Sliabh Luachra Lectures

Ballydesmond, Sliabh Luachra, Ireland

Friday May 2, 2014

Lecture 1
Speaker: Paddy Jones
The Music of Sliabh Luachra

Introduction by Patricia Herron Siodhachin

Welcome everyone to this, the first in a series of talks regarding the culture of Sliabh
Luachra.
The idea for these talks originally came from my late husband Donal O Siodhachin and
Tim Browne, and from that original idea a Committee was set up a few years ago. The
Committee, however, disbanded owing to pressure from other commitments, and the
idea lost impetus.
So, I had been attending a similar sort of thing in Churchtown over the years, organised
by Noel Linehane and held in a private house, and I thought maybe that would work in
this house.
So this is the first lecture. Three more are planned initially, and then we can see if
there is sufficient interest to keep going. I have chosen the 4 ancient Celtic festivals
for the timing of the lectures Bealtaine, Lunasa, Samhain and Imbolg but the topics
need not be about those festivals. Indeed we have tonight The Music of Sliabh
Luachra, on August we have The Poetry of Sliabh Luachra, given by Bertha McCullagh,
from Castleisland now living in Limerick. In Samhain, Fr JJ ORiordin will give a talk
loosely around The Republican Tradition of Sliabh Lucahra; and next February Tim
Browne will give a talk on The Songs of Duhallow.
If you have an email address and would like to be notified of the dates, please let me
have it before you leave.
Our speaker tonight is Paddy Jones. Paddy will speak for about 45 minutes and then
we can have a few questions. Then we will break for some refreshments and then, Ive
no doubt we will hear a tune or two of the real Sliabh Luachra music.
There is one person I would like to mention again Donal, who for what seem like
obvious reasons cannot be here in the flesh tonight, but I have no doubt he is here in
spirit. And I am glad that his and Tims original idea has finally come to pass.
Paddy Jones, now living in Knights Mountain, Castleisland comes from Kilcusnin,
Cordal, just 3 miles east of Castleisland. His father came from Glauntane. His mother
was Catherine Healy from Knocknaboul, a great singer, as was his uncle Michael. He
is, as far as we know, the youngest surviving pupil of Padraig Caoimh.

Paddy went to school in Castleisland up to his leaving Cert but as he says himself,
music and drinking were more important to him at that time. After leaving school
Paddy went to England and worked for the Electricity Board. After some years he came
home and worked as a teacher in Foyle primary school for 6 months, then decided to
head back to England and worked as a bus driver.
In 1994 Paddy returned to Ireland and started teaching music in schools. At one stage
he was teaching to over 80 pupils. Paddy never joined Comhaltas and did not enter
their competitions, but in 1999 he entered the Pan-Celtic Fiddle Contest in Killarney
and won that. Now he teaches a variety of instruments in the Kerry School of Music,
including fiddle, banjo, bazouki and mandolin.

Paddy Jones:
First of all, for the uninitiated, wed have to say where Sliabh Luachra was. Some
people think that Ciaran MacMahuna introduced Sliabh Luachra to the world, with his
lovely tough way he says, A few weeks ago I was down in Sliabh Luachra, and, this
music came on the scene and suddenly people began looking for Sliabh Luachra. And
they came into places like Castleisland and Killarney, and they were asking the
publicans in places there, Wheres this village of Sliabh Luachra? And, of course, the
people there knew there was no village, because they didnt know anything more
about Sliabh Luachra. And they said, Yerra, it is over there, around Gneeveguilla or
some damned place like that. And thats about all they knew about it.
But Sliabh Luachra is going back in history a long way. There was a time, when the
English, or the British, ruled the place, and Sliabh Luachra was described as a place
where the Queens writ couldnt run. In other words, twas a vast area of bogs and
swamps and forest, with no roads through it, so that these lawless people they were
lawless from the British viewpoint because they were trying to take back, by daring
and courage, what had been stolen from them, legally, in Britains eyes but they
could run into this place and the Queens armies couldnt go in after them. So thats
why Mr Griffith built some of these roads that run through this territory.
Anyway, a time came, after the release of The Star Above the Garter, when Sliabh
Luachra became nationwide, it became one of the most notable parts of Ireland. From
a place that was totally obscure, now it was the leading traditional exponent of Irish
music. And people from all over started learning it. And, from obscurity, it almost
engulfed the whole country, as Connie Houlihan said in his lecture. There was no
boundaries to its areas, but it spread and spread and, Connie said, it was in danger of
engulfing the whole country.
So, not only that, but even parts of America Im going to show you a t-shirt here,
thats maybe a little bit the worse for wear, but it was given to me in a place near
Albuquerque, and if you could read the label there it says, Greetings from New
Mexico. But it says, Sliabh Sandia. Now, Sandia is the French for water melon, or
the Spanish, sorry, for water melon, but you can see even the influence, Sliabh. They
were used to dancing Sliabh Luachra sets. They called their club Sliabh.
Now, talking about Sliabh, Im going to now read the sleeve notes of The Star Above
the Garter. (Excuse me for all the stooping up and down.) This is the cover of the
original LP that put Sliabh Luachra on the map. And tis a bit the worse for wear,
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because it is around with thirty or more odd years. But Im not going to read it because
Im a better reader than you are, but Im going to read it because it makes some very
interesting points that need to be made. So, with your permission, Ill read it.
In the Kingdom of Kerry there are many principalities and many princely lines. We
speak here, not of the aristocracy of blood, for it would be a brave man who could, or
who would, draw comparisons between the proud genealogies of the South West. Our
concern is, rather, with the arts poetry and story-telling and good talk and, of course,
music. Even here, or perhaps especially here, one must tread warily. Only a fool indeed
will rush into judgment on the relative claims of greatness of say, Corca Dhuibhne, and
Uibh Rathach. But I believe even the most loyal partisan of Piaras Feiritar would
concede the primacy for poetry to the area known to generations as Sliabh Luachra.
For here was the little fatherland of Aoghn Rathaille and Eoghan Rua Silleabhin
who are, by common consent, the two finest poets that Kerry can claim, and Aoghn,
at least, was one of the great poets of Ireland. But that was long ago, you may say,
and since English became the language of Sliabh Luachra, the high poetry is gone. True.
But the music remains.
Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, his sister, are from Eoghan Ruas own native place,
Gneeveguilla, near Killarney not that Eoghan would have spelt it like that. The link is
not just one of coincidence, as you will so learn if you spend the evening listening to
Denis, not just playing the tunes that the poets sang to, but telling the stories about
Eoghan and the others that still live in the place. Its a place of long memories and
there was no better man to keep the memories fresh and the stories sharp and salty
than Pdraig Caoimh, Beannacht D Leat Ar A Anam, who passed on the great
tradition in words and music to his pupils. Pupils we say advisedly, for Pdraig was one
of the last of the fiddle masters, who are the scattered fellows of an unendowed,
unhoused, unrecognised academy of Irish music and tradition for perhaps two hundred
years. (We will be dealing with that aspect later on.) Pdraig Caoimh had many
pupils, some of them brilliant, but none more brilliant that Denis and Julia. Here is their
music to prove it. Among the twenty items listed, pride of place must, of course, go to
the airs. Here we have four melodies of great beauty and no little antiquity. The air
Caoine U Dhonaill, the Lament of ODonnell, side 2 band 9, is a deeply moving lament,
and along with ORahillys Grave, side 1 band 7, is a fine example of the tradition we
have been discussing.
But we neednt go any further with this at the present time . . . of course he mentioned
The Blackbird, a slow air as well. But, these notes were written by a man called Sen
Mac Ramoinn, and certainly this man knew what he was talking about, because in the
world today, its almost all, sessions have become almost reels completely in certain
places, and of course in lots of places. But in Sliabh Luachra the tradition always was
the variety: slides, polkas, slow airs, marches. If you look at some of Caoimhs books
youll find quicksteps, two-steps, waltzes, mazurkas, barn dances youll find all sorts
of tunes as well as the reels and the jigs and the hornpipes. So for Caoimh, and in
my estimation, a good fiddle player should be able to play all sorts of tunes.
Now Ill tell you of my own experience of coming to this music. First of all, my father
was a next door neighbour of Pdraig Caoimhs, so he knew Pdraig intimately and
had gone to school to him as a pupil. He was there the day Pdraig lost his school. And
later on, he used to cut his hair, and he knew Pdraig very well and could tell a lot of
stories about him.
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But, when I was a young lad he used to say, when you heard Caoimh playing the
fiddle, you never again thought anybody else could come anywhere near what he was
doing playing the fiddle, because he had some drocht, was the word. Now theres
loads of aspects to music, but the way my father described it, he had a magic in his
playing. And my grandfather, who was known as Old Jones, he was Tom, he said,
When Caoimh plays he says, youre not listening to music, hes talking to you.
And my grandmother they all lived near him and they danced at house dances
she said, The people around here dont appreciate Pdraigs playing, she says, but
when hell die, theyll all be talking about him. And she was right.
Now, I have a little word that Ill say about Caoimh himself. I was lucky in that I went
to him for lessons when I was about ten years of age. It was a journey of at least six
miles maybe, if not seven, from the top of Killcushana down to the main road, and
from there to Glauntane Cross. And he was a grand old gentleman at that time. He
was nearly seventy years of age at that time. He died in 1963. But he was a courteous
and a gentle and a kind man. He didnt take very much trouble in teaching. He usually
wrote out of his head whatever tune he thought was appropriate. And paper, thats
such an abundant commodity in the world today, was very scarce that time.
