MÁIRE McDONNELL GARVEY:MÁIRE McDONNELL Garvey, who has died aged 82, was a musician, teacher and historian for over half a century. Her passing has left a void for all her friends who came to know her through the many facets of her life.
She was born in 1927 on a farm in Tobracken, Bealach I Doirín in Co Roscommon. The noted music teacher PJ Giblin taught her the violin at 11 years of age. She was educated by the Sisters of Charity in Ballaghadereen.
In 1948 she married Bob Garvey, a native of Tuam, Co Galway, and moved to Dublin where she reared a family of five children in Walkinstown.
As a mature student she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Gaeilge, history and English from UCD in 1970. On completing her Higher Diploma in Education, she taught in Árdscoil Éanna and Collinstown Park Community School.
She also taught night classes in the Árd Craobh of Conradh na Gaeilge, Harcourt Street, for 25 years and was a former secretary of the Dublin County Board of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.
She maintained her links with the west of Ireland by her association with St Mary’s Music Club on Church Street, Dublin, where her many rural friends gathered.
She was a member of the Aiséirigh Céilí Band in the mid-1940s and a member of the Eamonn Ceannt Céilí Band in the 1960s, and in later years formed a traditional group, Comhrá na dTonn, with her friends, Dónal Ó hÉalaí and Ciaráin Ó Rathallaigh, with whom she also began collecting and researching Irish traditional music.
Máire Garvey's interest in historical research led her to write her first book, Mid-Connaught – The Ancient Territory of Sliabh Lugha.
It is a comprehensive account of the Sliabh Lugha area of Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Galway from earliest times to the break-up of the great estates in the early 20th century.
Her other publications include A Traditional Music Journey 1600 – 2000, where she connected the musical tradition in Mayo with South Armagh, and Comhrá na dTonn, in which she wrote of the many collectors of our traditional music and songs – Patrick Lynch, George Petrie, WP Joyce, William Forde and Captain Francis O'Neill, among others.
Her last book, Under the Shadow of the Summerhills, is a nostalgic account of her years growing up in Ballaghadereen. In it, she gives a graphic account of history, politics, social life, characters and traditional music.
She researched and played the violin on numerous CDs, including The Windy Turn and Whispering Strains of the Past. Máire was instrumental in reissuing the music of her teacher PJ Giblin, and in producing an accompanying CD, The Giblin Legacy.
In 2007 the Dr Douglas Hyde Summer School presented her with a Gradam award in recognition of her lifetime contribution to traditional Irish music.
Máire Garvey had a huge fund of basic common sense which she applied to all situations. She led by example and was a human dynamo.
Predeceased in 1997 by her husband Bob, she is survived by her daughters Carmel, Marie and Ita, and her sons Seán and Shay and grandchildren.
Máire McDonnell Garvey (Máire Mhic Dómhnaill Gairbhí): born July 10th, 1927; died August 29th, 2009