Na Píobairí Uilleann presents Notes & Narratives – a series of monthly performance-based lectures on traditional music, song and dance by some of Ireland’s finest traditional artists.

This month's speaker will be fiddle player Martin McGinley presenting a talk on "The three lives of Hughie Gillespie". 

Martin McGinley takes a look at a fiddle maestro of the so-called '78 era’ in Irish traditional music, Hughie Gillespie from Ballybofey, County Donegal.

Hughie was born in 1906 and his eighty years can be considered in three spans – his youth in Ballybofey and in nearby Cloghan, in the Bluestack mountains in Donegal; his decades in the States, when he was a close friend and pupil of the legendary Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman; and his return to Ballybofey in 1964 when he was in his fifties.

Come along and hear the stories and the music of a talented, resourceful and opinionated character, Hughie Gillespie, and try and answer the question – was he a Donegal Sligo fiddler?

Martin McGinley is a well-known fiddler and journalist who has taken a close interest in the fiddle music of his native east Donegal. He has already featured in the 'Notes and Narratives' series at NPU (Aug 2022), talking about the fiddler and piper Seán Reid, who was born in Castlefin. Martin has presented on the fiddler Tommy Peoples at the National Concert Hall (Oct 2023), and on 'Fiddling in the Lagan' to the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society (Dec 2024).

 Notes & Narratives will take place at Na Píobairí Uilleann, 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, starting at 8:30pm on Thursday 19th June 2025.

Admission is €10 (unwaged / student / retired €5). For those unable to attend in person, it will also be live streamed for free through our channel NPU-TV.

Supported by The Arts Council.