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e<br />
G<br />
Februaf')' 13, 14<br />
March 26. 27<br />
April 3-5<br />
April 8 - 11<br />
April 8-11<br />
April 14. 15. 16<br />
Apn123-25<br />
April 24. 25<br />
April 24. 25<br />
April 18<br />
May1.2<br />
May7. 8. 9<br />
May 8. 9<br />
May 8. 9<br />
May 7-9<br />
May9<br />
May 7 - 9<br />
May 8. 9<br />
May 14- 16<br />
May15. 16<br />
May 16<br />
May 14-16<br />
May 16<br />
May 15. 16<br />
May 14-16<br />
May 16<br />
May 14. 15<br />
May 23-31<br />
May 29<br />
May 22. 23<br />
June 3-6<br />
June 4 -6<br />
June 4 -6<br />
June 4 - 7<br />
June 4 -6<br />
June 4 - 6<br />
June 4-6<br />
June 13<br />
June 16-20<br />
June 18- 20<br />
June 25-27<br />
June 25- 27<br />
June 25-27<br />
June 26. 27<br />
July 2-4<br />
July9-11<br />
July 16<br />
July 16-18<br />
July 23- 25<br />
August 15-20<br />
August 20-22<br />
September 1 D. 11<br />
Irish<br />
ProVInce of Bntain Convention<br />
Carlow<br />
Roscommon Fleadh<br />
North Amencan Conventlon<br />
Granai'd Traditional Harp Festival<br />
Derry Fleadh<br />
Leltf'lm Fleadh<br />
Kildare Fleadh<br />
Scottish Fleadh<br />
Northern Region Fleadh [UKj<br />
Comha ltas Annual Congress<br />
Mayo Fleadh<br />
Offaly Fleadh<br />
Longford Fleadh<br />
Cork Fleadh<br />
Midland Region Fleadh [UKj<br />
Donegal Fleadh<br />
Dublin Fleadh<br />
Galway Fleadh<br />
Kilkenny Fleadh<br />
Wexford Fleadh<br />
Antnm Fleadh<br />
Louth Fleadh<br />
Meath Fleadh<br />
Tipperary Fleadh<br />
London & Southem Region Ffeadh IUKj<br />
Westmeath Fleadh<br />
Fleadh Nua<br />
Wicklow Fleadh<br />
Mid Atlantic Flead h [USA)<br />
Monaghan Fleadh<br />
Sligo Fleadh<br />
Laols Fleadh<br />
Cavan Fleadh<br />
Llmenck Fleadh<br />
Armagh Fleadh<br />
Waterford Fleadh<br />
Fermanagh Fleadh<br />
Tyrone Ffeadh<br />
Clare Fleadh<br />
Kerry Fleadh<br />
Down Fleadh<br />
Mid West Ffeadh [USAI<br />
All Bntaln Fleadh<br />
Connacht Fleadh<br />
Lelnstcr Fleadh<br />
Scoll Fonn & Amhran<br />
Munster Fleadh<br />
Ulster Fleadh<br />
Scoil Eigse<br />
Floadh Cheoil na hEireann<br />
Tion61 Leo Rowsome<br />
Holiday Inn Elstree. Borehamwood<br />
Lelghlinbndge. Co. Carlow<br />
Ballaghaden-een. Co. Roscommon<br />
Parslpanny. New Jersey. USA<br />
Granard. Co. Longford<br />
Derf')' City. Co. DeN)'<br />
Ballinamore. Co. Leitnm<br />
Kllteel - Eadestown. Co. Kildare<br />
Pollok. Glasgow<br />
Broughton Ha ll, Liverpool<br />
CultUrlann na htlreann. Co. Dublin<br />
Claremorris. Co. Mayo<br />
Edenderf')'. Co. Offaly<br />
Granard. Co. Longford<br />
Sklbereen. Co. Cork<br />
Prmcethorpe College. Warwickshire<br />
Letterkenny. Co. Donegal<br />
St DaVld's School. Artane. Dublin 5<br />
Dunmore. Co. Galway<br />
Freshford. Co. Kilkenny<br />
Bannow, Co. Wexford<br />
Dunloy, Co. Antnm<br />
Dundalk. Co. Louth<br />
Ashboume. Co. Meath<br />
Gael Seall, Tipperary Town. Co. Tipperary<br />
Harrlngey Insh Centre. London<br />
Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath<br />
Ennls, Co. Clare<br />
Tinahely. Co. Wicklow<br />
Pearl River Middle School, Pearl River . NY<br />
Scotstown, Co. Monaghan<br />
Dromore West, Co. Sligo<br />
Mountmollick, Co. Laois<br />
Kilnaleck. Co. Cavan<br />
HOSPital, Co. Limerick<br />
Portm6r. Co. Armagh<br />
Ballyduff Upper, Waterford<br />
Derrygonnelly. Co. Fermanagh<br />
Dun Uladh Regional Resource Centre. Omagh<br />
Kilfenora, Co. Clare<br />
Causeway. Co. Kerry<br />
Wan-enpolnt, Co Down<br />
Village of Forest Park. IL USA<br />
Jordanhlll College of Education. Glasgow<br />
Mohlll. Co. Leitrim<br />
Dunleer. Co. Louth<br />
Kenmare, Co. Kerry<br />
Kenmare. Co. Kerry<br />
Castlewellan, Co. Down<br />
Cavan Town. Co. Cavan<br />
Cavan Town. Co. Cavan<br />
CultUrlann na hElreann, Co. Dublin<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceolt6irf ~ireann<br />
32 Belgrava Squa .... , Monkstown, Co, Dublin, Ireland. Tel: 00-353-1-2800295<br />
enquiries@comhaltaB.com • www.comhaltas.je
Eagarfhocal<br />
The death of Brian Prior was a severe blow to the Irish traditional<br />
music movement. Brian was a much loved and iconic figure in<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>. It was he who led the regeneration of the branch music<br />
session. He was an inspiration for all who had the good fortune<br />
to know him. He was dedicated, generous and selfless – one of<br />
nature’s gentlemen.<br />
Brian has left an important cultural legacy in the hugely popular<br />
Foinn Séisiún booklets and CD’s. It was typical of his resolute<br />
character that even in the midst of his illness he was already<br />
working on the next publication in the series.<br />
To Ann and family we express our deepest sympathy and heartfelt<br />
admiration for the man we were proud to call friend.<br />
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal …<br />
Clár<br />
Iris Oifigiúil Chomhaltas<br />
Ceoltóirí Éireann<br />
The Book of Traditional Music,<br />
Song and Dance<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí Éireann<br />
Cearnóg Belgrave<br />
Baile na Manach<br />
Co. Átha Cliath<br />
Ireland<br />
Fón: (+353-1) 280 0295<br />
Fax: (+353-1) 280 3759<br />
E-mail enquiries@comhaltas.com<br />
Webpage http://www.comhaltas.ie<br />
Design Graftrónaic<br />
Clúdach TG4’s Glas Vegas Champion<br />
sean-nós dancer Sibéal Davitt who was<br />
on the 2010 <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Tour of Britain<br />
(Photo: Ó Mainín)<br />
Iml 42 Uimhir 1 2010 1SS No 790 004X<br />
TREOIR (1SS 790 004X) is published quarterly by<br />
CCÉ, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co. Dublin,<br />
Ireland. Single copies e3; Subscription Rates:<br />
Ireland and Europe e12; Britain £9 Stg; Australia<br />
and New Zealand $25; USA and Canada $20<br />
US.USPS 062790. Periodical postage to be paid<br />
at Hillsdale PO and at additional mailing offices.<br />
US POSTMASTER: Please send address changes<br />
to TREOIR Administrator, PO Box 14, Hillsdale, NJ<br />
07642 USA as well as any inquiries about US and<br />
Canadian subscriptions.<br />
2 Sibéal is a Star 3 Cavan all set for Fleadh Extravaganza 4 Cultural<br />
cringe and a hole in the soul 6 DVDs for your Collection; News from<br />
Sardinia 7 Honour for Sligo music legend; The Castlewellan good news<br />
story 8 <strong>Comhaltas</strong><strong>Archive</strong>.ie: A Place of Discovery, Excitement, and Joy<br />
10 Meath celebrate ‘30’ in style; Remembering yesterday, living today;<br />
Corofin news; Congratulations to a noble couple 11 Craobh Naithi a big<br />
hit in America 12 The Johnny Doherty <strong>Comhaltas</strong> branch celebration<br />
13 As it was in Toureendarby 14 Unpublished poem by Terence<br />
McSwiney; Around the world in 80 ways 15 Innisfree Céilí Band CD;<br />
Maidin i mBéarra; Scottish salute for Irish Diaspora 16 A Musical Maestro<br />
17 An Ghaeilge: Straitéis 20 Bliain 18 One of Wexford’s finest<br />
19 Scoil Fonn agus Amhrán 20 Poems by Mary Guckian 21 The Hounds<br />
of Ulster 22 Noel – The real Longford collector; Bridge of Memories at<br />
Ballinclough 23 Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge; The Galway Fleadh; Janet<br />
the Harpist Supreme 24 Sprideanna 25 Our beautiful Living Tradition<br />
27 Gael-Bhanraíon Mhaigh Eo 28 Tom’s Christmas poem at Special<br />
Christmas Service in Meadowood, Canada 29 RTÉ release Willie Clancy<br />
recordings 33 Sonny Murray – An inspiration to Irish traditional<br />
musicians 34 Seosamh Mac Gabhann 35 Paddy Berry recalls the singing<br />
Olympics at Fleadh ’09 37 Skibbereen celebrate 40 th anniversary<br />
38 Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh 39 <strong>Comhaltas</strong> presentation to the NI Assembly<br />
Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure; <strong>Comhaltas</strong> in Moscow; Dundalk’s<br />
Oriel Centre at heart of rich cultural region 40 Meitheal Summer School;<br />
The legendary Pat Finn 41 Brian Prior – A True Gentleman 43 <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
mourns as Brian Prior is laid to rest; A hive of activity at Cois na hAbhna<br />
44 The Hornpipe Man 45 The Music Man from Derrylaughan<br />
46 Leo Rowsome’s Trip to Tipp 47 The Céilí Bands story 50 Echoes of Erin<br />
– Siar Amach 51 The legacy of Seán Ó Riada 54 Ciarán Mac Mathúna<br />
55 A Joe Clancy moment; Cuimhneachán Ceoil: Pat O’Connor CD launch<br />
56 New international competition for world bodhrán championship<br />
TREOIR<br />
1
SIBÉAL IS A<br />
STAR<br />
Sibéal demonstrates her winning style<br />
accompanied by Johnny Connolly. She<br />
was also on the 2010 <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Concert<br />
Tour of Britain (Photo: Ó Mainnín)<br />
Sibéal Davitt is from Ranelagh,<br />
Dublin, where she grew up in an<br />
Irish speaking household with<br />
Gaeltacht connections to Tuar<br />
Mhic Éadaigh, Co. Mayo, in the<br />
west of Ireland. She comes from a<br />
musical background and has been<br />
sean-nós dancing and playing<br />
traditional Irish music from an<br />
early age. Her unique style of seannós<br />
dancing, which is heavily<br />
influenced by the Connemara seannós<br />
style, reflects her own passion<br />
for innovation and spontaneity as a<br />
form of expression through dance.<br />
She is a popular performer and<br />
teacher of sean-nós dancing at<br />
venues and festivals throughout<br />
Ireland and abroad. 2009 was a<br />
particularly busy and creative year<br />
for Sibéal having won the All-<br />
Ireland ‘Glas Vegas’ talent<br />
competition on TG4, a prize<br />
which took her on a trip to the<br />
capital of entertainment, Las<br />
Vegas, where she performed as part<br />
of her winning prize. She made a<br />
guest appearance on the lastest<br />
series of Glas Vegas on TG4 as a<br />
judge and mentor among the panel<br />
of judges on the programme<br />
broadcast on 14 th February 2010.<br />
Sibéal has performed on numerous<br />
RTÉ, TG4 and Raidió na<br />
Gaeltachta shows inlcuding<br />
‘The Late Late Show’. A recent<br />
‘Mooney’ radio show with<br />
presenter Aonghus McAnally<br />
featured a live sean-nós dance<br />
performance with Sibéal that had<br />
distinct echoes of Din Joe’s ‘Take<br />
the Floor’ from another era. Other<br />
recent television performances and<br />
venues include TG4’s ‘Steip’,<br />
‘Imeall’ and the ‘Electric Picnic<br />
2009’ show; Celtic Connections<br />
festival in Glasgow, Scotland, Un<br />
Chruinnaght in the Isle of man,<br />
Willie Clancy Festival in Miltown<br />
Malbay as well as Cork Opera<br />
House, Wexford Opera House,<br />
Armagh Theatre & Arts Centre<br />
and the National Concert Hall,<br />
Dublin.<br />
Sibéal has a keen interest in all<br />
dance genres. She studied ballet at<br />
the Doreen Feely School of<br />
Dance, Dublin and contemporary<br />
with Coiscéim Creative Steps<br />
Dance Theatre Company, where<br />
she’s a current member. She<br />
developed her interest in<br />
contemporary, Jazz and traditional<br />
forms of dance through workshops<br />
and stage performances. She won<br />
first prize in Ireland in the creative<br />
dance section of Scléip 2007<br />
sponsored by Foras na Gaeilge and<br />
came second in the sean-nós<br />
dancing section at the Oireachtas<br />
arts festival later that year.<br />
She conducts dance workshops for<br />
adults and young people and is<br />
currently teaching sean-nós<br />
dancing at The Cobblestone,<br />
Dublin and at <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann’s headquarters, An<br />
Chultúrlann, Monkstown, Dublin.<br />
Sibéal is a student at Trinity<br />
College, Dublin, studying film<br />
media and the Irish language.<br />
E-mail sibeal.davitt@gmail.com<br />
Tel: 086-156 9833<br />
See Sibéal’s winning performance<br />
on Glas Vegas competition<br />
with accordion player Cormac<br />
Ó Murchú, on the link below:<br />
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=<br />
GbvCp-aScBY&feature=related<br />
2<br />
TREOIR
CAVAN ALL SET FOR<br />
FLEADH EXTRAVAGANZA<br />
Cavan is leaving no stone<br />
unturned to ensure that Fleadh<br />
Cheoil na hÉireann 2010 next<br />
August will be another milestone<br />
in the Fleadh saga which has<br />
captured the hearts and<br />
imagination of millions of<br />
Fleadhgoers over the last 60 years.<br />
Cavan’s Minister Brendan Smith and Uachtarán an Chomhaltais Séamus Mac Cormaic together<br />
with Cavan’s young musical representatives are all in tune for a great Fleadh<br />
Jack Keyes<br />
Seán Ó Sé<br />
Fleadh Cathaoirleach Jack Keyes,<br />
who is Cavan County Manager,<br />
has provided inspired leadership in<br />
bringing the Fleadh to Cavan after<br />
a 56 year interval since this Ulster<br />
town first hosted the event in its<br />
infant days. In the meantime, the<br />
Fleadh has grown into one of the<br />
biggest cultural events in the<br />
world attracting hundreds of<br />
thousands of followers each year.<br />
As is the norm, the Fleadh will<br />
reflect the cultural traditions of<br />
the host region and Ulster has a<br />
rich store to offer.<br />
The Cork born singing maestro<br />
Seán Ó Sé has been selected as<br />
Ardollamh for the Cavan based<br />
Fleadh. Seán is one of Ireland’s<br />
foremost traditional entertainers<br />
giving a new impetus to the song<br />
tradition in Ireland and England.<br />
He is noted for his musical<br />
association with Seán Ó Riada<br />
and the now legendary ‘Ó Riada sa<br />
Gaeity’ concert. Seán has travelled<br />
nationally and internationally –<br />
including North America and<br />
Russia – with <strong>Comhaltas</strong>. He is<br />
one of the most popular<br />
entertainers of his generation and<br />
has brought the Irish language<br />
centre stage throughout his fruitful<br />
career. His professionalism and<br />
artistic stagecraft have provided a<br />
model for many up-and-coming<br />
traditional performers.<br />
Having had three wonderful years<br />
at the Fleadh in Tullamore, all eyes<br />
now are on Cavan which will put<br />
its own individual stamp on this<br />
great celebration of what we are.<br />
Danny McKendry Jnr, and Danny McKendry<br />
Snr from CCÉ St James the Great Branch,<br />
Glasgow, Scotland, who competed in the<br />
fiddle slow airs at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann,<br />
Tullamore 2009. (Photo: Anne Finnegan)<br />
TREOIR 3
CULTURAL CRINGE<br />
AND A HOLE IN<br />
THE SOUL<br />
Saeed de Ridder<br />
‘If you don’t like traditional music you’ve got<br />
a hole in your soul!’<br />
‘Cultural identities exist because they<br />
answer to a real need in the soul...’’<br />
Recently our daughter and her<br />
husband were playing at a venue<br />
in Cairns, North Queensland,<br />
called ‘The Tanks’(called this<br />
because the venue consists of 5<br />
tanks that were actually WW1<br />
fuel/oil storage tanks, and have<br />
been converted to music and other<br />
cultural venues). The music night<br />
had a Celtic theme and our<br />
daughter and son-in-law were<br />
actually a supporting act to the<br />
main act, which was the<br />
contemporary rock/fold band<br />
‘Kamarunga’. Duo Mick O’Mara,<br />
Vice-President of our North<br />
Queensland <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Branch<br />
and Paddy Anderson, also played<br />
a more traditional support act.<br />
Both support acts were very well<br />
received by the audience.<br />
Towards the end of the evening a<br />
Belfast man (who will remain<br />
nameless) came up to me and with<br />
all the vehemence of a<br />
Cromwellian hangman declared<br />
how he loathed and despised<br />
traditional Irish music and went<br />
on to suggest that a nuclear<br />
warhead should be sent to every<br />
venue in which this music was<br />
played. As a lover of the<br />
traditional music of pretty well all<br />
peoples, and a special love for<br />
traditional Irish music, I could feel<br />
my blood warming up. My response<br />
was not long in coming, I told him<br />
of Johnny Lee Hooker’s response to<br />
those who spoke prejoratively of<br />
the Blues: ‘If you don’ like the<br />
Blues you’ve got a hole in your<br />
soul’ said Johnny. For me the same<br />
holds true for the traditional music<br />
of Éire, if you don’t like it, you’ve<br />
got a hole in your soul. Now I<br />
know that this is a biased point<br />
of view, but in the face of a tirade<br />
that went well beyond the<br />
boundaries of bias, and was simply<br />
negative in the extreme, such a<br />
response is surely premissible.<br />
It is true that a person’s musical<br />
affinity will always be a very<br />
subjective thing and that should<br />
be the end of the matter. The<br />
story is however a little more<br />
complicated than that. We can<br />
never preclude the context, i.e.<br />
the environment in which we<br />
were brought up. Most of us never<br />
consider to what extent social<br />
environmental factors shape our<br />
tastes and values.<br />
Paul Keating, an ex-Prime<br />
Minister of Australia, once<br />
reflected on what he referred to as<br />
the phenomenon of ‘Cultural<br />
Cringe’. By this he meant how a<br />
people dominated by tastes and<br />
values of a ruling elite for example,<br />
can make a whole people begin to<br />
feel ashamed of their long treasured<br />
cultural values, language, etc.<br />
Most of us have heard the words<br />
‘Cultural Imperialism’, especially as<br />
regards the influence of dominant<br />
economies such as that of the US.<br />
The term Americanisation has<br />
long been spoken of in Europe,<br />
and I forget who it was who said<br />
we have gone from Colonisation<br />
to ‘Coca-Colonisation’.<br />
The Belfast man who ridiculed the<br />
traditional music of his own<br />
country may well be suffering from<br />
a good dose of Cultural Cringe. He<br />
4<br />
TREOIR
was quick to point out to me that<br />
he had studied music at university;<br />
as if this in itself should make his<br />
condemnation of the traditional<br />
music in some way valid. My own<br />
view is that his studies in music at<br />
university may well have<br />
contributed to the severity of his<br />
judgements on the traditional<br />
music of his country of origin.<br />
Traditional music has a powerfully<br />
intellectual element, but its beauty<br />
is such that it will always defy any<br />
attempts at exhaustive analysis. I<br />
am reminded here of a Chinese<br />
story, probably from the Taoist<br />
tradition: A centipede was once<br />
asked how he knew which one of<br />
his many legs to put forward first.<br />
The centipede began to think on<br />
this, and in so doing found that he<br />
could no longer walk.<br />
Universities are not always the<br />
institutions best placed to learn<br />
about a people’s traditions and<br />
culture. In some cases they fulfill a<br />
role not much better than that of<br />
a museum that houses the remains<br />
of cultures once vibrant but now<br />
dead. It is also worth remembering<br />
that we have had some of our very<br />
worst accounts of peoples and<br />
their traditions from some<br />
anthropologists.<br />
At high school here in Australia<br />
we were taught that our<br />
indigenous people (Australian<br />
Aboriginal people) were still<br />
living in the ‘Stone Age’ and how<br />
lucky we were to have been<br />
discovered by ‘advanced’ people<br />
from across the sea in England.<br />
Governmant policy towards<br />
Aboriginal people clearly reflected<br />
this viewpoint and as a<br />
consequence we had the tradegy of<br />
what has become known in<br />
Australia as ‘The Stolen<br />
Generation’, where indigenous<br />
and part-indigenous children were<br />
forcibly removed from their<br />
parents and placed in institutions<br />
or with white families.<br />
Cultural Imperialism is also a very<br />
insidious thing. It operates by<br />
stealth and can rob a whole people<br />
of their cultural identity without<br />
their even noticing the fact.<br />
The disappearance of languages<br />
worldwide is a pointer to the reality<br />
of cultural imperialism which is<br />
now a global phenomenon.<br />
Aboriginal languages in Australia<br />
once numbered over 500, almost all<br />
of these are now gone.<br />
A point very often overlooked is<br />
that a people is concerned and<br />
that is why wherever a people<br />
have fought to protect and<br />
perpetuate their cultural identity<br />
(an identity nearly always tied up<br />
with land), the fight has always<br />
been an heroic one.<br />
Another point overlooked is the<br />
following: We can simply<br />
substitute one culture for another.<br />
Cultural identities don’t arise in a<br />
vacuum, nor are their formal<br />
structures and differences arbitrarily<br />
arrived at. They exist because they<br />
answer to a real need in the soul of<br />
the people themselves.<br />
Consequently a loss of cultural<br />
identity for a given people is an<br />
impoverishment for all peoples.<br />
The increasing homogenisation of<br />
the world brings with it a<br />
noticeable ‘watering down’ of<br />
values and a ‘blunting’ of<br />
concepts. This in turn has brought<br />
about a ready embracing of ideas<br />
that ultimately commits one to<br />
nothing but the trivial. Quantity<br />
will always smother quality and<br />
make it appear as though quality<br />
has never existed. Within such a<br />
non-framework people everywhere<br />
become easy victims of the<br />
capricious at every turn, to the<br />
whimsical and the fashionable,<br />
and ultimately they easily becaome<br />
creatures of dissaption and<br />
spiritual destitution.<br />
This is what happens when a<br />
traditional culture is lost.<br />
Uniformity is not Unity, and<br />
Arbitrariness is not Liberty.<br />
– Saeed De Ridder, Far North<br />
Queensland Branch, Australia<br />
TREOIR<br />
5
Fleadh Cheoil<br />
na hÉireann 2009<br />
An Tulach Mhór<br />
DVDS<br />
for your<br />
This DVD<br />
captures<br />
almost three<br />
hours of the<br />
atmosphere and<br />
activities of the Fleadhthe<br />
concerts, competitions,<br />
informal sessions and performances by many of the All-Ireland<br />
Champions.<br />
Collection<br />
NEWS FROM<br />
SARDINIA<br />
This August we had great Irish<br />
times between Sardinia and<br />
Ireland. We send you a CD with<br />
3 photos to be published in Treoir<br />
(hopefully!)<br />
Price: e25 (e3.00 P&P Ireland e3.50 P&P Other Destinations)<br />
Note: NCTS Version e30<br />
Italo and Giovanna Siddu with Lúnasa in<br />
Ozieri (centre of Sardinia) on 9th August<br />
Beirt Eile: Físeán Ríncí Beirte – Two<br />
Hand Dances<br />
This is the DVD format re-release of the excellent<br />
production by the late Donnchadh Ó Muineacháin<br />
for CCÉ. Twelve Dances are demonstrated by<br />
Donnchadh with Brenda Hogan – these including<br />
three different versions of the Stack of Barley, The<br />
Peeler and the Goat and a 2-Hand Hornpipe. Filming took place<br />
in Cois na hAbhna in March 2004.<br />
Price: e15 (e3.00 P&P Ireland e3.50 P&P Other Destinations)<br />
Note: NCTS Version 20<br />
Italo and Giovanna Siddu with Gerry<br />
O’Connor in Dublin on 15th August<br />
All-Ireland Céilí Band Champions<br />
Reunion Concert<br />
The All-Ireland Céilí Bands Reunion Concert which<br />
took place during Fleadh Nua 2001 was a<br />
particlarly historic occasion. The event was one of<br />
the highlights of the ‘50 Bliain ag Fás’, the 50 th<br />
Anniversary of the Founding of <strong>Comhaltas</strong>. This<br />
DVD features upwards on 3 hours film footage of<br />
the entire concert, featuring performances by all of the various<br />
bands and various tributes Filmed at the West County Hotel by<br />
Willie Fogarty the narration is by the late Brian Prior, who played<br />
a central role in this memorable occasion.<br />
Larry Mullin and Joe McGowan of the<br />
Markievicz Committee in Sligo who are<br />
helping Italo Siddu publish in Ireland his new<br />
novel on the Sligo Countess, 14th August<br />
Thanks for your interest in our<br />
branch. It is very important for us<br />
to have these pictures printed.<br />
– Italo & Giovanna<br />
Price: e25 (e3.00 P&P Ireland e3.50 P&P Other Destinations)<br />
Note: NCTS Version e30<br />
6 TREOIR
HONOUR FOR SLIGO<br />
MUSIC LEGEND<br />
The well known Sligo<br />
traditional musician, Peter<br />
Horan, has been honoured for<br />
his legendary contribution to<br />
Irish traditional music by<br />
Galway University. In<br />
December Peter was conferred<br />
with an honorary Doctorate.<br />
Peter Horan is one of the most<br />
revered figures of the Irish<br />
music world and his music has<br />
won the hearts of people<br />
worldwide. During his long music-making life, Peter has been<br />
generous with his time and talents. He provided an informed and<br />
inspired focus for young traditional musicians. He is the master<br />
musician who has helped to bring his own regional style centre stage.<br />
Peter Horan with Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú,<br />
Ardstiúrthóir CCÉ<br />
We all join in congratulating Peter on his new honour and wish him<br />
well with his music career in the future.<br />
THE CASTLEWELLAN<br />
GOOD NEWS STORY<br />
Dún Éigse, Castlewellan<br />
Now celebrating its 40 th year of nurturing<br />
traditional music and culture in this part of<br />
Down, Newcastle/Castlewellan branch of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> has around 350 children and adults<br />
being tutored every week making it the largest<br />
branch in Ulster. We are based at the Dún Éigse<br />
Cultural Centre in Castlewellan and this recently renovated building<br />
includes custom-built indoor and outdoor performance areas, practice rooms<br />
and a large reception.<br />
Following the success of the Fleadh Uladh in Castlewellan in 2008 the<br />
branch, once again, hosted this major event in 2009 with the theme<br />
being ‘The hidden history of An Gorta Mór’ in the area. Local schools<br />
helped research the theme with their projects being displayed in the Dún<br />
Éigse building during the Fleadh.<br />
The buildings boundary wall, built in 1847 to<br />
give hope and ‘gainful employment’ to men of<br />
the area during the famine, shelters the<br />
performance garden. The newly landscaped<br />
garden has integrated seating, subtle planting<br />
and a view of the Mourne Mountains provides<br />
the backdrop for the stage area.<br />
The Dun Éigse building has brought drama and<br />
cross community performances to an area of<br />
Co. Down that although rich in Irish traditional music was lacking in the<br />
aforementioned. We would like to think that the vision and the sense of<br />
Irish pride that emanates from President McAleese has inspired all involved.<br />
– Cathal Ó hÍr<br />
GRAPEVINE<br />
We send best wishes to Austin<br />
Dawe of Dundalk who is<br />
recovering from a serious<br />
accident over the Christmas<br />
period. Austin is one of the<br />
foremost fiddle players in Ireland.<br />
He spent a number of years in<br />
Britain and he has toured with<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>. Austin is looking<br />
forward to playing a full role in<br />
the new Oriel Cultural Centre at<br />
the Old Gaol to which he has a<br />
sentimental attachment: his<br />
grandfather was a republican<br />
prisoner in the Gaol during the<br />
War of Independence.<br />
<br />
Comhairle na Mumhan of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> has celebrated the<br />
50 th Anniversary of the Provincial<br />
Council. Extensive research was<br />
undertaken to record all those<br />
who served as officers in the<br />
Council, many of whom have<br />
now gone to their Eternal<br />
Reward. The Province is now one<br />
of the most vibrant in the<br />
cultural movement.<br />
<br />
Áras an Mhuilinn in Mullingar is<br />
now nearing completion. This is<br />
the last of the Regional Resource<br />
Centres under the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Development Programme. The<br />
building was the Old Tech which<br />
housed some of the County<br />
Council offices. The Council<br />
presented the building to<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> – via Meitheal an<br />
Mhuileann free gratis. Extensive<br />
work is now being carried out on<br />
the building which will be a<br />
state-of-the-art facility for<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> which was founded<br />
in Mullingar in 1951.<br />
TREOIR 7
COMHALTASARCHIVE.IE:<br />
A PLACE OF DISCOVERY,<br />
EXCITEMENT, AND JOY<br />
World-wide access to Irish culture through<br />
the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Traditional Music <strong>Archive</strong><br />
BREANDÁN Ó NUALLTÁIN<br />
On a chilly December night at<br />
Cultúrlann na hÉireann,<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> President Séamus Mac<br />
Cormaic launched the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Digital Traditional Music <strong>Archive</strong>,<br />
a revolutionary new platform to<br />
preserve and share our heritage of<br />
Irish traditional music, song, dance<br />
and language. The new <strong>Archive</strong><br />
links together the local collections<br />
of the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Regional<br />
Resource Centres with the<br />
national collection at Cultúrlann<br />
na hÉireann, making it possible for<br />
people around the world to<br />
experience and contribute to the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> collection.<br />
Uachtarán an Chomhaltais was<br />
joined on the night by Ceannaire<br />
Cartlann Séamus Mac Mathúna,<br />
well-known singer and flute player,<br />
and the man who made so much<br />
of the <strong>Archive</strong> possible over the<br />
years. During his tenure as<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>’ Timire Cheoil, Séamus<br />
made original field recordings of<br />
some of the most significant Irish<br />
musicians, building the<br />
relationships that ensure the<br />
smooth passage of tunes and songs<br />
and stories from one generation to<br />
the next. These stories and tunes<br />
are now a part of local and family<br />
history, part of the very fabric of<br />
each region. Preserving these<br />
sounds on magnetic tape opened<br />
the door for the next musicians to<br />
peer in, listen and experience Irish<br />
culture in its purest form. Johnny<br />
Doherty, Bobby Casey, Patrick<br />
Kelly, Denis Murphy, Willie<br />
Clancy – immortal names living<br />
through the shared memory of the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> <strong>Archive</strong>.<br />
In addition to Séamus’ tireless<br />
work, the generosity of spirit of<br />
these iconic musicians cannot be<br />
underestimated, and <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
carries that spirit forward today<br />
with new pathways for access<br />
and sharing, through the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Regional Resource<br />
Centres and on the Internet at<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong><strong>Archive</strong>.ie. Musicians<br />
everywhere are invited to visit any<br />
of the eight Regional Resource<br />
Centres to browse and listen to<br />
the collection, where local<br />
Archivists are being trained to<br />
digitise and connect each local<br />
repository, continuing the process<br />
of linking the collections while<br />
8<br />
TREOIR
preserving crucial local curation<br />
and control.<br />
The initial release of the <strong>Archive</strong><br />
system included 15,000 audio<br />
items digitised from the tapes of<br />
the Séamus Mac Mathúna Sound<br />
Collection, 4,000 photographs<br />
from the Cultúrlann national<br />
collection and 800 tunes and songs<br />
gleaned from the pages of Treoir.<br />
<strong>Archive</strong> items from Cultúrlann na<br />
hÉireann, Cois na hAbhna,<br />
Ceoláras Coleman and Dún Uladh<br />
in Omagh have also been added,<br />
and items are now ready to go<br />
from Áras an Mhuilinn, Brú Ború<br />
and CLASAĊ. The ongoing work of<br />
cataloguing, digitising and indexing<br />
will continue to solidify the<br />
importance of the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
collection as new material is added<br />
and organised. Many heartfelt<br />
thanks for the work thus far go to<br />
longtime <strong>Comhaltas</strong> stalwart Dan<br />
Liddy, who has spent years working<br />
through the indexing and digitising<br />
of the Cultúrlann collection.<br />
At the new bi-lingual website<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong><strong>Archive</strong>.ie, visitors are<br />
welcome to browse through the<br />
catalogue and play previews of<br />
archive items. For full access,<br />
guests are invited to visit any<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Regional Resource<br />
Centre. Signing up for an online<br />
researcher account is simple and<br />
free of charge, and allows guests to<br />
participate in the development of<br />
the <strong>Archive</strong> by suggesting names<br />
for tunes, identifying performers<br />
and suggesting new keywords.<br />
Guests can also create playlists of<br />
favourite items and share them<br />
with others. As a reference or<br />
teaching tool, the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
<strong>Archive</strong> encourages an active<br />
exploration of related recordings,<br />
documents, images and printed<br />
documents.<br />
The <strong>Comhaltas</strong> <strong>Archive</strong> is a living<br />
collection, growing and evolving<br />
with new material every day. In<br />
addition to the ongoing filming<br />
and recording happening in the<br />
Regional Resource Centres,<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> is making a renewed<br />
push to identify collectors who<br />
would like to share their treasures<br />
with the world through the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> <strong>Archive</strong>. Collectors<br />
who donate material to the<br />
<strong>Archive</strong> will be provided with new<br />
copies of their tapes, and may elect<br />
to keep the original material if<br />
desired. Of course, collectors will<br />
be properly credited within the<br />
<strong>Archive</strong>, ensuring that their names<br />
