Capturing O'Neill: Dedication pages of books on Irish traditional music, signed by Capt. Francis O'Neill

Capturing O'Neill

With the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin and the Ward Irish Music Archives in Milwaukee, this initiative built an online display of signed dedication pages of books by Capt. Francis O'Neill, gifted to others by the author. Each entry has a biography of the recipient, and (if possible) a story of provenance for each book. This project has been researched and assembled in part by the students in Scott Spencer's (University of Southern California) "Irish Music" graduate course, and peer-curated and reviewed by by Drs. Aileen Dillane (University of Limerick), Michael O'Malley (George Mason University), Daniel T. Neely (Irish Echo), and Scott Spencer (USC) with support from the Ward Irish Music Archives, and the Irish Traditional Music Archives.

The goal of this display is to contextualize O'Neill's projects and publications on Irish traditional music in the larger Irish and Irish-American experience, as well as better understand the multiple social and political realms in which O'Neill was operating at the time he published his books. This includes placing O'Neill, through his gifts of books and florid dedication pages, at the heart of the Irish Diaspora and its associated political and social movements at the turn of the century; before the 1916 Irish Uprising; and through the 1922 creation of the Irish Free State.

Mike O'Malley has written a short biography of O'Neill for this site, and has recently written a book on the subject, The Beat Cop (University of Chicago Press, 2022).

O'Neill's Publications include:

O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903)
The Dance Music of Ireland (1907)
O'Neill's Irish Music: 250 Choice Selections Arranged for Piano and Violin (1908)
Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910)
Popular Selections from O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1910) [edited by Selena O'Neill]
Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913)
O’Neill’s Music of Ireland: 400 Choice Selections Arranged for Piano and Violin (1915)
Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922)
Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody 2nd edition (1924)

Readers can navigate this site through the Table of Contents in the upper left hand corner of this page, and through the titles above.

Do you have a signed O'Neill book? If so, we would love to include a scan of the dedication page, as well as your story. You can participate by uploading information and images through this online form, or by sending an email to scottspe@usc.edu for information and instructions.

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