Cork University Press decided c. 2008 that a second, expanded edition of the book was feasible, and I was again asked to be editor. Opinions were informally canvassed from a variety of musicians and academics throughout the country and abroad, based on which many new ideas were taken on. The culture-related material was developed, as was coverage of counties in Ireland itself. Biographies were greatly expanded to include the living, with, typically, people writing their own basic material (as much to avoid error as contention) which was then edited to house style.
The main difference to the first edition was the scale of the biographical and region-related writing, the increase in notated tune-examples, and an extensive index of non-central names and places that the first edition could not afford. The discography was dropped, as by that time self-production of recordings had mushroomed, and the internet carried this perpetually-increasing and changing information adequately and more efficiently. A subsidiary Kindle digital version of the book was done in addition to the hard copy.
The cover image of the second edition was again chosen for its educational content, an 1832 painting by the Cork-born artist Daniel Maclise which is the earliest depiction in a painting of group playing for a social dance in Ireland. It shows three instruments still central in Traditional music—pipes, fiddle and flute, and is also the earliest image of the tambourine being played in the music.
This edition was launched in 2011 at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, a proceedings chaired by Prof Michael Cronin, of Dublin City University, later Prof of French in TCD, with the launch address given by Nicholas Carolan, founder-director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Music was provided by piper Odhran O Casaoide’s traditional-music students from Dublin Institute of Technology (now TUD), a symbolic collaboration that associated the historical and everyday practice of the music with its developing educational field.
Considerable web information was provided as an adjunct for that edition, including video of the event and the speeches (see comitm.com). Overall, the book’s 832 pages carried 1800 leading articles in c. 560,000 words.