Sometimes he wrote on the back of calendars and hed draw the lines with a bow, with
a pencil. And then hed write the tune out of his head. And hed play the tune through,
maybe once, slowly, and your lesson was over. The lesson was usually over in about
five minutes flat. And you could walk away the six miles home then again.
And it was written in tablature; there was no such thing as staff notation. So the only
obvious problem with tablature does everybody know what tablature is, or must I
explain it? Tablature is a system thats still used in parts of America for teaching 5string banjo. The 5 lines you can use the standard manuscript book but the 5 lines
are used, and the spaces in between represent the strings. In other words, the space
at the top represents the first string, the next space down the second, then the third
and then the fourth. And whatever number is written in represents the finger thats
to go on that string. Now I have books of it here, and its a bit worse for wear I
wonder, you cant see it very clearly but you can see these are written out with all
letters. And these are all collected. I have collected these down the years, starting
from Pdraig himself, and then when he died, I went to other people and I found a lot
of tunes, and I copied them all down in these books. So I thought Id bring them along
to show you this as well.
So, about the stories: one of the stories I used to enjoy was, Caoimh was playing at
a ploughing match one day, down in Cordal, and the people and of course you must
realise the standard of music was very poor at that time and thats not bringing down
Caoimh accomplishments but the story was the people left their horses and
ploughs and ran over to hear this music. So, a touch of Orpheus. Orpheus, in Greek
legend, was such a mighty musician that trees uprooted themselves, and rocks, to
follow after him, to listen to him. Yes. So he was a mighty man.
Now there is another funny one. A Greek goddess asked Zeus meaning no
disrespect to the people of the cloth as they say for the gift of music. And Zeus ran
to her these are only legends with the gift. And the gods looking on, when they
saw her playing they laughed, because she used to make faces while she played. Now
it wasnt the fiddle, maybe, maybe a lyre or whatever, but the gods laughed at her. So
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I notice myself, sometimes, we do make faces, and a few times, a bold person in an
audience might come up after and say, Youre saying something when youre playing
music, and of course, I say I dont like it very much but I dont tell the people
that, but I say, Well now, if you come up, and put your ear up, youll hear something
very important. Thats all I have to say on it.
But poor Pdraig, he finally died. And, it was amazing. The people, that knew his life
was very limited in resource, they were all surprised that this man its amazing the
amount of people I met that told me afterwards, We thought this man would never
die. In fact, my mother had a picture of De Valera on one side of the fireplace and a
picture of the Pope on the other, and these were her two heroes, but when Caoimh
died, herself and my father, it used to come up in conversation, and they used to say,
That man should never die. He was the only one, except one more. There was
another man that died, Joe Cooley, he was a box player from Peterswell in Galway, and
the same thing, when he died, the story was, That man should never die. So you can
see how important musicians were to the people of Ireland.
Now, were talking now about the music itself: why had it such an effect on the people?
You know, I mean, music is such a common thing in the world today. Why did it have
such a profound effect on those people? Its very simple when you think about it. If
Van Gogh or Salvador Dali, who could easily have been living around the locality, were
there, and he made a great picture, the people could come and look at it and say, Oh,
thats beautiful. Or a great sculptor, he could do something, but what would it have
done for the people? It would be great art, and of course it has intrinsic value in itself,
but from the world viewpoint its value is that its a collectors item. But the music was
where the real treasure-house was, and for several reasons. Now, Im going to
introduce you to a man again, and people could say, Well he has nothing in the world
to do with Irish music, and he hasnt, but he is a beautiful gentleman, Yahudi Menuhin.
He was one of the worlds greatest fiddlers for years upon years. But in a little sentence
here, he gives the answer to why music was so important, not only for the people of
Sliabh Luachra but for everybody.
Now to take these in little sections we have to use our imagination a little bit, because
Im taking this from the end of a paragraph here, and it says, The refinement to which
I believe we all aspire is genuine only so long as it contains a levelling of spontaneity
and a sense of common humanity. Music, which exhibits this, remains in touch with
the emotions and desires of more, rather than fewer, people. On the other hand, art
which turns its back on the often bleak life which very many people endure, simply
cannot last.
So now, when you think of the people of Sliabh Luachra, well go back to that in a
minute, but Ill maybe just, as I have the book in my hand, Ill read another note that
may be pertinent, and its on page 12 here, it says, The violin is the poor mans
instrument, but it is strangely enough also the instrument which offers to the individual
the greatest and most immediate means of expression. It enables a person, a people,
to speak for and of themselves. I recall visiting a museum for folk instruments in
Moscow, and I could not believe my eyes when I saw hundreds upon hundreds of
varieties of violins. Every conceivable size, shape, design, form some of them did not
even look like violins yet all were played on four strings, with a bow, and were made
by the village carpenter, or village handyman, and could be carried about the place.
