R - Comhaltas Archive

M ick himse lf reca ll ed tri ps from Dublinto Clare in th e earl y-to-mid 60's for thegreat trad itional concerts organi sed byClare County Board CCE. Th e Castl eCe ili Ba nd had made the tri p on morethan one occasion; on another visitthey shared the limeli ght w ith Se{ln 6Riada and Ceolt6iri Chualainn. As we llas the great music he looked back w ithparti cular -apprec iati on on theded ica ti on and generos ity of sp irit ofthe Clare Comh altas people. He hadgone w ith Sean Kea ne and othermusicians to play at further greatconcerts in Cork in the 60's and 70'safter Seam us had moved there to workfor Conrad h na Gaeilge.M ick, through skillfu l use of recordingand slides, fo ll owed hi s fri ends journeyfrom Clare to the Cu il Aod ha Gaeltachtw here a host of new fri en ds were m a d ~incl uding the great sean-n6s sin gerPad raig 6 Tua ma, Diarmuid 6Riordain, M ichea l 6 Suilleabhain ete.,not to men ti on musica l co mrades suchas Connie O'Connell of Kilnamartyraand Deni s Murphy, Jul ia Clifford andJohnny O'Lea ry of Sli abh Lu achra. Avi deo of a sess ion at an Chulturl ann inthe mid 70's showed another greatsinging comrade, the late Darach 6Cathain at his brillian t best; there was aduet w ith Den is Murphy, a marbhna forPaddy Joe McMahon ete.Nights of Sean-N6s and apple tartAn important and pleasa nt reco llecti onwas of Mac Math una's days in Craobhna hln se, w hi ch he joined in 1957 ongoing to work in th e County Library inEnni s. The branch wee kl y sess ion washe ld on Tuesday nights in the house ofMartin and Bri die Byrn es and themembe rshi p at that time (late 50's)in cl uded (i n addition to Martin andBridie Byrn es) Sean Reid, John andBri die O'Sullivan, Louis Preston (ofSI igo), Sonny M urray, Margaret Murphy(s ister of Paddy's of Kilmaley), GusTierney (Kil fenora), Paddy O'Donohueand Peadar O'Loughlin (twooutsta nding flute pl aye rs), Brendan andChristy McMahon (b rothers of Tony),and Robbi e McMahon. Sometimesthere woul d be heated discuss ions, andfrequ ently there were lovely sessions,but the thing th at ensured a goodattendance eac h week was the fact thatBridie Byrn es served up the mostscrumptous home-baked apple tart atOr Charlie and Ben Lennon with Michael Rooney at Tion61 Leo Rowsomethe tea break eac h night. Nobodywould ever drea m of leav ing before theapp le tart was se rved, no matter howurgent the reaso n.Responding to th e many tributesSeamus Mac Mathuna sa id th at he hadbecome involved in Com haltas as atee nager in an era of great chall engeand of great in sp irati on. The foundersof Comh altas had placed th is challengeon th e agenda for those w ho professedto cheri sh Ire land 's old culturalheri tage, and th ey had found in Clare asterling community of music loversw ho discussed and accepted thechall enges of th e ti me w ith courageand ded ication. He pa id tribute to theleadershi p and insp iration of peop lesuch as Paddy Joe M cM ahon andM artin Talty of M iltown Malbay, PaddyM urphy, Peadar O'Loughlin andM ickey Hanrahan of Kilmaley, JimmyWard and the Linnanes of KilfenoraSean Reid, Paddy Canny and PJ H a~es .Continuing he sa id that to work in andw ith those foun ding figures ofComh altas, w hether in Dublin Pi pers'Club or in Clare had been a spec ialpri vilege. O ld fashioned patriotism andpride in one's culture had bee n theprim ary motivations in those earl y days,and he hoped and beli eved th at theywere still to be found in the ranks ofour young mu sicians. W hen in 1969 hewas chosen to be the first full-timeTimire Ceoil it was the highest honourComhaltas coul d give him. Not alonewas he given the opportunity to workw ith, and in many cases, record some ofthe greatest mu sicians of our times, butalso he became part of a greatComh altas team of workers, w ho inmany cases gave better and more selflessservice to the movement than he himselfcould ever do. He li sted the outstandingservice and tireless ded ication of peoplesuch as La~ hr as 6 M urchu, Kit Hodge,Diarmui d 0 Cathain and JohnMcCracken. Looking around he couldsee many more deserving of theaccolades he was rece iving. He cou ldonl y hope that in the years to comemany of th ese would be similarl yhonoured as he had been to night.John Keenan and Paddy MacElvaneyHe knew that, li ke himse lf, everyonepresent lamented the sad fact th e JohnKee nan, a man w ho had given suchoutstanding service, could not be thereto join in the ce lebrati ons; no one coul drep lace John in the affecti ons of hi slegion of admirers. He was overj oyed tosee another of Comh altas's mostce lebrated and most inspirati onal figurespresent - Paddy M ac El vaney, a goodfriend and an in sp iring motivator. Tohim and to many others Paddy Mackep itomi sed the idea lism, courage,in tegri ty and ded ication of the foundersof CCE; and we came back to him againand again for advice and for inspiration.The Thursday night pa rt of th e Ti on61was rounded off w ith some songs frommembers of the Mac Mathuna familyfoll owed by th e usual sess ion of piping.The Friday ni ght ceili featured theKil fenora G ili Band and the music andatmosphere of the ni ght showed how------------------------------------------ ~)