This weekend Dublin City Hall plays host to a gala benefit concert for the Pecker Dunne. The event which takes place on Sunday, January 29 at 5pm, and is organised by writer, actor and Dublin City Councillor Mannix Flynn as part of this year’s Temple Bar Tradfest, aims to raise funds for Pecker. The singer, who turns 80 this year, is in poor health.
“But more importantly, it’s to honour the man,” Mannix Flynn told the Irish Times. “He has made an outstanding contribution to broader Irish society and culture. He’s not just a traditional player, he could compose – for me, he’s up there with Sean Ó Riada and Carolan. Also, we’re always ready to talk about integration, an equal society and cultural democracy, but Pecker is one of the very few examples of this: he gives voice to his community through his art.”
Born into a Traveller family, in compositions such as The Last Of The Travelling People and Wexford Town he sings powerfully and frankly about the lure and hardship of life on the road, speaking of his pride in his culture while lamenting its slow decline. He came from a distinct, disappearing tradition within the community, the Travelling musicians who would earn their living busking at fairs and football matches around the country.
These entertainers spoke their own variation of Cant, the Traveller language: The Pecker’s biography, entitled Parley-Poet And Chanter, is studded with the dialect. Their music was also distinctive.
“He bridged the worlds of Traveller music and the folk revival scene. The themes he sang about engaged with the folk world of the 1970s,” says Niall Keegan of the University of Limerick
The Pecker Dunne is in failing health and no longer performs: he will not be at Sunday’s gala, although his children will be playing the instruments and songs he taught them. And his peers will be there to pay tribute to his legacy as a songwriter, musician and singer.
“When an artist gets overlooked, it can end up being all about a tragic story. But we are trying to get to the contribution his music has made, bring it to a new generation and to acknowledge him while he is still in his boots,” says Mannix Flynn.
Pecker Dunne Biography

Updated weekly

Dates, venues, locations and weblinks for Irish traditional music, singing festivals, summer schools and workshops for 2012

For a list of Comhaltas fleadhanna, click Here

Please note: Where the 2012 dates are not yet available, the 2011 dates are indicated.

January

Shannonside Winter Music Weekend
Sixmilebridge, Co Clare
January12 – 15
http://www.wmw.ie

Temple Bar Trad Festival
Dublin
January 25 – 29
www.templebartrad.com

Ballincollig Winter Music Festival
Ballincollig, Co Cork
January 25 – 29
http://www.whitehorse.ie/

Merriman Winter School
Hotel Westport, Co Mayo
January 27 – 29
www.merriman.ie

Feis na nGael
Baile Atha Cliath
Eanair 27 – 28
www.feisnangael.com/

February

Tradfest
Cork
February 9 – 11
http://www.ucctradsoc.com/

Ceol Chairlinn
Carlingford, Co Louth
February 3 – 5
http://www.carlingfordbeds.com/

Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh,
Ballyferriter,
Co Kerry
February 15 – 19
http://www.scoilcheoil.com

The Joseph Browne Spring School of Traditional Music
Kinvara, Co Galway
February 16 – 18
www.josephbrowne.org

The 11th Gathering, Gleneagles Hotel
Killarney
February 22 – 26
www.thegathering.ie

Micho Russell Festival Weekend
Doolin, Co Clare
February 24 – 26
www.michorussellweekend.ie

Corofin Traditional Music Festival
Co Clare
February 27 – March 4
www.corofintradfest.com

Seachtain na Gaelige
Galway
March 5 – 17
http://snag.ie/lang/gd-ie/

St Patrick’s Festival
Dublin
March 16 – 19
http://www.stpatricksfestival.ie/

Inishowen International Folk Song and Ballad Seminar
Co Donegal
March 23 – 26
http://www.inishowensinging.ie/

Glengarriff Free Spirit Festival
Glengarriff
Co Cork
March 14 – 18
Facebook Page

Ceardlann Earraigh
Celbridge
Co Kildare, March 31
www.ceardlannearraigh.com

Ballydehob Traditional Music, Song and Dance Festival

Co Cork

March 30 – April 1
www.ballydehobtradfestival.com/

Feile Patrick Byrne
Carrickmacross
Co Monaghan
March 29 – April 1

www.myspace.com/patrickbyrnefestival

3rd Annual Clifden Traditional Music Festival
Clifden, Co. Galway
April 13 – 15
www.clifdentradfest.com

The Shindig Festival of Set Dancing and Traditional Music
Tralee
April 20 – 22
http://www.shindigfestival.com/

Granard Traditional Harp Festival
Granard
Co Longford
Cancelled 2011
www.harp.net/granard/index.html

Pan Celtic Festival,
Carlow
April 10 – 15
http://www.panceltic.ie/

Sean Nos Cois Life
Dublin
April 20 – 22
http://www.seannos.ie/

Cruinniu na bhFliuit (The Flute Meeting)
Ballyvourney, Co Cork
April 12 – 14
http://www.flutemeet.org/

Feile na nDeise
Dungarvan, Co Waterford
April 28 – May 4 (2011 dates)
www.feilenandeise.com

Kilfenora Music Festival
Kilfenora, County Clare
April 28 – May 2 (2011 dates)

www.kilfenorainfo.com

Feile Oriel
Monaghan
April 28 – May 2 (2011 dates)
http://www.feileoriel.com/

Feile Comortha Joe Einniu
Carna
Co Galway
April 29 – May 1 (2011 dates)
http://www.joeheaney.org/default.asp?contentID=1

Fleadh na gCuach
Kinvara, Co Galway
May 4 – 7
http://www.kinvara.com/cuckoo/

Feile Chois Cuain
Louisburgh, Co Mayo
May 4 – 7

http://www.feilechoiscuain.com/

PJ Hayes Memorial Festival
Feakle
Co Clare. May 4 – 6
Phone: +353 (0)61 92 4885

Clare Events

Baltimore Fiddle Fair
Baltimore, Co Cork
May 9 – 13
www.fiddlefair.com

Cos Cos Sean Nos Festival
Rathcormack, Co Sligo
May 6 – 8 (2011 Dates)
http://www.coscos.ie/