These hardworking, hardwearing fiddles were rustic folk instruments of infinite
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resource. Such an instrument was sturdy; if it got wet or damaged it could easily be
repaired or replaced. So now, when were talking about the music of Sliabh Luachra,
I thought that would be a good point, because were basically talking about violins, you
know, nearly all the time, in whats related to what Im presenting here tonight.
Now, like Jesus himself, Im going to use an analogy, or a parable, because He was the
greatest teacher of all time. So I am going to use the analogy of Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, and people could look up and say, Whats that got to do with Sliabh
Luachra music? Well it has, because when you think that this little princess all of a
sudden found herself inside with these seven dwarfs. And if we believe the story as it
was told, it seems that she washed and cooked and looked after these they werent
seven dirty old men they were seven filthy dwarfs! And they went out every
morning down a mine, so they came in fairly rough and ready, and you know, I wonder
was the story true?
Well, Walt Disneys take on it was a way better altogether. Walt showed that she
didnt do the work at all. This little princess got all these dwarfs, Grumpy and the whole
lot of them, to do the work. But they worked with such a will, because they were
delighted that this beautiful feminine being was among them. And the work became
light. You couldnt imagine Grumpy saying to Snow White, Snow White, you must dig
the spuds today at 12 oclock, and you must weed the turnips! It would hardly happen.
But Walt Disney got it, when you saw that all of a sudden these people had something
beautiful to come home to, and they had something to get up for, they had something
to live for, and she made them laugh and she got them to work.
Now, the music of Sliabh Luachra did exactly the same thing. These were a people that
were oppressed. These people had one real worry when they got up in the morning,
and that was where the next morsel of food came from. Because if you didnt look
after the potatoes, or you didnt look after the pit of potatoes, and turnip, well when
the spring came youd have nothing to eat. So these people were constantly working.
And even as romantic as saving hay seems, looking back on it now, the weather then
was basically the same as it is today; if you didnt make hay while the sun shone, you
were working very hard.
So, these people were now, they were oppressed by religion as well. With all due
respects, these people were given to believe that we were living in the vale of tears,
or a valley of tears. Its not true. We are living in a place of incredible gifts and
goodness. Now, with all due respect to the Church, they meant well, but sometimes
the message got a bit garbled and they tried to curtail people who were coming
together, to have a dance or something, as well. So unfortunately, that is the history.
And the thing is, the people worked so hard, and while they worked they had this music
to sustain them, and this looking forward to the night of the dance or the wedding. So
thats how, in a sense, it became like Snow White in their imagination.
Now, my mother used to tell a story and Ill just elaborate on that point a little bit. Up
from where my mother lived in Knocknaboul, there were a family of Tarrants, and
these people used to try to rush through saving the hay with one express purpose, of
getting it shot with, to go in to practice music. And also, Paddy Cannon, Paddy was a
grand fiddle player from County Clare, and his neighbours used to talk about Paddy
because Paddy would bring his fiddle out to the meadow, and of course for neighbours
he wasnt a very practical man. If Paddy was learning a new tune, that hed heard
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someplace, hed bring out his fiddle, you know, to play in the meadow. Peter Horan
loved the music so much that his farm fell into disrepair a little bit, because the fiddler
is often away making people happy when he should be at home minding his own
business.
So this was our Pdraig; Pdraig was the same. My father used to say he was the laziest
man he ever saw. He was so lazy that hed put the pint down, he wouldnt even move
it from one place to another. Hed just pick it up. So, the poor man. Well talk about
him later on, but he had a big problem with drink. But you can think of him, you can
think of all these people, as loving the princess, loving the music. Now of course it
wasnt Sliabh Luachra music above in Sligo, but they all loved music so much that it
became the focal point of their lives.
Now, they lived unaware of themselves. It was only afterwards, looking back, that its
been sort of glorified. But these people lived in the real world and they were totally
unaware of themselves. And they were as joyful as children, and they enjoyed their
life. But theres a story that Ill tell you that actually proves that. Theres a woman, Id
say shes only 4 or 5 fields away, she was, her name was Molly Myers. She came from
behind, the top of Farranfore, Killeagh, a place called Killeagh between Farranfore and
Cullane, and she was a student of Tom Billy Murphys. And she didnt have much time
for Pdraig. She thought Tom Billy was a way better musician, and of course I think
Molly was judging more from the moral standard than from maybe the musical
standard. But she told a story where she was at a wedding one day, and Pdraig and
Denis were the two fiddle players playing at the wedding. And of course Pdraig was
a very astute observant man, and my father used to say that, watching people at
dances, he could tell who were going to get married eventually, and he was very good
at appraising people, so he probably knew the people very well even before he went.
