There is indeed coal in Ireland.You don't think there not being any coalfields might have something to do with it? And maybe not much wood (re the small chairs, above)pb+j
"THE Connacht Coalfield - better known as the Arigna coalfields - is stated by Sir Richard Griffith in his 1814 survey to be almost 158 square miles in extent. The greater part of the coal deposits are found in three mountains - Kilronan, Altagowan and Slieve-an-Iaran ['The mountain of iron']. At present [1945] the Arigna mine employs more than 600 miners who work along the slopes of a mountain that overlooks Lough Allen. The daily output is about 400 tons and about £2,400 is earned each week in the neighbourhood. The district around Drumshambo in south Leitrim recalls to one's mind the colliery districts of Lancashire for the grimy-faced miners carry their picks as they walk to the little villages and towns".
"A population starving and eager to be employed at any price, a district capable of setting them in work if its resources were directed by honesty and common sense." Today Arigna coal has found a market. The total deposit is reckoned to be about 25 million tons. Its quality is not inferior to the best cross-Channel varieties. In 1944 the output was about 120,000 tons. In 1907 it was just 15,000 tons. Coal and fire-clay occur in County Tyrone at Coalisland and Dungannon. The Leinster Coalfield extends over 94 square miles in Kilkenny, Carlow and Laois. The Munster Coalfield measures six hundred and forty square miles from Kanturk in County Cork to the middle of Clare".
"The most successful mines were in Arigna in south Leitrim. Started by Sir Charles Coote in the 17th century to feed local iron furnaces, Arigna mines were supplying the local power station until its closure in 1990".
William Forde, a flute and piano player, from Cork undertook a major collecting trip to Connacht during the Famine year of 1846. Canon Goodman, piper and singer, from Dingle collected 2,300 tunes in the 1860's. As regards written collections I've never had much use for O'Neill's collection of tunes myself, preferring Breathnach's Ceol rince books, Bulmer & Sharpley's tune books, Goodman's manuscripts, Leo Rowsome's collection