Drawing of John Loughran (1927–87) by Eamonn O'Doherty

Drawing of John Loughran (1927–87) by Eamonn O'Doherty

Drawing made 14 July 1977 by artist Eamonn O’Doherty of fiddle-player and raconteur John Loughran in his home in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone – from the Irish Traditional Music Archive travelling exhibition ‘The Northern Fiddler’.

Drawing made 14 July 1977 by artist Eamonn O’Doherty of fiddle-player and raconteur John Loughran in his home in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone – from the Irish Traditional Music Archive travelling exhibition ‘The Northern Fiddler’ recently shown at Féile an Phobail, Belfast.

John Loughran was one of twenty-five musicians recorded in sound by Allen Feldman and Natalie Connolly, and in photographs and drawings by Eamonn O’Doherty, as part of a 1977-79 ethnographic collection project funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to document the older fiddle-playing traditions of south Donegal and south Tyrone. The project resulted in the famous book study and collection The Northern Fiddler (Belfast 1979, New York 1985), and in the ITMA exhibition (Dublin 1999 to date). The recordings and images are held in the ITMA. Eamonn O’Doherty from Derry is best known for his large public sculptures (‘Anna Livia’, ‘Crann Óir’, ‘James Connolly’ in Dublin; ‘Hooker Sails’ in Galway; ‘Emigrants’ in Derry, etc.). John Loughran has also been the subject of poems by Ciaran Carson.

Published on 1 May 2006

comments powered by Disqus