title: Tom Lenihan
text: # 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.
  
  ## Recordings
  
  ### 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  ### Unpublished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.
  