are forever associated with the fruit<br />
of their persistence and knowledge.<br />
Praise has already come in from<br />
around the world for this<br />
important innovation. Thousands<br />
of visitors from Argentina to New<br />
Zealand to have come to browse<br />
the collection virtually, and many<br />
have written to say what an<br />
important tool this will be for the<br />
teaching of Irish music and<br />
culture. Closer to home, teachers<br />
at many Irish schools and<br />
universities have expressed their<br />
enthusiasm for the project.<br />
Archivists from other major<br />
libraries and museums around<br />
the world have written to praise<br />
the innovative nature of the<br />
collection and of the new<br />
management system that houses it.<br />
Connecting people through time<br />
and across continents, introducing<br />
old tunes to new players,<br />
illuminating regional styles and<br />
bringing generations together,<br />
the digital <strong>Comhaltas</strong> <strong>Archive</strong><br />
honours the past while<br />
nourishing the future.<br />
TREOIR<br />
9
REMEMBERING YESTERDAY, LIVING TODAY<br />
This is the title of a wonderful book of reminiscences, anecdotes, folklore and<br />
local history by Roscrea based author John Browne. Terry draws on a rich<br />
love of stories handed down from generation to generation on his own astute<br />
and incisive observations. With the skill of a gifted word crafter and a fertile<br />
imagination, has provided a veritable treasure trove for all to discover. Our<br />
picture shows the author presenting a copy of his work to Uachtarán an<br />
Chomhaltais Séamus Mac Cormaic.<br />
Corofin News<br />
MEATH CELEBRATE<br />
‘30’ IN STYLE<br />
Meath County Board of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> recently celebrated<br />
thirty years of service and<br />
dedication to the promotion<br />
of Ireland’s cultural traditions.<br />
It has been one of the foremost<br />
counties in the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
movement and a country<br />
that can boast of some of<br />
the country’s leading<br />
traditional musicians.<br />
Corofin CCÉ Co. Galway is in its 26 th year. We have a large membership<br />
of families and juniors in the branch. We run classes for the under 12’s<br />
every week in the local school and we also employ a teacher to look after<br />
the 12-15 age group. We have a session called ‘Rambling House’ every 2<br />
weeks for our younger members (under 12’s). We are currently setting up<br />
a ‘Seisiún’ for the 12-15 age group. Our seniors, many of them away in<br />
college, work etc. are role models for the younger generation. We took<br />
part in the Volvo Ocean Race last year. This was great for all the<br />
participants and it was very well received by the public. We take part in<br />
Fleadh Ceoil na Gaillimhe, Fleadh Connacht and Fleadh na hÉireann. We<br />
have received many trophies through the years and much praise must be<br />
directed to the founder members of our branch as they had foresight to<br />
instil in the young generation a love in Irish culture.<br />
– John Mannion, PRO<br />
Our photo shows (front row) Jim Smith,<br />
Liam Ryan (founder members of Meath<br />
County Board) and Eileen Ryan. Back row<br />
(left to right) Pat Healy, Pádraig Ó Ceallaigh,<br />
Séamus Mac Gabhann, Rory Ó Broin,<br />
Thelma Markham.<br />
The well known artist Mícheál Ó Nualláin (second from left) pictured with Bernard O’Sullivan,<br />
MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher and Francis Geraghty at Cultúrlann na hÉireann on the occasion<br />
of Mícheál’s exhibition of paintings.<br />
Congratulations to a Noble Couple<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> stalwart and proud Clare man, Jack Whelan and his wife Mae,<br />
recently celebrated their 50 th Wedding Anniversary. They have both played<br />
a significant role in the promotion of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> in New York and<br />
throughout North America. Mae was central to the extensive circulation of<br />
Treoir on that Continent and Jack is noted for his set dancing prowess and<br />
his love of the Irish Language. Bail ó Dhia ortha beirt agus comhghairdeas.<br />
Our picture shows Jack and Mae with their family.<br />
10 TREOIR
CRAOBH NAITHÍ A BIG<br />
HIT IN AMERICA<br />
I wrote last November advising of Craobh Naithí’s tentative plans to<br />
take a group to the United States and <strong>Comhaltas</strong> very generously<br />
supported us. I am happy to report that 60 branch members returned<br />
from New York after a busy and successful week of music.<br />
The New York City branch, Craobh Úll Mór, was very supportive of<br />
our trip and worked very closely with me to bring the whole idea to<br />
fruition.<br />
In return for their support, Craobh Naithí presented a 2 hour<br />
fundraising concert in the New York Irish Centre in Long Island City,<br />
Queens, on their behalf.<br />
Craobh Naithí also performed at the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery<br />
Park City, Manhattan and the performance was filmed by the local<br />
Battery Park TV network. Both events received positive reviews from<br />
the New York based Irish Voice newspaper.<br />
Later in the week, we travelled to Pearl River where we delivered a<br />
number of instrumental and dancing workshops to children from the<br />
Martin Mulvihill/Michael Coleman branches, which was followed by<br />
an evening of music, song and dance at the Rockland County Irish<br />
American Centre.<br />
Martin Gaffney, PRO for Fleadh Cheoil na Éireann in Cavan and a<br />
Craobh Naithí member, also availed of numerous opportunities while<br />
in the New York area to promote next year’s event.<br />
The trip brought together musicians of all age groups from both sides<br />
of the Atlantic who shared music and stories and crated friendships<br />
which I hope will develop and grow.<br />
Mr David Strang, President of Winnepeg <strong>Comhaltas</strong>, travelled with us<br />
to Pearl River as our guest and participated in the evening’s activities.<br />
To quote from a thank you note received from Mr Strang:<br />
“I had a wonderful time, great tunes and highly appreciated the welcome and<br />
the hospitality. I find this aspect of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> quite remarkable, especially in<br />
our anxiety and conflict-prone modern world, that we can contact a bunch<br />
of strangers in any given city and we will be welcomed with open arms”.<br />
The above sentiment summarises the spirit of the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
movement.<br />
– Derek Johnston<br />
Cathaoirleach Craobh Naithí CCÉ<br />
GRAPEVINE<br />
Mr Tim O’Connor, Secretary<br />
General at Áras an Uachtaráin,<br />
who retired recently was a keen<br />
advocate of <strong>Comhaltas</strong>. During<br />
his time as Consul General in the<br />
USA, he gave valuable support<br />
and encouragement to<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>. We wish him a happy<br />
and fruitful retirement.<br />
<br />
RTÉ’s Céilí House has broadcast<br />
several programmes from Fleadh<br />
‘09 in Tullamore. These included<br />
programmes from the Céilí Band<br />
Championship and the Scoil<br />
Éigse. Well done to Peter Brown<br />
and Kieran Hanrahan.<br />
<br />
Fleadh fans are eagerly awaiting<br />
RTÉ’s television programmes from<br />
Tullamore 2009. Produced by<br />
Forefront Productions, the six<br />
programmes will commence on<br />
RTÉ 1 at 7.30pm on Friday Apirl<br />
9 th . Forefront, who have been<br />
covering the Fleadh for over 14<br />
years, are credited with<br />
capturing the festive atmosphere<br />
of the Fleadh. To Tony and Joe<br />
McCarthy míle buíochas.<br />
TREOIR 11
The Johnny Doherty<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Branch Celebration<br />
Scotland’s Johnny Doherty<br />
Branch of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> were<br />
delighted to celebrate 30<br />
years of music, song and<br />
dance in Lanarkshire. The<br />
branch was formed in 1979<br />
in a small village in Carfin,<br />
Motherwell by a group of<br />
hard working volunteers from<br />
the village. This was also<br />
helped and aided along by<br />
friends in the lcoal Irish<br />
Minstrels branch in Glasgow.<br />
People such as the late Owen<br />
Kelly, the late Jimmy<br />
McHugh and Frank McArdle who attended helping to get the classes<br />
The Johnny Doherty <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Branch Committee<br />
in Scotland<br />
up and running and provided continuing guidance and assistance to<br />
the branch.<br />
The branch was delighted to have celebrated successfully 30 years of<br />
Irish music in the west of Scotland. The weekend began with a<br />
concert/session on Friday 23 rd October in The Xavier Hall, Carfin.<br />
There were guest musicians and singers from Ireland namely Gary<br />
Lynch, Seana Agnew, Gerard Butler, Dessie Kelliher, Seán Leahy, Ciara<br />
Cullen and Noeleen Coll who entertained us with an evening of music,<br />
song and dance together with some of our local youngsters. A collection<br />
of memorabilia was available on projector and display boards for all to<br />
see of the achievements of the branch over the past 30 years which was<br />
enjoyed by everyone.<br />
On Saturday 24 th October there was a series of workshops which were<br />
given by the above named tutors and which were all well supported.<br />
The finale of the weekend was a Dinner/Céilí in The Xavier Centre,<br />
Carfin. We were delighted to have representation from the Irish<br />
Consulates’s office in Edinburgh and support from our local council.<br />
The weekend brought back past members from our early days and gave<br />
everyone a chance to renew acquaintancees both young and old. We<br />
were treated to music from The Johnny Rocks Céilí Band and The<br />
Johnny Doherty Céilí Band.<br />
The branch continues to grow from strength to strength and this is<br />
all thanks to our peers who started off the branch. We are indebted to<br />
people such as the late Seán Doherty and Mick McGory who worked<br />
hard to produce a <strong>Comhaltas</strong> branch in Lanarkshire.<br />
– Allison Cullen<br />
Secretary Johnny Doherty, CCÉ<br />
Enclosed photo taken at Fleadh Cheoil na<br />
hÉireann in Listowel 2002.<br />
Left to right: Dan Laverty RIP, Paddy Tunney<br />
RIP and Eddie Mongey.<br />
I was unaware of the<br />
photographer who took this<br />
photo. Paddy Tunney singer, song<br />
collector, writer, tutor and<br />
wonderful entertainer died in<br />
December 2002 RIP. It wasn’t<br />
until the Letterkenny Fleadh in<br />
2005 when I was staying in the<br />
same house that I met Dan<br />
Laverty from Co. Antrim and he<br />
told me he had this photo and he<br />
subsequently sent it to me. This<br />
meeting with Dan was the start of<br />
a friendship that lasted until his<br />
untimely death on 12 th December<br />
2008. He passed away quietly in<br />
his house in Glenariff.<br />
Dan was a great stalwart of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>, he was a member of<br />
The Glens of Antrim Branch and<br />
was Vice-Chairman of the Antrim<br />
County Board. He had a very<br />
large collection of recordings LPs,<br />
cassette tapes and CDs and he<br />
made copies of some of his<br />
collection for me, in fact before<br />
he died he was in the process of<br />
copying some of his recordings of<br />
Fred Hanna for me.<br />
He will be fondly remembered by<br />
his many friends. Ar dheis Dé go<br />
raibh a anam uasal.<br />
– Eddie Mongey<br />
12<br />
TREOIR
AS IT WAS IN<br />
TOUREENDARBY<br />
JACK ROCHE<br />
‘Anyone with an interest in good<br />
traditional music will be impressed<br />
by the grand old style of Timmy<br />
O’Connor and it’s high time some<br />
of his music was recorded on CD.<br />
The music of Sliabh Luachra is<br />
what he loves to play and he has a<br />
wealth of it,’ so says Jackie Daly on<br />
the sleeve notes of this new CD.<br />
Timmy O’Conor comes from<br />
Toureendarby, Newmarket, Co.<br />
Cork. His CD ‘As it was in<br />
Toureendarby’ was launched by<br />
Jack Roche in Scully’s Bar<br />
Newmarket on 12 th December<br />
2009. The house was packed to<br />
the rafters for this launch with<br />
over 40 musicians, many of whom<br />
are regulars at the Monday night<br />
sessions at Scully’s, giving an<br />
unforgettable night of music.<br />
Timmy’s love for music started<br />
when he was a small boy in a<br />
home of his neighbour Katie Barry<br />
who would hold a house dance in<br />
her home almost every week in<br />
wintertime. After one of these<br />
dances one of the musicians left<br />
his accordion behind and Timmy<br />
called the following day, picked up<br />
the accordion, started to play and<br />
has been playing every since.<br />
Timmy got most of his music from<br />
his friend and neighbour,<br />
melodeon and concertina player<br />
Johnny Mickie Barry who had got<br />
it from the old blind Sliabh<br />
Luachra fiddle master Tom Billy<br />
Murphy. Timmy’s easy style reflects<br />
the atomosphere and lifestyle of<br />
his own area where music, dancing<br />
and home entertainment have<br />
been part of life. He played at<br />
every opportunity at crossroads,<br />
house dances, with a host of local<br />
musicians whose names may not<br />
be household names in<br />
the traditional music<br />
world, but who made a<br />
major contribution to<br />
preserving the unique<br />
culture and style of<br />
music of their own area.<br />
Their Sliabh Luachra<br />
style music was a<br />
wordless expression of<br />
a people who struggled<br />
with a hostile world, both material<br />
and human. Their many sorrows,<br />
of death, and immigration, was<br />
expressed in a lonely caoineadh<br />
that re-echoed the cry of the<br />
curlew or the banshee‘s wail, but<br />
through poverty and pain their joy<br />
came lilting through in music that<br />
set old feet tapping and young feet<br />
moving in lively dance.<br />
This CD reflects their style with<br />
many of the tunes being played<br />
exactly as they played them, and<br />
many of our young musicians of<br />
today should pick up some of this<br />
distinctive style.<br />
In the sixties Timmy with his<br />
sister Sheila and her husband Jim<br />
Barry (the well-known seanachaí)<br />
formed the Toureendarby Céilí<br />
Band. Timmy later played with<br />
Seán Lynch’s Céilí Band, The<br />
Shandrum Céilí Band, and The<br />
Duhallow Céilí Band with Mick<br />
Williams who used to play on<br />
Raidió Éireann’s popular<br />
programme ‘Take the Floor’ with<br />
TREOIR<br />
13
Din Joe. He performed with a<br />
local group called ‘The Monks of<br />
the Screw’ who produced a<br />
number of cassettes. He was on<br />
the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Tour of Ireland in<br />
2001 which he enjoyed very<br />
much. He leads the Seisiún at<br />
Bruach na Carraige in Rockchapel<br />
each summer and is a regular at the<br />
Willie Clancy Summer School, but<br />
his real musical home is Scullys bar<br />
where he continues to lead the<br />
sessions each Monday night which<br />
has been running under his<br />
leadership for over 30 years. He has<br />
been honoured by an invitation to<br />
play his Sliabh Luachra music at<br />
the University of Notre Dame in<br />
Indiana in the United States next<br />
Easter, an event he is eagerly<br />
looking forward to.<br />
The CD which was supported by<br />
IRD Duhallow under the Local<br />
Department Social Inclusion<br />
Programme, was patiently<br />
recorded in Timmy’s own home by<br />
well-known fiddle player Gerry<br />
Harrington and manufactured<br />
by ‘Open Ear Productions’ in<br />
Co. Galway.<br />
Timmy O’Connor continues to<br />
avail of every opportunity to play<br />
his music, in any location, and<br />
with any musicians young or old.<br />
Through his music he has made<br />
many friends throughout the world<br />
as well as making a major<br />
contribution to his own community,<br />
long may he continue to do so.<br />
The CD can be purchases in shops<br />
around Sliabh Luachra or direct<br />
from the Bruach na Carraige<br />
Centre for Traditional Studies,<br />
Rockchapel, Co. Cork.<br />
Tel: 087-220 5566.<br />
E-mail:<br />
bruachnacarraige@hotmail.com<br />
Cost: e15<br />
Unpublished Poem<br />
Written by Terence McSwiney as a young man<br />
(Air) ‘DOWN BY THE GLENSIDE’<br />
Oh my dark Rosaleen by the light of thine eyes<br />
May thy daughters the stranger’s allurements despise<br />
By they purity sweet that flows out from thy heart<br />
May they live but to love thee and be what thou art.<br />
May thy name be their glory, thine honour their pride<br />
May they cling to there closely whatever betide<br />
May they dream of thy greatness tho’ dark are the skies<br />
Be their life’s sweetest harbour to banish thy sighs.<br />
When the false have betrayed thee and the weaklings have fled<br />
May they breathe to thee softly that hope is not dead<br />
May they urge the still faithful to efforts more great<br />
To raise thee my sweet Queen, to they former state<br />
Then my dark Rosaleen will their song be most sweet<br />
In the light of thine eyes when they stand at thy feet<br />
When they sing thy grand triumph, the clouds passed away<br />
The glory of freedom at the Dawn of the Day<br />
Around the World<br />
in 80 ways<br />
The old saying that ‘the world is<br />
a small place’ was proven if<br />
needed at the Fleadh in<br />
Tullamore when Aurora Burd<br />
from Seattle, USA was awarded<br />
2nd place in the Senior Fiddle<br />
Slow-Air competition. Two years<br />
ago Aurora, a geophysics student<br />
doing postgraduate research<br />
work in Argentina noted on the<br />
internet, the establishment of a<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> branch in Buenos<br />
Aires. Through the Meitheal<br />
office in Gurteen she made<br />
contact with <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
members in South America and<br />
attended their sessions. She<br />
competed in the Mid-Western<br />
Fleadh in St Louis that year. In<br />
March of last year she met up<br />
with Vince and Mona Hearns at<br />
a session in the Fahy Club in<br />
Buenos Aires and as a result she<br />
joined <strong>Comhaltas</strong> and travelled<br />
to Tullamore and competed in<br />
the 2008 All-Ireland. In 2009<br />
she again travelled to Ireland<br />
and brought home a treasured<br />
silver medal. The world is indeed<br />
a small place and <strong>Comhaltas</strong> is<br />
indeed a worldwide family!<br />
14 TREOIR
Innisfree Céilí<br />
Band CD<br />
The North Connacht musical<br />
tradition of Counties Sligo, Leitrim<br />
and Roscommon, and its strong<br />
association with the fiddle and<br />
flute, played a key role in the early<br />
recordings of Irish traditional music<br />
during the early 20 th century.<br />
Emerging from this era, names such<br />
as Coleman, Morrison, Killoran<br />
and McKenna left a stylistic mark<br />
on music throughout Ireland and<br />
the United States, a rich heritage<br />
maintained in subsequent decades<br />
throughout the North Connacht<br />
region by a legion of superb<br />
musicians including Fred Finn and<br />
Peter Horan.<br />
Influenced by the legacy of this<br />
highly-developed musical<br />
environment, the Innisfree Céilí<br />
Band comprises a generation of<br />
musicians who grew up playing<br />
together, fusing individual skill<br />
through a shared impluse, to<br />
produce a distinctive and mature<br />
musical voice. Defined by a rare<br />
sweetness and clarity of tone, the<br />
band succeeds in capturing the<br />
dramatic energy and drive which<br />
is a strong element of both North<br />
Connacht music and the genre of<br />
the céilí band itself.<br />
In 2008, the Innisfree became<br />
the first céilí band from North<br />
Connacht to win the coveted<br />
All-Ireland Senior Céilí Band<br />
competition at Fleadh Cheoil<br />
na hÉireann.<br />
Maidin i mBéarra<br />
Is é mo chaoi gan mise maidin aerach<br />
Amuigh i mBéarra im’ sheasamh ar an dtrá,<br />
Is guth na n-éan am tharraingt thar na sléibhte cois na farraige.<br />
Go Céim an Aitinn mar a mbíonn mo ghrá.<br />
Is obann aoibhinn aiteasach do léimfinn,<br />
Do rithfinn saor ó ana-bhróid an tláis,<br />
Do thabharfainn droim le scamallaibh an tsaoil seo,<br />
Dá bhfaighinn mo léir dhóthain d’amharc<br />
ar mo chaoimhshearc bhán.<br />
Is é mo dhíth bheith ceangailte go faonlag,<br />
Is neart mo chléibh dá hachtadh anso sa tsráid,<br />
An fhaid tá réim na habhann agus gaoth glan na farraige,<br />
Ag glaoch is ag gairm ar an gcroí seo im’ lár.<br />
Is milis bríomhar leathanbhog an t-aer ann,<br />
Is gile ón ngréin go fairsing ar an mbán,<br />
Os ochón a Ríbhean bhanúil na gcraobhfholt<br />
Gan sinne araon i measc an aitinn mar do bhímis tráth.<br />
SCOTTISH SALUTE FOR IRISH DIASPORA<br />
The official launch of IDSA (the Irish Diaspora in Scotland<br />
Association) took place at Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament<br />
in Edinburgh.<br />
The reception itself was hosted<br />
by Michael McMahon MSP and<br />
Clíona Manahan, Consul General<br />
of Ireland to Scotland, in Edinburgh.<br />
The reception was attended by<br />
approximately 25 to 30 MSPs in<br />
Parliament, Speakers Professor Tom<br />
Devine and Dr Joseph Bradley<br />
together with members from the various Diaspora groups in Scotland.<br />
The Chairperson of the Scottish Region, ten youngsters from our 4<br />
branches of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> in Scotland and I made our way to Edinburgh<br />
for this reception. The ten youngsters from Johnny Doherty, St James<br />
the Great, St Patrick’s and the Irish Minstrels branches of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
provided the music for this reception and promoted <strong>Comhaltas</strong> very<br />
well. There was a display of Irish Dancing from The Haughey<br />
MacAuley School of Irish Dancing and some lovely singing from our<br />
own Gaelic Choir who ended the evening with our National<br />
Anthem. (You could say that this would be a momentous day in the<br />
history of our Irish Culture to have this played and sung in the<br />
Scottish Parliament). All the group’s banners including our own were<br />
displayed well and it made good networking opportunities for all the<br />
organisations present.<br />
– Allison Cullen<br />
TREOIR 15
A MUSICAL<br />
MAESTRO<br />
On a fine July<br />
evening in 1980, staff<br />
and students gathered<br />
at Cultúrlann na<br />
hÉireann,<br />
Monkstown, Co.<br />
Dublin, headquarters<br />
of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Ceoltóirí Éireann, for<br />
the inaugural<br />
weeklong residential<br />
teachers’ course<br />
Teastas Teagaisc<br />
Ceolta Tíre (TTCT)<br />
devised by Mícheál Ó hEidhin. It<br />
was then I came face to face with<br />
Corkonian Martin Power. We<br />
might have met more than a decade<br />
earlier when the Mitchelstown<br />
Branch of CCÉ, of which Martin<br />
was a member, competed in the<br />
All-Ireland Scoraíocht final in the<br />
RDS, Dublin, with the eventual<br />
winner my own Newry Branch.<br />
From our first meeting an instant<br />
friendship was created which has<br />
endured and blossomed ever since.<br />
In the course of the following<br />
week, I was greatly impressed with<br />
Martin’s musicianship, his<br />
organisational flair and his<br />
teaching skills. His confident<br />
tuition and his relaxed rapport<br />
with his pupils marked him out as<br />
a teacher of outstanding merit,<br />
fully deserving the award of the<br />
rare distinction of an honours<br />
advanced diploma.<br />
It came as no surprise when<br />
Mícheál Ó hEidhin invited Martin<br />
to join the TTCT staff as a tutor,<br />
16 TREOIR<br />
SEÁN O’DRISCOLL<br />
The Power family: Martin, Frances, Margaret<br />
and Clare<br />
lecturer and eventually assessor,<br />
roles which he deservedly<br />
continues to play with credit up to<br />
the present day. His assessments of<br />
diploma candidates can be relied<br />
on absolutely for their dispassionate<br />
honesty, an arduous responsibility<br />
when performing standards have<br />
improved so dramatically in the last<br />
thirty years. He also played a<br />
significant role in formulating the<br />
syllabus for the new SCT<br />
examinations devised by Mícheál<br />
Ó hEidhin and for which he has<br />
subsequently served as an examiner.<br />
As a fellow musician with<br />
extensive experience of sessions<br />
and Céilí bands, I was acutely<br />
aware of the prejudicial attitude of<br />
many contemporary traditional<br />
musicians to the piano accordion,<br />
the playing of which was often<br />
insensitively heavy handed.<br />
Martin’s performance dispelled any<br />
reservation I had when I heard his<br />
playing style.<br />
His lyrical, tastefully ornamented<br />
melody coupled with correct<br />
Mícheál Ó hEidhin and Martin<br />
unobtrusive harmonies established<br />
him as a gifted traditional<br />
musician of rare ability.<br />
The numerous successes of his<br />
many pupils is testimony of his<br />
outstanding ability as a teacher.<br />
One has only to listen to the<br />
recording of his pupils as long ago<br />
as 1987 on Ceol na Smól to be<br />
convinced of his talent. Among<br />
his distinguished pupils over the<br />
years are Rosaleen O’Leary,<br />
Caroline Murphy, Marion Collins,<br />
Mary Crowley, Seán Walsh,<br />
Martina French, Aogán Lynch,<br />
Brian McGillicuddy, Mary Tisdall<br />
and Jimmy Morrisson who are now<br />
teachers themselves and passing on<br />
the music to a new generation.<br />
Martin continues to teach with the<br />
VEC Co. Cork School of Music<br />
(CCSM) and is also a presenter of<br />
master classes, locally and<br />
nationally, for example, Scoil Éigse<br />
of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.<br />
Performing, examining and<br />
teaching, important as they are in<br />
Martins’s musical life, are not his
only accomplishments. Seó<br />
Seandún and Scoraíocht<br />
demonstrate his versatitily as<br />
producer and director and his own<br />
competitive successes in solo and<br />
group performances further show<br />
his adaptability. In 1999 Martin<br />
was the prime mover in founding,<br />
in conjunction with Kathleen<br />
Nesbitt of Loughmore, Co.<br />
Tipperary, the first tarditional<br />
orchestra – Ceol le Chéile. The<br />
orchestra, of which Martin is the<br />
conductor, numbers eighty musicians<br />
and included students from<br />
the Dunmanway and Ballincollig<br />
Music Centres and pupils of cofounder,<br />
Kathleen Nesbitt, from<br />
Loughmore and Cashel.<br />
Over the twenty-nine year span of<br />
the TTCT course another talent<br />
was revealed. Any unusual<br />
incident immediately provoked a<br />
melodic response in the form of an<br />
original composition. The number<br />
of these diverse, euphonious tunes<br />
built up into an impressive,<br />
unedited and unrecorded<br />
collection which Martin was<br />
unduly dilatory in publishing,<br />
much to the annoyance of his<br />
teaching colleagues. I believe I may<br />
be in large measure responsible for<br />
badgering him into print at last.<br />
The accompanying musical<br />
anthology is the result of this<br />
hectoring. Trawling through these<br />
tunes will yield many original<br />
and eminently<br />
playable<br />
compositions<br />
suitable for all<br />
instruments. I<br />
would be greatly<br />
surprised if many<br />
of these do not<br />
find their way<br />
into the<br />
repertoire of good<br />
players who find<br />
the standard<br />
stock stale and<br />
hackneyed.<br />
I had not the slightest hesitation<br />
in responding to Martin’s request<br />
for an introduction to his<br />
published<br />
collection. As a<br />
longstanding friend<br />
and admirer of a<br />
musical maestro, to<br />
have done any less<br />
would have been an<br />
upardonable omission.<br />
In commending this<br />
significant publication<br />
to a discerning<br />
musical public I wish for Martin<br />
the belated appreciation of his<br />
many contemporaries of which<br />
I am privileged to be one.<br />
An Ghaeilge: Straitéis 20 Bliain<br />
Beidh ról tábhachtach ag an earnáil deonach áitiúil ó thaobh forbairt a dhéanamh ar thionscnaimh agus ar<br />
phleananna teanga áitiúla. Tá sé tabhachtach mar sin go dtabharfaí guth agus deis don earnáil le cuidiú le polasaí<br />
ag an leibhéal áitiúil agus go dtabharfaí tacaíocht do ghrúpaí atá ag iarraidh a bheith gafa leis an teanga ag an<br />
leibhéal áitiúil agus ag an leibhéal náisiúnta agus a bheadh ag teacht le haidhmeanna agus ábhar na Straitéise.<br />
Tá an Ghaeilge mar chuid lárnach d’éiteas eagraíochtaí deonacha náisiúnta mar Chumann Lúthchleas Gael agus<br />
Chomhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. Aithníonn an Rialtas an príomhról atá acu ó thaobh chur chun cinn na teanga.<br />
Déanfaidh an Rialtas forbairt agus doimhniú ar a thiomantas do na heagraíochtaí sin ó thaobh chur chun cinn na<br />
teanga. D’fhéadfadh eagraíochtaí deonacha spóirt agus cultúir eile ról lárnach a bheith acu ó thaobh úsáid níos<br />
leithne na Gaeilge lasmuigh don seomra ranga a chur chun cinn. Rachaidh an Rialtas go forghníomhach i gcomhar<br />
leis na heagraíochtaí sin le leas a bhaint as cumas a gcuid gníomhaíochtaí spóirt agus cultúir atá bunaithe sa phobal<br />
le cuidiú go mór leis an Straitéis.<br />
Faoi láthair cuireann an Stát maoiniú ar fáil do chuid mhaith eagraíochtaí Gaeilge éagsúla.<br />
In áiteanna eile beidh ionaid achmhainní atá ann cheana féin, lena n-áirítear ionaid achmhainní réigiúnacha atá<br />
bunaithe ag <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí Éireann le cuidiú ó mhaoiniú poiblí agus ionaid a ritheann comhlachtaí forbartha<br />
áitiúla, cultúir agus spóirt eile le comhaontú leis an gcomhlacht a bhíonn i gceist mar ionaid do chur chun cinn agus<br />
do ghníomhaíochtaí Gaeilge.<br />
The Irish language is a central part of the ethos of national voluntary organisations, such as the GAA and <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Ceoltóirí Éireann. The Government recognises their key role in promoting the language. The State will develop and<br />
intensify its support for these organisations in promoting our language.<br />
In other areas, existing resource centres, including the regional resources centres established by <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann with public funding and centres run by other cultural, sporting and local development bodies, will with the<br />
agreement of the body concerned serve as a centre for the Irish language promotion and activities.<br />
TREOIR 17
Ag Déanamh Ceoil<br />
T u n e s s u b m i t t e d b y S i o b h á n N í C h o n a r á i n<br />
A Job of Journeywork<br />
The tunes selected for this issue of Ag Déanamh Ceoil are all tunes which were broadcast by the late<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna on his Raidió Éireann ‘A Job of Journeywork’ series. RTÉ (Libraries & <strong>Archive</strong>s)<br />
subsequently published two sets of double cassettes, Ciarán Mac Mathúna intorduces Music from Clare<br />
& Kerry and Ciarán Mac Mathúna intorduces Music from Limerick, Clare & Galway featuring some of<br />
Ciarán’s field-recordings. The selection of reels, The Flax in Bloom & The Chattering Magpie, and The<br />
Kerry Hornpipe selection are transcribed from these RTÉ publications. The <strong>Archive</strong> Sections of the RTÉ<br />
Raidió Éireann The Rolling Wave (presenter Peter Browne) and RTÉ Raidió Éireann Céilí House<br />
(presenter Kieran Hanrahan) provide currently accessible extracts and relevant material from Ciarán<br />
Mac Mathúna’s broadcasts: visit www.rte.ie/radio1/ceilihouse and www.rte.ie/Radio 1/therollingwave<br />
The following selection of reels (C.f. Track 3 Side 1 Music from Galway) were recorded by and<br />
subsequently broadcast by Ciarán from the playing of fiddler Aggie Whyte and flute-player Eddie<br />
Moloney, both of East Galway, in the 1960s. Aggie Whyte and Stephen Moloney both became members<br />
of the Ballinakill Céilí Band in the 1940s. The first reel, The Chattering Magpie, is often referred to as<br />
‘Aggie Whyte’s reel’ or ‘Aggie Whyte’s Chattering Magpie’ and the tune is often accredited as a<br />
composition of the Aughrim in East Galway fiddler/composer Paddy Kelly. The Flax in Bloom is<br />
included in O’ Neill’s 1001 (no. 633) but the version printed here is that as played by Aggie Whyte and<br />
Eddie Moloney. As happened with other tunes and songs heard on Ciarán’s broadcasts (c.f. A Tribute to<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna, Page 55, and current Treoir) this selection of reels were ‘taken up’ and played<br />
‘one into the other’ by musicians nationwide.<br />
The Chattering Magpie (Reel)<br />
(Source: Aggie Whyte & Eddie Moloney)<br />
The Flax in Bloom (Reel)<br />
(Source: Aggie Whyte & Eddie Moloney)
The Kerry Hornpipe<br />
(Source: Denis Murphy)<br />
(Acknowledgement: Nickie McAuliffe)<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna recorded the Sliabh Luachra fiddler Denis Murphy<br />
playing this hornpipe at a Feis in Kenmare in 1955 and subsequently broadcast<br />
it on a Job of Journeywork. Published on the cassette Music from Kerry, Side 2<br />
track 5, under the title ‘An Old Hornpipe’ it is often referred to as The Kerry<br />
Hornpipe amongst musicians.<br />
The Killavil Jig<br />
(Source: Fred Finn & Peter Horan)<br />
(Acknowledgement: Transcript Pádraig Ó Riain, CCÉ)<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna visited Killavil in Sligo with the Raidió Éireann Mobile<br />
Broadcasting Unit in 1959. Amongst the musicians he recorded on that<br />
occasion were the fiddle and flute duet Fred Finn and Peter Horan who made<br />
a lasting impression on musicians ‘listening in’ to the subsequent ‘A Job of<br />
Journeywork’. Fred and Peter also recorded the reel ‘The Humours of<br />
Ballyconnell’ for Ciarán on the same occasion.<br />
A future issue of Ag Déanamh Ceoil will include tunes from the RTÉ<br />
publication American Job of Journeywork’ (Cassette).
Abair Amhrán<br />
Tá na Páipéir Dhá Shaighneáil<br />
Máire Nic Dhonnchadh<br />
(Treoir Bealtaine 1969 )<br />
Máire Nic Dhonnchadh<br />
as pictured on the cover<br />
of Treoir, May 1969.<br />
Fuair Séamus Mac Mathúna<br />
an leagan seo den amhrán<br />
ón sár-amhránaí Máire Nic<br />
Dhonnchadh ón gCeathrú Rua.<br />
Séamus Mac Mathúna<br />
transcribed this version of<br />
‘Tá na Páipéir Dhá Saighneáil’<br />
from the singing of the much<br />
acclaimed Connemara singer<br />
Máire Nic Dhonnchadh.<br />
Tá na Páipéir dhá Saighneáil<br />
’S tá na páipéir dhá saighneáil<br />
Is tá na saighdiúir a’ dul anonn,<br />
Tá dromadóirí aoibhinn aerach<br />
Clann na nGael a’ dul goTír na Long.<br />
Dá mhéad agam ba dhuit a bhéarfainn<br />
Ó, céad agus dhá mhíle bó,<br />
Ar chúntar thú bheith i t’ fhéirín liom<br />
Go lár Chondae Mhaigeo.<br />
Is nuair eirím ar maidin<br />
Ghním osna a bhíonns’ mór<br />
Is nuair a luighim ins an oíche<br />
’Sí mo phaidir mo dheoir.<br />
Tá gruaig mo chinn a’ tuitim díom<br />
Is ag imeacht mar an gceo,<br />
Is le cúmha mór i do dhiaidh a mhúirnín,<br />
Ní mhairfidh mé ’bhfad beo.<br />
Is nuair eirím amach go huaigneach<br />
’S a fhéachaim uaim ar a’ gcnoc úd thall,<br />
Bím a’ smaoineamh ar do chúilín dualach<br />
A rinne gual dubh do mo chroí i mo lár;<br />
Tá mo chroí istigh ’na leach ’s ’na ghual dubh<br />
Is fear mo thrua níl ach Rí na nGrást<br />
Is pé’ r bith cailín óg a bhéarfas uaim thú,<br />
Go síntear siar í i gcónra cláir.<br />
Ó’s tá fhios ag Dia dílis<br />
Gur iomaí smaoineamh cruaidh deacrach<br />
Atá ‘dhul trasna tré mo chroí ’stigh<br />
Mar gheall ortsa le fada.<br />
Dá mbéadh bliain ar fad san oíche<br />
Bal eat ba mhian liom í chaitheamh,<br />
Ó ’gus díomú na naomh duit<br />
Má ghníonn tú mo mhalairt.<br />
’Siad mo stocaí is mo bhróga<br />
’S tá said stróicthe liom síos.<br />
Tá mo nua-chulaith fosda<br />
Mo bhrón gérar le sníomh.<br />
Tá gine i deatach an óil orm<br />
Is níor ól mé riamh braon<br />
Ach sé mo lean gear a mhíle stóirín<br />
Gan mé ’gus tú óg seal arís.<br />
Díleachtaí bocht cráite mé<br />
A fágadh faoi leatrom,<br />
’S dá mbeadh mo chlú i ndán dom<br />
Ó cé’r cás dhom a bheith folamh,<br />
Ach níl; aon fhear in Éirinn<br />
A dhéanfadh éagóir ar mo mhacasamhail<br />
Nár dheachair dhó a leas a dhéanamh<br />
Ná dhul ar aon chord go na flaithis.
Tá na Páipéir Dhá Shaighneáil<br />
Leagan: Máire Nic Dhonnchadh<br />
Is ón’a sean-mháthair, Bríd Bean Mhic Dhonnchadh, a fuair Máire Nic Dhonnchadha<br />
féin an leagan seo do ‘Tá na Paipéir dhá Saighneáil’. Cuireadh i gcló é, don chéad<br />
uair, i dTreoir sa bhliain 1971.<br />
Máire Nic Dhonnchadh learnt this song from her grandmother Bríd Bean Mhic<br />
Dhonnchadh. It subsequently became one of the many songs that Máire included in<br />
her large repertoire, all of which she was regarded as singing effortlessly and with<br />
complete command of the sean-nós technique. Unlike her namesake Máire Áine Nic<br />
Dhonnchadh, Cnoc na hAille, and of LP Deora Aille fame, Máire Nic Dhonnchadh’s<br />
singing is to be heard on relatively few publications, most notably two Gael Linn<br />
’78s in the early 1960s and two songs on the CCÉ LP Bonnie Kate.<br />
This CCÉ recording was subsequently re-issued by CCÉ on Rogha Órdha and can be<br />
can be heard through accessing the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> website: www.comhaltas.ie<br />
Eimear Arkins<br />
Tagann an leagan thíosluaite den amhrán seo ón taifeadán a rinne Eimear Arkins, ar<br />
an Dlúthíosca Echoes of Erin 2008. D’fhoghlaim Eimear an t-amhrán ón amhránaí<br />
cáiliúl Nan Tom Teamín De Búrca. The following version of this same song is that<br />
heard sung by Eimear Arkins of Ruan Co. Clare. Eimear learnt it from another of<br />
the great exponents of Connemara sean-nós, Nan Tom Teamín De Búrca.<br />
Tá na páipéir dhá saighneáil<br />
Is tá na saighdiúir(í) ag dul anonn.<br />
Tá an drumadóirín aoibhinn aerach<br />
Clanna Gael ag dul go tír na long<br />
Dá mbeadh agam is duitse a bhéarfainn<br />
Céad is dhá mhíle bó,<br />
’S ar a chuntar tú bheith i d’fhéirín liom<br />
Go Contae Mhaigh Eo.<br />
I mo luí dom ar mo leaba<br />
Is í m’osna a bhíonn ’s mór.<br />
Is ar m’éirí dom ar maidin<br />
Is í mo phaidir mo dheoir.<br />
Tá gruaig mo chinn ag titim<br />
’S ag imeach mar an gceo,<br />
’S le cumha i do dhiaidh, a stóirín,<br />
Ní bheidh mé i bhfad beo.<br />
Nuair a éirím amach go huaigneach<br />
Sea bhreathnaím ar an gcnoc úd thall<br />
Bím ag smaoineamh ar do chúilín dualach<br />
A d’fhág an chrua-arraing trí mo lár.<br />
Tá mo chroí istigh ina leaca gualdubh<br />
Is fear mo thrua níl ach Rí na nGrást,<br />
Is cibé cailín óg a bhéarfas uaim tú<br />
Go síntear suas í i gcónra chláir.<br />
Tá mo stocaí uilig stróicthe<br />
Is tá mo phócaí gan pingin.<br />
Tá mo nuachulaith phósta<br />
Is é mo léan géar fós gan sníomh.<br />
Tá fiacha i dteach an óil orm<br />
Is níor ól mé riamh braon,<br />
Ach is é mo lean gear, a mhíle stóirín,<br />
Gan mé’s tú óg seal arís.<br />
Is nach aoibhinn do na héiníní<br />
A éiríonn go hard,<br />
Is a bhíonn ag ceiliúradh lena chéile<br />
Ar aon chraoibhín lena chéile<br />
Ar aon chraoibhín amháin.<br />
Ní mar sin dom féin<br />
Agus mo chéad mhíle grá,<br />
Mar is fada fairsing óna chéile<br />
A bhíonn ár n-éirí gach lá.<br />
This recording can be heard on the CCÉ Echoes of<br />
Erin 2008 CD and can be can be heard through<br />
accessing the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> website: www.comhaltas.ie
18<br />
The death of George Furlong of<br />
School Street, Wexford has left a<br />
huge void in the ranks of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí Éireann in<br />
County Wexford. George was in<br />
his eighty-second year and<br />
maintained his interest in our<br />
native music, song and dance since<br />
the first branch of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> was<br />
founded in Wexford town in 1957.<br />
As an administrator, George had<br />
no equal, with his attention to<br />
detail and his expertise in all<br />
matters relating to the governing<br />
rules and regulations of the<br />
fledgling organisation. Though he<br />
never played a musical instrument<br />
his love of Irish traditional music<br />
knew no bounds, nor did his<br />
involvement in all the activities of<br />
the Wexford branch. George acted<br />
as Fear a’Tí at concerts, céilithe<br />
and he chaired meetings with great<br />
ease, managing to solve and salve<br />
many an argumentative debate and<br />
discussion much to everyone’s<br />
satisfaction. His administrative<br />
talents were soon recognised not<br />
alone at county level but at<br />
provincial and national level<br />
where he held many important<br />
posts and officerships over the<br />
years. It was George who was the<br />
motivator of The Festival Concert<br />
of Irish Music held over twentyfive<br />
years during Wexford’s<br />
International Opera Festival. This<br />
annual concert showcased many of<br />
our top class performers and<br />
practitioners of the traditional arts<br />
and was responsible for<br />
highlighting our Irish traditional<br />
music at the highest level. George<br />
took to the stage with Scoraíocht<br />
and excelled with his recitations,<br />
in particular ‘The Old Wexford<br />
Ships’ by local Wexford poet,<br />
Sahida.<br />
At his funeral the Ó Riada Mass<br />
was sung by members of the<br />
Rathangan Male Voice Choir with<br />
traditional music played prior to<br />
and during the ceremony. Labhrás<br />
TREOIR<br />
ONE OF<br />
WEXFORD’S FINEST<br />
Ó Murchú gave a eulogy praising<br />
George for his lifetime of service to<br />
the music and talked about his<br />
understated qualities and his talent<br />
for peace-making and bringing<br />
people together. He said Ireland<br />
needed more people like George<br />
Furlong. During the Offertory<br />
Procession the music score of<br />
‘George Furlong’s Hornpipe’ was<br />
brought to the altar with several<br />
other symbols of his life. His family<br />
members did the reading. A<br />
poignant rendition of ‘Is ar Éireann<br />
ní nósfhainn cé hí’ was played on<br />
the pipes by Pádraig Sinnott with<br />
organ accompaniment by Cyril<br />
A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE<br />
FURLONG (1926-2008)<br />
LIAM GAUL<br />
Murphy at the Recessional<br />
procession. A long standing<br />
request by George was honoured as<br />
Paddy Berry sang ‘Ballyshannon<br />
Lane’ at the graveside. He is<br />
survived by his beloved daughter,<br />
Angela, in-laws, grandchildren<br />
and great-grandson. Ar dheis Dé<br />
go raibh a anam.<br />
‘They’re gone across<br />
the eternal sea,<br />
Where time will count no more;<br />
They’re sailing in the<br />
old-time ships,<br />
To God’s resplendent shore! –<br />
‘Sahida’<br />
George Furlong’s Hornpipe Composed by Liam Gaul<br />
George Furlong’s Hornpipe’ was composed by Liam Gaul in Honour<br />
of George on the occasion of his 80th birthday
Scoil Fonn<br />
agus Amhrán<br />
TADHG Ó MAOLCATHA<br />
Billy Clifford, with some of his polka and slide-playing pupils at the workshop day at Fleadh na Mumhan 2009 in Ros Cré<br />
Uachtarán of <strong>Comhaltas</strong>, Séamus<br />
Mac Cormaic joined with parents,<br />
tutors, pupils and Munster<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> officials at the closing<br />
session of this year’s Scoil Fonn<br />
agus Amhrán which took place in<br />
Ros Cré immediately prior to<br />
Fleadh Cheoil na Mumhan. This<br />
event, organised annually by<br />
Comhairle na Mumhan, was<br />
deemed once again to be an<br />
outstanding success. Over sixty<br />
young musicians and singers<br />
attended the day-long series of<br />
workshops on the playing of slow<br />
airs and traditional singing. In<br />
addition to these there were<br />
specialised workshops on the<br />
playing of slides and polkas.<br />
Scoil Fonn agus Amhrán was<br />
initiated in Munster in 1981 and<br />
has continued on an annual basis<br />
ever since, being held each year in<br />
conjunction with Fleadh Cheoil<br />
na Mumhan. As the provincial<br />
Fleadh rotates between the<br />
counties in Munster, each county<br />
has its opportunity to host Scoil<br />
Fonn agus Amhrán na Mumhan.<br />
Scoil Fonn agus Amhrán consists<br />
of master classes and workshops on<br />
slow air playing as well as<br />
traditional singing in Irish and<br />
English. The event has been a<br />
tremendous success over the years<br />
and has left many fond memories<br />
to those who attended as students<br />
and has given them a much better<br />
appreciation of our beautiful airs<br />
and song tradition.<br />
It was evident in the 1970s, that<br />
although our native music was<br />
making considerable progress and<br />
gaining in popularity, our beautiful<br />
slow airs and traditional songs<br />
were being neglected. Comhairle<br />
na Mumhan under the stewardship<br />
of Mícheál Ó Lochlainn and<br />
Dónal Ó Lideadha recognised the<br />
situation and resolved to put an<br />
action plan in train. They realised<br />
that the standard of air playing<br />
had dropped and that the<br />
repertoire of air players and singers<br />
had narrowed considerably. It was<br />
becoming apparent that jigs and<br />
reels were now dominating<br />
TREOIR<br />
19
Majella Bartley and her slow air playing students<br />
on the fiddles perform in the open session at<br />
the conclusion of Scoil Fonn in Ros Cré<br />
musical occasions, to the almost<br />
complete exclusion of slow airs. It<br />
was also quite clear that airs were<br />
not being taught in many of the<br />
traditional music classes around<br />
the province.<br />
The first Scoil Fonn agus Amhrán<br />
took place over 2 days in<br />
Dunmanway in 1982, just prior to<br />
Fleadh Cheoil na Mumhan. A<br />
scholarship scheme was set up so<br />
as to encourage young people to<br />
attend. First and second prize<br />
winners at the Co. Fleadh in each<br />
of the slow air playing<br />
competitions (fiddle, flute &<br />
whistle) and singing qualified and<br />
received scholarships. This applied<br />
to the 12-15 and 15-18 age groups.<br />
Being a two-day event<br />
accommodation had to be found<br />
and very often families of young<br />
musicians in the locality took in<br />
the Scoil Fonn students and all<br />
benefited from the experience. On<br />
many occasions local B&Bs were<br />
used and hostels were utilised on a<br />
few occasions also.<br />
This continued up to 2004 when<br />
an in-depth assessment was carried<br />
out and a new approach was given<br />
a trial run. Each county was asked<br />
to hold their own one-day Scoil<br />
Fonn agus Amhrán and this would<br />
be followed up by the Munster<br />
Scoil Fonn as a one-day event.<br />
Bringing the tuition to each<br />
county and leaving it open to all<br />
who wished to attend, resulted in<br />
far more people experiencing the<br />
pleasure of the airs and songs.<br />
Comhairle na Mumhan provided<br />
20 TREOIR<br />
funding to the counties so that<br />
tuition fees could be kept to a<br />
minimum.<br />
At the Munster Fleadh of 2007 in<br />
Newcastle West, with the help of<br />
Meitheal funding, Scoil Fonn agus<br />
Amhrán was expanded further<br />
with the third placed prizewinners<br />
in the slow air playing and singing<br />
competitions now qualifying from<br />
each county. It was also opened up<br />
to the under 12s for the first time.<br />
This resulted in a much increased<br />
attendance. Tuition on the píob<br />
uilleann was also introduced.<br />
The influence of Scoil Fonn agus<br />
Amhrán has become more apparent<br />
over the years. There has been<br />
greater participation in slow air<br />
events at county and provincial<br />
Fleadh and the standard has<br />
certainly improved. Thirty years ago<br />
one would hear the same few airs<br />
being played repeatedly at<br />
competitions whereas now there is a<br />
much wider repertoire and many of<br />
the lesser known airs can be heard.<br />
Each year an effort was made to<br />
include airs and songs from the<br />
particular area in which the event<br />
was being held and the tutors<br />
usually selected airs for their fiddle<br />
and flute/whistle classes that were<br />
also airs of an existing song. This<br />
helped to bring home to pupils the<br />
close link that exists between the<br />
songs and airs. Many would claim<br />
that it is essential to have a good<br />
knowledge of the song before<br />
attempting to play the<br />
accompanying air.<br />
Munster has a rich heritage of<br />
song in the Irish language, songs<br />
such as Priosún Chluain Meala,<br />
Seán Ó Duibhir a’ Ghleanna,<br />
Sliabh Geal Gua, Slán le Máigh,<br />
Caith Chéim an Fhia, Mo Ghile<br />
Mear, Amhrán na Leabhar, An<br />
Clár Bog Déil, Bean Dubh a’<br />
Ghleanna, Na Conneries and<br />
many, many others. These, and<br />
beautiful instrumental airs such as<br />
Port na bPúcaí, Lament for Staker<br />
Wallace, Marbhna Luimnigh and<br />
others provide us with a rich<br />
treasury from the past. They are<br />
cultural jewels that young<br />
musicians should be made aware of<br />
and Scoil Fonn agus Amhrán has<br />
helped in a big way over the past<br />
26 years to give a better<br />
appreciation of this aspect of<br />
our cultural inheritance.<br />
Human Spirit<br />
Mary Guckian<br />
Each calamity a nation suffers<br />
brings tragedy and despair<br />
as bombs fall, planes crash,<br />
cataclysmic moments are written<br />
into our history books: broken<br />
bodies are buried, and innocent<br />
families left behind are fragile<br />
and left to suffer, yet through<br />
the voices of children new lives<br />
are forged and we begin again.<br />
The weight of confusion<br />
on every generation causes tension<br />
then panic, yet without moments<br />
like these, we become stagnant:<br />
fail to face our differences,<br />
our pinched prejudices: all<br />
disasters overcome with camraderie<br />
we move forward in togetherness<br />
and the human spirit never dies.<br />
Thunder<br />
Mist moves across fields<br />
and flowers shiver,<br />
while petals turn inwards,<br />
reaching back to buds hiding<br />
from thunder that shakes<br />
buildings around this place.<br />
I feel torn apart but then<br />
the sun shines, new strength<br />
comes from strange sources:<br />
seeds take root, trees grow<br />
to great heights, making me<br />
wonder how I ever doubted<br />
this force, this everlasting<br />
force that moves me on and on.
THE HOUNDS OF ULSTER<br />
GRAPEVINE<br />
Photo: Lucia De Nile<br />
Her Excellency, Mary McAleese, President of Ireland and her husband,<br />
Dr Martin McAleese, visited the ‘Celebrating Cultural Diversity’ Concert<br />
in CLASAĊ a new Regional Resource Centre for <strong>Comhaltas</strong> in Clontarf,<br />
Co. Dublin when over 300 people were in attendance. Among the chosen<br />
artists were singer and storyteller Seán Ó Sé from Cork; musicologist and<br />
virtuoso concert accordionist, Martin Donohoe from Cavan town; and<br />
The Hounds of Ulster, a flute and drum music group based in County<br />
Antrim playing a mixture of traditional Irish, Scottish and Ulster-Scots<br />
tunes on both wooden and B b flutes. Seán and Martin joined the band for<br />
a roof lifting version of ‘An Poc ar Buille’ and entertained the President<br />
with the song ‘Do Bhí Bean Uasal’ or ‘Carrickfergus’ as it better known.<br />
Included in<br />
photograph with<br />
The Hounds of<br />
Ulster band are<br />
Senator Labhrás<br />
Ó Murchú,<br />
Ardstiúrthóir<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann; Séamus<br />
Mac Cormaic<br />
National President<br />
of CCÉ, Seán Ó Sé,<br />
Martin Donohoe,<br />
Nyah/CCÉ; Jim<br />
McAllister,<br />
CLASAĊ.<br />
The Hounds of<br />
Ulster was formed<br />
in 2006 and has over 20 members, some of whom play for other marching<br />
bands across Ulster. However, the band was formed for indoor concert<br />
work, focusing on traditional music rarely associated with the flute band<br />
genre of Ulster. The band is conducted by Brian Welsh, a well-respected<br />
flautist and specialist piccolo player. The shared performance was about<br />
sharing ideas and developing<br />
musical activities which encourage<br />
respect and appreciation of other<br />
cultures. And to develop an<br />
awareness of the variety and<br />
value of different cultural values<br />
and perspectives throughout the<br />
island of Ireland.<br />
The range of music played by the Hounds of Ulster includes jigs, reels,<br />
marches, slow airs and hornpipes. During the short time that the group<br />
has been together it has attained accolades from many influential people<br />
engaged within the Ulster-Scots music and entertainment field. The age<br />
of the group ranges from 6 to<br />
60+ years of age.<br />
Our good friend Yuri in the<br />
Moscow Branch of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
has been making quite a name<br />
for himself. A fluent Irish<br />
speaker (some would say with a<br />
Kerry accent!), Yuri attended last<br />
year’s Fleadh in Tullamore. No<br />
sooner was he back in Russia<br />
than he contacted <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
requesting some artists from<br />
Ireland. <strong>Comhaltas</strong> responded<br />
promptly and sent six performers:<br />
Seán Ó Sé, Siobhán Ní<br />
Chonaráin, Tara Breen, Pádraig<br />
King, Martino Vacca and Gearóid<br />
Ó Catháin. They performed for a<br />
capacity audience and very much<br />
strengthened the cultural links<br />
between the two countries.<br />
<br />
There has been high praise<br />
indeed for the national Set<br />
Dancing Seminar held at<br />
CLASAĊ. It was attended by<br />
representatives from the four<br />
provinces and chaired by An<br />
tUachtarán Séamus Mac<br />
Cormaic. It was a lively and<br />
informative occasion and has<br />
set the tone for future Set Dance<br />
endeavours. It is significant that<br />
it was in Dublin that <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
provided the first shop window<br />
event for Set Dancing: this was<br />
held in Coláiste Mhuire, Parnell<br />
Square, in the early 1970s.<br />
TREOIR 21
NOEL - THE REAL<br />
LONGFORD<br />
I remember the All-Ireland Fleadh<br />
in Longford in 1958. It was the<br />
first time a small group of us had<br />
come over from Liverpool to play<br />
in competition. In those days Irish<br />
music was everything in Liverpool,<br />
with numerous céilithe at which<br />
we played, sometimes up to five<br />
nights a week.<br />
There were four of us travelling by<br />
train from Dublin to Longford that<br />
weekend – Kit Hodge, Mick<br />
Quinn, Seán Murphy and myself.<br />
When the ticket-inspector came<br />
into our compartment to check<br />
our tickets, he saw our musical<br />
instruments and<br />
expressed<br />
great<br />
interest in<br />
the banjo<br />
which<br />
belonged to<br />
Seán<br />
Murphy. He<br />
took it out<br />
of its case<br />
and, to our<br />
surprise,<br />
started to<br />
play a reel. I<br />
always<br />
remember<br />
the name of<br />
that reel –<br />
The Longford<br />
Collector –<br />
and, of course, the particular<br />
collector checking our tickets was<br />
none other than the well-known<br />
COLLECTOR<br />
TOMÁS Ó CANAINN<br />
banjo-mandolin player Noel<br />
Strange. We had met the real<br />
Longford Collector !<br />
It was the start of a wonderful<br />
friendship and Noel promised to<br />
send me the music of some Irish<br />
céilí tunes. Sure enough, they<br />
turned up in our post a week later<br />
and I got down to playing them. I<br />
was an accordionist in those days,<br />
and only became a piper a few years<br />
later when I came back to Ireland<br />
and took up residence in Cork.<br />
Now, more than fifty years later, I<br />
have resurrected Noel’s<br />
manuscript. It is slightly the worse<br />
for wear, but<br />
you may still<br />
decipher<br />
Noel’s<br />
handwritten<br />
‘With sincere<br />
good wishes’. I<br />
include some<br />
of it here as<br />
a reminder<br />
of early<br />
happy<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
and céilíband<br />
days –<br />
a short time<br />
before we<br />
started a<br />
musical<br />
group that<br />
would become very famous<br />
– the Liverpool Céilí Band.<br />
Bridge of<br />
Memories<br />
at Ballinclough<br />
Tom Ryan<br />
By the mossy bridge at the ford<br />
Where tired cattle drink<br />
My folks were all around me there –<br />
Or so I like to think.<br />
Near my mother’s house of old<br />
This lovely spiritual truth,<br />
Oh, joyous, warm abode<br />
Of a dear and distant youth.<br />
Midst the flowers and the scents<br />
Of the summer air<br />
I felt, oh, I felt,<br />
They are still yet there,<br />
My simple folks of the mountain land<br />
By the sparkling waters<br />
On either hand.<br />
We brought the cart to the bridge below<br />
To cool the iron-rimmed wheels,<br />
And a tired old jennet I once loved so<br />
Who’d gifted me a thousand thrills.<br />
We bathed our little childrens’ feet,<br />
Splashed till joyous hours were done,<br />
All day playing in sun and heat<br />
Hearts and heaven in unison.<br />
Midst the flowers and the scents<br />
Of the summer air<br />
I felt, oh, I felt,<br />
They are still yet there,<br />
My simple folks of the mountain land<br />
By the sparkling waters<br />
On either hand.<br />
Where magic through cool water flows,<br />
And foxes, hares run fast and free<br />
Oh, fluttering now my heart it goes<br />
So carefree now in memory.<br />
I felt, I feel, and will not yield,<br />
My people love e’en yet this field;<br />
And we who live and they now gone<br />
Are still, in love, in unison.<br />
And all around me in the air<br />
Hearts that love and hearts that care,<br />
In this sweet place I loved when young<br />
Happy my flesh and blood among.<br />
Midst the flower and the scents<br />
Of the summer air<br />
I felt, oh, I feel,<br />
They are still yet there,<br />
My gentle folks of the mountain land<br />
By the sparkling waters<br />
On either hand.<br />
In memory of my mother, Bridie Ryan,<br />
formerly of The Ford, Ballinaclough,<br />
Nenagh, and my grand-parents,<br />
Mr and Mrs Michael Ryan, formerly<br />
of Shragh, Killeen<br />
22 TREOIR
TEASTAS EORPACH<br />
NA GAEILGE<br />
D’fhógair Éamon Ó Cuív, TD, An<br />
tAire Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus<br />
Gaeltachta go bhfuil deontas<br />
e169,500 ceadaithe aige d’Ollscoil<br />
na hÉireann Má Nuad don bhliain<br />
acadúil 2009/10 leis na scrúdaithe a<br />
bhaineann le Teastas Eorpach na<br />
Gaeilge a dhearadh agus oiliúint a<br />
chur ar scrúdaitheoirí.<br />
Tá forbairt á dhéanamh ar Theastas<br />
Eorpach na Gaeilge ag Ionad na<br />
dTeangacha in Ollscoil na hÉireann,<br />
Má Nuad, d’fhonn siollabas<br />
caighdeánach a chruthú<br />
d’fhoghlaimeoirí fásta Gaeilge.<br />
Clúdaíonn sé scrúdaithe atá nascaithe<br />
leis an bhFráma Comónta Eorpach le<br />
haghaidh Measúnú Teanga.<br />
Ag fógairt an deontais, dúirt an<br />
tAire: ‘Is togra an-fhiúntach agus<br />
fíor thábhachtach é seo a leagann<br />
síos córas grádaithe d’fhoghlaim na<br />
Gaeilge chomh maith le spriocanna<br />
soiléire foghlama. Tá áthas orm,<br />
mar sin, go raibh ar chumas mo<br />
Roinne deontas a chur ar fáil le<br />
cinntiú go leanfaí leis.’<br />
THE MUNSTER CONNECTION<br />
Helen Gannon, Cathaoirleach of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> in North America, and<br />
Paul Keating, Provincial PRO<br />
both have Munster connections,<br />
Helen with Limerick and Paul<br />
with Clare. Recently when Helen<br />
was a recipient of Gradam an<br />
Chomhaltais at Cultúrlann na<br />
hÉireann, Paul, on behalf of CCÉ<br />
North America, presented Helen<br />
with a very appropriate picture –<br />
that of the Rock of Cashel which<br />
was home to the Kings of Munster.<br />
The Galway Fleadh<br />
The fleadh was held over five days starting on the Wednesday evening<br />
and continuing on until the Sunday. The Wednesday evening consisted<br />
of the Céilí dancing workshop, with two local dancing instructors, for all<br />
children in the local area. There was a lecture on the music of east Galway<br />
given by Joe O’Connor of Ennis. On Thursday evening a sean-nós<br />
dancing workshop by Brian Cunningham had a great turn out. Later that<br />
evening the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> branch held a Singers’ Circle, with a special guest.<br />
On Friday evening we held the official opening of the fleadh with a<br />
tribute concert to Tom Quinn. Competions were held all day on Saturday,<br />
with a large number of competitors. Later in the evening a traditional<br />
singing workshop took place with a good response. Then, to finish off the<br />
day we had the Fleadh Céilí. Sunday morning started with the Fleadh Mass<br />
in St Brigid’s Hospital. The music and singing competitions started at 2pm<br />
with the Céilí and Set Competitions starting at 1pm. Our branch holds<br />
regular junior music sessions and one of which was held in Hadyens Hotel.<br />
The committee left no stone unturned, as they made sure that competitors<br />
and visitors were catered for. There were many sessions throughout the<br />
town over the weekend, and the closing session was held in Gullane’s<br />
Hotel on Sunday evening with members of Moycullen, Lackagh, Corofin<br />
and Kilnadeema branches, and some from the local branch finished with a<br />
demonstration of a good grúpaí cheoil session. The many competitors and<br />
visitors went home with fond memories of the fleadh.<br />
– Michael Cusack<br />
JANET THE HARPIST SUPREME<br />
Janet Harbison is<br />
one of the foremost<br />
harpists – and<br />
authority on the<br />
instrument – of this<br />
generation. She has<br />
displayed<br />
uniqueness and<br />
innovation in her<br />
playing that has<br />
won accolades<br />
nationally and<br />
internationally. Her compositions and<br />
arrangements have been lauded by the<br />
traditional music world.<br />
Janet generously passes on her skills in the<br />
several classes which she teaches. Our<br />
photos show Janet with some of her pupils<br />
who received special awards at a function<br />
held at Cultúrlann na hÉireann.<br />
The presentations were made by the<br />
Ardstiúrthóir of <strong>Comhaltas</strong>, Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú, who in turn<br />
also received a special award from Janet!<br />
TREOIR<br />
23
Cúpla lá ó shin tháinig mo<br />
shean-chara Mac Cárthaigh ar<br />
ais ó Éirinn. Chuir sé scairt orm<br />
agus sa chaint dúinn dúirt sé go<br />
bhfaca sé broc ar an mbóthar i<br />
lár an lae, rud nach coitianta.<br />
‘Chonaiceas é díreach san áit a<br />
bhfaca Donncha Rua an sprid<br />
fadó, an gcuimhin leat an áit’<br />
Ba chuimhin go maith. Sa tseanaimsir<br />
bhíodh sprideanna anchoitianta<br />
ar bhóithre na<br />
hÉireann. Bhíodh cáil mhór,<br />
droch-cháil ar uairibh, ar chuid<br />
acu. Bhí Sprid na Mangartan acu<br />
i gCiarraí, Sprid Chnocán an<br />
Phíopa i gCorcaigh agus Sprid<br />
na Bearna i Luimneach mar<br />
shampla. Ghnáthaigh na<br />
sprideanna áiteanna iargúlta. Ní<br />
raibh de ghnó ag cuid acu ach<br />
scanradh a chur ar dhaoine<br />
soineanta ach bhí sórtanna eile<br />
ann freisin. Ag seo síos trí scéal<br />
a bhfuil sórt baint acu lena<br />
chéile faoi sprideanna ban. An<br />
chéad cheann chualas ag mo<br />
sheanathair é; an tarna ceann<br />
fuaireas in ‘Amach as Ucht na<br />
Sliabh’ é; an triú ceann fuarthas<br />
i ‘Seanchas Amhlaoibh Uí<br />
Lúinse’ é.<br />
In Iarthar Chairbre tá áit<br />
uaigneach ar an mbóthar idir an<br />
Carn agus Connanach ar a<br />
dtugtar Ard na Saile. Bhí mo<br />
sheanathair á rá liom go mbíodh<br />
sprid mná le feiscint ar an Ard<br />
sa tsean-aimsir. Chonaic go leor<br />
daoine í. Taréis tamaill ní<br />
rachadh aon duine ach duine a<br />
mbeadh braoinín ar bord aige nó<br />
stróinséar i ngiorracht dhá mhíle<br />
den áit istoíche. An bhean seo<br />
24 TREOIR<br />
Sprideanna<br />
GRAPEVINE<br />
bhíodh gúna bán uirthi agus<br />
gruaig amscaí síos go troigh.<br />
Bhíodh mála thar a gualainn<br />
aici. Stopadh sí daoine a mbíodh<br />
capall acu agus d’iarradh sí<br />
marcaíocht orthu. Níor lig an<br />
t-eagla d’éinne síob a thabhairt<br />
di go dtí aon oíche amháin nuair<br />
a stop sí fear ó Ros Ó gCairbre<br />
agus ghabh trua di é. Trucail agus<br />
capall a bhí ag an bhfear seo.<br />
Cá bhfuil do thriall a bhean<br />
mhaith’ ar sé. ‘Go dtí áit níos<br />
fearr’ ar sí. ‘Téanam ort mar sin’<br />
ar sé, agus léim sí isteach sa<br />
charr. Bhog an fear an srian agus<br />
thug an capall faoi imeacht ach<br />
theip air an trucail a bhogadh.<br />
Thug an fear iarracht den tslat<br />
dó ach ní raibh sé in ann corraí.<br />
Bhí an t-allas ag imeacht den<br />
chapall agus thosnaigh sé ag<br />
crith. Tháinig scanradh ar an<br />
bhfear agus d’fhéach sé anonn<br />
ar an mbean. ‘Cad í an<br />
diabhlaíocht seo ar siúl agat’ ar<br />
sé. ‘Aimsir an Ghorta ghoideas<br />
cúpla bullóg aráin ó chomharsa’<br />
ar sí. ‘Ba pheaca trom é agus<br />
chuir Dia de phionós orm ualach<br />
millteanach a iompar go dtí go<br />
bhfaighinn duine éigin chun<br />
cabhrú liom agus go ndéarfadh<br />
an duine céanna paidir ar mo<br />
shon. Anois, an ndéarfá Ave<br />
thar mo cheann’ ‘Déarfainn<br />
agus fáilte,’ ar sé. Le sin, léim<br />
an bhean amach ar an mbóthar<br />
agus shlog an dorchadas í.<br />
Ní fhacathas ó shin í.<br />
– Barra Ó Donnabháin<br />
Cultúrlann na hÉireann was the<br />
venue for the wedding reception<br />
of two musical sisters Sarah Jane<br />
and Emma Woods. Emma<br />
married dancing supremo, Martin<br />
Dodd, early last year and Sarah<br />
Jane married Aidan Dundon on<br />
the 28 th December. These were<br />
wonderful occasions full of<br />
music, friendship and<br />
camaraderie. Go raibh rath Dé<br />
orthu i gcónaí.<br />
<br />
As we go to press we hear<br />
another good news and romantic<br />
story. Two of the musicians who<br />
met on a <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Tour<br />
of America have become<br />
engaged. Watch this space<br />
for more details!<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> stalwarts dancer Martin Dodd<br />
and fiddle player Emma Woods, at their<br />
wedding reception last Summer at<br />
Cultúrlann na hÉireann.
OUR BEAUTIFUL<br />
LIVING TRADITION<br />
THOUGHTS FROM THE LEEDS BRANCH 40 TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER<br />
MICK FUREY<br />
When he phoned me,<br />
Michael Tennyson’s bald<br />
statement that all tickets<br />
for the Leeds Branch<br />
40 th anniversary dinner<br />
were sold out had me<br />
gobstruck. How could I<br />
possibly have been so<br />
casual (i.e. sloppy) as to<br />
not reserve my place as soon as the<br />
announcement was made Who<br />
should I hope would fall ill so that<br />
I could take their place<br />
Michael saved me from such dark<br />
thoughts. ‘We saved one for you,<br />
so you’d better hurry and get in<br />
touch with Peggy Sarsfield.’<br />
It’s a good job we were on the<br />
phone; he’d have been<br />
embarrassed by my kissing him.<br />
Afterwards, I felt pleased yet<br />
humbled that they should<br />
apparently think so much of me<br />
that they kept a ticket back. It’s<br />
not as if I’ve ever been an asset to<br />
the branch; I don’t get to Leeds<br />
very often, sometimes not for<br />
years. I don’t even always pay my<br />
subs. Yet I was remembered; and<br />
not just for making a show of<br />
myself. In some ways,<br />
I’m glad I don’t live closer<br />
to Leeds; I might get too<br />
casual about it all. As it is,<br />
there’s always the warmest<br />
of welcomes, so many hands to<br />
shake, so much to catch up with,<br />
so many delighted smiles from me<br />
that only my ears keep my jaw<br />
from falling off.<br />
I first bumped into the Branch in<br />
1972, after hearing that the All-<br />
England Fleadh would be held in<br />
Leeds. That’s only 40 miles so I<br />
decided to give it a visit. I’d heard<br />
of <strong>Comhaltas</strong>, but had a vague<br />
notion that it was full of sternfaced<br />
people giving out about the<br />
right and the wrong way to sing<br />
and play traditional music. I’ve<br />
been wrong before and since but<br />
was I ever wrong then I left Leeds<br />
reluctantly that Saturday night,<br />
mad to return next day. In a state<br />
verging on shock, I couldn’t wait<br />
to get more of the amazing musical<br />
talent I’d been immersed in. That<br />
was my introduction to the Leeds<br />
branch; an introduction that<br />
turned into a long-lasting<br />
friendship. Many members became<br />
dear personal friends and I’ve<br />
watched their children and<br />
grandchildren grow up and<br />
flourish musically.<br />
It was only later that I learned<br />
that the branch was only three<br />
years old in 1972, yet they staged<br />
such an involved event so well. In<br />
fact it was at their very first<br />
meeting that Pat McNicholas<br />
(RIP), who became my good<br />
friend over the years, proposed<br />
that Leeds should host the All-<br />
England Fleadh. That has been a<br />
feature of the branch; that they<br />
had the confidence, the talent and<br />
– most of all – the commitment to<br />
do it. And the 1972 Fleadh wasn’t<br />
an isolated event; Leeds have<br />
staged many more Fleadheanna as<br />
well as their own musical<br />
productions. They’ve practically<br />
become a fixture at An Fleadh<br />
Nua over the years thanks to John<br />
Ferguson’s wide-eyed enthusiasm<br />
for that event.<br />
During the speeches I noticed that<br />
the side banners said: ‘The Living<br />
Tradition’; the title of a fine<br />
traditional music magazine<br />
published in Scotland. I<br />
occasionally contribute to it so the<br />
association of ideas meant that<br />
TREOIR 25
some of the words of a new song<br />
kept slipping into my head. If I’d<br />
been confident enough that I had<br />
all of the words, I’d have insisted<br />
on singing it later. You see, I’ve<br />
never heard a song that so easily<br />
fits the work that Leeds Branch<br />
have done over their four decades.<br />
Dave Sheridan could have had<br />
them in mind when he wrote Our<br />
Beautiful Tradition:<br />
We wonder how musicians<br />
in the future<br />
will play our music given in the past,<br />
with only old folk knowing<br />
any difference,<br />
wishing tunes and melodies can last.<br />
The future of tradition in<br />
our young hands,<br />
striving to play like some men of old;<br />
always thinking of their<br />
legendary touches,<br />
triplets, cuts and rolls they<br />
made their own.<br />
That’s probably the way we<br />
thought when we were young;<br />
when the traditional music of<br />
Ireland was just recovering from a<br />
very low ebb, scorned as ‘diddlydiddly<br />
stuff’ by people more<br />
ignorant than musical. The<br />
Troubles didn’t help either; even<br />
whistling an Irish tune over here<br />
could get you black looks, or<br />
worse. It’s due to the efforts of the<br />
likes of Leeds that our music has<br />
recovered from the dark times and<br />
taken its rightful place amongst<br />
the best music in the world. It’s a<br />
paradox, but the roots of An<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> are in its branches.<br />
And Leeds have the strongest<br />
roots of any branch I know.<br />
And all this from ‘mere amateurs’.<br />
The disparaging way that ‘amateur’<br />
is used is a long-term irritation to<br />
me. I hate the notion that<br />
amateurs do things in a halfhearted<br />
or unskilful way. I’ve seen<br />
plenty of professionals make a<br />
hames of things; so professionals<br />
aren’t heroic figures to me. All of<br />
my dictionaries agree that the<br />
word ‘amateur’ comes from the<br />
Latin, ‘amare, to love’. So my<br />
26 TREOIR<br />
heroes are those who battle on in<br />
spite of everything, who play, sing<br />
or dance as well as they are able,<br />
simply because they love what<br />
they’re doing. There’s a golden<br />
thread running through the<br />
history of the Leeds branch, a line<br />
of commitment by so many people<br />
whose names don’t appear in any<br />
list of great musicians, singers or<br />
dancers. They work away in the<br />
background at the unglamorous<br />
work, badgering people like me to<br />
pay our subs, ensuring that events<br />
start and finish nearly enough on<br />
time, and the – to me – mysterious<br />
business of handling the financial<br />
side of things. That so much of<br />
what the Leeds branch do so well<br />
– as amateurs – is a living tribute<br />
to the members.<br />
Many of the official speakers<br />
talked about ‘the generations’, but<br />
at Leeds it’s never been a matter of<br />
one generation succeeding<br />
another. There’s been a seamless<br />
blending from one into another,<br />
without older members stepping or<br />
being pushed aside in favour of<br />
younger ones. From the oldest to<br />
the youngest, they’ve all been as<br />
deeply involved as each other and<br />
had equal voices. It’s common<br />
enough to talk about organisations<br />
as ‘families’ but Leeds is the<br />
biggest and most extended family<br />
I’ve ever known. Members visit<br />
from all over Britain; those who<br />
did the reverse-migration route<br />
regularly return from Ireland for<br />
events like this. Leeds isn’t just a<br />
branch; it’s an institution, wellknown<br />
and well-regarded<br />
throughout An <strong>Comhaltas</strong> and the<br />
wider Irish community.<br />
Of course, at all such events,<br />
there’s always what my mother<br />
called ‘the little sorrow’; those<br />
lingering ashes of grief that ensure<br />
we remember with lasting<br />
affection those we knew and<br />
loved, that little tug at the heart<br />
from time to time. The celebratory<br />
booklet, along with so many<br />
pictures from the past, has a page<br />
not just commemorating, but<br />
naming deceased members. So<br />
many well-known names, so many<br />
fond memories...<br />
When I finally caught up with<br />
John Ferguson, he insisted that we<br />
had to meet the Gillards again.<br />
That was like a procession; like<br />
accompanying a political candidate<br />
on walkabout; a lap of honour for<br />
himself. John’s so popular that it<br />
would have been hard to go<br />
straight to your own mother with<br />
the sheer number of people he had<br />
to greet and talk with. At times I<br />
feared the night would be over<br />
before we ever reached the Gillard<br />
family. We finally got to talk with<br />
our old friends; pillars of the<br />
branch in bygone days. I know my<br />
face is unmistakeable – for all the<br />
wrong reasons – but for so many<br />
of the Gillards to remember my<br />
name with such real friendliness<br />
amazed me.<br />
When the call came for the<br />
members of the original Leeds<br />
Junior Céilí Band to reunite on<br />
the stage, I felt my age pressing<br />
down on me yet again. I knew<br />
them as kids, for pity’s sake, not as<br />
these men and women with grown<br />
families of their own. I knew<br />
they’d still treat me with the same<br />
age-defying, friendly equality as
they did decades ago. They didn’t<br />
call me ‘Mister’ then; and why<br />
would they Aren’t we all equal<br />
when it comes to loving what we<br />
do; don’t we all have the same<br />
regard for each other As John<br />
Ferguson said when I once<br />
commented that his young son,<br />
Cíarán, treated me as an equal:<br />
‘That’s because you treat him as an<br />
equal.’ If he’d added, ‘You fool!’ I<br />
wouldn’t have argued with him.<br />
Why should I or anyone else<br />
demand respect unless we’ve earned<br />
it Wisdom doesn’t always come<br />
with age; I’m living proof of that.<br />
On my way outside for a breath of<br />
carbon monoxide and nicotine, I<br />
noticed a silver head with a face<br />
that I couldn’t quite put a name<br />
to. Someone I remembered from<br />
years back but was never really<br />
familiar with He made no great<br />
fuss, so I didn’t pester him. On my<br />
second trip I was halfway up the<br />
steps when the penny dropped and<br />
a great light flashed in my brain. I<br />
flew back down the steps and<br />
threw my arms around my old<br />
friend, Martin Jordan.<br />
‘You wouldn’t have passed me a<br />
third time;’ he growled, ‘I’d have<br />
hooked the legs from under you<br />
with my stick.’ That really<br />
sounded like Martin; a gruff voice<br />
but a warm heart. How could I<br />
possibly not recognise my old<br />
partner-in-crime from so many<br />
sessions in The Regent, so many<br />
trips to Provincial Council<br />
meetings I spent so long talking<br />
with Martin and Liz, inside and<br />
outside the Irish Centre, that I<br />
missed the last drink. Any other<br />
time that would be a tragedy, but<br />
I’d never begrudge missing a drink<br />
while in good company like that.<br />
When the time came for the final<br />
session, I was elated to be once<br />
more playing amongst such fine<br />
musicians. I don’t know who set<br />
the tempo but it was fierce fast. At<br />
one stage a trickle of sweat was<br />
actually scalding my top lip in spite<br />
of the hairy filter that lives there.<br />
But I wasn’t going to mop it till the<br />
set was finished; not for anyone.<br />
This was too good to miss, I needed<br />
the exercise and I was enjoying<br />
myself. For a miserable old dog like<br />
me, that takes some doing.<br />
All through writing this, the<br />
spellchecker has been telling me<br />
off for referring to the Leeds<br />
branch in the plural, as in ‘Leeds<br />
have’ when spell-check insists it<br />
should be ‘Leeds has’. Well, I don’t<br />
care what spell-check says; to me,<br />
Leeds has always been plural. It’s<br />
always been that the members<br />
matter more than the branch. It’s<br />
members that make a branch, not<br />
the other way round. In Leeds’<br />
case it’s proof that the whole is<br />
greater, much greater, than the<br />
sum of the parts.<br />
It’s not often I’ll let anyone have<br />
the last word but this just once I’ll<br />
give way to Dave Sheridan and his<br />
chorus from Our Beautiful Tradition:<br />
Live and breathe our beautiful<br />
tradition,<br />
spread it to all nations and be proud<br />
of souls that left this earth with one<br />
ambition,<br />
dreaming of a day to please a crowd.<br />
Leeds <strong>Comhaltas</strong> have had 14 600<br />
days – not counting leap year days<br />
– to do just that. They’ve<br />
succeeded too. (There now, I had<br />
the last word after all; just can’t<br />
keep my gob shut.)<br />
(Quotations from Our Beautiful<br />
Tradition, featured on the CD,<br />
Sheridan’s Guest House, (c) 2006<br />
Dave Sheridan. Thanks for letting<br />
me quote you, Dave.)<br />
Gael-Bhanraíon Mhaigh Eo<br />
Pádhraic Ó Láimhín<br />
Seo dán a chum mé do Cháit Bean Uí Éanacháin chun a gradam<br />
‘Gaeilgeoir na Bliana’ (Rehab) a fháil i gCaisleán a’ Bharraigh<br />
27ú Samhain 2009<br />
Comhghairdeas, a Cháit, a chroí (Craobh Chois Muaidhe, CCÉ)<br />
Is tú Cáit Bean Uí Éanacháin<br />
An t-aon chailín, máthair, baintreach amháin<br />
Aniar as Iorrus, Gaoth Sáile<br />
Nár ghlac pingin rua mar tháille<br />
Ar gach a rinne tú don teanga<br />
Le mealladh, moladh is meanga<br />
Ag gríosadh óg is aosta<br />
Go raibh tú iomlán sásta<br />
Lena gcanadh, damhsa is ceol.<br />
Tú ar gach féile is fleadh ár dtíre<br />
Is níl rud ar bith níos fíre<br />
Ná beannachtaí do chairde<br />
A ghuíonn gach rath is ádh ort<br />
Don chuid eile de do shaol.<br />
Seasaimíd i d’ ghaobhar<br />
Mar aithneachtáil dod’ shaothar<br />
Is do dhílseacht thar na cianta<br />
Go mba fada buan do bhlianta<br />
Mar tá ár seasamh ort.<br />
Níos luachmhaire duit ná táinte<br />
Tá do ghradam agat faighte<br />
Anocht ólaimíd do shláinte<br />
A Ghael-bhanríon Mhaigh Eo!<br />
TREOIR 27
TOM’S CHRISTMAS POEM AT<br />
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS SERVICE IN MEADOWOOD, CANADA<br />
A town in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada was in spiritual<br />
harmony this Christmas with Thurles, Co. Tipperary –<br />
thanks to the publication of a Christmas poem in the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> magazine ‘Treoir’. The poem ‘To absent ones<br />
at Christmas’ was written by Thurles poet and freelance<br />
journalist, Tom Ryan, Rahealty, in memory of his late<br />
mother and father, Bridie and John Joe Ryan, formerly of<br />
11 Fianna Road, Thurles and of his former neighbours<br />
now departed. Tom Ryan said ‘the poem is my<br />
acknowledgement of my parents’ role in providing me<br />
with a happy childhood and many wonderful memories<br />
which I have written about in my books, about the<br />
Watery Mall in Thurles. Every Christmas is a happy one<br />
for me because of those memories. I guess what I am<br />
saying is that if you have love you have everything. And<br />
that nothing is more important than to love and be<br />
loved and this does not stop at the grave.’<br />
He added: ‘Reverend Shelly Manley-Tannis of the<br />
United Church in Meadowood, in Winnipeg, Manitoba,<br />
felt this poem would be appropriate for a special<br />
Christmas Service they were having at Christmas for<br />
people who are grieving a loved one or for whom<br />
Christmas is difficult in other ways. Reverend Shelley<br />
Manley-Tannis, a Minister in the United Church in<br />
Dakota Street, Meadowood, wrote to me asking my<br />
permission to share the poem at Christmas on the<br />