Fleadh Nua
Ennis, Co Clare
May 20 – 28
www.fleadhnua.com

Skerries Trad Weekend
Co Dublin

May 18 – 20

www.skerriestraditonalmusic.com

The Larkin Hedge School
Liberty Hall
Dublin
May 6 – 8 (2011 dates)

http://cleclub.wetpaint.com/

The Clancy Brothers Music Festival
Carrick-on-Suir
Co Tipperary
June 4 – 5
http://www.clancybrothersfestival.org/

The Galway Sessions
Galway
June 12 – 19 (2011 dates)

The Galway Sessions

London Feis
Finsbury Park
June 18th – 19th, 2011 (2011 dates)
www.londonfeis.com

Blas
Limerick University
June 25 – July 6t

www.blas.ie

Con Curtin Music Festival
Brosna
Co Kerry
June 24 – 26 (2011 Dates)
http://www.concurtinmusicfestival.com/

Coleman Country Bodhran School
Gurteen, County Sligo
June 27th – July 1st, 2011
www.colemanbodhran.com

Willie Clancy Summer School
Miltown Malbay,
Co Clare
July 7 – 15

email: angleann@oceanfree.net

Earagail Arts Festival
Co Donegal. July 9 – 24 (2011 dates)
http://www.eaf.ie/

Douglas Hyde Summer School
Ballaghaderreen
Cancelled
http://www.douglashyde.com

South Sligo Summer School
Tubbercurry, Co Sligo
July 15 – 21
www.sssschool.org

Meitheal Summer School
Limerick
July 16 – 20
www.tradweek.com

Joe Mooney Summer School
Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim
July 21 – 28
www.joemooneysummerschool.com

Celtic Fusion Int. Musical Arts Festival
Castlewellan
Co Down
July 14 – 17 (2011 dates)
http://www.celticfusion.co.uk

Fiddlers Green Festival
Rostrevor, Co Down
July 22 – 29
http://www.fiddlersgreenfestival.co.uk

Phil Murphy Weekend
Carrig-on-Bannon
Co Wexford
July 21 – 24 (2011 dates)
Tel.+ 353 87 8200986
www.philmurphyweekend.com

James Byrne Fiddle Summer School
Glencolmcille
Co Donegal
July 17 – 23 (2011 dates)
http://www.ceolsaghleann.com/

O’Carolan Summer School
Keadue, Co Roscommon
July 29 – Aug 3
Website

O’Carolan Harp & Traditional Music Festival
Keadue, Co Roscommon
August 3 – 6
Website

Scoil Acla
Achill, Co Mayo
July 25 – 31 (2011 dates)
http://www.scoilacla.com

Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Festival
Co Donegal
August 2 – 5
http://www.ballyshannonfolkfestival.com

Feakle International Traditional Music Festival
Co Clare
August 3 – 8 (2011 dates)
www.feaklefestival.ie

James Morrison Traditional Music Festival
Riverstown, Co Sligo
July 3 – 5

www.morrison.ie

Comhaltas Page

Kilcar Fleadh
Co Donegal
August 6 – 13 (2011 dates)
http://www.cill-chartha-kilcar.com

Masters of Tradition
Bantry, Co Cork
August 9 – 14 (2011 dates)
http://www.westcorkmusic.ie

Kilrush Traditional Music and Dancing Festival
Kilrush, Co Clare
August 10 – 14 (2011 dates)
Festival Details

Scoil Eigse
Cavan Town
August 14 – 19 (2011 dates)
http://comhaltas.ie/events/detail/scoil_eigse_2010/

Merriman Summer School
Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare,
August 17 – 21 (2011 dates)
www.merriman.ie

Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann
Cavan Town
August 14 – 21 (2011 dates)
http://www.fleadh2011.ie/

Coleman Traditional Festival
Gurteen, Co Sligo
August 26 – 28 (2011 dates)
www.colemanirishmusic.com

Gig’n the Bann
Portglenone
September 1 – 4 (2011 dates)

http://www.gignthebann.com/

Nell Galvin Traditional Irish Music Festival
Kilrush
Co Clare
September 2 – 4 (2011 dates)
http://www.nellgalvin.com/

Dingle Trad/fusion Fest (New)
Dingle
Co Kerry
September 8 – 11 (2011 dates)
http://www.dingletradfest.com/

Tulla Traditional Music Festival
Co Clare
September 9 – 11 (2011 dates)
www.tullatradfestival.com

Eddie Butcher Music & Singing Festival
Coleraine, Limavady, Greencastle
September 14 – 18 (2011 dates)
Facebook Page

Eigse Ui Ghramhnaigh
Baile Atha Bui
Co na Mi
September 10 – 12 (2010 dates)
www.athbui.com/

Tuam Trad Festival
Co Galway
September 16 – 18 (2011 dates)
www.tuamtradfestival.com

Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival
Longford
September 22 – 25 (2011 dates)
http://www.johnnykeenan.com

Frank Harte Festival

Teachers Club, Dublin
September 23 – 25 (2011 dates)
Micheál Mac Ránaill +353 879898534
Goilin Singers Club

Kilkenny Celtic Festival
Sept 28 – Oct – 2 (2011 dates)
www.celticfestival.ie

Johnny Doherty Music & Dancing Festival
Ardara
Co Donegal
September 23 – 25 (2011 dates)
http://www.ardarafestivals.com/

Lettermore Trad Festival
Connemara
September 24 – 26 (2010 dates)

Facebook Page

Cork Folk Festival
Cork
September 28 - October 2 (2011 dates)
www.corkfolkfestival.com

Sligo Traditional Singing Weekend
Rosses Point, Co Sligo
Sept 30 – Oct 2 (2011 dates)
http://www.sligotradsingers.ie/

Sean ‘ac Dhonncha Tribute Festival
Ahascragh, Co Galway
October 1 – 2 (2011 dates)
Website

Feile Frank McGann
Strokestown, Co Roscommon
October 7 – 9 (2011 dates)
www.feilefrankmcgann.com

Scoil Cheoil na Botha
Scotstown
Co Monaghan
October 14 – 16 (2011 dates)
http://www.anbhoth.ie

Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival
Castleisland, Co Kerry
October 28 – 31 (2011 dates)
http://www.patrickokeeffe.net/

Sligo Live
Sligo Town
October 27 – 31 (2011 dates)
http://www.sligolive.ie/

South Roscommon Singers Festival
Knockcroghery,
Co Roscommon
October 22 – 24 (2010 dates)
http://www.dhalonproductions.ie

Return to Fingal – Scoil Sheamuis Ennis
Seamus Ennis Centre
Fingal,
Co Dublin
October 21 – 25 (2010 dates)
http://www.scoilsheamuisennis.com

Willie Keane Memorial Weekend
Doonbeg, Co Clare
October 28 – 31 (2011 dates)
www.williekeanememorialweekend.com

Cooley-Collins Traditional Music Weekend
Gort, Co Galway
October 22 – 24 (2010 dates)
email Mary Coen maryteresacoen@eircom.net

Oireachtas na Samhna
Cill Airne
Co Chiarraigh
Samhann 1 – 6 (2011 dates)
www.antoireachtas.ie

Clare Festival of Traditional Singing
Bellbridge Hotel
Spanish Point
November 18 – 20 (2011 dates)
aandjoreilly@gmail.com or Annette Munnelly: 065 7084365. See Mudcat
Ennis Traditional Festival
Co Clare
November 10 – 14 (2011 dates)
www.ennistradfestival.com

William Kennedy Piping Festival
Armagh
November 17 – 20 (2011 dates)
http://www.armaghpipers.com/wkpf/

December
Frankie Kennedy Winter School
Dunlewey
Gaoth Dobhair
Co Donegal
December 27 – January 1
http://www.frankiekennedy.com/index.html

Traditional Irish music sessions have long been a great way of spending a night out. Nearly every village, town and city in Ireland will have a session going on in some pub, some night of the week. Combining a night out on the town, with good music and good conversation, it’s no wonder Irish trad sessions are famous the world over. Not only is a trad session entertaining for music lovers but often, it is also for the musicians.
One of the more compelling reasons to learn to play traditional Irish music is participating in sessions. A brilliant social outlet, it provides the opportunity to meet different musicians from different areas and hear their style of playing. It’s also a great way of learning new tunes. If someone is playing a tune you don’t know, record it on your phone and you’ll have it learned for the next week!
For those who cannot play but love to listen, you can enjoy a night out, with excellent entertainment and (usually) no charge on the door. In a time when you get nothing for free and more than ever we need to look after our pennies, what better way to spend an evening then sit and listen to wonderful musicians in a relaxed atmosphere.
Recently, I went to Inishbofin, a small island off the coast of Galway. Some great singers and musicians have come from Inishboffin, such as Andrew Murray, who sang with Irish group De Dannan. The Murray family hotel, The Doonmore, is renowned for its Irish music sessions. It opens March through to the end of September and it is well worth a visit if you like your trad. That is where we decided to head for the weekend and so we got the boat over.
There was a mix of musicians, both local and visiting, among which were two pipers, one from Longford and one from Cavan, an accordion player from Longford and a fiddle player from Galway.

We had a great sing-along at the end of the night lead by Luke Murray, son of Andrew. Just like his father he has a wonderful voice and sang a number of songs both traditional and more popular, the names of which I can’t place now.  All in all it was a great night. The mix of musicians, visitors and friendly banter in the pub resulted in a relaxed and fun atmosphere and it’s certainly a spot I would like to head back to in the future.
If you are looking for sessions in Ireland check out www.findtradfolk.com. This new website was recently launched and finds traditional Irish music sessions all over Ireland. Enter a county, town or day into the search box or check out the calendar to see what festivals and events are coming up.

Paddy Glackin was told he would have to buy a seat for his fiddle on a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Newcastle and nearly missed a music festival in the North of England city.
The highly regarded fiddle player has travelled all over the world with his fiddle and had always been allowed to take it onboard the plane and store it in an overhead locker. But to his shock Ryanair made the seat demand.
The trip ended up costing him £850 as there were no extra seats for his fiddle so he had to board another flight.
Paddy explained: “The organisers had paid an £80 surcharge so I could take the instrument onboard from Dublin to Newcastle.
“The check-in staff said it had to go in the hold as it was an inch too long and paying the extra charge only entitled me to the same rights as for sports equipment.
“There are no fiddlers that would allow you to put it in the hold – it’s not suitable to be in that environment as it is too delicate. I tried to explain my case and they just said tough, that’s the way it is.”
Unable to board the flight, which had cost £293.79 for a return ticket, the organisers had to find an alternative way of bringing the performer to Newcastle. Paddy eventually boarded an Aer Lingus flight to Edinburgh – costing another £268 – then board a train – priced £26 – to travel.
When he returned home on the Ryanair flight, he made sure he strapped his fiddle in the seat he had paid for.
Paddy added: “If it’s going to start costing performers double the fee to come across, venues won’t book us and that could deprive people of hearing the music.”
A spokesman for Ryanair said they felt charging £80 to put an instrument in the hold or forcing musicians to buy a separate seat was fair.
“Ryanair’s website, booking confirmation page and the emailed itinerary which is sent to every passenger is very clear in relation to the carriage of musical instruments,” he said.
“Smaller musical items, such as a guitar, violin or viola which exceed our cabin baggage dimensions may be carried in the cabin but only if an extra seat has been purchased to accommodate the instrument. This policy ensures such instruments, which can be expensive, remain with the owner/passenger.”
Recalling his experience. Paddy said: “I left Dublin at 6.30 am last Saturday morning and, after flying with Aer Lingus to Edinburgh I got a train down and arrived in Newcastle at 7.20 pm. I went on stage not too long after that.”
He added: “The whole episode left me demented and bewildered. It’s the first time this has ever happened to me on Ryanair or any other airline.”
The Session thread on Ryanair and fiddles.

