Tom Lenihan

Tom Lenihan (1908–1990) was a well known Irish traditional singer from Milltown Malbay, County Clare, Ireland.

Tom and Margaret Lenihan (born Vaughan) lived in a farmhouse in Knockbrack, a few miles outside Miltown Malbay. He was a farmer and the local butcher.

According to the sleevenotes of the CD Around the Hills of Clare: Tom had a very large repertoire and positive ideas about singing. He insisted that the story was most important aspect; the singer's involvement with the song was paramount. To him it was vital that the singer used speech pat-terns, made sense of the words, singing them as close as possible to the way one would speak; to fit the tune to the words, not to make the words fit the tune. One can appreciate why Tom had so many narrative songs in his repertoire; his attitude to singing is illustrated on the two tracks of speech.

Solo albums

 * Paddy's Panacea, 1978, Topic Records
 * The Mount Callan Garland: songs from the repertoire of Tom Lenihan of Knockbrack, Miltown Malbay, county Clare. 1994. Collected and edited by Tom Munnelly with music transcriptions by Marian Deasy.Double cassette, accompanied by a book.

Anthologies

 * Irish Voices, 1997, Topic
 * Hurry The Jug, 1996, Globestyle
 * Come All My Lads that Follow The Plough (Voice of the People Vol 5), 1998, Topic
 * They Ordered Their Pints of Beer and Sherry, 1998, Topic (only one song)
 * As Me and My Love Sat Courting: Songs of Love (Voice of the People Vol 15), 1998, Topic (only one song)
 * Around the Hills of Clare

Unpublished

 * Recordings made by Tom Munnelly about folklore. Made on behalf of the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin.