Peter Shovlin (b. 1931)

Peter Shovlin was born in Lios Ciaracháin on Loughros Point in June 1931. He recalls that the fiddler Packie James McNelis was in great demand to play at country dances in the 1940s. Packie’s brother, Bernard, Sylvester Mulhern, Maurice Heekin and Francie O’Donnell are other players that he remembers from the Point. Peter left Ardara in the early 1950s and emigrated first to England before setting in Pittsburgh, USA in 1957. Peter and his wife, Sheila (née Sweeney) reared a family of five who are steeped in the Irish traditional music and dance tradition in the Pittsburgh area. Peter worked as a carpenter but made time to travel widely throughout the USA and Canada to play at dance competitions in the 1970s and 1980s. After retirement he learned the trade of violin making from the Kaschier Brothers and is still both playing and making violins.

Peter plays two barndances from his CD ‘Beyond the wee strand’, released in 2003