This is a copy of a CD that my uncle Jim Hogan recorded when he was in his 70s and living in Boston. He plays the flute and tin whistle. He was a much respected musician at home in County Clare. Willie Clancy the famous piper used to cycle for over an hour from Miltown Malbay to his house in Moy to learn from him.
This is a reflection on his legacy, the preservation of his recordings, and the enduring influence of Clare’s musical lineage.
He was a craftsman at his work — shaping sound with care and discipline.
His music lives where memory and melody meet — a Clareman’s gift to Ireland.
Behind every tune was a craftsman at work. In the quiet of the studio, Jimmy shaped tone, phrasing, and expression with care — bridging the oral tradition with modern preservation.
He had a medal of bravery for firefighting during the blitz in London. He returned to Ireland and with his brother Mikie they had a road maintenance contract. He left for America just before I was born.
I stayed with him one time in Boston. We had a lot to talk about and he took me to a big session of traditional music.
He told me he has a repertoire of over 2000 traditional Irish tunes. Most people have 50 to 100 tunes.
He played at all the house dances and soirees. The clergy put an end to all that frivolity that the country people were having when they introduced the Public Dance Halls Act 1935. It was an Irish law pushed by the Catholic Church to control social dancing, shifting it to parochial halls and regulating “improper” behavior. It now required licenses for public dances, impacting Irish cultural life by clamping down on private, informal dances. They didn’t even want the people to have sex in case it led to dancing. The people got hunted to the dance halls and the showbands became the new traditional music.
Jimmy Hogan