And he was the kind of man that if refreshments didnt keep coming on a fairly regular
basis, he wouldnt be so happy. And in fact my mother used to say that hed slow down
and he wouldnt be playing so well unless he got encouragement.
So, Molly used to tell that at the wedding anyway, she hated him for it, He was a
terrible man, she said that that day he decided to leave the wedding. And not only
that, she said, he got up and did his best to take Denis off with him as well! But
Denis was such a lovely courteous man that Denis didnt go. But Molly had a very dim
view of Pdraig because of that day. So, as far as the people at the wedding were
concerned, these were two run of the mill musicians that were a penny a dozen. It
was only afterwards, looking back as we say, that theyve become famous.
Now, Ill tell you another episode that exemplifies how important this music was.
Pdraig had an uncle called Cal Callaghan. Now Cal was a very famous man in his own
right, because Cal must have been born sometime after the Famine. You see people
have the concept that the Famine was a long, long time ago, but the Famine wasnt so
far back at all. I knew a man for thirty years in other words, I was thirty years old
when he died but his father had to be born near the time of the Famine. Hard to
believe it, but it is true. He was my grandfather. He lived to be almost a hundred years;
he was only five months short of a hundred when he died. But, he was born in 1878,
and he died in 1977. So his father had to be born near the time of the Famine. Yes,
thats how near it is. So, Cal Callaghan was a famous fiddle player and he went to
America and it seems Donal, I think Patricia, had more knowledge on this than
anyone Donal was actually from the townland of Doonasleen, which is between
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Kiskeam and Cullen, and some other village as well, I think, but Call became a buffalo
hunter at the time of the slaughter of the buffalos in America, and he met a lot of
Scottish and Irish fiddlers. And if you listen to a lot of the Kerry polkas and even
theres one, Farewell to Whisky Farewell to Whisky was composed by a fiddle player
called Neil Gow, he was the most famous Scottish fiddler, and theres a picture of him
here you can look at all these things after oh dear, he got lost somewhere along
the line, Im afraid. Anyway, I have a picture of Neil Gow, he could be going back to, I
suppose, 17-something, thats how far back. He composed some of the tunes that
were played for Bonnie Prince Charlie and the march south into England. But he
composed Farewell to Whisky as a slow air, as a lament, because one night, having
drank too much whisky at some get-together, he sat on his fiddle on the chair and
broke it. So that was why he composed it.
But in Kerry they changed it to a polka. Now, several of the polkas, if you examined
them, youll find that they actually began life as Scottish marches and they were
changed, and theres a good chance that Cal Callaghan would be the prime agent in
that, because Cal came back from America and lived out the remainder of his life in
Doonasleen. And when Pdraig was a young man, he was reared in Doonasleen, for
quite a while before he moved back to Glauntane, where his father and mother finally
built a house. So the story was that these men were hard-working farmers, and they
used to go up to a shebeen that was not far from their place of residence, and their
fiddles were hanging behind the counter, and they used to take down their fiddles, I
wont say every night but maybe a lot of nights per week. And the story was,
sometimes if their hands were very cold after working, digging ditches or whatever for
the day, when theyd make mash for feeding cows they used to hand-make mash
out of bran or whatever stuff with boiling water theyd warm their hands in the
boiling water so that they could actually go up and play their fiddles. So, Pdraig grew
up with that. They used to take him up there to the shebeen, and of course they
trained him to have a little drop of drink as well, when he was young. So unfortunately
the problem escalated.
Now the story though like Micho Russell I digressed a little bit one of the uncles
happened to be in Knocknagree at a fair one day, and of course the fair was a great
venue that time because travelling musicians came, and the people went, and they
might hear a new tune. So Cals brother was there and he heard the travelling man
playing some nice tune, and he was trying to get it in his head, and of course he drank
too much and he stayed too late. And coming home, he fell in a ditch. And when the
time went too far that he should be home, he hadnt turned up. So they finally went
looking for him and they found him in a short cut. It was easy enough to find him,
because he would have come home this way, so they found him inside in a ditch, and
they started to pull him out, and he said, Hold it a minute! he said, I nearly have it.
Hold on a minute! Wait! I nearly have it! So the poor man, the music was so
important to him that he wanted to be let rest where he was.
Now, well let the princess rest for a while, as well. Well come back to her later. But
its an interesting analogy, so think about it. Now, as Jesus used to say, Then the
Kingdom of the Heavens became like a man that found a rare treasure. So Im going
to use another parable again. So people say, Whats that got to do with Sliabh
Luachra music? Well it has. There was a lovely writer called Hans Christian Andersen
and he wrote a beautiful story called either The Nightingale or The Emperor and the
Nightingale. Twas so long ago I cant remember, but it was to do with a nightingale.
