Makem and Clancy 1977

On March 31 the Ward Irish Music Archives will re-release (on their website) a show starring Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy that was originally broadcasted from New Hampshire television station WENH in 1977. Eleven episodes will be released for full public access. 

The Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy show aired on WENH-TV in New Hampshire in 1977. The show had a colorful backdrop and included house musicians Jerry Holland and Allister Mac Gillivary. Other guests that occasionally appeared on the show were Gordon Bok and the Shaw Brothers.

Sometime in the 1990s, Tommy called Barry Stapleton, director of the Ward Irish Music Archives, and asked if we were interested in housing the 2" tapes of the shows. The shows were no longer in circulation on TV and Tommy was unsure of who owned the rights to them. We agreed to accept the tapes

The next year Tommy brought the tapes to Milwaukee, 11 shows in all. Due to the shows numbering system its possible one is missing or they never filmed it. So that is a mystery to be resolved.

The 2" tapes had been sitting for over 20 years. It was important to get them assessed. We were fortunate to have a working TV station at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that had many old components to play the 2" tapes. It was a timely process. The tapes were cleaned then given a wet cleaning or soaking, then baked. They were coated and then ready to give them a run. While imperfect we were very satisfied with the result and had all of the tapes down. UW-M had done a great job.

Through years of talking to the family and the television station, we are now ready to release these tapes. The shows that were recorded live in 1977 will go live on the Ward Irish Music Archive Youtube page on March 31, 2023. Most of these tapes have not been seen to the public for over 50 years.