Biddy Mulcahy, The Pride of Shinrone

Shinrone Heritage Group's project, Biddy Mulcahy, The Pride of Shinrone - A 19th Century Melody Reimagined, is a community-led initiative that blends music, folklore and local history to revive a lost piece of Offaly's cultural heritage.

The project centres on a set of lyrics from an 1873 publication, OldenTimes in Ireland by Charles Smyth Vereker. While the words survive, the original melody has been lost, creating a unique opportunity to approach the song as a living creative work rather than a fixed historical artecfact. Instead of attempting to definitively recover the past, the project invites musicians and community members to collaboratively imagine how the song may have sounded. Guided by musician and historian Ruairi O'Shea and Dr. Karol Mullaney-Dignam of the University of Limerick, participants will take part in a series of workshops exploring the structure, rhythm and context of 19th century music.

Throughout the process, they will develop a historically informed but contemporary interpretation of the song. Rooted in the local identity of Shinrone, the initiative connects people to place, history and tradition through creative practice. The project will culminate in a live Heritage Week performance and talk, followed by a recording and archival presentation.