1. Elizabeth "Bess" Cronin was an influential singer of Irish traditional music in the sean-nos style.
19 Facts About Elizabeth Cronin
1. 2.
Elizabeth Cronin sang hundreds of songs which she learnt as a youth, half of which were in the Irish language, which was her first language.
3.
Elizabeth Cronin was visited and recorded by prominent collectors of traditional music including Alan Lomax, Jean Ritchie, Peter Kennedy and Seamus Ennis.
4.
Elizabeth Cronin was born on 29 May 1879 in Rath West, in the civil parish of Ballyvourney, County Cork.
5.
The entire Cronin family, including Elizabeth, spoke Irish as their first language and worked to promote it, and her mother was a professor of the language.
6.
Elizabeth Cronin spent her teenage years on a nearby farm owned by her childless aunt and uncle, Tomas O hIarfhlaithe.
7.
Elizabeth Cronin learnt many of her songs and stories as a young teenager from farm servants who came and went for periods of five to six months, as well as others from her mother, cousins and friends.
8.
Elizabeth Cronin remained in the Baile Bhuirne area her whole life.
9.
Elizabeth Cronin sang songs both in English and in her local dialect of the Irish language, which particularly interested collectors.
10.
Elizabeth Cronin made her first public appearance in 1899 at the age of 20 in a Feis in Macroom, singing two sean-nos songs in Irish.
11.
Over 80 of Elizabeth Cronin's songs are on tape, however many are not available to the public but confined to her private collection.
12.
Elizabeth Cronin never received a recording contract from her career in Irish traditional music.
13.
Elizabeth Cronin fell ill to the blood-related diseases toxaemia and anaemia,.
14.
Elizabeth Cronin died in hospital in Macroom on 2 June 1956, at the age of 77.
15.
Elizabeth Cronin created some records during her life which are still to this day widely available in the Irish traditional music archive.
16.
Elizabeth Cronin influenced Irish singers such as Christy Moore and Martin Carthy and Seamus Ennis.
17.
Elizabeth Cronin's songs are still played on RTE Radio and are available on YouTube and Spotify.
18.
Elizabeth Cronin's continued use of the local Irish dialect "galvanised her local community".
19.
Many of Bess Elizabeth Cronin's songs are regularly performed in her native Baile Mhuirne and further afield.