Limerick lecturer moves stories from history into songs with new creative project

A MARY Immaculate College (MIC) academic has teamed up with legendary Cranberries drummer Fergal Lawler for a new single. 

Produced by Bernard Butler, the new single From the Tombs is rooted in the history of the Irish diaspora. 

Dr Richard McMahon, lecturer in history at MIC and currently a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge, is part of a collaborative music and history project. 

The project – Bring Your Own Hammer brings historians and composers together to create original songs based on archival sources.

This latest release, From the Tombs,  tells the story of an Irish servant in New York city in 1881 who was imprisoned in the notorious Tombs (New York Halls of Justice and House of Detention) before being convicted of manslaughter and later released.  

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Using a short historical source, the project transforms fragments of the past into a contemporary song.

Dr McMahon said: “There’s something very powerful about taking a short historical source and opening it up through music. These are often voices that are only briefly recorded in history, and this approach allows us to discover those stories anew and re-imagine those lives more sympathetically.”

Beyond this, little is known about her life, and the song reimagines her experience through music.

Co-written by Dr McMahon and Mark Smalle, with many contributors, the single is from an upcoming double album out this year.

Alongside Lawler and Butler, the recording features performers including June Miles-Kingston, Marcus Holdaway, Ian Catt and Terry Edwards.

The single is the first release from an upcoming double album, also titled From the Tombs, due for release in autumn 2026.

The album will explore themes of crime, justice and migration in Ireland and across the Irish diaspora during the 19th century.