Voice Recordings

This series consists of 12 voice recordings (VR) collected by the Bureau in 1950/51, with the cooperation of the Irish Folklore Commission. Witnesses selected for recording were deemed ‘unique in some outstanding way from the point of view of historians’ (BMH S 1412) and add a different texture to the BMH Collection, allowing researchers today to hear the accents and inflections of individuals as they tell their stories in their own words.

Among those recorded were Áine Ceannt, widow of the executed 1916 leader Éamonn Ceannt, who recounts the first meeting of the IRB Military Council in her home in Oakley Road, Dublin; the labour leader William O’Brien, who recounts his memories of the executed 1916 leader James Connolly and Maud Gonne McBride, who speaks of the reasons she moved from being a ‘carefree society girl’ to becoming a revolutionary leader.

You can click on any of the embedded voice recordings below to listen to the named contributors.