Welcome to the Cómhrá na dTonn website. The site is a mixture of Irish Music and Literature by myself, Máire McDonnell Garvey, Dan Healy and Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh. We have been collecting and playing traditional music for more years than we wish to remember. The name Cómhrá na dTonn comes from a little deserted village called Aughris on the north Atlantic coast between Sligo and Enniscrone. Large stones similar to the Giant's Causeway face the sea. There is an opening under the cliffs and it is said to run for about a mile. When the wild atlantic waves roll towards the cliff's they rush into this opening and the roar can be heard for over thirty miles away. When translated Cómhrá na dTonn means the Conversation of the Waves. There is a Draíocht about the name. Remember the poem:

"And then I pressed the shell close to my car, and listened well

and straight away like a bell, came loud and clear

The slow, sad murmurings of far distant seas

Whipped by an icy breeze, upon a shore windswept and desolate".

By John Masefield

This is what we believe these forgotten melodies bring to mind.

To accompany the CD I have written a book of the same name. The story of each of the twenty tracks is related in the book as is the music and history and many pictures.We hope you enjoy what we have to offer and that your interest will take you through all our pages. We meet and discuss the traditional tunes. It is a very interesting study. We have put programmes together and arranged to give lectures in many places in the west of Ireland. It has been very successful. I do the talking and Ciarán and Dan enhance it with their music. As you continue to read you will find we have four books and four CDs and one music book to our credit.