WIMA would like to offer a special thanks to the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) for its assistance on this project.
It is with great pride that WIMA actually had its impetus in a moment within ITMA. Ed Ward, Milwaukee Irish Fest Founder, was waiting to meet Nicholas Carolan at ITMA, and he was in their library when Ed found his own grandfather's book John Ward's Collection of Irish Comic Songs, 1947. It was at this moment Ed thought, "If ITMA is collecting all of this in Ireland... who is doing it in the U.S.?" When Ed returned to Milwaukee, he proposed the creation of the Ward Irish Music Archives to the Irish Fest board of directors, and we were formally given our mission.
We are indebted to Nicholas Carolan, Director of ITMA, for content information and advice on the O'Neill Cylinder CD project and this collection website. Thanks also go to Jackie Small, Sound Archivist at ITMA, for tune and content information, as well as advice for pitch standardization.