rev. Daniel J. Murphy emigrated to America in the nineteenth century and spent fifty years quietly transcribing the songs of the Irish diaspora in the coal towns and mill cities of Pennsylvania. The presentation at Galway City Museum examines those manuscripts: what they contain, how they were collected, and why they matter so much now. It suits anyone drawn to Irish music history, traditional song, or the story of what emigrants carried with them when they left.
Rev. Murphy worked alongside a Galway man, J.J. Lyons, and between them they transcribed over 1,100 sean-nós songs in the 1880s through 1930s - many of which never made it back to Ireland as the language declined. Their collectors’ notebooks are the largest single collection of Irish-song manuscripts ever assembled by independent, non-professional hands, rivalling the celebrated work of Chief Francis O’Neill in Chicago. The songs they captured came from the mouths of Irish speakers working the mines and factories of an industrial city, people who sang to keep something alive far from home.
The archive is now held at the University of Galway, which has a natural connection to this story - Lyons was a Galway man, and the university has done significant work to document and digitise the collection. The Heritage Week presentation at Galway City Museum is a chance to hear that story told in context, in a museum already dedicated to exploring Galway’s own layered past. Expect a talk with visual material rather than a dry lecture; Heritage Week presentations at this venue tend to be accessible and conversational.
Galway City Museum sits on Spanish Parade, right beside the Spanish Arch at the mouth of the River Corrib - one of the most recognisable spots in the city centre. It is a short walk from Eyre Square bus station, which has regular Expressway and Bus Éireann services from Dublin, Sligo, Limerick, and most major towns. If you are driving, the closest parking is at Jurys Inn car park or the Corrib car park on Merchants Road; street parking around the Spanish Arch is limited. The museum itself is free to enter and step into easily between other things in the city.
The Sligo connection here runs deeper than a county tag - Rev. Murphy was born in Kilmacteige in the south of the county, a parish still known for its traditional music, and his story is part of what made the west of Ireland’s song tradition worth recording. There is more to see in Sligo and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Galway City Museum in Sligo? Sligo has plenty more to see. Read the Sligo area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.