occasion of their special ‘Longest Night’ service.<br />
She wrote: ‘I recently came across your poem, ‘To Absent<br />
Ones at Christmastime’ in the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> magazine that<br />
I as a member receive here in Canada! I wondered if I<br />
could have your permission to share this poem at<br />
Christmas. I just thought your poem was so beautiful and<br />
helpful. I imagined reading the poem during the Service<br />
and possibly giving each person a copy giving you full<br />
credit, of course.’<br />
The Rev. Shelley Manley-Tannis and her husband were<br />
in Dingle on holiday recently and just love it, though<br />
they didn’t get to Tipperary. They are looking forward<br />
to their next trip including a return visit to Dingle.<br />
The Christmas poem which has been published also<br />
in the ‘Irish Examiner’, ‘Kilkenny People’ and ‘The<br />
Nationalist’, Clonmel, is one of many poems about<br />
life in general in Tom Ryan’s book, ‘Cherry Blossoms –<br />
Poems of a simple life’ which was, incidentally, launched<br />
in Hayes Hotel, Thurles by Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú,<br />
a good friend of Tom over many years since Tom was<br />
involved with CCÉ.<br />
Tom said: ‘I appreciate the kind remarks of Rev. Shelly<br />
Manley-Tannis and, of course, I am happy like any poet<br />
to share my thoughts and feelings. If those few words of<br />
mine can be of assistance to anybody I am doubly happy.<br />
It’s what life is all about. I am conscious of course of the<br />
feelings of those folks in Meadowood to which the<br />
Reverend Minister refers. My own and my wife’s family<br />
have known grief in the recent past as have many other<br />
poor souls of our acquaintance. But to me our dear<br />
departed loved ones are our friends in Heaven and only a<br />
thought away. As the old Irish saying or sean-fhocal goes<br />
‘Is giorra cabhair Dé ná an doras (God’s help is nearer<br />
than the door)’. Therefore, I know I shall have a happy<br />
Christmas as always and wish the same to everybody else<br />
joy, peace and happiness to you all – whether in<br />
Meadowood, Canada, Thurles or Cashel, Co. Tipperary,<br />
or, indeed, anywhere else on earth.<br />
To absent ones at Christmas<br />
Tom Ryan<br />
We shall not in drawing up to the red-coaled fire<br />
In a profusion of spirits in the hollied room<br />
Your presence dishonour with forgetfullness,<br />
But rather shall we in music and wine<br />
And in the memory of another place and happy time<br />
Toast you, our absent ones.<br />
Nor as the carols reach to the Christmas stars<br />
In praise of the glorious grandeur of the world,<br />
Nor as childrens’ voices herald a new awakening<br />
Shall we forget the warmth<br />
Of a time of togetherness,<br />
But in a quiet prayer, pure as snow crystals<br />
Give thanks for what you were to our hearts<br />
For what you’ll ever be<br />
Unto the last Yuletide.<br />
So, in a good spirit,<br />
Glad for the plenty and the peace,<br />
Joyous for our family and our friends.<br />
With all the people of the earth<br />
And in our merriment and mirth<br />
We do remember you, our dear and absent ones.<br />
– Tom Ryan ‘Iona’, Rahealty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary<br />
28<br />
TREOIR
RTÉ RELEASE<br />
WILLIE CLANCY<br />
RECORDINGS<br />
RTÉ and RMG Chart have released a double CD made up of 65<br />
recordings of Willie Clancy from the RTÉ Libraries and <strong>Archive</strong>s<br />
entitled Willie Clancy: The Gold Ring<br />
The tracks on Willie Clancy: The<br />
Gold Ring were selected by RTÉ<br />
radio presenter and producer Peter<br />
Browne and come from the RTÉ<br />
Libraries and <strong>Archive</strong>s as well as<br />
number of other organisations and<br />
private collectors. This double CD<br />
is a most comprehensive collection<br />
of Willie Clancy’s piping from a<br />
period of over twenty years. It<br />
brings together recordings from<br />
many different places, times and<br />
sources and provides the<br />
opportunity to hear over two and a<br />
half hours of his playing.<br />
RTÉ Radio 1 presenter Peter<br />
Browne comments: ‘As well as<br />
paying homage to one of the<br />
country’s most talented musicians<br />
this production gives the listener<br />
the chance to experience the<br />
wealth of material in the RTÉ<br />
Libraries and <strong>Archive</strong>s.’<br />
Willie Clancy was one of the<br />
world’s finest uilleann pipers and<br />
hearing the beauty of his playing<br />
with his distinctive skills and<br />
repertoire will leave no lover of<br />
Irish traditional music unmoved.<br />
The CDs are accompanied by a 32<br />
page illustrated booklet giving a<br />
history of Willie Clancy’s life, the<br />
influences in his music, his learning<br />
of the pipes and also a detailed<br />
history of the various tunes. This<br />
release will be regarded as one of<br />
the most important of recent times<br />
in the world of traditional music.<br />
The CD notes provide an informed<br />
insight into Willie Clancy the<br />
man, his music and his influences:<br />
Willie Clancy was an openminded,<br />
avid listener and a deep<br />
thinker about traditional music.<br />
Many influences can be heard in<br />
his playing which came from other<br />
musicians and singers whose styles<br />
and tunes made an impression on<br />
him. At the same time, his playing<br />
was highly personal and individual.<br />
It had depth, emotion, passion,<br />
humour, inventiveness, taste,<br />
technique and tradition in<br />
abundance.<br />
Early Years<br />
Willie Clancy was born in his<br />
parents’ home just outside<br />
Miltown Malbay in West Co.<br />
Clare on Christmas Eve, 1918.<br />
There was music on both sides of<br />
his family: his mother, Ellen<br />
Killeen, was a singer and<br />
concertina player from a musical<br />
family in Ennistymon and his<br />
father was Gilbert Clancy, a singer<br />
and flute player from Islandbawn,<br />
a townland about four miles<br />
outside Miltown Malbay.<br />
The Clancys (Mac Fhlannchadha)<br />
were an important family in this<br />
area over generations. Poets and<br />
musicians visited the family home<br />
including, notably, the famous<br />
travelling blind piper from Inagh,<br />
Garret Barry. So strong was the<br />
influence of Garret Barry on<br />
Gilbert Clancy that much of his<br />
music and valuable tradition<br />
became available, through Gilbert,<br />
to Willie Clancy even though<br />
Willie was born years after Garret<br />
Barry’s death at the very start of<br />
the 1900s.<br />
Around the age of five, Willie<br />
learned his first tune on the tin<br />
whistle, a double jig called Father<br />
O’Flynn. He then took up the<br />
flute on which by all accounts he<br />
was a fine player. Indeed, before<br />
ever taking up the uilleann pipes,<br />
he was deeply immersed in<br />
traditional music, having also<br />
learned some fiddle playing and<br />
dancing from Thady Casey of<br />
Annagh. Willie was known as a<br />
good dancer and one observer, a<br />
good friend of his, Peter<br />
O’Loughlin of Kilmayley, noted<br />
that Willie’s steps on the dance<br />
floor mirrored his fingered<br />
phrasing on pipes and whistle.<br />
Willie was also a fine lilter and<br />
singer and all of these abilites<br />
together with his openness and<br />
enthusiasm for traditional music<br />
must have had a bearing on how<br />
he developed as such a complete<br />
and rounded musician.<br />
TREOIR<br />
29
Influences on his music and<br />
learning the pipes<br />
One of the strong influences on<br />
Willie Clancy was from Garret<br />
Barry, the travelling piper who was<br />
said to have been born in 1847,<br />
the year of the Great Famine in<br />
Ireland and who was much<br />
respected by Willie’s father Gilbert<br />
Clancy. Willie once said that his<br />
father ‘…could never speak<br />
unemotionally about Garret Barry<br />
… he was everything my father felt<br />
was great in Irish music.’ Having<br />
earlier known Garret well, Gilbert<br />
went to the United States of<br />
America in 1890 and returned in<br />
1899 at a time when Garret had<br />
only a year to live. Willie’s sister,<br />
Bridget Clancy, remembered<br />
hearing that when Garret did pass<br />
away, Gilbert made a coffin and<br />
transported the remains home from<br />
Ennistymon to be buried in Inagh.<br />
The Leo Rowsome Pipes Quartet with Leo<br />
Rowsome and his son Leon (front), Seán<br />
Seery and Willie Clancy (back) pictured in<br />
Leo’s home at 9 Belton Park Road,<br />
Donnycarney, Dublin during a rehearsal<br />
for a radio broadcast in the early 1950s.<br />
(Courtesy: Helena Rowsome)<br />
Some very distintive tunes and a<br />
style of playing came to Willie<br />
Clancy, through his father Gilbert<br />
from Garret Barry. It must have<br />
been unusual, before the era of<br />
electronically recorded sound, to<br />
learn music from a player whom<br />
one has never seen or heard but this<br />
30 TREOIR<br />
undoubtedly did happen and a<br />
substantial group of tunes and<br />
elements of a particular style of<br />
playing associated with Garret Barry<br />
have been preserved in this way.<br />
Another major influence certainly<br />
came from the celebrated<br />
travelling piper, Johnny Doran,<br />
and surprisingly, this was the first<br />
piper Willie Clancy every heard,<br />
when he and his friend and fellow<br />
musician, Martin Talty, heard<br />
Johnny Doran playing at the<br />
Miltown Malbay races in 1936.<br />
Willie was instantly captivated by<br />
Johnny Doran’s music and it<br />
became a habit for the two young<br />
enthusiasts to follow Johnny<br />
around and listen to him playing<br />
at different locations in Co. Clare.<br />
They became friendly and on one<br />
occasion when one of Johnny’s<br />
horses put a foot through Willie<br />
and Martin’s tent, Johnny invited<br />
them to spend the rest of the night<br />
in his caravan rather than be at<br />
the mercy of the weather in the<br />
open air.<br />
Elements of Johnny Doran’s<br />
playing are clearly to be heard in<br />
Willie Clancy’s piping and Willie<br />
once said of Johnny Doran: ‘…he<br />
made the greatest impact on me –<br />
it was the pure beauty of his music<br />
that impressed me. In Johnny<br />
Doran, feeling was all important:<br />
‘Willie also reported that Johnny<br />
had ‘…a shower of fingers…’ and<br />
that ‘…he was put into the world<br />
to discourage other pipers!’<br />
Another big influence on Willie’s<br />
music was surely all he was hearing<br />
and dancing to as he grew up, in<br />
particular the Casey family of<br />
Annagh; fiddle player and dancing<br />
master Thady Casey, fiddle player<br />
John ‘Scully’ Casey of whom Willie<br />
said: ‘…he was a first rate player<br />
and made almost as great an<br />
impression on me as Johnny Doran’<br />
and Scully’s son Bobby, also an<br />
excellent fiddle player and a very<br />
good friend of Willie over the years<br />
in Clare, Dublin and London.<br />
Other influences were from pipers<br />
Leo Rowsome, John Potts and<br />
Séamus Ennis in Dublin and also<br />
musicians he met during his time<br />
in London, particularly his good<br />
friend, Sligo flute player Roger<br />
Sherlock. He also had an<br />
acquaintance with some of the<br />
traditional music recorded on<br />
78rpm discs in America in the<br />
early 1900s.<br />
At the age of twenty, Willie<br />
secured a practice set of uilleann<br />
pipes from Felix Doran, a<br />
celebrated piper who was a brother<br />
of Johnny Doran. Willie compared<br />
this experience to winning the<br />
Sweepstake and said ‘I was the<br />
richest man in the world that<br />
night.’ He quickly became an<br />
accomplished player and in 1947<br />
travelled to Dublin in the company<br />
of Seán Reid, an important figure<br />
in traditional music in Co. Clare as<br />
well as nationally, and Willie won<br />
the Oireachtas piping competition<br />
of that year. When Séamus Ennis<br />
was working for Raidió Éireann, he<br />
travelled to Co. Clare and Willie<br />
Clancy was one of the musicians he<br />
recorded for a feature programme<br />
titled Behind the Cliffs of Moher.<br />
At this time he was for a short<br />
while a member of the Tulla Céilí<br />
Band in their early years together,<br />
playing uilleann pipes and<br />
occasionally concert flute. At Féile<br />
na Mumhan in Limerick in 1948, a<br />
combination of himself playing<br />
flute along with Bobby Casey<br />
(fiddle) and Paddy O’Donoghue<br />
(pipes) won the trio competition.<br />
All three also played in the Tulla<br />
band which was victorious that<br />
year in the céilí band competition<br />
at the same gathering.<br />
Willie had followed his father into<br />
the trade of carpentry and in 1951<br />
he went to work in Dublin. At<br />
this time he knew and learned
from Leo Rowsome whom he<br />
described as ‘one of the finest<br />
players I have known’ and he was<br />
a member of Leo’s pipes quartet<br />
who were frequent broadcasters on<br />
Raidió Éireann at that time.<br />
While in Dublin he travelled in<br />
the company of other musicians,<br />
singers and dancers including<br />
fiddle player Pádraig Ó Mathúna<br />
to Brittany in July 1951 as part of<br />
the Irish delegation to An<br />
Chomhdháil Cheilteach.<br />
In 1953 he emigrated to London<br />
where some musician friends of his<br />
including Bobby Casey were now<br />
living. This was an important<br />
period in his life; it brought him<br />
new musical experiences in a city<br />
where construction work was<br />
plentiful for the Irish. However,<br />
much as he may have enjoyed<br />
being there, he clearly never saw<br />
England as a likely place of<br />
permanent residence.<br />
Roger Sherlock, the well known<br />
Sligo flute player, shared a room in<br />
Camden Town for a couple of<br />
years with Willie, Galway fiddle<br />
player Máirtín Byrnes and one<br />
other Irish worker. Roger<br />
remembers this accommodation as<br />
being cramped, primitive and so<br />
expensive that Willie strongly<br />
resented having to pay a weekly<br />
rent of thirty shillings.<br />
It was a time when traditional<br />
Irish music was growing in<br />
popularity in London and some<br />
very fine players from different<br />
parts of Ireland were living and<br />
working there. They were part of<br />
the large wave of Irish emigration<br />
which took place in the 1950s,<br />
brought about by the post war<br />
building boom in Britain and there<br />
were legendary music sessions<br />
taking place in pubs such as The<br />
Bedford Arms and The Laurel Tree<br />
(a pub in Camden Town which has<br />
given its name to a fine reel and<br />
was the place where Willie first met<br />
Willie Clancy during a street recording for a television programme at the Fleadh Cheoil in Kilrush<br />
in 1963 with (from left) Seán Ó Murchú (presenter), Joe Leary (fiddle), Seán ’ac Donncha (singer)<br />
and Des O’Connor (flute player). (Copyright: RTÉ)<br />
the famous Conamara traditional<br />
singer Seosamh Ó hÉanaí).<br />
Traditional Irish music in London<br />
was an exclusively Irish,<br />
underground scene and the music<br />
historian Reg Hall recalls that it<br />
was so unusual for English people to<br />
be interested in traditional Irish<br />
music that he and a couple of<br />
English friends who used to<br />
frequent the pub sessions were<br />
sometimes introduced – in the heart<br />
of London – as ‘the English boys’!<br />
Another musician in London with<br />
whom Willie played was fiddle<br />
player and composer Michael<br />
Gorman and it was through<br />
Gorman that he met Ewan<br />
McColl, the famous singer,<br />
songwriter and broadcaster. He<br />
recorded music with Gorman,<br />
singer Margaret Barry and his<br />
friend from Co. Clare, Bobby<br />
Casey. However, he always made<br />
frequent visits home to Co. Clare<br />
and when his father, Gilbert, died<br />
in 1957, it was the occasion for<br />
Willie to return for good to<br />
Miltown Malbay. He started steady<br />
work, married Doreen Healy and<br />
lived a settled life in the town for<br />
what was to be the last fifteen<br />
years of his life.<br />
His Music<br />
Many things can be heard in<br />
Willie’s playing including the<br />
influences already mentioned. It<br />
has been said that when he was<br />
playing tunes which he had learned<br />
from particular musicians, that he<br />
would think of these people as he<br />
was playing and incorporate some<br />
of their style and variations in his<br />
rendering of the tune. His playing<br />
was highly distinctive and personal<br />
and a synthesis of all he had heard,<br />
together with his own skills and sense<br />
of how best to express the tune.<br />
He had plenty of piping skills;<br />
rolls, cranning, cutting, popping<br />
and the ability to sensitively<br />
choose and use open or closed<br />
sequences of notes. His variations<br />
and use of ornamentation were<br />
particularly good – often<br />
adventurous while remaining<br />
tasteful. His sound could be<br />
plaintive or strong and he knew<br />
how to colour a note to good effect.<br />
Slow airs were a favourite of his<br />
and he is recognised as having<br />
been a superb air player. He loved<br />
to play them and his abilities as a<br />
good singer must have had a<br />
bearing on how well he was able<br />
to capture and express the feeling<br />
and mood of an air.<br />
TREOIR<br />
31
In both airs and dance music –<br />
he was always at one with his<br />
performance – never detached. His<br />
playing was spontaneous and yet<br />
he was always thinking about what<br />
he could put into a tune by way of<br />
variation and ornamentation to<br />
achieve a more pleasing and<br />
interesting effect for the listener<br />
and for himself. His choices of<br />
tunes also reflected his interest in<br />
exploring the available range of<br />
traditional music and he had a<br />
large, varied and tastefully chosen<br />
repertoire.<br />
Willie Clancy and the Irish<br />
Language<br />
Willie could be light hearted,<br />
humorous and playful at times –<br />
he loved jokes, stories, wit and<br />
wordplay. He also thought deeply<br />
about his own piping and<br />
traditional music in general.<br />
Perhaps due to his ancestry, he had<br />
a love for all aspects of Irish<br />
culture with a particular regard for<br />
the Irish language and a longing to<br />
be able to speak it fluently. He had<br />
a high regard for traditional singing<br />
in Irish and definitely transferred<br />
some of what he heard from seannós<br />
singers into his piping.<br />
He said in an interview published<br />
in Dal gCais magazine in Co.<br />
Clare that he felt a knowledge of<br />
the Irish language to be essential<br />
‘If one is to express the true spirit<br />
of the music’ and in an interniew<br />
on RTÉ Radio, when<br />
complimented on his piping skills,<br />
he replied that he ‘would give<br />
it all to have the language!’<br />
How much Irish he actually had<br />
is an interesting question. Fiddle<br />
player Pádraig Ó Mathúna, who<br />
was a member, along with Willie,<br />
of a group of Irish people who<br />
travelled to Brittany in 1951,<br />
remembers that Irish was the<br />
only language spoken on the trip.<br />
When RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta<br />
came on the air in 1972, Willie<br />
was a constant listener.<br />
Piper Liam Ó Floinn who was<br />
close to him over a long period<br />
said he always felt that Willie had<br />
more Irish than he was willing to<br />
‘let on’ and that he certainly<br />
understood Irish and in particular<br />
the essentials of sean-nós singing.<br />
His friend and fellow Clare<br />
musician, Peter O’Loughlin,<br />
commented that he should<br />
disagree with Willie’s wish to<br />
exchange his musical abilities for a<br />
competence in Irish, stating that<br />
while anyone could learn a<br />
language, no one could every learn<br />
Willie’s piping!<br />
Final Years<br />
The years after 1957 when Willie<br />
returned to Co. Clare were happy<br />
ones for him and he was musically<br />
active. He recorded some ground<br />
breaking 78 rpm records for Gael<br />
Linn in the very early 1960s and<br />
playing with the Laichtín Naofa<br />
Céilí Band.<br />
His piping was now frequently<br />
heard in Miltown pubs such as<br />
Friel’s, Quelly’s and Marrinan’s<br />
and as interest in traditional music<br />
accelerated there were pilgrimages<br />
to Miltown by music enthusiasts,<br />
particularly pipers, for the purpose<br />
of meeting and hearing him. On<br />
these occasions, there was much<br />
music, good conversation and<br />
banter – e.g. a friend of Willie’s<br />
was John Moroney, known locally<br />
as ‘The Farmer’ and Willie and he<br />
used to act out fantasies whereby<br />
unsuspecting visitors were told<br />
that ‘The Farmer’ had to sell half<br />
his farm in order to raise money<br />
to send his brother Willie to<br />
Milan to have his voice trained!<br />
During this time Willie recorded a<br />
good deal of music for Ciarán Mac<br />
Mathúna of RTÉ Radio and<br />
attended the early Fleadhanna<br />
Cheoil and Tionóil of Na Píobairí<br />
Uilleann. Liam Ó Floinn recalls a<br />
mood of expectation that Willie<br />
would bring with him some special<br />
tune for them to learn which they<br />
would not have heard before. One<br />
tune introduced by Willie in this<br />
way was his fine version of the<br />
four part jig The Humours of<br />
Ballyloughlin.<br />
Every expectation was that Willie<br />
would enjoy many more years as a<br />
respected and honoured elder<br />
statesman of uilleann piping in an<br />
era when there was a strong<br />
growth in the popularity of the<br />
instrument. However, early in<br />
1973, he suffered a heart attack<br />
and having been hospitalised in<br />
Ennis, and later Galway, he died<br />
on 24th January of that year. He<br />
was aged just over 54 years.<br />
His funeral was a momentous<br />
happening in the traditional music<br />
world – a sad occasion with a large<br />
attendance on a day of very heavy<br />
rain. As the cortège moved slowly<br />
from St Joseph’s Church to the<br />
Ballard Cemetery in Miltown<br />
Malbay, small rivers of rainwater<br />
flowed back down the slope of the<br />
Ballard Road, suitably matching the<br />
mood of the day. Afterwards in the<br />
pubs of the town, some extraordinary<br />
music was played and every year on<br />
the opening Sunday afternoon of<br />
Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy which is<br />
the annual summer music school<br />
which has been held in his memory<br />
for many years, some music is always<br />
played at his graveside.<br />
His influence on individual pipers<br />
and other musicians and on ways<br />
of interpreting and playing<br />
traditional Irish music can be<br />
widely heard today long after his<br />
passing, and this comprehensive<br />
set of recordings is a valuable<br />
tribute to the memory on one of<br />
our great traditional musicians.<br />
– Peter Browne, Dublin, July 2009<br />
32<br />
TREOIR
SONNY MURRAY –<br />
AN INSPIRATION TO IRISH<br />
TRADITIONAL MUSICIANS<br />
BRIAN PRIOR<br />
This lovely piece was written by<br />
Brian while he himself was very ill.<br />
He passed to his eternal reward the<br />
following month. This tribute to<br />
Sonny Murray echoes Brian Prior’s<br />
modesty, compassion and<br />
appreciation for others. Ar dheis Dé<br />
go raibh a anam uasal ceolmhar.<br />
On Saturday, 14 th November 2009<br />
the traditional music world lost<br />
one of its greatest musical<br />
personalities when Clare<br />
concertina player, Sonny<br />
(Stephen) Murray went to his<br />
eternal reward.<br />
I personally found Sonny’s funeral<br />
Mass in a packed Ennis Cathedral<br />
to be highly significant and<br />
relevant to all involved with<br />
traditional music, as well as being<br />
a very moving event. The Mass<br />
was concelebrated by a number<br />
of priests from the Parish. Fr Joe<br />
McMahon, President of St<br />
Flannan’s College and a native<br />
of Miltown Malbay, was the chief<br />
concelebrant. Fr Joe plays<br />
traditional music and has, down<br />
through the years actively participated<br />
in many of the traditional<br />
activities (organising events such<br />
as Fleadh Nua, etc) where Sonny<br />
would also be involved.<br />
Fr Joe commenced the ceremony<br />
with a brief profile of Sonny who<br />
was born in December 1920 in<br />
Knockalough, Kilmihil, in West<br />
Clare. Back in those early years<br />
Sonny regularly played his<br />
concertina for house dances which<br />
often didn’t finish until the early<br />
hours of the morning. In fact it<br />
was coming home from one such<br />
event that Sonny first met his<br />
beloved Frances and gave her a lift<br />
home on the bar of his bike. The<br />
couple got married and emigrated<br />
to Cricklewood, a district in<br />
London much favoured by Irish<br />
emigrants at the time. Irish<br />
traditional music was going through<br />
a halcyon period in the 1950s with<br />
so many great musicians and Sonny<br />
became totally immersed in this<br />
rich cultural scene. However, the<br />
draw of home became too much for<br />
him and he returned to the Banner<br />
County some few short years later<br />
to settle in Ennis with Frances and<br />
daughter, Helen.<br />
Sonny got a job as a carpenter<br />
with Clare County Council and it<br />
wasn’t long until he became<br />
deeply involved with traditional<br />
music in the County with the likes<br />
of legends such as Joe Cooley and<br />
Seán Reid. Along with these<br />
musicians he also became involved<br />
with the setting up of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
in Clare and as they say ‘the rest<br />
is now history’.<br />
Getting back to the mass, not only<br />
did the Cathedral congregation<br />
contain a veritable ‘who’s who’ of<br />
musicians from the County but<br />
most of the Kilfenora Céilí Band<br />
along with Kieran Hanrahan and<br />
Paul Roche of Stockton’s Wing<br />
had brought along their<br />
instruments. The first piece was<br />
appropriately a lovely concertina<br />
duet from Edel Fox and Timmie<br />
Collins. This was followed by all<br />
the musicians with Sonny Murray’s<br />
Hornpipe, a favourite of his which<br />
he always played along with Home<br />
Ruler and Kitty’s Wedding. During<br />
one of the quieter parts of the<br />
Mass, the strains of the beautiful<br />
slow air, Mná na hÉireann on<br />
whistle echoed through the<br />
Cathedral which again was very<br />
appropriate as Sonny was also a<br />
highly talented player on this<br />
instrument. The funeral Mass<br />
concluded with all musicians<br />
present in an unforgettable<br />
rendition of the Maid Behind the<br />
Bar followed by Ed Reavey’s The<br />
Hunter’s House, another two tunes<br />
from Sonny’s repertoire.<br />
A moving tribute to Sonny on<br />
behalf of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> was delivered<br />
by the Chairman of Cois na<br />
hAbhna, Frank Whelan. Frank, a<br />
long time friend of Sonny’s, spoke<br />
TREOIR<br />
33
of some of his unique<br />
characteristics where he was just as<br />
happy playing for a small group of<br />
overseas visitors in a hotel lobby<br />
in Ennis as he would be playing on<br />
Tour Concerts – Sonny took part<br />
in six <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Tours, including<br />
the American Bicentennial in<br />
1976 in Washington DC - or at<br />
prestigious venues such as the Glór<br />
Irish Music Centre. In addition to<br />
his enormous musical contribution<br />
such as anchor man at Fleadh Nua<br />
sessions, etc. Sonny never had a<br />
problem with rolling up his sleeves<br />
when circumstances required this.<br />
Not only could he be found<br />
building outdoor stages for<br />
fleadhanna but he was the man<br />
who built the wooden floor in the<br />
Cois na hAbhna cultural centre<br />
something set dancers have<br />
enjoyed down through the years to<br />
present times. Finally Frank spoke<br />
of Sonny’s ‘open house’ approach<br />
for musicians throughout his<br />
lifetime and in particular his<br />
support and encouragement for<br />
the younger musicians. Paul<br />
Roche, who later went on to<br />
marry his daughter Helen, and<br />
Kieran Hanrahan were two typical<br />
examples of musicians who<br />
benefited from Sonny’s mentoring.<br />
It shouldn’t be forgotten that<br />
Sonny also had a great interest in<br />
coursing. He was a regular<br />
participant at Clare meetings<br />
where he won many cups down<br />
through the years for his<br />
greyhounds.<br />
Why was Sonny special Here<br />
was a man born and brought up<br />
in rural Ireland, who was totally<br />
un-self conscious of his talents and<br />
abilities from an early age, who<br />
just immersed himself in the<br />
music. Sonny was a modest but<br />
very happy man who would be<br />
totally unaware and intolerant of<br />
‘musical pecking order’ but rather<br />
revelled in the joys and beauty<br />
of the music.<br />
An inspiration – unfortunately we<br />
will not see the likes of Sonny<br />
again, but we can all take example<br />
from him by making the best of<br />
our talents and showing the<br />
utmost respect for the music and<br />
also for all other musicians.<br />
Go raibh míle maith agat Sonny!<br />
Sonny is survived and sadly missed<br />
by his son Kevin; daughter Helen;<br />
son-in-law Paul; grandchildren,<br />
Eli, Dylan, Aaran and Jordan.<br />
Seosamh Mac Gabhann<br />
Cilmóibhí<br />
There was a profound sense<br />
of sadness in Kilmovee<br />
following the untimely death<br />
of Seosamh Mac Gabhann.<br />
Seosamh was born in Straide<br />
into a musical family, his late<br />
father being a noted fiddle<br />
player, a talent which brushed<br />
off on him and his immediate siblings. He received his<br />
early education at the local National School followed by<br />
secondary education in St Gerald’s College in Castlebar,<br />
graduating with a distinction and received a call to<br />
teacher training at St Patrick’s Training College, Dublin.<br />
After successfully completing his course, he obtained his<br />
first teaching appointment at Glenhest National School.<br />
Some years later he was appointed as Principal of<br />
Clooniron National School.<br />
It was during this time that Seosamh began teaching<br />
music to his pupils, he himself a musical scholar playing<br />
the fiddle. With the emergence of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann, his enthusiasm blossomed. In 1973, he formed<br />
an Under-11 Céilí Band. Within a short period of time,<br />
Seosamh had five Céilí Bands under his direction – U-11,<br />
U-14, U-16 and U-18 Céilí Bands and the Kilmovee<br />
Senior Céilí Band. In 1976, the U-11 and U-14 Céilí<br />
Bands won the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in Buncrana<br />
and again in 1984, the U-11 Céilí Band won the All-<br />
Ireland Band Competition in Listowel.<br />
Seosamh was a founder member of the Kilmovee CCÉ<br />
branch founded in February 1977 and held the post of<br />
Chairperson for many years. He was also a competent<br />
actor and well-known playwright and producer. As<br />
producer, he was in popular demand, not only in the<br />
field of drama but also in the field of music. He was<br />
producer of the All-Ireland Celebratory Concerts for the<br />
All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil for three years in Sligo and two<br />
years in Ballina which were successfully applauded. He<br />
was a dedicated teacher, very generous with his time<br />
and skills. He was also a community worker and a family<br />
man. It is no wonder that he was named ‘Mayo man of<br />
the Year’ in 1976 – a fitting tribute to a man who has<br />
given so much to the presentation and promotion of<br />
the traditional arts.<br />
Seosamh served as Mayo County Chairperson of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> and spent a like term as Connaught<br />
Chairperson of CCÉ. He was appointed President of<br />
the Connaught Council of CCÉ in 2004 and held this<br />
post until his untimely death in October 2008. To<br />
acknowledge the rich legacy that he gave us, we<br />
rename our CCÉ Branch in his memory. Ní bheidh<br />
a leithéad arís ann go deo. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a<br />
anam dílis.<br />
– Ann Marie Rooney<br />
Chairperson, Craobh Sheosaimh Mhic Ghabhainn CCÉ<br />
34 TREOIR
PADDY BERRY RECALLS THE<br />
SINGING OLYMPICS<br />
AT FLEADH ’09<br />
Tadhg Ó Meachair All-Ireland singing champion 2009<br />
A sudden shower of rain hurried<br />
me along to St Joseph’s school ‘to<br />
the singing’. The dash sobered me<br />
up to realise the importance of the<br />
event about to take place there a<br />
short time later. ‘This must be the<br />
place’ I noted, as the gravelly<br />
voiced ‘stachmo’ from another<br />
idiom famously remarked in the<br />
film ‘High Society’, when entering<br />
a room of famous singing<br />
luminaries. Later the entranced<br />
audience of this less famous venue<br />
was to discover that this was<br />
indeed ‘the place’.<br />
Semi-circles of singing enthusiasts<br />
and seasoned listeners, along with<br />
first time attendees settled down<br />
to hear old ballads sung by senior<br />
men in the All-Ireland final of the<br />
ballad competition at Fleadh<br />
Cheoil na hÉireann, Tullamore,<br />
Co. Offaly 2009. This competition<br />
is for unaccompanied singing of<br />
old style traditional Irish Ballads.<br />
The contestants sing in front of an<br />
enlightened audience, find their<br />
own note and sing their ballads to<br />
impress two competent<br />
adjudicators. They are obliged to<br />
sing one slow song and one lively<br />
song. This was no place<br />
for chaps, as they say in<br />
south Wexford. ‘Men at<br />
work’ was the<br />
appropriate notice and<br />
well they met our<br />
expectation of them as<br />
the competition<br />
unfolded.<br />
The MC for the event<br />
was a gragarious veteran making us<br />
all feel happy and comfortable for<br />
the big event. He reminded us<br />
continously to silence our phones,<br />
which became an hour and a half<br />
later like a nursery rhyme jingle.<br />
‘I’ll say it again, turn off your<br />
phones, ring-ting-a-ling-a dido’.<br />
The jingle worked and the phones<br />
remained silent. As the<br />
competition got underway the<br />
audience was also silenced by the<br />
performances of the qualified<br />
contestants. Now in its 60 th year,<br />
the songs in English, men over 18<br />
competition was about to begin.<br />
The nervousness of the singers was<br />
apparent from early on and their<br />
faithful companion ‘the bottle of<br />
water’ was a coolant for racing<br />
hearts and dry throats.<br />
The early singers set the standard<br />
and the bar was continually being<br />
raised as the competition edged<br />
on. A ’98 song, ‘In 98’, was sung<br />
by a ’98 song enthusiast who stuck<br />
us to our seats with historic<br />
nostalgia. This was no kid’s stuff,<br />
the Olympics of men singing was<br />
on here. Tipperary and Sligo<br />
people were out in force both on<br />
and off the stage. The famous<br />
ballad ‘John Mitchell’ put down<br />
an early marker. The singer – a<br />
man about town, popular and<br />
proud pleased the audience. He<br />
sang in the Tipperary style that we<br />
have become to know so well over<br />
the years, straight, strong and<br />
measured. This song was full of<br />
moving historical content also. His<br />
second song allowed us to sit back<br />
in our seats and enjoy the lighthearted<br />
‘Bullock Fair in Nenagh’.<br />
The Sligo contestant later<br />
appeared on stage, a youth of<br />
tender years. A grown man<br />
though, singing grown up songs. A<br />
buzz of excitement enveloped the<br />
audience. A swig of water between<br />
the serious and the lively prepared<br />
him for his trip home through the<br />
fields with ‘Tumbling in the Hay’.<br />
Joy bubbled. Next up was an exile,<br />
another youth singing about the<br />
‘Bonnán Buí’, a poor bird, who<br />
searched in vain for water through<br />
the frozen ice only to catch his<br />
death from thirst. Cathal Buí<br />
McGiolla Ghunna’s masterpiece,<br />
set to an air that would tear your<br />
heart out. The stylising of the old<br />
ballad by the east coast singer gave<br />
the impression, if we closed our<br />
eyes, that we were seated on<br />
Connemara commonage. It was<br />
haunting. Then, appropriately, a<br />
sip of water ready at hand, unlike<br />
the poor bittern, to wet his lips for<br />
his contrasting song.<br />
TREOIR 35
Tadhg Maher (center), winner of the senior<br />
mens English singing 2007, pictured with<br />
two of his All-Ireland winning pupils Cian<br />
Hanamy (left) and Martin Debney (right)<br />
The reigning champion from Co.<br />
Meath performed another ‘fowl’<br />
ballad, telling the sad story of the<br />
murder of ‘Nell Flatherty’s Drake’.<br />
No amount of beverage, water or<br />
otherwise could drown the sorrows<br />
of the unfortunate poulterer,<br />
whose bird was so cruelly killed.<br />
This was strong stuff ‘it hath the<br />
primal curse upon it’. The buzz<br />
now got busier. ‘Who’ll win this’<br />
muttered my neighbour. No-one<br />
knew. At this point it was only an<br />
issue for the adjudicators. The<br />
packed hall smiled in satisfaction<br />
for this ballad contest was worth<br />
coming a long way to hear. All the<br />
singers here were winners.<br />
The doorman, a local volunteer,<br />
shepherded in his flock with due<br />
courtesy, sometimes from without<br />
more times from within ‘his’ door.<br />
As the last contestant offered his<br />
list of eight ballads to the judges<br />
for their selection, the doorman<br />
was overheard telling the<br />
latecomers ‘only standing room<br />
now’, it didn’t matter. The last<br />
singer had sung his two ballads<br />
and all settled back to await the<br />
final judgement. The audience<br />
were also engaged in their own<br />
adjudication of the nine singers<br />
who had competed for the Daly<br />
Shield. ‘Who would it be’<br />
The MC stood up, ‘there’s a recall’<br />
he said. ‘What!’ Was that a pin or<br />
a penny I heard drop to the floor<br />
We had indeed heard right, a<br />
recall of two contestants for the<br />
title. The judges wanted to hear<br />
more. This was too close to call.<br />
One ballad each in its entirety was<br />
the adjudicator’s advice. The big<br />
Tipp man was first up, his<br />
selection was Siggerson Clifford’s<br />
famous ballad ‘The Boys of Barr na<br />
Sráide’. A ballad I first heard at<br />
the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in<br />
Enniscorthy in 1967 when I was in<br />
the company of Dolly McMahon<br />
and the legendary Willie Clancy,<br />
the piper, who sang the song. Not<br />
having heard it before I asked him<br />
to write it out for me. It was sent<br />
to me before the week was out, for<br />
which I was most grateful. The<br />
Tipp man’s singing was a<br />
measured, rounded Tipperary style,<br />
annunciated with honed precision,<br />
not given to unnecessary<br />
ornamentation. He sang in perfect<br />
pitch my father used to say and<br />
would, according to the smart<br />
people in the room, edge it.<br />
The Sligo youth next appeared<br />
gulping a sip from the water bottle<br />
and straight into ‘The<br />
Kilnamartyra Exile’, pins and<br />
pennies again and many open<br />
mouths of wonderment from the<br />
packed and privileged audience.<br />
The ballad was composed by John<br />
Browne from Kilnamartyra, Co.<br />
Cork who passed away in the<br />
1970’s. This was a big song<br />
appropriate for singing on big<br />
occasions. In contrast we heard a<br />
musical voice with a vivid<br />
interpretation of the emigrant<br />
ballad. This youth dropped a curl<br />
of grace notes on the first syllable<br />
starting the final verse.<br />
‘Sweet Boyhood Recollections<br />
they will ever fondly bind me’.<br />
It was a magic moment. This was<br />
indeed a serious performance.<br />
Mnemosyne, the muse of memory,<br />
assisted him on this occasion<br />
however, having being AWOL for<br />
his earlier offerings. I learned later<br />
this man is a seasoned campaigner<br />
both in ballad singing and music.<br />
It showed. The competition was<br />
now over, a decision was reached<br />
by two competent adjudicators,<br />
who knew the difference.<br />
1st Prize: Tadhg Ó Meachair,<br />
Ros Cré, Co. Thiobraid Árann<br />
2nd Prize: Cian Ó Ciaráin,<br />
Baile an Mhóta, Co. Sligigh<br />
3rd Prize: Pádraig Ó Cionnaith,<br />
Baile Mór, Co. na hIarMhí<br />
Out in the humming streets and<br />
Inn’s songs and ballads could be<br />
heard. Impromptu sessions would<br />
start up at the drop of a hat.<br />
Organised sessions at the singing<br />
clubs, especially at the Court<br />
Hotel gave a platform to the Irish<br />
traditional singers of the world.<br />
Never at any Fleadh of the fifty<br />
I have attended on the trot was<br />
there such a number of songs sung<br />
and if Tullamore were slow to<br />
react to the huge numbers of<br />
singers over the previous two<br />
years, this was its finest hour.<br />
Traditional singing in English as<br />
we have come to know it over the<br />
decades has, like all forms of<br />
music, spread out in all directions<br />
to influence other genre of song in<br />
its ever increasing exposure to a<br />
more diverse community. Its core,<br />
however, is still rock hard and<br />
stubbornly immovable. Listening<br />
to their own accompaniment was a<br />
36<br />
TREOIR
pleasure indeed. Taking a<br />
philosphical view, one is content<br />
in the fact that they are in safe<br />
hands and ready to be handed<br />
onto generations yet to come.<br />
Many of the well anchored big<br />
ballads were given a good airing<br />
over the week and some notable<br />
performances stood out. The<br />
Saturday morning coffee break at<br />
Jenny’s Coffee Shop in the<br />
shopping mall off William Street<br />
was a good start for a group of<br />
singers cobbled together off the<br />
streets. Two or three rounds of<br />
songs brought the best out of<br />
Jenny, who served a<br />
complimentary round of coffee as a<br />
thank you. It was a lovely gesture.<br />
A passerby remarked ‘This is a real<br />
Fleadh’. Cameras captured the<br />
group for posterity and the tape<br />
recorders clicked too. Rita<br />
Gallagher from Donegal was at her<br />
best all weekend and her singing<br />
of the famous, if seldom heard,<br />
‘The Blackbird’ was joy beyond<br />
pleasure to hear. Her warbling<br />
ornamentation along with her<br />
strong, voluminous, prolonged and<br />
craftily nasalised lower register notes<br />
mesmerised her many admirers.<br />
Another regular Fleadh and<br />
session singer Seán Breen from<br />
Ballybunion, Co. Kerry was in great<br />
voice too and his singing of ‘John<br />
Twiss from Castleisland’ left one in<br />
no doubt that this was as authentic<br />
as it gets. The drone of his unusual<br />
nasal sound gives richness to this<br />
old style ballad singing we seldom<br />
hear nowadays. No affectation<br />
here. Would that I lived in Kerry!<br />
Frances Rodgers from<br />
Downpatrick, Co. Down had good<br />
songs for every call, mostly big<br />
songs. The ‘Farmer Michael Hayes’<br />
chase around Ireland by the<br />
landlord’s posse, sung in the Court<br />
Hotel session ended suddenly<br />
when he absconded to America<br />
from Castlebar, giving everyone<br />
the slip. Frances’ air to this story<br />
was unusual for the southern<br />
Ireland audience. The story didn’t<br />
change though. Later in Joe Lee’s<br />
other bar she sang ‘Laurel Hill’.<br />
This was a quality performance.<br />
A Fleadh marker. A Coleraine, Co.<br />
Derry ballad telling about a soldier<br />
coming home from Waterloo and<br />
meeting again his lover who<br />
waited patiently for him. An old<br />
song indeed, ‘The joy bells of Erin<br />
did ring and be merry’.<br />
In the same venue on Monday<br />
afternoon, Dominick Kelly from<br />
Dungiven, Co. Derry while singing<br />
about his own ‘Banks of the Roe’<br />
added some nuances to his singing.<br />
His pronunciation of ‘D’ ending<br />
words, shaping a droning ‘M’<br />
sound by nasalising and<br />
prolonging the music to link to<br />
the next line was noticable. It’s an<br />
old device and is probably done<br />
subconsciously. It had that<br />
difference though, which sets his<br />
style apart.<br />
There were 100’s of other singers<br />
who sang some remarkable ballads<br />
and whose contribution over the<br />
years has advanced the tradition<br />
immeasurably and saved thousands<br />
of old songs and ballads from being<br />
forgotten forever. From the north<br />
we heard pleasant songs, plaintive<br />
from the south, racy from the east<br />
and florid from the west, all<br />
contributing to the patchwork<br />
heritage of our traditional arts.<br />
‘Tullamore of the thousand songs’<br />
Tony Monaghan triumphantly<br />
cheered as Tommy Dunne, himself<br />
and the commander-in-chief, the<br />
newly crowned champion Tadhg<br />
Ó Meachair sipped coffee on<br />
Monday evening recounting the<br />
positive contribution they had<br />
made to this world event.<br />
We owe a debt of gratitude to<br />
these people and their friends for<br />
organising these sessions.<br />
Thank you all very much.<br />
SKIBBEREEN CELEBRATE 40 TH ANNIVERSARY<br />
Skibbereen <strong>Comhaltas</strong> recently celebrated the foundation of their<br />
branch in 1969. A special weekend of activities was organised to<br />
celebrate the occasion including a gala dinner and céilí, an archival<br />
display, a youth session and a traditional mass.<br />
Guest of honour at the dinner was the last surviving member of<br />
Skibbereen branch Pat Moloney and his daughter Ann from Bantry.<br />
It was recounted how Pat having attended <strong>Comhaltas</strong> sessions in<br />
neighbouring areas initiated Skibbereen branch along with his fellow<br />
musicians Joe O’Sullivan, Mick Hussey and Carthach Ó Cuilleanáin<br />
all who have since gone to their eternal reward.<br />
Pictured: Uachtarán of Skibbereen <strong>Comhaltas</strong>, Kester Kelly presenting the<br />
last surviving founder member of Skibereen branch Pat Moloney (centre) and his daughter Ann (right) with a special<br />
presentation on the occasion of the branch’s 40 th anniversary recently.<br />
TREOIR<br />
37
Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh<br />
Is gnáthach ar ócáidí mar Fhleadhanna agus mórchruinnithe<br />
eile go mbíonn duine uasal éigin ag<br />
fearradh fáilte agus céad míle fáilte roimh an slua. Pé<br />
ar bith é an ‘Ceallach’ san, is cosúil go raibh ainm na<br />
flaithiúlachta air. Mar codarsna ar sin, ní dócha go<br />
gcuirfidh an duine céanna fáilte roimh an tinnrimh le<br />
‘Fáile an duine dofeallaigh’ a théann mar seo:<br />
‘Suigh, mar a bhfuil deifir ort,<br />
Ach ar ndóigh, tá,<br />
Ná hith an t-arán briste,<br />
Is ná bris an t-arán slán.<br />
Dá mbeinn-se i do thigse<br />
Mar atáir-se i mo thig-se, rachainn abhaile,<br />
Ach mar sin féin, fan go lá.’<br />
Loosely translated ‘The welcoming of the unwelcome<br />
person’ goes something like this:<br />
‘Sit, if you’re not in a hurry,<br />
But of course you are,<br />
Don’t eat the broken bread,<br />
And don’t break the unbroken,<br />
If I were in your house, as you are in my house,<br />
I’d go home.<br />
But all the same, wait till day (break).’<br />
Wherever that person lived, he certainly did not come<br />
from Ceapach Mór na Féile.<br />
In response to an article of mine ‘Níl Gaeilge agam’<br />
published in 1999 Clár na Fleidhe sa Cheapach Mhór,<br />
and reprinted in Treoir, No. 3, Nov. ’99, I received<br />
a most interesting reply from Mr James Gill, Staten<br />
Island, New York.<br />
The letter from this ‘exile from Éirinn’ contains<br />
so many examples of Irish words still living in his<br />
memory, that I suggest that it be reproduced in full<br />
without alteration. James also sent a cutting from his<br />
local newspaper the ‘Staten Island Sunday Advance’,<br />
in which a committee raised a ‘slew’ of pointless<br />
questions. This word slew is, of course, the Irish word<br />
‘sluagh’ / ‘slua’ meaning a ‘crowd’, as in Ballinasloe –<br />
Béal Átha na Sluagh – which town is still crowded for<br />
its famous Horse Fair.<br />
Tá an Ghaeilge beo fós, fiú i Nua Eabhrach.<br />
– Piaras Mac Siacuis<br />
Seo mar a bhí sa litir:<br />
I read your article in ‘Treoir’, No. 3, Nov ’99 ‘Níl<br />
Gaeilge Agam’ with interest. The story that I heard of<br />
the cow was that the cow was overjoyed at having<br />
survived March that she ran around and jumped for<br />
joy ‘Cos in airde’, and while doing so, her horns got<br />
stuck in the bog or brushes and the cold weather<br />
killed her. The moral of the story I think is ‘don’t<br />
count your chickens until the eggs are hatched.’<br />
A name for this time of year is ‘Gearaveen’ which<br />
came from ‘Gairbhín na gcuach’ or ‘Garbh mí na<br />
gcuach’, either the rough weather of the cuckoo or the<br />
rough month of the cuckoo.<br />
Common words used here are galore: go leor –<br />
abundance; lackey: lacaí – companion; kibosh: caip<br />
báis – death mask (shroud); smithereens: smidiríní –<br />
fragments; slew: sluagh – a crowd; gligín: a silly girl;<br />
giobal: a rag; piscín: a kitten; meas: respect; spairt: a<br />
damp sod of turf; ciarán: a basket used on a donkey<br />
to take turf out of the bog; gearrach: small bird or<br />
nestling; piseog: superstition; ciotóg: left-handed<br />
person; gabhlóg: a fork in a tree; flúirseach:<br />
extravagant; márla: play-dough; meigeal: a goatee;<br />
sciortán: a tic; ciaróg: a beetle; gob: beak, as in shut<br />
your gob; gabhairín rua: a bird that make a sound like<br />
a goat heard near rivers especially in the evening<br />
hours; spailpín: a labourer; gaiscíoch: said to someone<br />
who was boastful; cábóg: a rustic country fellow;<br />
taoibhín: a small neat patch that shoemakers put on<br />
shoe uppers; cochán: an effeminate man; souirín: a<br />
nice bitter-tasting broadleaf plant we used to eat;<br />
práitíniúrachán: a small potato the size of a hazel nut<br />
that grew under a white flower; bainnicín: a plant that<br />
had a milky substance when crushed, crush a bag of it<br />
at a ford in a small stream and it would suffocate the<br />
trout in the pool below; geosadán: the buachallán buí:<br />
they call it a weed and a weed it may be, but not to<br />
the fairies.<br />
– James Gill, Staten Island, New York<br />
Clár na Fleidhe, Co. Luimní<br />
38 TREOIR
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> presentation to the<br />
NI Assembly Committee<br />
for Culture, Arts and Leisure<br />
During the summer of<br />
2009 <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann welcomed an<br />
invitation from the<br />
Committee for Culture,<br />
Arts and Leisure to meet<br />
with the group in<br />
November of the same<br />
year. The purpose of the<br />
meeting was for<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> to orally brief the committee on the work and goals of the<br />
organisation. This was also seen as a first step to formal recognition by the<br />
Northern Ireland Assembly of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> and their work.<br />
The delegation from <strong>Comhaltas</strong> who attended the meeting were<br />
Uachtarán CCÉ Séamus Mac Cormaic, Ardrúnaí Tomás Ó Maoldomhnaigh<br />
and Reachtaire Brendan McAleer.<br />
The committee acknowledged the role of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> in the promotion of<br />
Irish music and the other aspects of Irish culture it services. The majority of<br />
the committee also acknowledged <strong>Comhaltas</strong>’ community activities and<br />
the tourism benefits <strong>Comhaltas</strong> delivers.<br />
The committee acknowledged the high level of volunteerism within the<br />
organisation, the professional administration and the fact that the<br />
organisation has grown to almost 50,000 members. The committee also<br />
recognised the recent work completed with regard to the Development<br />
Programme.<br />
In conclusion, this has been a very positive and constructive first meeting<br />
with the committee and has sent <strong>Comhaltas</strong> on a road to governmental<br />
recognition for its work. Mura gcuirfidh tú san earrach ní bhainfidh tú san<br />
fhómhar. (If you do not sow in the spring, you will not reap in the autumn)<br />
COMHALTAS IN<br />
MOSCOW<br />
Dundalk’s Oriel Centre at heart<br />
of Rich Cultural Region<br />
Peadar Ó Ruairc<br />
The new Oriel Centre of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Ceoltóirí Éireann in Dundalk is at the<br />
heart of a richly endowed cultural<br />
region. In the dark era of the penal laws<br />
renowned poets such as Séamus Dall<br />
Mac Cuarta, Peadar Ó Dornáin and<br />
Art MacCooey enliven in the Dundalk<br />
hinterland. But even as far as north<br />
Meath in Turlough O’Carolan’s native<br />
area a fascinating poet tradition in<br />
Irish and English flourished far into the<br />
19 th century.<br />
Colourful poets such as Hugh<br />
McDonnell and Paddy Reilly of<br />
Drumconrath, Michael Clarke, Peter<br />
Coalrake and Philip Thornton of Nobber,<br />
Peter Gallegan of Ardamagh, Paul<br />
O’Brien of Kilmainham Wood, James<br />
Tevlan of Moynalty, Peter Daly of<br />
Camaross, Liam Kearns of Oristown and<br />
numerous others give striking expression<br />
to the teaming life of pre-famine Ireland.<br />
With humour and passion they respond<br />
to the issues of their times. The realities<br />
of love and war, nature and famine,<br />
poverty, exile and a deep sense of native<br />
place and religion all come vividly alive<br />
in their verse.<br />
In the wake of the ruinous penal laws<br />
Ireland’s cultural identity became<br />
fragmented. However Fr Paul O’Brien the<br />
schoolmaster poet of Kilmainham Wood<br />
bore the torch of Gaelic learning from<br />
the Meath hedgeschools into the new<br />
college of Maynooth where he became<br />
the first professor of Irish in 1804.<br />
Fr O’Brien was also active in the Gaelic<br />
Society of Dublin in 1807 and the<br />
Iberno Celtic Society in 1819, two of<br />
the forerunners of the Gaelic League.<br />
He have vital help to Edward O’Reilly<br />
who wrote a pioneering book ‘Irish<br />
writers’ 1820. Likewise in Ulster the<br />
poet and scholar Hugh McDonnell of<br />
Drumconrath and the notable scribe<br />
Peter Gallegan of Ardamagh,<br />
Kilmainham Wood both worked in<br />
Belfast compiling Irish records for the<br />
renowned Robert McAdam. McAdam<br />
was a liberal Presbyterian businessman<br />
with a passionate concern for Gaelic<br />
heritage who has been termed ‘the first<br />
Gaelic leader.’ Hence Meath poet<br />
scholars were active north and south in<br />
the key role of transmitting knowledge<br />
of Irish Celtic past and giving a grasp of<br />
the true culture of the ordinary people,<br />
these were vital ingredients for the<br />
nationalist thinkers and poilitical leaders<br />
who were to forge a new Irish identity<br />
in English in the 19 th and 20 th centuries.<br />
– Irish News<br />
TREOIR 39
MEITHEAL<br />
SUMMER SCHOOL<br />
of high competence is required to<br />
keep up with the level of activity<br />
involved and grasp the various<br />
innovations. Applicants usually<br />
send a recording of themselves<br />
with their application in order to<br />
help stream them into classes.<br />
Contacts<br />
To apply for Meitheal, one<br />
downloads the application form<br />
from www.tradweek.com or write<br />
to Garry Shannon, Ruan,<br />
Co. Clare for information.<br />
Tel: 087-670 4465. E-mail:<br />
meitheal2@eircom.net<br />
NB Closing date is 12 th Marth.<br />
The Legendary Pat Finn<br />
Meitheal Summer School started<br />
out in 2004 as an experiment<br />
based on Folkworks residential<br />
Summer School in Durham in<br />
the North of England. The idea of<br />
bringing large numbers of people<br />
together for trad workshops is not<br />
new. However the notion of a<br />
5-day lockup in a boarding school,<br />
constantly exploring diverse and<br />
new ways of approaching Irish<br />
traditional music did capture the<br />
imagination. The idea of coupling<br />
this with the presentation of<br />
awards and opportunities to appear<br />
at other events and festivals<br />
proved an interesting innovation.<br />
Meitheal has become a fixture on<br />
the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> calendar and many<br />
young artists trace the origin of<br />
their music addiction right back to<br />
their sojourn at Villiers in July.<br />
Oisín Mac Diarmada<br />
The tutors for 2010 include Cora<br />
Smyth, and Oisín Mac Diarmada<br />
on fiddle, on flute Brian Finnegan<br />
and Kieran Munnelly, Karen Tweed<br />
on piano accordion, on harp<br />
Michelle Mulcahy, Luke Daniels on<br />
button box, Dessie Kelliher on<br />
banjo, Jack Talty on concertina,<br />
and finally returning for the 2nd<br />
year in a row Tom Doorley to work<br />
with the orchestra.<br />
For further information on the<br />
tutors both past and present, visit<br />
the website on www.tradweek.com<br />
Obsession!<br />
This Summer School is not for<br />
everyone. There is a warning on<br />
the website www.tradweek.com:<br />
Don’t come unless you have a trad<br />
obsession! Certainly, a prior level<br />
Pat Finn of Roscommon who died<br />
recently was one of the best loved<br />
traditional musicians of all time.<br />
His genial disposition, his love of<br />
Ireland and her culture and his<br />
encouragement of young<br />
musicians are legendary.<br />
Pat was a regular performer at<br />
Fleadhanna Ceoil and Fleadh Nua.<br />
He spent many years in Britain<br />
and played a central role in the<br />
musicmaking there. With his wife<br />
Roisín he was a tireless worker<br />
in <strong>Comhaltas</strong>.<br />
Our photo shows Pat encouraging<br />
a young musician. Young people<br />
flocked to him for advice and help<br />
with their musicmaking.<br />
Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam<br />
uasal ceolmhar.<br />
40<br />
TREOIR
BRIAN PRIOR<br />
A TRUE GENTLEMAN<br />
COMHALTAS MOURNS<br />
THE PASSING OF<br />
PROJECTS OFFICER<br />
BRIAN PRIOR<br />
BREANDÁN Ó NUALLTÁIN<br />
Teach me half the gladness<br />
That thy brain must know–<br />
Such harmonious madness<br />
From my lips would flow,<br />
The world should listen then,<br />
as I am listening now!<br />
– P. B. Shelley, ‘To a Skylark’,<br />
The Golden Treasury. 1875.<br />
Francis T. Palgrave, ed.<br />
‘Brian always made you feel as if<br />
he’d been waiting for you to arrive<br />
and had kept you a seat. And<br />
then made you feel as if the night<br />
just wouldn’t have been nearly as<br />
good if you hadn’t turned up.’<br />
Enda Cloke.<br />
Those words describe my friend,<br />
Brian Prior, a <strong>Comhaltas</strong> colleague<br />
who tragically passed away on the<br />
14th of December, 2009. He was a<br />
great man, Brian, in the way that<br />
great men often are: self-effacing<br />
and civil, but a Celtic Tiger<br />
himself when roused. His politics<br />
were strong but didn’t come<br />
between him and his music. His<br />
opinions on the social issues of<br />
contemporary Ireland were always<br />
worth a listen, leaning against the<br />
counter in the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> kitchen.<br />
His religion was deep-rooted and<br />
he felt the Spirit keenly. This is<br />
one way we know our great men<br />
of music: when we know their<br />
convictions in no uncertain<br />
terms, but have never heard them<br />
come to an argument over them.<br />
Not when there were tunes to<br />
be played.<br />
I first met Brian, of course, in a<br />
session. Knowing almost nothing<br />
about Irish traditional music, I was<br />
recommended to come to a place<br />
called Cultúrlann na hÉireann in<br />
Monkstown for the ‘slow Tuesday<br />
session’. Arriving nervously with a<br />
new, inexpensive flute and very<br />
little in the way of knowledge, the<br />
bearded, genial fiddler invited me<br />
into the circle and explained that<br />
the group would be working<br />
through some standard tunes at a<br />
moderate tempo. The tunes came<br />
out of ‘Foinn Seisiún’, a tunebook<br />
available at the bar. As it<br />
happened, I didn’t have the e10<br />
for the book with me, but Brian<br />
brought me one from behind the<br />
bar to use, failing throughout the<br />
conversation to mention that he<br />
TREOIR<br />
41
had developed the books in<br />
question. I began my tentative<br />
warbling with the group, and at<br />
the conclusion of the night Brian<br />
told me that he was impressed<br />
with how quickly I picked up the<br />
tunes. I was hooked. What a truly<br />
marvellous thing, to sit down<br />
with strangers (or perhaps, with<br />
‘friends you just haven’t happened<br />
to meet yet’) and share some<br />
music and craic.<br />
For the next several years, I spent<br />
every Tuesday (and then every<br />
Wednesday) sitting in the<br />
Cultúrlann bar next to Brian,<br />
listening to him play tirelessly<br />
through a core repertoire of tunes.<br />
Brian’s sessions were wonderfully<br />
relaxed affairs. He liked to keep<br />
things on track, but always singled<br />
out visitors and regulars alike to<br />
share a special party piece, a solo<br />
or a song. And as one session<br />
banjo player noted, ‘If you only<br />
had two tunes, Brian would sit<br />
there and play your tunes, even if<br />
they’d been played twice already<br />
that night.’ Another said, ‘If you<br />
had three notes, Brian would sit<br />
there and play with you until you<br />
had six. And he’d be delighted<br />
with you.’<br />
When Brian wanted to make a<br />
CD of the Foinn Seisiún book,<br />
I jumped in to help. These<br />
recording sessions were unique.<br />
Brian would invite almost<br />
everyone to show up, and we spent<br />