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And theres a very interesting line in this Im talking about The Nightingale that
Pdraig had a story about a nightingale. He used to tell this story. Now he didnt tell
it to me, but he told it to some of the older people around Glauntane. Pdraig used to
claim that if a true musician went out in the middle of the night, to an isolated place,
on his own, and he played Mrs McClouds Reel, the nightingale would come and sing
with him. What a story! Now, theres a good chance that very few have tried it,
because of fearing the outcome. Maybe they feared the outcome as much as they
feared the dark. So, were not saying that it is true. But, I never heard the nightingale.
Did anyone here ever hear a nightingale? Did anyone ever hear a nightingale? Yes, so
there we are.
Now, the cuckoo sings all night long outside where I live. People dont know, but the
cuckoo sings every whole night. I come home from gigs at every hour and the cuckoo
sings. And the skylark sings, in the bog, in the summer-time. But man, if the
nightingale is a better singer than the skylark, she must be a mighty singer. But
anyway, this is a very interesting and funny story by Hans Christian Andersen.
This Emperor lived in a country, long ago, and a man said to him one day, Your most
excellent pre-eminence, he said to him, it says here in a book that there is a bird that
sings in one of your woods in your property, the best songster in the world. And the
Emperor said, What? he says, and Ive never heard her? Well, has she been
presented at court?
No.
Well, shell have to be got.
So they set out looking for her, and they were looking for the bird. And people said to
them, What are you doing? Youre going looking for a nightingale in the middle of the
day? Thats a total waste of time. Youll have to search for the nightingale at nighttime.
So they started to go out at night-time and they went through fields and they slipped
on cow pats, and one of them fell over a cow, and the cow gave a moo, and he shouted,
Oh, he said, thanks be to God we finally found it! he said. What a strong voice
she has! And another man turned. He said, Will you be quiet! he said. Thats only
a cow, you eejit! he said. Youd nearly think it happened in Ireland, wouldnt you?
So, it happened that a little girl worked in the kitchen, and she lived away in a remote
place. And she had heard the nightingale. And, as luck would have it, the people found
out through this girl that there was such a bird, and they went with her. And the whole
army, with nets, they finally captured this nightingale and brought it back. And it was
hard to make it sing for the Emperor, because she didnt like to be put in a cage. And
the Emperor thought she should sing every time he told her. And people said in the
finish, The nightingale only sings at night-time. So, he finally heard the nightingale
sing, and man, it was such a beautiful thing to hear the nightingale sing. And the
nightingale was very, how would I say, contrary. The Emperor thought she should sing
any time he wanted. So people said, Look, the nightingale has to sleep and she has
to rest and she has to get exercise. So he appointed twelve footmen to take her for
walks in the park, with a rope tied around her leg, during the day-time.
And this went on for a while anyway, but there was a very clever man looking at all this
happening. And this man happened to be a jeweller and a watch-maker. So, he
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thought of a great idea. He worked day and night for weeks and he finally made a toy
nightingale. And he put jewels in it, jewels for its eyes, and it was brightly coloured.
And through influence, he finally got introduced to the Emperor. And the people were
amazed to see this beautiful bird. Oh, its so beautiful! Its far more beautiful than
the real bird. And, not only that, but he put a key into the side, and he wound it up,
and it sang a song. Ah! The people, they couldnt contain themselves. And during the
whole hubbub, all the people rushed in to hear this bird, the toy bird now Im talking
about, and the real nightingale escaped back into his wood where it belonged.
So that was fine. The Emperor said, Well, shes a very ungrateful bird to run away like
that, after all I did for it. But now he had a bird that he could wind up any time he
liked, and it would play. And after a while everybody knew the tune that the bird was
playing. They played it over and over again. And the only trouble was that after a time
the people got kind of fed up with the same tune, and the clockwork began to wear
down a bit, so that they could only play it once a year. But the real nightingale was
back in the wood where she belonged.
Now, what has that got to do with Irish music of Sliabh Luachra? Well it has, because
Sliabh Luachra wasnt heard of until this record was released, around 1971 or 72
maybe, Im not certain of the date. It doesnt say it on it. But I remember I was coming
through Limerick city from up the country somewhere, and I saw this in a music shop.
And of course the cover grabbed my attention. And theres a fiddle player and his
daughter is now drawing this picture, and children can draw so beautifully, she can
capture the essence of this lovely psychedelic sort of a picture. But, at that time I
left out a point from my story at that time I hadnt much appreciation of Sliabh
Luachra music, because when I had gone to London, I went down of course to Fulham
Broadway, to a pub called The Kings Head, and there Sean McGuire was playing two
or three nights a week. And man, Sean McGuire I suppose was the greatest exponent
of technique, fiddle technique, of any fiddle player anywhere in the world, in Irish
music anywhere.
So I was thinking to myself, Well now, what do the boys in Sliabh Luachra know about
music compared to what this man can do? I was right, from what I knew at the time.