Muiris O Rochain, one of the founders of the annual Willie Clancy Summer School in Co Clare, has died.
He was born in 1944 to publicans and shopkeepers Jim and Nora Rohan of John Street, Dingle, Co Kerry.  After qualifying as a teacher, he taught in Cahersiveen and Waterville where he also collected folklore from local Irish speakers.
He went to work in Dublin and there he formed a lasting friendship with Breandán Breathnach, music collector and scholar, and with John Kelly, the great fiddle and concertina player from west Clare.
In 1970, Muiris married Úna Guerin of Miltown Malbay and moved to Spanish Point where taught maths and Irish at St Joseph’s secondary school and this part of Clare became his home for the next 40 years.

He is best known for his work as overall director of Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. He was a great friend of the piper and after his death Muiris, along with Martin Talty and Harry Hughes, among others, set up the summer school in 1973 in his honour. In 1972 he helped found and run the Dal gCais journal which, over the years, featured many aspects of North Clare’s rich life and lore.

He had an important role in the production of three films for RTE: My Own Place, producede in 1980 by accordion player Tony MacMahon, Cur agus Cuiteamh (1990) and The Story of the Dingle Wren (1991).
In 2001 he was selected as President of Oireachtas na Gaeilge, and he continued to make a massive contribution to Irish traditional music. In 2010 he received the TG4 musicians’ award.

In Dingle he will be best remembered as the captain of the Sraid Eoin Wren, first stepping into the role in 1959. He continued to lead the Sraid Eoin Wren until he became ill in September 2010.

Muiris O Rochain died on October 17, 2011. He is survied by his wife Una, son Seamus and daughter Máire and extended family.

Harry Hughes in a tribute told the Irish Times that “Muiris leaves behind a tremendous legacy to Miltown Malbay and to Irish music and culture in general”.

Said Miltown Malbay concertina player Edel Fox: “He had his own inimitable way of running the festival. There was no Facebook or website. I know for a fact that Muiris still documented everything with a pen and paper. Telephone, pen and paper; that’s how he ran Willie Clancy week. There isn’t another person that could run a festival of that magnitude the way he did.”

The 67-year-old Dingle native suffered a stroke last year and Mr Hughes said “people were delighted to see Muiris at a number of events at the summer school this year even though he was in a wheelchair.

“Muiris bore his illness with tremendous courage and dignity.”

FullSet have won the €5000 RTÉ Radio/RAAP traditional music bursary. FullSet is made up Seán McCarthy, Janine Redmond, Andrew Meaney, Teresa Horgan, Michael Harrison and Eamonn Moloney, with members hailing mainly from Munster – Cork and Tipperary – complimented by two Dubs!  FullSet released their debut album, Notes at Liberty, earlier this year, and they have a lot of experience of playing at festivals in Ireland and throughout Europe, and have played with musicians such as Moya Brennan, Fred Morrison, Lúnasa and Carlos Nuñez.
Mary Bergin, Meaití Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta, Gerry O’Connor, Richie Buckley, and Ciaran Tourish were the judges.
Eamonn Moloney (flute, bodhrán) and Michael Harrison (fiddler) both hail from Tipperary.  Moloney graduated in 2009 from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, and is a founding member of the Five Counties Céilí Band.  Harrison is the grandson of celebrated fiddle player Aggie Whyte, and is a three time All-Ireland fiddle champion.  Uilleann piper Seán McCarthy, from North Cregg in Co. Cork, has won the All-Ireland title six times, and has performed with acclaimed music show Ragús, among others. Singer and flute player Teresa Horgan was steeped in music growing up in Buttevant, Co. Cork.  She has performed all over Europe, and has shared the stage with The Chieftains, among others.  Andrew Meeney and Janine Redmond make up the Dublin contingent of the band.  Guitar player Meeney, from Rathmines, studied music in DIT and has also performed in music show Ragús. Janine Redmond, button accordion, has won several solo All-Ireland titles on accordion and melodeon, and, like her bandmates, has travelled throughout the world playing music.
The other two acts shortlisted in the traditional music category were harpist and composer Úna Monaghan from Belfast and trad group The Bonnymen, who released their debut album this week.  Winners in the other categories were Alice Jago (folk), The Fallen Drakes(pop/rock) and Sharon Carty (classical).

http://www.fullsetmusic.com/

Christy Moore’s new album Folk Tale was released on October 28, 2011. “It is a mixture of tragedy, poetry and humour”, according to the singer’s website. The third track My Little Honda 50 is an ode to the impact of the Honda 50 on rural Ireland in the 80s. Easter Snow is a tribute to Seamus Ennis. Farmer Michael Hayes is the tale of an evicted farmer, a story which resonates with Irish history. On Morecambe Bay is the tragic story of the Chinese cockle pickers drowned for profit. Weekend in Amsterdam conjures up images of a wild weekend in Amsterdam.
Produced by Declan Sinnott, Folk Tale, which features 11 tracks, is the latest result of Christy and Declan’s unique musical alliance. Their long collaboration has gained a loyal and increasing following. Their association began when they were founding members of the pioneering band Moving Hearts.
Along with Declan and Christy other musicians include Gerry O’Connor, Tim Edey and Neil Martin with The West Ocean String Quartet. This album finds Christy doing what he does best – letting the tunes and accompanying lyrics carry their message to the listener. Folk Tale is the follow-up to 2009’s Platinum selling album Listen.
It’s been another busy year for the folk singer. At this year’s Oxygen Festival, Christy duetted with Coldplay. He got the call a fortnight before the event. Chris Martin of Coldplay heard that the Kildare singer had never played at Oxegen, a festival run annually in Punchestown only three miles from Christy’s birthplace. Christy enjoyed the gig enormously – the sound of 80,000 young ones singing along to Jimmy McCarthy’s classic Ride On was a memorable experience. Christy reckons that this collaboration began when then 12-year-old Will Chamberlain attended a Christy gig in Southampton in 1992.
Christy also headlined this year’s London Feis at Finsbury Park: he was delighted to get the call from Vince Power to headline this two day event formally known as “The London Fleadh”. The singer and the promoter go back a long way. Christy played at the opening of Power’s London Mean Fiddler back in the 80s and subsequently played at the London Fleadh on six occasions. A favourite gig was the New York Fleadh which Vince ran on Randalls Island back in the mid 90s.
http://www.christymoore.com/

Galway born flute player Mike Rafferty died on September 13, 2011, in New Jersey. He was 84. He had been in failing health for a year, his daughter Mary said.
Mike Rafferty hailed from a small farm in Ballinakill, East Galway region. He was taught the wooden flute by his father, who was nicknamed Barrel because people thought he could fill a barrel with wind.
Mike immigrated to the United States in 1949 “without a penny to his pocket,” his daughter said. He married and eventually went to work in a Grand Union supermarket warehouse in Carlstadt. He put his music on hold while his five children were growing up.
A proponent of the melodic, lyrical and unhurried East Galway style of flute playing. His daughter Mary played for a long time with the group Cherish the Ladies.  Full profile of Mike Rafferty.

WRITING in New Spotlight magazine in early 1967, Joe Dolan recalled the setting up of Sweeney’s Men and the . . .

Rocky Road to Success

In May 1966 Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine met Joe Dolan in Galway. They had played together before around the country, but never as a group. Moynihan suggested they form a group and Joe Dolan came up with the name Sweeney’s Men – “after mad Sweeney in the trees”. They got an old red Volkswagen van, appointed Eamonn O’Doherty manager and prepared to take the country by storm.
According to Joe Dolan the summer was not a great success moneywise, “but we enjoyed ourselves, often causing a sensation in places like Limerick when the van broke down in the main street and out of the side-door tumbled a raggle-taggle bunch of hairy men and lanky girls to push the thing out of traffic’s way”.
The next winter saw their fortunes at their lowest ebb with sometimes only one job a week and just earning enough to pay the rent. Joe recalls walking four miles out to his sister’s in Knocknacarra to get a meal. Other times he would stay in bed all day because they had no money for coal to light the fire.
“At night we’d huddle together playing scrabble or cards and wish we’d had a few jobs,” he wrote. But just after Christmas the work started to come in. Des Kelly of the Capitol Showband had replaced Eamonn O’Doherty as manager. They got jobs around the country. But it was with the release of their first record that the wheel really began to move – they had recorded a 17th century Scottish song Old Maid in the Garret with Andy singing the lead.
Joe continued: “Pye Records released it for us and we sat around anxiously waiting for first reactions. They weren’t long coming in. We were in O’Donoghues one evening around six-thirty when we got a call from London – and old friend of Andy’s called Pearse Hutchinson on the line to say that he’d just heard it played on BBC’s five o’clock show -Roundabout.
“Twenty minutes later I got a call from Holland. My old roadmate Kevin O’Carroll with the same news and congratulations. Nearly all the reviews were favourable. We made radio and television and Sweeney’s Men were established on a national scale. ”
The Middle East war broke out. Joe Dolan had previously visited Israel and was sympathetic. So he left the group to go to war – another story.
He concluded his article: “With a lot of misgivings I said farewell to Johnny and Andy, grabbed a sleeping bag and guitar, had a last drink with Eamonn in Westland Row station and set out once again for the Promised Land.”

Joe Dolan 1942 – 2008 Profile

Pride of New York Ceili Band

Two of the biggest names in Irish music in the USA, Cherish the Ladies and Pride of New York Céilí Band, will feature at a concert during this year’s Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Cavan town.
The 60th Birthday Comhaltas Tea Party, at 9.30pm on Friday, August 19, in the Fleadh Big Top (on the Cathedral Road, adjacent to Cavan Institute) will be a highlight of Fleadh 2011.
The legendary all-female Irish-American super group Cherish the Ladies, led by the irrepressible Joanie Madden, and the Pride of New York Céilí Band featuring button box and fiddle maestros, Billy McComiskey and Brian Conway, will be showcasing some of the finest Irish music from across the Atlantic.
Representing the home talent will be accordionist, Joe Burke, singers Seán Ó Sé and Cathal Lynch, banjoman, Kieran Hanrahan of Radio Eireann Céilí House fame and Cavan’s own lilter Seamus Fay. Admission €15.
Sharon Shannon will feature in the Fleadh Dome on August 16. Admission €10.
More at Fleadh 2011

Musician and artist Eamonn O’Doherty, best known for his large-scale public sculptures in Ireland, the US and Britain, was once manager of influential 60s folk group Sweeney’s Men.
He had been playing in clubs in Denmark in 1966 with Andy Irvine when the latter got a call from Joe Dolan to join him in Galway for a series of gigs which led to the founding of Sweeney’s Men. However O’Doherty was soon replaced as manager of the group by the more experienced Des Kelly of the Capitol Showband.
Born in Derry on June 18, 1939, Eamonn O’Doherty grew up in the Westend Park area of the city and was educated at St Columb’s College. He studied architecture and graduated from UCD.
A flute player, he had an abiding interest in traditional music. In the 1970s he collaborated with Allen Feldman to produce The Northern Fiddler (1979), for which he wrote the introduction and contributed photographs and drawings. His compositions include a ballad commemorating Belfast IRA leader Joe McCann.
In the 1960s he began exhibiting paintings, lithographs and small-scale sculptures in Dublin. He showed his work at the major exhibitions – Independent Artists, Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Oireachtas and Royal Hibernian Academy – as well as smaller group shows.
He was also an accomplished photographer, and in 2002 an exhibition of his photographs from the Irish Traditional Music Archive travelled to New York and the University of Virginia.
The sculpture that attracted the most public attention, and sparked a major controversy, was the Anna Livia fountain (“Floozie in the Jacuzzy”) in Dublin’s O’Connell Street, created in 1988 and later removed to another site near Houston Station in the city. A much more admired work is The Tree of Gold on the Central Bank plaza on Dame Street.
Other landmark works include the James Connolly memorial in Dublin, the Hooker sculpture in Eyre Square, Galway, and the Great Hunger memorial in Westchester, New York.
Four other public sculptures by Eamonn O’Doherty stand in Dublin, two in Galway, two in Derry and others in Antrim, Navan, New Ross, Ardagh, Ballymahon, Cobh, Dún Laoghaire, Enniskillen, Cahirciveen, Killarney, Belfast, Liverpool and New York.
Fellow artist Bobby Ballagh said of him: “People who ramble around our streets will be very familiar with Eamonn O’Doherty’s work as the creator of extraordinary public sculptures. But those of us in the arts business also know of his talents as a painter and a graphic artist.”
Eamonn O’Doherty died in a Dublin hospital after a long battle with throat cancer on August 4, 2011, aged 72. He is survived by his wife Barbara Ní Brolocháin, son Eoin and daughters Aisling and Megan.

On the Road with Sweeney’s Men, by Joe Dolan

A death threat to the High Kings ballad group is under investigation by the Gardai and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The threat, purporting to be from the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) against the group, whose members include Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Martin Furey and Darren Holden, was received by post at the Sunday Independent last week.
The band are due to play a fundraising concert at Newtownbutler First Fermanagh’s GAA club on July 3.
There has been controversy over the issue of loyalist parades in the mainly nationalist Fermanagh village.
The threat against the group, which contained an LVF “code”, was passed by the newspaper to gardai, who are now liaising with the PSNI to assess the level of threat. It specifically mentions that the ballad group “will be shot if we can’t march”.
The band’s manager, Dave Kavanagh, said he was “a bit shocked” to hear about the threat because the band had played throughout the North to audiences from both traditions.
He said that they had not been contacted by the PSNI about the threat but he had spoken to gardai, who said that it was likely the PSNI was still in the process of assessing the level of threat.
“We are going to perform until we are told otherwise. We will make a judgement call based on what we are told by the police,” Mr Kavanagh said.
He said that the band didn’t perform nationalist or republican ballads and had wide appeal to both sides of the community in the North. “It’s a surprise to us. We have been playing regularly in the North to mixed audiences and have never encountered any problems.
“That’s why we continue to travel to the North even during the marching season,” Mr Kavanagh said.

Mick Moloney talked to Peter Browne about his days in the 1960s folk group The Johnstons on Radio Eireann’s The Rolling Wave programme on June 19, 2011. He started by talking about what it was like to be part of a group like The Johnstons.

The Johnstons: Paul Brady, Lucy Johnston, Mick Moloney and Adrienne Johnston.

“In the Sixties it was almost impossible for any of us to believe that we would be out there getting paid for something we loved. It was such a big break for me to be part of a group that was signed up by Transatlantic records and to move to England and be able to play for attentive audiences and to go on and make LPs. It was one of the most important periods of my early life, absolutely.
We were very big at the time. It was when folk music, as many people who were around then will realise, was becoming very marketable. And Ireland was going through good times for the first time, I suppose, since the Republic was formed. People had money to spend and television had come.
There  was a circuit where everybody could play and be listened to, especially in England where there were over 650 folk clubs. There was an audience that would buy your recordings. There was radio where they could be played and it was a very heady time.
In a way, our music was being legitimised at that time, having being ignored for so long. They were brilliant years altogether – to be part of The Johnstons, making LPs just about every year and having people appreciate your music. It was the ultimate dream for an artist really.
Everyone was sort of experimenting. If you wanted to make a living you had to appeal to audiences. And to do that with integrity: you had to satisfy yourself as well, there was always a negotion.
We were listening a lot to English folk songs. That’s where the harmonies – we were really famous for four-part harmony.
Paul Brady was a sort of visitor to folk music and traditional music. He started out on the beat scene in Dublin, a very respected figure in that scene. After Michael Johnston left the group, you had Lucy, Adrienne, myself and Paul putting our collective efforts into discovering Irish traditional music. We didn’t grow up with it, but we appreciated it and we were learning very fast. Adrienne and Lucy were very interested in learning traditional songs, having started off with newly-composed songs, some American, some British. They were eager, very much on a learning curve.
Our records, I suppose, represented very much an influence from the harmony singing of the Waterstones in England and The Young  Tradition – some of the songs were very old. People like Sean Corcoran and Frank Harte were plugging into a rural Irish tradition which was also influenced by England because a lot of the songs were part of the Anglo-Irish tradition; there would be versions in Scotland and England and so on.
So we were recording a combination of Irish and English and Scottish songs and bringing instrumental music into it, new instruments at the time for the scene, like the mandolin and tenor banjo. Barney McKenna was my hero. And Paul Brady experimenting with the guitar, getting away from the ‘hum chuck’ king of thing that Willie Brady and people like that and Charlie Magee … they were the only guitar players that you would hear on the radio at that time. Getting away from that to sort of playing a style more influenced by the drones of the pipes and the rhythms of the bodhran. It was a very interseting time. Every time we got together there was something new coming at us or we were learning something new. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed my music more than then.
We were playing instruments that Comhaltas (Ceoltoiri Eireann) would have only been marginally connected to – maybe suspicious of – new instruments. The guitar was a new instrument. The tenor banjo, they didn’t know what to do with that. It was under the Miscellaneous Instruments at Fleadhs. The mandolin wasn’t even on the map. To be singing accompanied – Comhaltas people would have favoured everything unaccompanied at that time. They were really interested in preserving the centre, we were more interested in brancing out. And also learning about traditional music. We always had great, respect for it.
But what we were really about was something different, something new. We were playing traditional music all right and singing traditional songs.
It was inevitable what would happen – and it happened with Planxty – was that instruments like the pipes and the flute and the accordion would come into the music. They were on one side of the traditional music and the folk music on the other. They came together with Planxty in 1971 with the Prosperous LP that preceeded Planxty. But we were a step on that journey and so were Sweeney’s Men. They were our cohorts in Transatlantic, along with the Fureys.
[After listening to a song on air from the 1968 The Barley Corn LP,  Mick Moloney continues]
I think we were the only group to ever put out two LPs on the same day and it was this one (Barley Corn) and an LP called Give a Damn, which was all contemporary songs with a lot of orchestration, and represented our dual identity at the time as a contemporary slash traditional folk group. We put out the two albums on the same day and I don’t know if that’s ever happened in the history of popular slash traditional  music.
I like The Barley Corn. Looking back there’s a kind of innocence about it. One of the tracks I really like on it is Andienne Johnston, the lead singer, singing The Flower of Northumberland. I played the mandolin, Paul Brady played the guitar and we all did harmonies – four part harmony – and its one of my favourite tracks on that album.
We gelled together tremendously (as a band). In the opening years, when we were all caught up with Irish songs and people, like I said, like Sean Corcoran and Frank Harte, were feeding us songs and we were learning then, we gelled very well together.
Lucy left the group and we were pulled in two directions: one, and it’s not that we ever objected, the record company Transatlantic wanted us to be a replacement for The Seekers. The Australian group had just broken up. They wanted us to be a boy/girl harmony thing, they wanted us to be a poppy group. Nat Joseph, the head of the company, had very good taste. He wanted us to be a pop group, but also was quite prepared to have us honour out traditional roots as well, our folk roots.
We were pulled in that direction … of listening to contemporary songs. And just about every week we would go into the studio in London, in Marleybone High Street, and we would be fed a constant diet of new songs from new songwriters. Most of the people had never heard of them and we had never heard of them. One of the songs that took our fancy was a song by a complete unknown woman called Joni Mitchell. She had just written a song called Both Sides Now. We recorded it and strangely enough in America it went up to number 90 or so in the hit parade just by virtue of radio play.
But looking back it was almost like a schizophrenia in the group. There would be two different forces pulling at us – one the forces of traditional folk and the other, this kind of singer/songwriter, poppy orchestrated direction that the record company wanted us to go in. We never really objected and I can’t say we were manipulated, we went there by choice. We typically went to the studio to record vocal tracks with bass and drums andcame back two weeks later to hear a whole orchestra.
A fellow called Barry Booth, he used to do the orchestrations. We liked him, he was very affable. Mostly it was just an adventure. We weren’t on top of our game as far as protecting our rights as artists, copyright and that kind of stuff, and artistic control. They were new issues at the time. When I look at musicians today, they are a lot more smart about these issues. We were a bit naive, I suppose. We can’t blame anybody.
We only did one tour in America and then I left. So we had a brief encounter with America. The group continued on for a year after I left, but there was no future for them really there.”
The Johnstons reunite for Slane festival concert

Tionólfar Ómós do Sheán ‘Ac Dhonncha, sár-amhránaí ar an sean nós in Áth Eascrach 1ú agus 2ú Deireadh Fómhair 2011.

Rugadh Seán ‘Ac Dhonncha, Johnny Joe Pheaitsín, in Aird Thiar, i gCarna i gConamara ar an 2ú Deireach Fomhair 1919.  Ba iascaire a athair a bhí tugtha go mór ag an gceol agus ag an amhránaíocht. Dob uaidh siúd agus óna mháthair a thóg Seán grá na h-amhránaíochta leis. Rugadh Joe Éiniú coicíos i ndhiaidh Séan agus bhíadar sa rang céanna ar scoil.

Chuaigh Seán ag múineadh i dtosach báire i Longphort sular aistrigh sé go dtí an Chabháin. Bhuaidh sé Craobh shinsir peile sa gCabháin ag imirt le Muileach Oráin 1949. Casadh múinteor óg, dathúil, cumasach air ó Gort an Iomaire, in oirthear na Gaillimhe arbh ainm di Bríd Ní Eidhn. Bhuaileadar suas caireadas agus phósadar 1956.

D’aistrigh siad go Ath Eascrach 1959 áit ar cheapadh é mar príomh-oide agus í siúd mar mháistreas scoile ag tús na seascadaí. Ba in Áth Eascrach a chaith siad an saol ina dhiaidh sin. Ba trí Ghaeilge ar fad a deineadh an múineadh agus gnóthaí na scoile agus sheasadar an fód dó sin nuair a bhí gá leis. D’éirigh sé as an bpost i 1984.

Lean Seán i gcónaí leis an amhránaíocht agus bhain sé an bonn óir amach ag an Oireachtas i 1953. Dob é Seán an chéad amhránaí ag Gael Linn nuair a thógadar amach céirníní 78rpm i 1957. Dhein sé 6 teafadh eile leo agus tá siad anois ar fáil sa chnuasach Seoltaí Séide.

Fuair si bas ar an 14ú Nollag 1996 agus tá sé curtha in Áth Eascrach.

James Graham

Tiocfaidh amhránaithe is ceoltóirí ó Albain le chéile le hamhránaithe, ceoltóirí is rinceoirí na hÉireann ag féile nua i mBaile Átha Cliath, 26-28 Bealtaine, 2011.  Is é príomhaidhm Feis na nGael ná nasc a chruthú idir ceol is cultúr na hAlbain is na hÉirinn, tré amhránaithe is ceoltóirí Albanacha is Éireannacha a thabhairt le chéile ar bhonn rialta lenár gcultúr a roinnt. Tabharfaidh Feis na nGael ardán don dá dhream le sraith seisiúin is ceardlainne. Is le cabhair airgidis ó Cholmcille, – clár comhpháirtíochta idir Foras na Gaeilge, an foras a bhfuil sé de chúram aige an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn agus Bòrd na Gàidhlig, an foras a bhfuil sé de chúram aige an teanga Ghaelach agus an cultúr Gaelach a chur chun cinn in Albain agus ar bhonn idirnáisiúnta – atá an fhéile ag rith. Cruthaíonn Feis na nGael nascanna le dreamanna eagsúla anseo in Éirinn amhail an Chomhdháil Cheilteach, Club Amhránaíochta an Ghóilín agus Club an Chonartha.

