Collection CMA-240167 - The Caoimhín Mac Aoidh Collection

By the mid 1980s Caoimhín Mac Aoidh had amassed a significant collection of the manuscripts of Pádraig O'Keeffe sourced mainly from his pupils and in a limited number, others who had come to possess some material. All collections were given freely to Caoimhín and every original manuscript returned to their owners once they had been photocopied.

Caoimhín understood the writing systems for fiddle, ten key melodeon and whistle and meticulously transcribed each tune into staff notation. In those cases where he couldn't reasonably photocopy the originals, he copied the originals using stencils and a draftsman's Rotring pen in order to ensure clarity of reproduction. It was always Caoimhín's hope to get the collection "published with the view to making them available to the public as a mark of respect to the great master that was Pádraig [O'Keeffe] as well as to honour the generosity of the manuscript owners" but due to the size of the collection he failed in this endeavour. In total 700 tunes were transcribed from manuscript sources and these transcriptions along with text and notes on the tunes were donated to ITMA in September 2015. The donation coincided with an event to mark the retirement of ITMA Director Emeritus Nicholas Carolan and was a "small but genuine tribute" by the donor "to offer the collections on this occasion."