And of course this idea persisted for years upon years, until this record came on the
scene. And when I started listening to this record for a while I thought, Whats
happening? What kind of music is this? And after a while I began to see what my
father had been telling me years and years before, that there was a magic that
happened in this music that didnt happen in any other music I ever heard. Now, thats
a very strange fact. As far as technique goes, I mean, Im not going to fault the
technique of these musicians, but technique never entered into their concept of music.
It was something that was by-the-by. The music itself was what counted to these
people. And thats what happened with this record. So it was then, for the first time,
that I understood what my father had been saying a long time before that.
Now, records. So now, the story of the nightingale is beginning to unfold a little bit
now. The people, with the Emperor, they had the wind-up music. They could hear it,
they could turn it on whenever they liked. So this is what happened. The people of
Sliabh Luachra are no longer there, but they can hear this music. And of course, theres
drawbacks to that as well. Now Ill tell you a funny story about it. This happened. One
night Pdraig I call him Pdraig OKeeffe, the old people used to call him Patrick or
Pdraig he called to a house, Paddy Connells (theres none of the family here) and
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the man of the house was Paddy Connell. And Paddy had got a record that had come
across the ocean from America, of maybe Michael Coleman or James Morrison or
Paddy Killoran playing Irish music, and for the first time this had happened. And
Pdraig said, Can I see that, Pat? Paddy Connell used to love to tell this story.
Pdraig caught the record and Paddy Connell said, he put his thumb like that and broke
it. You know, Paddy used to tell different versions of the story, you know. Why did he
do it? Paddy thought sometimes that he did it out of envy, and he thought other
reasons, but what take had Pdraig on it? What do you think?
Anyway, well come back to it later. Well talk about records now for a minute, because
this is where the subject is going. So, this record wasnt the only record that came
across the ocean. Around the mid-forties, and on up along, until the fifties, some
people that had relatives in America received in the post maybe these records. Now,
I should have explained better about Pdraigs records though. These records were
made from pressed wax. They were 78s. They had to be spinning at a very high speed
and they were played on the old wind-up gramophones. And you didnt even have to
look crooked at them, you could look straight at them and theyd crack. It happened
to me a few times, you know, so whether it was a mistake or whatever, it could be
anything. But anyway, its the influence that these records had that were interested
in here, because now, for the first time, people in all the regional parts of Ireland, like
Sliabh Luachra, were hearing music of a different calibre altogether, a different kind of
music, and of course, this music was of a tremendous standard, because it was played
by the greatest fiddlers that went to America, and it was done with the best possible
resource and studio work that was available at the time.
And of course, very soon it became that only Sligo fiddle players came Michael
Coleman, James Morrison, Hugh Gillespie, Paddy Killoran, the Dowds would you
believe, there was a lot of those. I didnt hear them, because . . . but other musicians
around, later on I found that thats how they learned a lot of their music. But, the
downside of it was, and this is what people didnt realise, was that in the making of
these records they had to be speeded up. So the music that was coming across now
was at a far faster tempo than ever had been the case previously. And it was so fast,
and in fact the fiddle players had to play so fast because if they didnt the sound would
get distorted in the recording process. So, this caused a problem.
Comhaltas Ceoltir got on the bandwagon with this music to the point where this was
the only music that was sort of acceptable at any kind of competitions. I remember a
time, and I was foolish enough to be pushed on the stage by a crowd of people I was
playing music with, they were all far older than me, to play in a competition. But I
found out that if you played Sliabh Luachra music at one of these venues, away back
in the early sixties, you werent in the running. So thats one of the reasons why I
would never have anything to do with Comhaltas Ceoltir ireann.
Now, theres another thing Pdraig also told all his students, Never play for
competitions, and I would agree a hundred per cent with him, because its totally
against the spirit of what this music is for. Paddy Cronin used to say, The fiddle is best
inside in the house, and he was right. You know, with these records, what happened
was it became a rush for technique. Technique and speed became the primary thing
with this music, from these records. And consequently it has gone on today and of
course the whole human thing is speeding up, whatever, it may be the electrical
influence of radiation or whatever it is, but the world isnt getting faster, its getting
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frantic, and the music is getting frantic as well. Now, Pdraig would have been furious,
because he loved music played slowly. In fact, dancers didnt like him because Pdraig
always wanted to play music for the beauty of listening to him, but the people wanted
it a bit faster.
Now, records, were still on topic of records. Now, well go back to this one again. This
record, for the people that have listened to it and analysed it, and Ive lived with this
record a long time, this record is basically, you have Denis plays some solo tracks, and
Julia plays I think maybe one or two solo tracks, and then they play together. Theres
no backer, or theres very, very little studio work done. So that youre hearing the very
basic when you hear this record. And this is the truth of the matter. Now I have
another record here, and it gives a totally false impression of Sliabh Luachra music
Kerry Fiddles. Now these are the only, sort of, two records that are of Sliabh Luachra
music.