months meeting every Thursday<br />
night for a couple of hours to<br />
rehearse and record. But Brian<br />
insisted that what we needed<br />
wasn’t technical perfection, but<br />
the true feeling of a moderately<br />
paced session. He wanted each<br />
person to contribute, and asked<br />
me not to single out any particular<br />
instrument in the ensemble.<br />
Sometimes Brian would invite so<br />
many people that we had too<br />
many instruments to make a clean<br />
recording, but<br />
that was just<br />
part of the fun.<br />
The Foinn<br />
Seisiún series,<br />
now with three<br />
books and<br />
accompanying<br />
CDs, is now<br />
used by<br />
thousands<br />
around the<br />
world as an<br />
introduction to<br />
Irish traditional<br />
session playing. Orders still come<br />
in every day from New York and<br />
Boston, France and Tokyo.<br />
Brian’s online persona,<br />
Bannerman, carried to the<br />
Internet the sense of rightness<br />
which he brought to his sessions.<br />
On thesession.org, a popular<br />
Internet discussion site started by<br />
Clare man Jeremy Keith,<br />
Bannerman kept his cool, letting<br />
his natural good manners carry<br />
through into the sometimes<br />
heated discussions of tune<br />
provenance, competition, music<br />
exams and <strong>Comhaltas</strong> itself. His<br />
good-natured voice came through<br />
as he made his points gently and<br />
without rancour. Even those who<br />
disagreed with him respected his<br />
opinions and his knowledge, as<br />
shown in the dozens of heartfelt<br />
comments posted following his<br />
passing.<br />
In a 2004 article in the New York<br />
Times, editor Karen Freeman made<br />
a note of Brian’s ethos: ‘The goal<br />
is to help aspiring players learn<br />
enough on their own to handle<br />
the give and take of informal<br />
social sessions.’ Brian said. That<br />
was Brian’s ethos, and his reason<br />
for doing what he did.<br />
As an expatriate in Bedford in the<br />
UK, Brian was involved with<br />
organising his local <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
branches. While there he taught<br />
Brian at one of his legendary Cultúrlann sessions<br />
himself Irish using the Buntús<br />
Cainte series of books from An<br />
Gúm. He returned to Ireland,<br />
settling in Ennis, Co. Clare, where<br />
he quickly became an indispensable<br />
part of the music scene. All of his<br />
children followed him into<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>, and John, Anna and<br />
Aisling Prior all worked stints in<br />
Cultúrlann na hÉireann.<br />
His funeral Mass was held in Ennis<br />
on December 17, 2009, presided<br />
over by the priest who brought<br />
Brian onto the Fleadh Nua<br />
committee. As was entirely<br />
appropriate, with many of the<br />
luminaries of Irish traditional<br />
music in attendance, music for the<br />
Mass was provided by members of<br />
his regular session group, and by<br />
his friends Eimear Arkins and<br />
Frank Whelan.<br />
Brian is survived by his wife,<br />
Anne, and his children John,<br />
Anna and Aisling. We at<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> would like to thank his<br />
family in particular for sharing<br />
Brian with us over the years. He<br />
chose to use his natural gifts in a<br />
way that would bring joy and<br />
comfort to so many others, and his<br />
memory remains an example and a<br />
challenge for us all.<br />
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.<br />
42<br />
TREOIR
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> mourns as<br />
Brian Prior is laid to rest<br />
Monday December 14 th 2009 was a<br />
very sad day in <strong>Comhaltas</strong> circles, as<br />
it was the day that Brian Prior<br />
passed away peacefully at Milford<br />
Hospice in Limerick.<br />
Brian was born in Knox, Ballinamore,<br />
Co. Leitrim, and at the age of eleven<br />
he emigrated, with his parents and<br />
family, to Birmingham in the UK. It<br />
was here that he first joined<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> where he was actively<br />
involved in the branch in Bedford.<br />
Having finished school, he started<br />
work with British Telecom as a<br />
technician and this is where he met<br />
his wife Ann, who also worked for<br />
BT.A conscientious worker, he rose.<br />
through the ranks to supervisor and<br />
when an opportunity of early<br />
retirement arose in 1993 he happily<br />
took it up and returned with Ann<br />
and their three children, John, Anna<br />
and Aisling, to live in Clare.<br />
In 1998 Brian began working for<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí Éireann as a<br />
Projects Officer, and among the<br />
many things he will be remembered<br />
for were his organisational skills,<br />
particularly at Fleadh Nua and at<br />
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. A<br />
friendly and welcoming face at<br />
every <strong>Comhaltas</strong> session, most of<br />
Brian’s work went largely unnoticed,<br />
like the annual Seisiún programme,<br />
and the numerous concerts he<br />
produced at the Cultúrlann,<br />
particularly the tribute ones at the<br />
annual Tionól Leo Rowsome.<br />
At the Funeral Mass at St Joseph’s<br />
Church in Ennis, where the<br />
congregation was a veritable who’s<br />
who in the Irish Traditional Music<br />
World, Fr Joe McMahon, Chief<br />
Celebrant, spoke in his homily of<br />
Brian living in an almost magical<br />
world of idealism, gentleness and<br />
courage. He said, ‘We sometimes<br />
love those who are not admirable,<br />
and we admire those who are not<br />
loveable, but Brian was both<br />
admirable and loveable’.<br />
It was fitting too that Brian’s friends<br />
and session colleagues provided the<br />
music for the funeral mass, all of<br />
which came from Brian’s ‘Foinn<br />
Seisiún’ books. Eimear Arkins,<br />
Sorcha Curtin, and I performed<br />
solo pieces at the mass, while Tony<br />
O’Loughlin sang a beautiful<br />
traditional song, as the large<br />
congregation filed past the coffin<br />
and sympathised with the family.<br />
The Ard-Stiúrthóir of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú spoke of<br />
Brian’s inspiration to all who encountered<br />
him and went on to describe<br />
Brian as a wonderful person of deep<br />
faith, who loved his family and was<br />
loyal to the nation. He was gentle<br />
and unassuming, yet he was a<br />
powerful force for <strong>Comhaltas</strong>.<br />
During a tribute on Clare FM’s<br />
Wheels of the World traditional<br />
music programme with Pat Costello,<br />
Joe O’Connor, Reachtaire an<br />
Chomhaltais, described Brian as a<br />
most generous person, whose coolheaded<br />
approach added balance to<br />
any discussion.<br />
Pat Costello added that Brian had a<br />
deep understanding of, and an<br />
undying commitment to, the promotion<br />
of Irish Traditional Music, he<br />
went on to say that he was always<br />
fascinated by Brian’s ability to search<br />
out the odd and unusual tunes.<br />
Brian was a regular contributor to<br />
‘thesession.org’ discussion site on<br />
the internet. In the days that<br />
followed his death the site was<br />
flooded with tributes to him from all<br />
over the world. One of the many<br />
contributors was Helena Rowsome,<br />
who described Brian as a gentleman<br />
of many talents whose enthusiasm<br />
and congeniality endeared him to all.<br />
Brian’s heart and soul were in<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>. He could always be<br />
counted on when a dignified<br />
response was required to some<br />
erroneous statement, or less than<br />
reasonable comment regarding<br />
traditional music or its promotion.<br />
His energy and positive attitude<br />
were infectious, which accounts<br />
for his highly successful session<br />
groups at Cultúrlann na hÉireann<br />
in Monkstown and at Cois na<br />
hAbhna in Ennis.<br />
I counted Brian among my closest<br />
friends, we met almost every<br />
weekend mainly to play a few<br />
tunes, but there was always that<br />
required discussion on Fleadh Nua. I<br />
think we resolved more issues at our<br />
sessions than we did at the regular<br />
Fleadh Nua meetings. Brian was a<br />
gentle soul who gave of his time<br />
and talent freely, expecting nothing<br />
in return. I will miss his comradeship,<br />
his music and his wise counsel.<br />
Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.<br />
– Frank Whelan, Cois na hAbhna<br />
A Hive of Activity at Cois na nAbhna<br />
Cois na hAbhna, the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Regional Resource Centre for the<br />
mid-west, has quickly established itself as a Mecca for Ireland’s<br />
cultural traditions. Under the direction of Doreen Norris, the centre is<br />
a hive of activity with a full programme of education and performance.<br />
Since it was officially opened last year by Minister Éamon Ó Cuiv,<br />
Cois na hAbhna is now extensively used by many community groups.<br />
Our picture shows Niall Ó Donnchú (third from left), Assistant<br />
Secretary General of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism which<br />
provided generous grant-aid for the centre. Included in the picture are<br />
Pádraig Ó Lideadha, Seosamh Ó Conchubhair, Doreen Norris, Tomás<br />
Ó Maoldomhnaigh, Eibhlín Uí Mhaoldomhnaigh, Rory Casey,<br />
Liam Jones and the late Brian Prior.<br />
TREOIR 43
THE<br />
HORNPIPE MAN<br />
Another year and another stalwart<br />
of traditional music has gone to<br />
his eternal rest. It was on the 13 th<br />
of September that a large crowd,<br />
from all parts of the country,<br />
gathered to pay their last respects<br />
to a fine musician, Jimmy Herron.<br />
Jimmy was an accomplished<br />
button accordion player coming<br />
from Drummurrer near the banks<br />
of storied Lough Neagh in County<br />
Tyrone. This is an area steeped in<br />
history and a bastion of traditional<br />
music – Jimmy Herron fitted well<br />
into that tradition.<br />
I first met Jimmy at a Fleadh<br />
Cheoil na hÉireann in Listowel<br />
many years ago and an immediate<br />
friendship developed, Jimmy was<br />
that sort of person. He was<br />
amiable with a great sense of<br />
humour and was always a welcome<br />
visitor at Fleadh or seisiún.<br />
There was a plethora of talented<br />
musicians in that caravan park at<br />
that time: Antóin Mac Gabhann,<br />
Dinny McLoughlin and the Judge<br />
family to name just a few. I recall<br />
Jimmy saying that we didn’t need<br />
to go up the town at all – the<br />
music was that good in the field.<br />
Jimmy had a nice relaxed style of<br />
playing, steady and unrushed and<br />
his excellent timing was often<br />
commented upon. He was very<br />
fond of hornpipes, so much so that<br />
he acquired the affectionate title<br />
of the ‘Hornpipe man’. He also<br />
possessed a fine singing voice and<br />
often gave a grand rendering of<br />
his favourite song ‘The Old<br />
Dungarvan Oak’.<br />
Jimmy was a dedicated <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
man travelling far and wide to<br />
attend functions, seisiún and<br />
Fleadhanna, even during his long<br />
protracted illenss. He was<br />
chairperson of the Coalisland/<br />
Clonoe Branch for eight years and<br />
visitors were always made very<br />
welcome. His daughter Madonna,<br />
a fine flute player, carries on the<br />
musical tradition, having<br />
competed in many All-Ireland<br />
competitions, a fact of which he<br />
was immensely proud.<br />
Jimmy died on the 11 th<br />
September, not all that long after<br />
attending the Tullamore Fleadh at<br />
the end of August. The<br />
determinaton of the man was<br />
indomitable for he had to be<br />
physically supported by his wife<br />
Mary and family when I met him.<br />
The last words he spoke to me<br />
were, ‘I just had to get to the<br />
Fleadh, Michael, to see my<br />
friends,’ that to me exemplified<br />
Jimmy Herron.<br />
Fr Benidict Fee officiated at the<br />
requiem mass and paid tribute to<br />
the talents Jimmy possessed and<br />
reflected on the loyalty he had for<br />
his family and dedication towards<br />
his religious duties. At the graveside<br />
musicians played a last farewell –<br />
among them Tommy John Quinn<br />
himself terminally ill and shortly to<br />
follow his long time friend to that<br />
big seisiún above. Jimmy will be<br />
sadly missed by his many friends.<br />
Our heartfelt sympathy to his dear<br />
wife Mary and family.<br />
Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar do<br />
anam uasal.<br />
– MJ McCullough<br />
(Left to right) Liam Ó Cuinneagáin, Oifigeach Comórtas,<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí Éireann, Mary McBride, Cathaoirleach<br />
Melbourne Branch CCÉ, with Lt General Dermot Earley,<br />
Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces, who officially<br />
opened the Keadue (Co. Roscommon) International<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Harp Festival in August 2009.<br />
General Earley was a star footballer with Co. Roscommon<br />
in the 70s & 80s. Mary McBride is a native of Co. Mayo.<br />
44 TREOIR
THE MUSIC MAN FROM<br />
DERRYLAUGHAN<br />
The seisiún is over and the music<br />
man has gone to his eternal rest.<br />
No one deserves the title of music<br />
man better than the man from<br />
Derrylaughan on the shores of<br />
Lough Neagh in Co. Tyrone.<br />
Traditional music was the imbibing<br />
passion of Tommy John Quinn –<br />
he loved his music and he lived his<br />
music, travelling far and wide to<br />
attend seisiún or Fleadh.<br />
For well over half a century he<br />
manifested his musical talents and<br />
was one of the most recognisable<br />
accordionists in the country. He<br />
was the personification of the<br />
traditional musician as exemplified<br />
by his appearance so often in the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> magazine Treoir. The<br />
photographers knew they had the<br />
perfect picture in Tommy John<br />
Quinn. He was a street troubadour<br />
preferring the open-air seisiún to<br />
the crowded atmosphere of the<br />
public house, he always sought the<br />
comfort of a sheltered street corner<br />
or a vacant shop doorway for a<br />
tune. Tommy John once told me<br />
that the best listeners were on the<br />
street, for they gave their undivided<br />
attention to the music and the<br />
musicians. He had a great repertoire<br />
of tunes – someone only had to<br />
mention a tune and Tommy John<br />
would oblige – and maybe give two<br />
versions of it! He would often add,<br />
‘it’s hard to beat the old tunes!’<br />
Tommy John played with a number<br />
of céilí bands in his day and indeed<br />
played with the Ardmore Céilí<br />
Band up until recently.<br />
His son John, a talanted flute<br />
player himself, related how he and<br />
his father, as late as 2007, attended<br />
the Smithsonian Festival in the<br />
USA to give a demonstration on<br />
eel fishing. Nothing daunted the<br />
music man from Derrlaughan. An<br />
abiding memory I have of Tommy<br />
John was at the 2009 Ulster<br />
Fleadh in Castlewellan. While<br />
most other musicians had left for<br />
home on Sunday evening, Tommy<br />
John, in the fading light, in his<br />
wheelchair was having a last tune<br />
with a lone guitar player. Nothing<br />
daunted the music man from<br />
Derrylaughan.<br />
A large crowd of musicians were in<br />
attendance at the requiem mass at<br />
which Fr Benedict Fee officiated.<br />
He paid a moving tribute to the<br />
devoted family man, and a man<br />
devoted to his religious duties.<br />
Fr Fee recounted that on one<br />
occasion he paid a visit to the<br />
Quinn home expecting to find<br />
Tommy John ill in bed, instead he<br />
found him sitting with accordion<br />
on his knee learning a new tune.<br />
Indeed nothing daunted the music<br />
man from Derrylaughan.<br />
Fr Fee, in his closing homily,<br />
related that of all the medals that<br />
Tommy John had accumulated,<br />
the one of which he was most<br />
proud was his gold pioneer badge<br />
which was pinned to his chest as<br />
he lay in the coffin. Tribute must<br />
be paid to his devoted family for<br />
the love and attention<br />
administered to Tommy John right<br />
up to the last. They ensured that<br />
he got to his Fleadh in Tullamore,<br />
a few months before he died. He<br />
was immensely proud of his family<br />
and proud of the fact that his<br />
grandchildren are carrying on the<br />
Tommy John passing on his music to the<br />
next generation<br />
tradition he loved – one now<br />
playing the flute, one the<br />
concertina and, of course one<br />
playing the accordion.<br />
Our condolences to his dear wife<br />
Lena and family.<br />
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.<br />
– Michael J McCullough<br />
The Accordion Man<br />
The seisiún is over<br />
The accordion man is gone<br />
The Bosca Ceoil is laid to rest<br />
It awaits another dawn<br />
No more at Seisiún or Fleadh Ceoil<br />
Jig or reel he’ll play<br />
The accordion man has left<br />
the stage<br />
And put his music box away<br />
No more on Lough Neagh’s<br />
billowing waves<br />
He will cast his hook and line<br />
To harvest the silver eel<br />
That too is past its time<br />
But the pleasure of his company<br />
And the music that he gave<br />
Will linger with his many friends<br />
Far, far beyond the grave<br />
For though the jigs and reels<br />
have ceased<br />
And the accordion man is gone<br />
His memory will never fade<br />
God rest you Tommy John.<br />
TREOIR 45
LEO ROWSOME’S<br />
TRIP TO TIPP<br />
ANN HAVERTY<br />
When Sean and I first got to know<br />
the young Helena Rowsome, the<br />
daughter of Leo, it was sometime<br />
in the early 1960’s. Helena, like<br />
ourselves, had joined the newly<br />
founded Clontarf Branch of<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong>. A couple of years later,<br />
Craobh Seán Treacy was formed<br />
and Helena affiliated with us and<br />
became an active member. During<br />
this time, Leo Rowsome attended<br />
our Session whenever it was<br />
possible for him to do so. He was a<br />
delightful gentleman with a jovial<br />
sense of humour and Seán derived<br />
great pleasure from calling to see<br />
him at home and chatting about<br />
traditional music. Leo had some<br />
years previously met Seán’s<br />
brother Paddy, himself a Fiddler<br />
and Leader of the Killimor Céilí<br />
Band, Galway.<br />
I was born and reared in<br />
Donnycarney, Dublin, of Tipperary<br />
parents and while I was growing<br />
up I was very much aware of the<br />
Rowsome family tradition and<br />
remember seeing the family on<br />
their way to Mass on Sundays and<br />
particularly notice the little twin<br />
girls who were always dressed<br />
alike. Mrs Rowsome was well<br />
known in the area also, being a<br />
very elegant lady who was to be<br />
seen on her way home from her<br />
teaching job, invariably humming<br />
a song.<br />
I spent my summer holidays as a<br />
youngster and teenager in Co.<br />
Tipperary where<br />
Leo Rowsome<br />
was revered. I<br />
remember an<br />
old man once<br />
saying to me…<br />
‘I would go up<br />
and sit at your<br />
front window for<br />
a week if I<br />
thought I would see Leo Rowsome<br />
pass by…’<br />
Well, in the late 1960’s, Leo<br />
Rowsome did Seán and me an<br />
enormous favour when he agreed<br />
to pay a visit to my uncle’s home<br />
in Tipperary to meet the locals. I<br />
remember Leo, Mrs Rowsome,<br />
Sean and I setting out from Dublin<br />
on a Sunday morning, getting<br />
Mass in the Oblate Church in<br />
Inchicore on the way and arriving<br />
in George’s Park Gortnahoe at<br />
lunch time. The house was packed<br />
with the selected guests and I can<br />
honestly say that the Pope would<br />
not have received a better<br />
welcome. Those local people were<br />
only short of kneeling to welcome<br />
Leo Rowsome, and, Leo, in his<br />
own inimitable and gracious<br />
manner planted a kiss on the<br />
cheek of each lady present.<br />
After lunch in the parlour, Leo<br />
entertained the full house with his<br />
pipe playing for a couple of hours.<br />
Mrs Rowsome contributed to the<br />
party with her singing and many of<br />
the local musicians present did<br />
their bit. It was a most enjoyable<br />
evening, and Leo himself<br />
commented… ‘These are my kind<br />
of people.’<br />
There have, and will be, many<br />
tributes paid to Leo Rowsome, a<br />
prince amongst men, but we have<br />
an abiding memory of that ‘Trip<br />
toTipp’ by the King of the Pipers.<br />
Ann Haverty wrote this piece for<br />
Helena Rowsome when she was<br />
preparing her book of her father’s<br />
music which was published by<br />
Walton’s in 2003 to commemorate<br />
the centenary of his birth.<br />
Ann (formerly Ann Stapleton) and<br />
Seán Haverty are well known longtime<br />
members and founder members<br />
of Craobh Seán Treacy.<br />
46 TREOIR
THE CÉILÍ<br />
BANDS STORY<br />
DÓMHNALL DE BARRA<br />
The Siamsa Céilí Band<br />
The Kilfenora<br />
Céilí Band<br />
Above all other groupings in the<br />
traditional music scene, the céilí<br />
band holds a special fascination for<br />
lovers of Irish music. This is borne<br />
out by the interest in the<br />
competition at the All-Ireland<br />
Fleadh every year. People do not<br />
mind queuing for a long time to<br />
get a good seat and will sit for four<br />
or five hours listening to the<br />
performers.<br />
My early memories of céilí bands<br />
suggest that there is a vast<br />
difference in the sound of the<br />
bands of yore and the well tuned<br />
ensembles of today. The first band<br />
I can recall was the Austin Stack<br />
Céilí Band. It could be heard in<br />
the early days of Raidió Éireann<br />
along with the Garda Céilí Band.<br />
They were very similar in sound;<br />
every band in those days featured a<br />
strong piccolo player. The music,<br />
to me, lacked vitality and balance<br />
but we must not forget that<br />
recording techniques were a bit<br />
primitive at the time.<br />
There were many céilí bands<br />
throughout the country at the<br />
time and into the sixties. This was<br />
the era of the small dance halls<br />
where most of the dancers<br />
demanded the local sets as well as<br />
more formal céilí dances. In my<br />
own area we had the ‘Western Star<br />
Céilí Band’ led by Patie Enright.<br />
Most of the musicians were from<br />
Athea with five of them living<br />
within a mile of each other. The<br />
bass player was the late Timmy<br />
O’Keeffe who later featured with<br />
Patie in ‘The Boys in Blue’ and<br />
went on to form his own band<br />
until his untimely death a few<br />
years ago. The ‘Glenside Céilí<br />
Band’ were mainly from Ardagh,<br />
featuring the Mullins family and<br />
other local musicians. Just across<br />
the Kerry border the ‘Brosna Céilí<br />
Band’ held sway. Dónal O’Connor<br />
was the leader and at one stage<br />
they were joined by the great<br />
Mícheál Ó hEidhin, Galway; who<br />
was a student at UCC at the time.<br />
They were fantastic musicians<br />
and later went on to win the<br />
All-Ireland with a line-up that<br />
included Mick Mulcahy, the<br />
famous box player, and the<br />
renowned Nicky and Ann<br />
McAuliffe. In Castleisland, the<br />
Desmond Céilí Band featuring the<br />
O’Callaghan family had another<br />
fantastic sound and have a great<br />
traditional rhythm. Just across the<br />
Cork border in Newtown<br />
Shandrum a group of musicians<br />
got together and formed the<br />
‘Shandrum Céilí Band’. They were<br />
very popular playing for dances in<br />
County Limerick through the<br />
‘sixties’. Another band that was<br />
formed at that time was the ‘Star<br />
of Munster’. It featured among<br />
others the great Denis ‘the<br />
Weaver’ Murphy and his sister<br />
Julia Clifford from Gneeveguilla,<br />
Julia’s husband Johnny Clifford on<br />
piano accordion and son Billy on<br />
the flute, Noreen O’Connell,<br />
Abbeyfeale, and my own teacher,<br />
TREOIR 47
Liam Moloney from Devon Road<br />
on the button box. They didn’t<br />
play for many dances but they<br />
made some great recordings<br />
Some bands travelled long<br />
distances throughout the country<br />
to play for céilithe as the halls got<br />
bigger. This was before the GAA<br />
removed the ban on ‘foreign<br />
music’ for their dances and there<br />
was plenty of work for travelling<br />
bands. Tom Tobin’s Hall in<br />
Abbeyfeale was a great venue for<br />
céilithe. I remember the ‘Assaroe’,<br />
the ‘Four Crosses’, ‘Kieran Kelly’<br />
and the ‘Richie Fitzgerald’ céilí<br />
bands all playing there. What a<br />
journey it was for Richie Fitzgerald<br />
all the way from Bundoran<br />
48 TREOIR<br />
The Táin Céilí Band<br />
The Tulla Céilí Band<br />
considering the state of the roads<br />
at the time. Richie’s band became<br />
famous when it was chosen by<br />
popular vote to be the resident<br />
band on the Mitchelstown<br />
Creamery sponsored programme<br />
which was broadcast on Radio<br />
Éireann once a week.<br />
There were other bands who<br />
played a different style of céilí<br />
music. The most famous of those<br />
was the ‘Gallowglass Céilí Band’<br />
led by Pat McGarr. In the South,<br />
Donal Ring had a similar band.<br />
They relied on a dominant<br />
accordion and played music at a<br />
perfect pace for dances from the<br />
Rince Fóirne collection. They<br />
were note perfect and used little or<br />
no ornamentation but they were<br />
very professional in their approach<br />
and had a distinctive sound. In<br />
contrast Clare produced two great<br />
bands the ‘Tulla’ and the<br />
‘Kilfenora’. These came to<br />
national prominence through the<br />
Oireachtas competition and of<br />
course ‘Céilí House’ and Ciarán<br />
Mac Mathúna’s programmes. Their<br />
music was not as regimented and<br />
allowed individual players to<br />
express themselves while<br />
producing a life and rhythm that is<br />
unequalled to the present day. I<br />
well remember a visit by the<br />
Kilfenora to West Limerick in the<br />
late ‘fifties’. About fifteen<br />
musicians turned up, some wearing<br />
wellington boots having come<br />
straight from the meadow or the<br />
bog! What a night of music they<br />
produced. The first céilí band I<br />
played with was my own! I was<br />
based in Coventry and put the<br />
band together out of the<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> sessions. It was called<br />
the ‘Shannonside Céilí band’ and<br />
my right-hand man was the great<br />
box player and adjudicator from<br />
Cavan, Vincent Tighe. (He was<br />
also my ‘right-hand man’ on the<br />
day I married). We competed in<br />
the Fleadhanna and had the<br />
distinction of coming a close<br />
second to the great ‘Bridge Céilí<br />
Band’ at one of the early All-<br />
Ireland’s in Listowel. Towards the<br />
end of the sixties I played for a<br />
while with the ‘Birmingham Céilí<br />
Band’. I played the flute with them<br />
when we competed at the All-<br />
Ireland in Cashel in ’69. This band<br />
had a very strong line-up with<br />
musicians like the Lawries, the<br />
Boyles, Frank Jordon, a mighty<br />
flute player from Roscommon and<br />
Paddy Ryan who has gone on to be<br />
one of the great <strong>Comhaltas</strong> leaders.<br />
At the end of the sixties I moved<br />
to Liverpool and joined the<br />
Liverpool Céilí Band. My stay in<br />
Liverpool was the most enjoyable
of my life so far and the<br />
experience of playing with one of<br />
the greatest bands of all time will<br />
always stand out in my mind. The<br />
band members loved music and<br />
would perform anywhere at the<br />
drop of a hat. Their enjoyment of<br />
the music was infectious and<br />
moved many a gathering. Their<br />
status was such that they<br />
performed in ‘Sunday Night at the<br />
Palladium’ on BBC Television. We<br />
still keep in touch and I really<br />
enjoyed the reunion at the<br />
Liverpool <strong>Comhaltas</strong> 50 th<br />
celebrations last year.<br />
October ’72 saw me returning to<br />
Ireland to take up full-time<br />
employment with <strong>Comhaltas</strong> and I<br />
soon had a céilí band called<br />
‘Ceoiltóirí Luimnigh’ on the road.<br />
Our debut was in the Premier<br />
Ballroom Thurles, where Pat<br />
Buckley drove a big nail into the<br />
stage to stop the drum from<br />
sliding! We travelled in a Cortina<br />
that was leaking water from the<br />
radiator so we had to top up every<br />
so often – what a night! During<br />
the seventies we played all over<br />
Munster and beyond and we had a<br />
whale of a time.<br />
Sadly, there were great changes in<br />
Ireland as modern music took over<br />
and the céilithe all but<br />
disappeared. If it wasn’t for the<br />
growth of <strong>Comhaltas</strong> and the<br />
growing popularity of the band<br />
competition I think the céilí band<br />
as we know it would have been<br />
lost. Things are better now with<br />
the emergence of the set dancing<br />
seminars and the many dances all<br />
over the country.<br />
I think there are three main<br />
categories of céilí bands: the céilí<br />
dance band, the set dance band<br />
and the competition band. They<br />
differ greatly in the type of music<br />
they produce. The céilí dance<br />
bands play music like the<br />
Gallowglass used to do with the<br />
emphasis on rigid rhythm and<br />
little ornamentation. The set<br />
dance bands play with great life<br />
and at a fast tempo using<br />
ornamentation and variation to<br />
good effect while the competition<br />
bands produce a uniform ‘squeaky<br />
clean’ sound that is calculated to<br />
gain marks from adjudicators who,<br />
perhaps unwittingly, have been<br />
the cause of creating the current<br />
sound through rigid interpretation<br />
of the rules. To my mind, the<br />
greatest bands of all, the Tulla,<br />
Kilfenora and Liverpool, would<br />
not be placed in today’s<br />
competitions. I am not having a<br />
go at the current bands; they are<br />
fantastic musicians and produce a<br />
great sound but I fear the rigid<br />
interpretation of competition rules<br />
puts constraints on the individual<br />
players in the quest for overall<br />
uniformity. They lack the carefree<br />
approach of bands of yore which<br />
gave us that ‘something special’,<br />
lifting our hearts in the process.<br />
Maybe it is just my age, looking<br />
back with a nostalgic eye but I feel<br />
we have to look at the céilí band<br />
competition and try and rekindle<br />
the spirit of the great bands of<br />
yore. In the meantime I will<br />
continue to enjoy the bands of<br />
today and look forward to even<br />
better times to come.<br />
– Fleadh Cheoil Luimní Programme<br />
TREOIR 49
For upwards on four decades the<br />
annual <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Ceoltóirí<br />
Éireann Concert Tours of North<br />
America established and<br />
