A spot of mischief and music in Doocastle

Whilst searching for data or any clues about the Burke's and Irwin's of Doocastle/Kilturra, I came across The Memoirs of Arthur O'Neill, a traveling harpist.  To my great amusement, Arthur's account of a 'session' in Irwin's is remarkably like those I remember in our home- only a hundred and fifty years later!

"I next went to Mr. Jones Irwin's of Streamstown, County Sligo. I am totally at a loss how to describe that gentleman's uncommon manner of living at his own house and amongst his tenantry. He had an ample fortune. He was an amateur [and] had four sons and three daughters, who were all such proficients in music that no instrument was unknown to them. There was at one time a meeting in his house of forty-six musicians, who played in the following order.

The three Miss Irwins at the piano	3
Arthur O'Neill (myself), harp	1
Gentlemen flutes	6
Gentlemen violoncellos	2
Common pipers	10
Gentlemen fiddlers	20
Gentlemen clarinets	4
Total	46

     At the hour this hospitable gentleman's customary meeting was finished, some guests contiguous to their own places went away, but those who lived some miles off remained ; and in order to accommodate them Mr. and Mrs. Irwin lay on chairs that night in the parlour. For my own part I never spent a more agreeable night, either in bed or out of bed."  The Memoirs of Arthur O'Neill (1734-1818) have been dictated ca. 1810 to Thomas Hughes, Bunting's copyist, and compiled from Bunting's mss. by Donal O'Sullivan (who took on division into chapters, chapter summaries, additions [in square brackets] and correct spelling of Irish phrases) 

My paternal great grandfather James Irwin ranked himself as a landholder in 1874 when his daughter Bridget married John Burke (my great Grandfather).