He travelled widely in the Gaeltacht areas of Ulster on a mission to save traditional airs from oblivion
In the Walkinstown area of Dublin, there is a small but unusually shaped public park, perhaps unique in the city.
Yes, Carl Gilbert Hardebeck does stretch the definition of “Irish musician”, in that he was born in London in 1869, to German and Welsh parents. He did not set foot in Ireland until the age of 24. By then he spoke with a Belfast accent, in which he addressed everyone as “Boss”. Although he spent years playing organ in church, and later became a professor of music, he was inclined to irreverence about his vocation. Hence a typical comment: “If I had my sight, boss, I’d be conducting an orchestra on a cruiser.”
Decades later, George Petrie, a scholar of Irish antiquities , lacked the technical ability to write down melodies accurately. He also earned a beautiful gravestone in Glasnevin Cemetery, carved by the Cork sculptor Seamus “Stone Mad” Murphy. That carries the bilingual epitaph “Oibrí do sháraithe ar son ceoil ár sinsear” and “He made our old songs live again.”
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