consolidated the relationship<br />
between the Irish Diaspora in<br />
North America and Ireland.<br />
Whereas the most significant<br />
memory of a concert-tour is the<br />
impact it makes on its audiences<br />
and hosts the concert-tours have<br />
also been documented through<br />
the accompanying CCÉ<br />
recording. Over the years the<br />
format of the publications<br />
changed accordingly from vinyl<br />
to cassettes to the digital format<br />
in use today. In recent years<br />
tracks from various Echoes of<br />
Erin CDs have been made<br />
available through the <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
website. The CCÉ tour<br />
recordings have contributed to<br />
the enrichment of Irish<br />
traditional music and song in<br />
many ways. They provided many<br />
young artists with what was often<br />
their first opportunity to record<br />
their music/song while the tour<br />
compilation provided a<br />
retrospective insight of the music<br />
and musicianship of the time.<br />
‘Tour albums’, as these CCÉ<br />
publications were often referred<br />
to, also provide audiences with a<br />
meaningful memento of the<br />
concert.<br />
Siar Amach Echoes of Erin 2009<br />
(CL 69) comprises 21 tracks of<br />
music and song from the 2009<br />
tour-group. This album differs<br />
from previous CCÉ tourrecordings<br />
in that it features six<br />
tracks that were recorded live<br />
during the Radio Éireann Céilí<br />
House broadcast at Cultúrlann<br />
na hÉireann that February. Two<br />
of the Seán Ó Sé’s six songs on<br />
the album were recorded during<br />
that live broadcast Sliabh na<br />
mBan and The Old Boreen as were<br />
the selection of reels (Gillespie’s<br />
& Sheila Coyle’s) which echoes<br />
the dancers’ footsteps on the<br />
Cultúrlann flagstones. The<br />
variety of the album was further<br />
enhanced by the addition of two<br />
tracks recorded by Pádraig<br />
Sinnott and Darren Breslin at<br />
FM and Clogheen Studios<br />
respectively. Siar Amach includes<br />
songs in the Irish language,<br />
English language and macaronic<br />
tradition in addition to a wide<br />
musical repertoire of reels, jigs,<br />
slow airs, polkas and slides. Solo<br />
performances on many<br />
instruments (harp, pipes, fiddle,<br />
button accordion, concertina,<br />
banjo and flute) are combined<br />
with group performances and the<br />
tunes are a mix of old and new<br />
and the material performed<br />
reflects the many and varied<br />
means of musical expression<br />
offered to traditional performers.<br />
The accompanying 20-page<br />
booklet provides information on<br />
the various tunes and songs that<br />
offer an insight into their history<br />
and/or contextual information.<br />
The following artists are featured;<br />
Seán Ó Sé, Pádraig Sinnott,<br />
Darren Breslin, Caitríona Sears,<br />
Niamh Denmead, James Duggan,<br />
Humphrey Murphy, Eoin<br />
O’Sullivan, Aisling Mc Mahon,<br />
Claire Quinn, Christina Dolphin<br />
and Oisín Morrisson. Paul<br />
O’Reilly, Gerry McMahon &<br />
Deirdre O’Reilly accompany on<br />
Tracks 17 and 3 respectively.<br />
Audio Acknowledgements: RTÉ<br />
Radio 1 Céilí House; producer-<br />
Peter Browne, presenter Kieran<br />
Hanrahan, sound-Mick<br />
McLoughlin & Kevin Fowley and<br />
RTÉ Libraries and <strong>Archive</strong>s;<br />
Peter Staunton – CCÉ recording<br />
and album production, Seán Ó<br />
Sé (singing advisor) and Siobhán<br />
Ní Chonaráin (producer).<br />
Extended track details,<br />
acknowledgements etc. are<br />
included on the CD insert).<br />
Siar Amach Echoes of Erin 2009<br />
is available from Cultúrlann<br />
na hÉireann<br />
enquiries@comhaltas.com<br />
Tel: +353-1-280 0295<br />
50 TREOIR
The Legacy<br />
of Seán<br />
Ó Riada<br />
SEÁN Ó SÉ<br />
Seán Ó Riada died at the King’s<br />
College Hospital in London on 3 rd<br />
October, 1971, at the early age of<br />
forty years. His death at the time<br />
made the front pages of all the<br />
Irish dailies. Well over a thousand<br />
people gathered at Cork Airport to<br />
welcome his mortal remains back<br />
to Cork. As the funeral cortège<br />
made its lonesome journey along<br />
the Lee Valley towards Macroom<br />
people congregated at every<br />
crossroads to pay their respects.<br />
The crowds grew larger as the long<br />
cavalcade of cars passed by the<br />
Sullane River. We remembered his<br />
wonderfully evocative<br />
arrangement of that fine air, ‘The<br />
Banks of Sullane’. Then we<br />
reached his beloved adopted home<br />
place, Cúil Aodha. It seemed as if<br />
the entire populate had turned up<br />
to grieve at his passing, to salute<br />
and celebrate his life and also of<br />
course to comfort his wife, Ruth,<br />
and their young family. They came<br />
too to sympathise with his elderly<br />
mother, one of their own, Julia<br />
Mary Creedon from Cill na<br />
Martra, and with his father Seán<br />
Reidy, from Kilmihil in Co. Clare.<br />
They mourned him as a clan<br />
would mourn a fallen Chieftain,<br />
in truth he was their laoch, their<br />
Gile Mear.<br />
The following few days would<br />
confirm the grief and sense of loss,<br />
felt not only by the people of<br />
Múscraí, but by the nation as a<br />
whole. It is three miles from the<br />
Church in Cúil Aodha to Reilig<br />
Ghobnatan. His coffin was<br />
shouldered every inch of the way,<br />
a gesture that spoke volumes of<br />
the respect and affection young<br />
and old had for him. Why this<br />
respect, why this affection<br />
bordering at times on worship<br />
TREOIR 51
Seán Ó Riada and family<br />
I think John Kelly, the legendary<br />
fiddler, explained it in a few well<br />
chosen words, gently whispered<br />
into Julia Mary Creedon’s ear as<br />
they both left the graveyard<br />
‘M’am’ he said ‘he lifted us all up’.<br />
Perhaps John was referring to Irish<br />
traditional musicians, but he could<br />
indeed be speaking about Clanna<br />
Gael the people of Ireland.<br />
So let us examine briefly how<br />
Seán Ó Riada ‘lifted us all up’<br />
as I for one believe he did.<br />
He first came to the notice of the<br />
Irish public in general through his<br />
film music for the George<br />
Morrison documentary dealing<br />
with the 1916 Rebellion, ‘Mise<br />
Éire’, produced by Gael-Linn. His<br />
earlier orchestral arrangements of<br />
airs such as ‘Slán le Máighe’ and<br />
his work as musical director of the<br />
Abbey Theatre gave notice of<br />
what was to come. His score for<br />
‘Míse Éire’, comprising original<br />
music and arrangements of<br />
traditional airs, introduced our<br />
native music to those who would<br />
not have previously been attracted<br />
to it. It also appealed greatly to<br />
traditional music people<br />
who recognised that Seán<br />
had remained faithful to<br />
the tradition through<br />
using a classical orchestral<br />
idiom. They would have<br />
recognised the integrity of<br />
his treatment of ‘Róisín<br />
Dubh’, while those<br />
previously mentioned<br />
would be under the<br />
impression it was an<br />
original composition.<br />
The film and its music<br />
contributed to our<br />
understanding of<br />
ourselves, and helped<br />
build our confidence as<br />
we still struggled to shake<br />
off the relics of our<br />
colonial past. His mother<br />
told me that she recognised<br />
the popularity of Seán’s<br />
score when she heard one of<br />
Cork’s famous Echo boys whistling<br />
Roisín Dubh as he sold his papers.<br />
I mentioned previously that Seán<br />
was director of music at the Abbey<br />
theatre, where he conducted the<br />
pit orchestra. His work involved<br />
arranging and composing<br />
incidental music for various<br />
dramas. At the same time he had<br />
gathered round him some<br />
traditional musicians who met<br />
informally for sessions in the<br />
basement of his home in<br />
Galloping Green, Stillorgan. They<br />
included among many others<br />
Sonny Brogan, John Kelly, Seán<br />
Potts, and a great friend of Seán’s<br />
whom he met through his interest<br />
in shooting and fishing, Éamon de<br />
Buitléar. To these four were added<br />
Michael Tubridy, Paddy Moloney,<br />
Martin Fay (a classically trained<br />
violinist from the Abbey<br />
Orchestra), and a member of the<br />
Abbey backstage staff, Ronnie<br />
McShane. Ronnie quickly mastered<br />
the bones and became the life and<br />
soul of Seán’s new band Ceoltóiri<br />
Chualann. In the early days Seán<br />
himself played the bodhrán.<br />
Initially Seán arranged music for<br />
the group for a Bryan McMahon<br />
play which was staged at the<br />
Abbey. Then followed a radio series<br />
called Reachaireacht an Riadaigh.<br />
This programme featured more<br />
arrangements of traditional music<br />
with comment by Seán himself and<br />
some songs from Darach Ó<br />
Catháin, the noted sean-nós singer<br />
in the Connemara style, although<br />
he lived in Rath Chairn. Then<br />
came the immensely popular radio<br />
series ‘Fleadh Cheoil an Radio’<br />
which featured Éamonn Kelly.<br />
Perhaps the most important radio<br />
series was ‘Our Musical Heritage’<br />
Seán’s most comprehensive<br />
statement on how he understood<br />
the Irish musical tradition. The<br />
accompanying LP and booklet are<br />
still widely consulted and quoted<br />
even to this day. Recordings,<br />
nearly all for the Gael-Linn label,<br />
came thick and fast ‘Reacaireacht<br />
an Riadaigh’ ‘The Playboy of the<br />
Western World’ (film soundtrack)<br />
‘Ceol na nUasal’ ‘Ding Dong’ and<br />
of course ‘An Poc ar Buille’.<br />
There were also live concerts, the<br />
most famous of which was Ó Riada<br />
sa Gaiety on Sunday 30 th March<br />
1969. That night at the Gaiety<br />
Theatre in Dublin Seán and the<br />
Ceoltóirí reached the pinnacle of<br />
their musical adventure. The<br />
occasion can still be enjoyed today<br />
through that iconic live album<br />
‘Ó Riada sa Gaiety’.<br />
Seán disbanded the band in 1970<br />
following a last concert in Cork<br />
City Hall. So what was the<br />
importance of Ceoltóirí Chualann<br />
and what is their legacy<br />
In the sleeve notes to a Seán Ó<br />
Riada album Seán Mac Réamoinn<br />
observed that, through the<br />
Ceoltóirí Chualann, Seán Ó Riada<br />
had created a style of ensemble<br />
playing where Irish traditional<br />
52 TREOIR
Peadar Ó Riada ag seinm ar an mbosca cheoil<br />
musicians could play together and<br />
still find ample opportunity to<br />
express themselves individually.<br />
This he said was based on the style<br />
of the New Orleans Jazz bands. I<br />
am certain Ó Riada would have<br />
read these notes prior to<br />
publication, thereby giving them<br />
his imprimatur. The result of that<br />
is that practically every group<br />
playing Irish music today is to a<br />
greater or lesser degree, still<br />
influenced by this groundbreaking<br />
innovation of Ó Riada’s. That is<br />
not to take in any way from the<br />
onward progress of the playing of<br />
Irish traditional music since. In<br />
recent years I myself had the<br />
privilege of touring with<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> groups, I met young –<br />
and not so young – musicians of<br />
the very highest calibre, most of<br />
whom learned their music within<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> structures. For me this<br />
marked the fusion of Seán’s genius<br />
and the great work of <strong>Comhaltas</strong><br />
over the years. To me it felt like<br />
revisiting familiar territory. I had<br />
come full circle.<br />
Cór Chúill Aodha, a male voice<br />
choir for men and boys founded by<br />
Seán, was the vehicle chosen by<br />
him for his Aifreann Chúil Aodha.<br />
It is without doubt the most widely<br />
performed Mass by any Irish<br />
composer; all the more remarkable<br />
because it is in Irish, which sadly<br />
in this country is a minority<br />
language. There is not a Catholic<br />
church in this country or wherever<br />
the Irish Diaspora worship that has<br />
not heard at least ‘Ag Críost an<br />
Síol’, if not indeed the entire Mass.<br />
The celebration of the liturgy<br />
benefits hugely, but so also does<br />
our music and our language.<br />
Space does not permit<br />
consideration of his many other<br />
contributions. He was a writer, a<br />
poet, filmmaker, a family man, a<br />
community man, a visionary and a<br />
great friend to all who knew him.<br />
For my own part it was an<br />
immense privilege to work for<br />
him, to get to know him and to<br />
learn so much from him. He<br />
certainly raised me up and I thank<br />
him for that. A Sheáin Uí Riada,<br />
tá ár mbuíochas tuillte agat, ní<br />
dhéanfar dearmad ort chomh fada<br />
is a bheidh ár gceol féinig le clos<br />
ar fud Chríocha Fáil.<br />
Seán Ó Sé (Photo: James Mounsey)<br />
TREOIR 53
CIARÁN<br />
MAC MATHÚNA<br />
(1925-2009)<br />
D’fhág Ciarán Mac Mathúna<br />
oidhreacht faoi leith do shaol<br />
chultúrtha na hÉireann –<br />
oidhreacht atá cuimsithe anois i<br />
gcroílár ceoil, amhránaíochta agus<br />
teanga dúchais na tíre seo agus i<br />
measc comhphobail na<br />
hÉireannaigh thar lear. D’fhág sé<br />
oidhreacht mar scoláire, stairí,<br />
thráchtaire soisialta, theangeolaí,<br />
bhailitheoir, fhear-liteartha,<br />
oideachasóir agus dár ndóigh mar<br />
chraoltóir. Ba fhear an-chumasach<br />
agus oillte a bhí ann, fear a bhí<br />
ábalta an mór-phictiúir a chur san<br />
áireamh in éineacht leis na sonraí<br />
laistigh den chreatlach céanna.<br />
Bhí tréithí pearsanta aige a chuir<br />
go mór lena chur chuige agus é i<br />
mbun a chuid oibre; d’oibrigh sé le<br />
comhsheasmhacht agus le<br />
díograsacht. Le linn saol proifisiúnta<br />
agus príobháideach Chiaráin bhí<br />
sé intuigthe agus soléir go raibh<br />
tuiscint agus ard-mheas bunúsach<br />
ag an bhfear lách seo ar gach gné<br />
de shaol chultúrtha na nGael.<br />
Underlying the late Ciarán Mac<br />
Mathúna’s unique contribution to<br />
Irish cultural life was his<br />
fundamental understanding and<br />
respect for both the multi-faceted<br />
subject itself and the people, in<br />
Ireland and abroad, who embodied<br />
it. His many areas of scholarship<br />
combined to comprise a unique<br />
contribution to Irish cultural life, a<br />
contribution that during the later<br />
years of Ciarán’s life was marked<br />
by various awards, including<br />
doctorates. Ciarán Mac Mathúna<br />
left a very complete personal<br />
legacy as a scholar,<br />
historian, social<br />
commentator (in<br />
the context of our<br />
musical and<br />
literary traditions),<br />
a linguist, a collector, and a<br />
literary man, an educator and, of<br />
course, as one of the most<br />
significant broadcasters in the<br />
history of the Irish nation. His<br />
work with Raidió Éireann, a body<br />
which should also be credited for<br />
supporting such initiatives, began<br />
in 1954 and during the following<br />
five decades Ciarán’s many<br />
broadcasts (A Job of Journeywork,<br />
American Journeywork, Ceolta Tíre,<br />
The Humours of Donnybrook & Mo<br />
Cheol Thú) reflected his<br />
consistent professionalism and<br />
personal integrity.<br />
During the 1950s and 1960s local<br />
musicians, singers and even dancers<br />
in Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Galway,<br />
Cork and Sligo were delighted that<br />
the gentlemanly Ciarán,<br />
accompanied by a Raidió Éireann<br />
sound engineer, thought highly<br />
enough of their performances to<br />
record and broadcast their music<br />
and songs. These artists in turn<br />
listened to other musicians and<br />
singers on the radio and thus<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna’s role as a<br />
most significant collector and<br />
nurturer of Irish traditional music<br />
and song at a critical period was<br />
consolidated. Personal and local<br />
styles and repertoires were given a<br />
national ‘hearing’ while<br />
simultaneously also being preserved.<br />
Gael-Linn CEF 064<br />
Over the ensuing decades Ciarán<br />
Mac Mathúna became a central<br />
figure in the world of Irish<br />
traditional musical life. He had an<br />
unforgettable presence and a rich,<br />
easy listening but simultaneously<br />
reflective but gently commanding<br />
voice. His intellect was innately<br />
obvious but never obtrusive. These<br />
characteristics, amongst many<br />
more, contributed to the fact that<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna, when<br />
encountered in the person or<br />
when being listened to during a<br />
broadcast, made a lasting<br />
impression on so many people.<br />
However it was his sincerity,<br />
courteousness, respectfulness and<br />
generosity of spirit towards all<br />
people who in any way<br />
contributed to our Irish culture<br />
that earned Ciarán Mac Mathúna<br />
a most special place in this<br />
‘traditional Irish’ community.<br />
During the concert to mark<br />
Ciarán’s Mathúna’s 50 years of<br />
broadcasting the late Paddy Canny<br />
commented to Kieran Hanrahan<br />
that ‘(Ciarán) was never out of<br />
form… and was everybody’s<br />
friend’. This description typified<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna’s<br />
relationship with traditional<br />
54 TREOIR
musicians and their followers.<br />
Towards the end of his final radio<br />
broadcast (Mo Cheol Thú<br />
November 27 th 2005) Ciarán Mac<br />
Mathúna illustrated his continued<br />
enthusiasm for, and joy in, his<br />
work when, on thanking all those<br />
who had supported him, he<br />
reflected that ‘(we) had great times<br />
together’. Those ‘times’, real-life<br />
experiences of so many aspects to<br />
‘being Irish’, will be documented as<br />
Ciarán Mac Mathúna’s unique and<br />
hugely substantial legacy to Irish<br />
cultural life.<br />
Mar léargas ar a ghrá don Ghaeilge<br />
chríochnaigh Ciarán Mac<br />
Mathúna a chuid omóis i rith a<br />
chláir raidió deirneach leis an nath<br />
cainte ábharthach ‘fágfaimid siúd<br />
mar atá sé’ nath cainte atá mar<br />
fhocail scoir don alt seo. Is i stór<br />
ceoil, amhránaíochta, filíochta<br />
agus teanga dúchais na hÉireann<br />
agus iad le cloisint go beo i measc<br />
comhphobail traidisiúnta na nGael<br />
atá an t-omós is mó d’oidhreacht<br />
an fhir lách seo, Ciarán Mac<br />
Mathúna 1925-2009. Ar dheis Dé<br />
go raibh a ainm dílis.<br />
A Joe Cooley Moment<br />
Chicago probably 1961, Lake Michigan<br />
This story is about the launching of a<br />
boat, built in his garage by Manus<br />
O’Donnell based on a style used in<br />
Arranmore Island off Donegal’s western<br />
shores. This was a maiden voyage to test<br />
the boats buoyancy and durability. The<br />
new boat was to be sailed at a later date<br />
to Beaver Island near the Northern<br />
entrance to lake Michigan.<br />
Beaver Island was noted for supplying<br />
pilots to navigate shipping on the lake.<br />
Most of these pilots were descended<br />
from Arran more Island stock, hence the<br />
voyage.<br />
Invited along for the maiden voyage by<br />
Manus were:<br />
Left to Right: Seán Reid, Jack Cooley, J. Devanney,<br />
Tony McMahon and Joe Cooley<br />
Paddy Coyne of Galway, ‘Billy the Hare’<br />
Aherne of Cork, Joe Cooley of Peterswell, Galway, Maidhc (Dainín) O’Shea from West Kerry,<br />
Brendan O’Shea from West Kerry and ‘One other’ who shall remain nameless.<br />
The boat was launched without problem and it was being powered by a small outboard<br />
motor operated by Manus O’ Donnell. Joe and Mike took their positions on the seat near the<br />
bow, each having an accordion of course. Paddy Coyne, Bill Aherne, ‘one other’ and I sat<br />
around the middle area of the boat. It was early on a Sunday afternoon and a good time<br />
was being had by all. The sun was high in the sky and summer was upon us. Music and<br />
conversation was the order of the day.<br />
Manus our captain handed over the tiller to ‘him who shall be nameless’ with astounding<br />
results. You see he had actually gone to the wrong church that morning and the spirits within<br />
him were of the wrong type. Nearby a sailor was actually sailing an Eskimo kayak on which he<br />
somehow had rigged a sail. Suddenly we realised our boat was headed straight for him,<br />
courtesy of our new navigator. Pandemonium set is as the kayak sailor was furiously trying to<br />
steer clear. Manus our captain lunged across and knocked ‘nameless’ to the floor, grabbed the<br />
tiller and violently changed direction, missing the kayak and its wide-eyed occupant by the<br />
proverbial inch.<br />
Our fate was not so lucky, the boat lurched violently causing all to lose their balance and<br />
horror of horrors, Joe Cooley’s Paolo Soprani went right in to Lake Michigan. He retrieved it<br />
slowly over the side, the accordion stretched to its full extension, dripping wet. I would have<br />
loved to capture the pained expression on his face then. It did not stay for long.<br />
That episode put an end to our outing. Sadly we returned to shore. I do not remember if the<br />
accordion was repairable or not. Certainly the music continued.<br />
In loving memory of Joe Cooley<br />
– Brendan O’Shea<br />
Edited by Martin Gaffney<br />
CUIMHNEACHÁN CEOIL: PAT O CONNOR CD LAUNCH<br />
Nóta: ‘Ag Déanamh Ceoil’ in this<br />
issue of Treoir includes transcripts<br />
of tunes recorded and subsequently<br />
broadcast by Ciarán Mac Mathúna,<br />
Raidió Éireann.<br />
October 9 th 2009 saw a unique event take place in CLASAĊ the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> Regional<br />
Centre, on the Alfie Byrne Road in Dublin. After many years of dedicated hard work,<br />
perseverance and persistence paid off when Pat O’Connor launched Cuimhneachán<br />
Ceoil’ the CD and Book, mostly of her own compositions.<br />
Pat is a well know figure throughout the Traditional music world in Ireland but<br />
particularly in the <strong>Comhaltas</strong> family. For many years she has taught traditional music<br />
to children who may not be up to the rough and tumble of a <strong>Comhaltas</strong> branch class.<br />
Her success in this field is recognised by all who know her as one of Pat’s major<br />
achievements in her musical life. On the Concert night in CLASAĊ, these young people<br />
took to the stage and playing mostly Pat’s own compositions gave a performance<br />
second to none. Anyone entering the hall and seeing these accomplished young<br />
musicians would think they were born on the stage.<br />
Like many other labours of love, Pat’s CD and book could only come about with the<br />
assistance of a number of equally dedicated people. While its impossible to name all<br />
of them (it was a LARGE undertaking) I’m sure that if the names of Fintan McManus,<br />
Brian O’Connor, Eoghan Stapelton, Lucy Costello and in particular Peter Denmeade<br />
were mentioned, none of the others would mind too much!<br />
CUIMHNEACHÁN CEOIL is available for purchase from Cultúrlann na hÉireann,<br />
32 Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co. Dublin.<br />
TREOIR 55
NEW INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR<br />
WORLD BODHRÁN CHAMPIONSHIP<br />
The World Bodhrán Championship,<br />
which take place on the June Bank<br />
Holiday Weekend as always this<br />
year (the 4 th to the 7 th of June) in<br />
Milltown Co. Kerry, are introducing<br />
a new element to the competition<br />
to cater for overseas entrants. An<br />
International category is being<br />
added to the competition listing this<br />
year, which will only be open to<br />
entrants living outside of the island<br />
of Ireland. The winner of the<br />
international competition will<br />
automatically qualify as a finalist for<br />
the World Bodhrán Champion title,<br />
bringing to four the number of<br />
finalists to compete for the overall<br />
title of World Bodhrán Champion.<br />
Announcing the additional<br />
category, Festival PRO Seán de<br />
Buitléar said that he hoped this<br />
international competition would<br />
encourage many more overseas<br />
entrants to come to Milltown for the<br />
Festival in 2010. He said that having<br />
listened to the feedback of entrants<br />
over the past number of years, some<br />
international entrants felt that the<br />
standard in the senior competition<br />
was very high and that they did not<br />
really have a chance of competing<br />
against the best of the Irish<br />
competitors. ‘Many overseas entrants<br />
would only have the opportunity to<br />
play once or twice a month while<br />
many of the Irish competitors would<br />
be playing five or six nights a week’<br />
Seán said. This clearly gives them an<br />
advantage in the overall competition<br />
and we felt that given it is the fifth<br />
year of the festival, the time is right<br />
to expand the competitions to<br />
ensure our overseas entrants are<br />
properly catered for, he added.<br />
Competitions Officer Pádraig<br />
Buckley said that the new<br />
international competition will be<br />
confined to those competing at the<br />
senior level only. He said that he<br />
hoped this new competition would<br />
encourage many more overseas<br />
entrants to make the journey to<br />
Milltown to compete for the title of<br />
56 TREOIR<br />
World Bodhrán Champion 2010.<br />
In relation to the competitions<br />
overall, Pádraig also announced that<br />
there will be a number of rule<br />
changes this year for the event. The<br />
main rule change relates to the<br />
future opportunity for the winner of<br />
the overall competition to re-enter<br />
the event. He said that the new rule<br />
states that the winner of the senior<br />
competition can defend the title the<br />
following year but should they again<br />
win the title, they will not be<br />
allowed to re-enter the competition<br />
again the following year.<br />
Commenting on the rule change<br />
Pádraig said that again the<br />
committee felt that some people<br />
were being put off entering the<br />
competition as they felt they had<br />
little chance of success. ‘We hope<br />
again that this rule change will<br />
encourage all those who have an<br />
interest in playing the bodhrán in<br />
the senior competition to enter and<br />
be in with the chance to become<br />
World Champion’ Pádraig added.<br />
Meanwhile plans are at an advanced<br />
stage for this year’s festival<br />
programme. Festival Committee<br />
chairman Dan Cronin said that<br />
following the huge success last year,<br />
the festival would again be opened<br />
on the Friday night by a parade<br />
through the town. ‘Last year was the<br />
first one in which we ran the parade<br />
on the opening night and it proved<br />
to be a huge success in bringing<br />
large crowds of people to the town<br />
on the opening night. Therefore we<br />
hope to expand greatly on the<br />
parade this year and bring in<br />
community and music groups from<br />
all parts of the county to Milltown<br />
on the Friday night’ Dan added.<br />
The parade will be followed by live<br />
entertainment on the Gig Rig in the<br />
town as well as the funfair for the<br />
younger family members Dan said.<br />
Another aspect of the festival that<br />
proved to be very popular last year<br />
was the introduction of the Festival<br />
Club. This afforded musicians of all<br />
Séamus O’Kane on bodhrán with Mark<br />
Mohan on banjo<br />
levels to get together for impromptu<br />
music sessions in a relaxed<br />
atmosphere and was welcomed by<br />
all. Dan confirmed that the Festival<br />
Club will again run this year and it<br />
is planned to expand this element of<br />
the festival greatly also.<br />
A full programme of free street<br />
entertainment is also in place for<br />
both Saturday and Sunday in<br />
Milltown, which will culminate as<br />
always with the finals of the World<br />
Bodhrán Championships<br />
competitions on the Gig Rig on the<br />
Sunday evening. ‘This is main<br />
attraction of the weekend and a<br />
huge crowd is again expected in the<br />
square on Sunday night’ Seán de<br />
Buitléar said. He said that Sunday is<br />
again family day with a wide<br />
selection of events planned to suit<br />
family members of all ages.<br />
‘We are also looking at running a<br />
special event during the course of<br />
the weekend featuring a well known<br />
individual’ Seán added. Given that<br />
this is the fifth year of the festival<br />
we hope to make this occasion with<br />
this event he said but would not be<br />
drawn on the nature of the event of<br />
who would be involved saying that<br />
an announcement will be made on<br />
this in the near future.<br />
People who are interested in<br />
entering the competitions are asked<br />
to go to the World Bodhrán<br />
Championship website<br />
www.worldbodhranchampionships.com<br />
or send an e-mail to<br />
bodhranchampionship@eircom.net<br />
for full details.<br />
For further information please contact:<br />
Seán de Buitléar: 087 7663472<br />
e-mail: sean_buitlear@yahoo.co.uk
MANCHESTER - FM 19th Feb<br />
IMsh World HeMtage Centre,<br />
10 Queens Road, Cheetham Hill<br />
rwHC 0161 2054007/ 0161 202 1515<br />
GLASGOW - Sat 20th Feb<br />
CoupeI' Institute, 86 Clarkston Road, Ga.thca.r1.<br />
MolI'a Ca.Uaghan 0141 5862862<br />
Alllson Cullen 0189 8834325<br />
TYNESIDE - Mon 22nd Feb<br />
Tyneslde Irish Centre,<br />
43·49 Ga.llowgate, Newcastle Upon Tyne<br />
The IMsh Centre 0191 2610384<br />
TOUI'lst Info" Market St: 0191 2778000<br />
BIRMINGHAM - Tues 23rd Feb<br />
BlI'mlngham Irish Club,<br />
14·20 IDgh St, Derltend, Dlgbeth<br />
Birmingham IrIsh Club 0121 822 2314<br />
Mlchael Green 0795 8288587<br />
Ted Sheehan 0121 4594379<br />
Vince Jordan 0778 8880912<br />
LEEDS - Wed 24th Feb<br />
Leeds IMsh Centre, York Road, Leeds<br />
The IMsh Centre 0113 2480887<br />
Faggy Sarsneld 01132 637600<br />
LUTON - Thurs 26th Feb<br />
Cardinal Newman School, Warden Hill Road<br />
<strong>Comhaltas</strong> Office 0207 9168727<br />
LONDON - FM 26th Fab<br />
The London IMsh Centre,<br />
50·62 Ga.mden Square<br />
The IMsh Centre 0207 9188727<br />
Mlchael Nevin 07931 730321<br />
NEWPORT, South Wales - Sat 27th Feb<br />
The Dolman Theatre, Kingswa,y, Newport<br />
Noreen Johnstone 01633 276349<br />
WIllIe Cowan 01291 425880<br />
Martin Palmer·Smlth 02920 619678<br />
THE TALENTED PEB.I'ORMERS SELECTED<br />
:FOR THIS TOUR:<br />
Joe Arkins (Co. Clare) - Fear a' Ti<br />
Eimsar Arkins (Co. Clare) - Fiddle/Singer<br />
Siofra McHugh (Co. Ma,yo) - Fiddle<br />
Paul McMahon (Co. Louth) - Piano Accordion<br />
Eibhlia Ni Shiillleabhain (Co. Cork) - Flute<br />
Conal 6 hiarn.li.n (Co. Galwa,y) - Banjo<br />
Oisin 6 hiarn.li.n (Co. Galwa,y) - Button Accor(i1on<br />
Martino Vacca (ItaJ,y) - Uilleann Pipes<br />
Niamh O'Sullivan (Co. Dublln) - Concertina<br />
Oisin Morrison - (Co. Dublln) - Harpist<br />
Sibeal Davitt (Co. Dublin) - Dancer<br />
Seamus 0 Rourke (Co. LlmeMck) - Dancer<br />
Theres a Sheehan (Leeds/ Co. Limerick) - Dancer<br />
Vincent Rearns (Co. Sltgo) - Tour Manager
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