But when you hear records made today, youre hearing one player maybe, sometimes
two, two fiddles, and sometimes theres a double take on that, and you hear all the
artificial use of echo chambers, and theres a backer, sometimes theres two backers
and there may be a piano playing, or a guitar. And theres sound engineering, theres
two or three tracks taken and theyre superimposed, and a lot of the time its speeded
up as well. Now some people dont believe this, but it is true. Ive met a lot of
musicians and theyve said, when their music came back it had been speeded up.
Unfortunately, like the man that made the clockwork nightingale, he wasnt impressed
with the music, the people who make these records arent interested in music. Theyre
interested in selling copy, as they say. So, thats why, in most modern records, youll
hardly hear any slow airs. If you go recording, Oh no, we might allow you to get away
with one slow air, but I mean it would stop the sale of the record. So, as far as theyre
concerned, speed and technique the faster it sounds, the more exciting it seems.
And thats whats happened. So thats the downside. Now, theres also a great side,
in that if this record had never been made, we would have nothing to talk about. This
is the only proof we have that this man lived.
So, well go back to Pdraig for a minute again. So, when he broke the record, was it
out of envy? Paddy Connell thought sometimes that maybe he thought that Michael
Coleman was a far better fiddle player than he was. So, maybe. What about the real
nightingale, I wonder? Was the real nightingale envious of the toy nightingale, I
wonder? Now, there was a great fiddle player in America, Lad OBeirne and he never
recorded, and there were many like him. And they wouldnt record, for that very
reason. They called it canned music, and they kept away from it.
Now, Pdraig could see as well that a time would come when in a place, whether it be
a dance, they could put on a record and they would need no musician. So the musician,
by recording, was becoming the source of his own downfall, in that hed be stopping
himself earning a living. So would you believe even in America, where my friend Joel
comes from, theres musicians unions, that when dancers perform they have to have
live musicians playing. So records have their place.
Ill just maybe do one more thing and maybe well leave it at that. Well go back to this
man for a minute. Look at this lovely old gentleman. Have you seen this picture? Yes?
Well, its a pity that this beautiful old gentleman came to such a pass as this. The first
thing people from outside Ireland would say on seeing this picture, This man is a
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beach comber. Hes standing there. You can see the haunted look on his face,
because this man lived a haunted life. And hes standing here with a bow with a cork,
to keep tension on the bow hair. Yes. So, its a very sad reflection of the society that
he lived in, because this man brought wealth of a spiritual kind to loads and loads of
people that heard him play.
And he brought wealth of every kind, because only for him, some of the most beautiful
tunes Ive ever heard wouldnt be in existence. Theyd be lost completely. And, the
poor man, to look at him, hes well worn. He often slept in hay barns. Thats why I
said wed refer to what it says here, They were unendowed, unhoused, unrecognised,
the academy of Irish musical tradition for two hundred years. This man was tripped
by corner boys, he was laughed at and he never retaliated. But see the haunted face
and the haunted look. And not only that, but the house where he lived, at Glauntane
cross-roads, is actually falling down. Theres nothing being done about it. Now, some
people take exception to that. They say, and even Donal had a poem written, and it
wouldnt be very complimentary for people in lots of the villages, because this man
often came, or got someone to drive him to the door, and when theyd see him coming
they often slammed the door in his face. So he often walked the roads hungry and
wet, and went home to a house with nothing in it.
But he looked forward to a better time, as I do as well. So, I believe better times will
come for Irish music. So this music has become academic, this Sliabh Luachra music.
You know that it was a vibrant, living tradition at one time, when it was danced and
sung, and the people lived with it. Now, its played in pubs and things, but pubs are a
very bad venue for it, because the people, first of all arent interested in it, they arent
listening, and theyre talking so loud it cant be heard. Pdraigs take on it would be,
they arent talking at all, but braying.
So whats going to happen? The future. Well, I believe that with venues like this
thats why I love the idea of this venue, Patricia, and we must thank Patricia for opening
this home for these kind of venues that maybe that people will come to realise and
appreciate the real art of living music, by live performers, right among them, in their
presence, rather than the record, thats prepared with all the art of the studio and the
record makers. Looking forward to this time, Im going to quote one little piece of
Irish, with your permission, and then I will say good-bye. Thinking of the time to come,
and it says,
Aithchim ar Mhuire s ar osa
Go dtagaidh s ars chughainn sln,
Go mberdh rinnce fada gabhil timcheall,
Ceol fidil is teinte cnmh,
Go dtgfar an baile seo r sinnsear,
Cill Cis bhregh, ars go hrd,
s go brath n go dtiocfaidh an dle
N ficfar rs ar lr.

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