Claddagh Records will remaster and digitise its archive in 2021, following the signing of a worldwide licensing agreement with Universal Music Ireland.

Led by Nick Younger, the project will result in the release of 60 remastered recordings on all digital service providers. The archived recordings will include The Chieftains 1-10, Leo Rowsome’s King of the Pipers which was the label’s first ever release, and Derek Bell’s Carolan’s Favourite.

The project will also feature the remastering of Sean Ó Riada’s Ó Riada’s Farewell, Seamus Heaney and Liam O’Flynn’s The Poet and the Piper and Jack MacGowran’s MacGowran speaking Beckett which will also be pressed onto vinyl and released later in the year.

A full inventory of the Claddagh Records archive was completed over the last 18 months which included 60 boxes of material stored in the Bank of Ireland vaults for several decades. The inventory includes over 300 recordings including some that were never released.

Along with the release of the archives, there are also new recordings and releases scheduled by the label. These include a release to mark The Chieftains 60th anniversary along with a new release of Patrick Kavanagh’s Almost Everything.

The catalogued works will be available to purchase from the Claddagh Records webstore.