[1] Shields was a founder member of the Folk Music Society of Ireland or FMSI (Irish: Cumann Cheol Tíre Éireann).
The society was founded in Dublin in April 1971,[2] with the aims of encouraging interest and promoting research in the traditional music, song and dance of Ireland.
By 2003, the society brought its main activities to an end,[3] though it continued to act in its publishing capacity, and maintained an archival website of digitised material.
[6] The latter was published from November 1973, initially with Shields as editor, and continued by him and Nicholas Carolan (who was secretary of the society 1977–1992) until December 1989.
The 33 issues of the newsletter have subsequently been made available as PDF downloads from the FMSI and Irish Traditional Music Archive websites.