"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).
