Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- [c. 1967-c. 1973?] (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 audio reel
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Richard ‘Dick’ Cameron was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1929. He came to Ireland in the mid-1950s and was heavily involved in the folk revival of the 1960s and 1970s and instrumental in the establishment of the An Góilín Singers Club, founded by Tim Dennehy and Dónal de Barra in 1979. His warm baritone made him popular on the radio, where he hosted the Ballads of a Saturday series on Radio Telefís Éireann and appeared in many other folk music programmes. He died in Dublin in 1997.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Audio reel containing a home recording of a man, identified on the cover of the reel as 'Tom', singing four songs beginning with the lines ‘Thank you my dear paperboy for the paper I will read tonight’; ‘You bolt right up out of bed find your hands clasped tightly round your head’; ‘Empty bar rooms of conversation, wouldn’t people still remain’; and ‘Rain on the roof, here today, gone tomorrow’. These are followed by an instrumental piece on the guitar and four songs beginning with the lines ‘Left a lot behind me in the bleakness of the trees’; ‘Hands red with the cold, that’s a sure sign that I’m getting old’; ‘Thus ran my child in the sun of gold across the sand’; ‘The candy shop on the corner’s closed’. These are followed by an instrumental piece on the guitar and a further four songs beginning with the lines ‘A touching smile, sparkling, beautiful’; ‘Windows covered up with frost’; ‘You’re Francis Russell B.A. you’re freshly out of West Point’; and ‘I’m a poor man, I never had much in the way of things’. Duration 00:48:32.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
No access to magnetic tape. For digital access to contents, please consult with the staff.
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- Béarla
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Reel of magnetic tape requiring a reel-to-reel player.