I láthair ó Albain beidh an bheirt amhránaithe James Graham agus Linda NicLeoid, chomh maith leis an bpíobaire/fidléir (fós le cintú). Beidh Rónán Ó Riagáin, fidléir agus rinceoir ar an sean nós agus (fós le cintú), amhránaí sean nóis ó Éire i láthair, chomh maith le ceoltóirí eile.

Tá clár cuimsithe curtha le chéile don deireadh seachtaine. Beidh seisiúin ar siúl oíche Déardaoin in Áras Foras na Gaeilge i gcomhpháirt leis an gComhdháil Cheilteach, oíche Aoine i gClub na Múinteoraí i gcomhpháirt le Club Amhránaíochta an Ghóilín agus oíche Shatharn i gClub an Chonartha. Beidh dhá cheardlann á eagrú ar an Satharn – rince ar an sean-nós agus Amhránaíocht i nGaidhlig, i gClub an Chonartha. Beidh ár gcairde ón mBriotáin ag ceiliúradh linn oíche Shatharn leis. I rith an lae ar an Aoine, tabharfaidh na cuairteoirí Albanacha cuairt ar bhunscoil lán-Gaelach i mBaile Átha Cliath lena gcuid ceol is teanga a roinnt orthu.

Tuilleadh eolais ó / Further details:
Deirdre Nic Éanruig: 087 2621537
Seán Mac Suibhne: 087 2939512
Email: feisnangael@gmail.com
Suíomh idirlíon/Website: feisnangael.com

Feis na nGael, 26-28 May, 2011

Singers and musicians form Scotland will join their counterparts here in Ireland at a new festival in Dublin at the end of May. The main aim of Feis na nGael is to promote the shared linguistic and cultural heritage of Ireland and Scotland, by welcoming Scottish singers and musicians to join with Irish singers and musicians on a regular basis. Feis na nGael will provide a platform for the two groups through a series of sessions and workshops. This is funded in the main by Colmcille – now a partnership programme between Foras na Gaeilge, the body charged with the promotion of the Irish language and Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the body charged with promoting Gaelic language and culture in Scotland and internationally. Feis na nGael creates links with other bodies here in Ireland such as the Celtic League, the Góilín Singing Club and Club an Chonartha.

Visiting us from Scotland will be two acclaimed singers James Graham agus Linda NicLeoid, as well as the piper/fiddler (still to be confirmed). Rónán Regan, fiddler and sean nós dancer from Ireland and (still to be confirmed), sean nós singer from Ireland will be present, as well as other musicians.

There is a comprehensive programme planned for the weekend. On Thursday night there will be a session in Foras na Gaeilge in conjunction with the Celtic League, on Friday a visit will be paid to the Góilín Singing Club and on Saturday we will join our Breton friends in Club an Chonartha. Two workshops will be held on Saturday – sean-nós dancing and a workshop in Gaelic singing. During the day on Friday the Scottish visitors will pay a visit to an All-Irish primary school to share their music and language with the children there.

Reachtáilfear Féile Chomórtha Joe Éinniú i gCarna, Conamara ag deireadh na míosa seo, ón Aoine 29ú Aibreán go Domhnach 1ú Bealtaine 2011. Déanann an fhéile seo comóradh ar shaol agus ar shaothar ceoil an amhránaí chlúití ón Aird Thoir, a bhásaigh i Seattle agus atá curtha ina pharóiste dúchais. Is ceiliúradh cúig bhliana fichead atá i bhféile na bliana seo mar go bhfuil an fhéile ar an bhfód ó 1986, agus ag dul ó neart go neart.

Tugtar tús áite san fhéile don amhránaíocht ar an sean nós agus d’amhránaíocht thraidisiúnta i dteanga ar bith ach cuirtear fáilte freisin roimh an gceol úirlise agus an damhsa. Is í Róisín Nic Dhonncha as an Aird i gCarna, a dhéanfaidh an seoladh oifigiúil in Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim ar an Aoine 29ú Aibreán ag 7.30pm.

Siad príomh imeachtaí an chláir i mbliana: Seoladh an leabhair ‘Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man’ atá scríofa ag Dr. Lillis Ó Laoire & Dr. Sean Williams; Seoladh leabhair de Chumadóireacht Ceoil Mharcuis Uí Iarnáin as Ruisín na Manach – ‘An Chearc Fhraoigh’; Seisiúin Ceoil agus Amhránaíochta; Ceardlanna Amhránaíocht ar an Sean Nós, Damhsa ar an Sean Nós agus Ceol Úirlise (ceardlanna ar fad saor in aisce); Seoladh Dlúthdhiosca nua de chuid an bhoscadóir Danny O’Mahony as Ciarraí; Cuairt ar uaigh Joe Éinniú; Comórtas Amhránaíochta don Aos Óg; Taispeántas agus cur i láthair ar an Veidhlín Hardanger ón Iorua; Ceadal Píobaireachta agus Portaireachta le h-aíonna as Alba agus Éire; Céilí agus Seiteanna. Beidh taispeántas pictiúir agus ábhar ón bhféile le 25 bliain anuas ar bun i gcaitheamh na deireadh seachtaine chomh maith.

Bíonn an-tóir i gcónaí ar cheolchoirm na féile agus is cinnte gur amhlaidh a bheidh i mbliana, mar go mbeidh cuid de na h-aíonna is mó i saol an cheoil ag tabhairt faoin stáitse in Óstán Chuan Charna ar an Satharn ag 7.30pm: Na hAlbanaigh – Mairí Smith, Ailean Domhnullach & Griogair Labhruidh, Danny O’Mahony, Patsy Broderick, Mick Mulkerrins, Liz & Yvonne Kane, Róisín Nic Dhonncha, Bairbre De Búrca, Ciarán Somers, David Power, Pádraic Ó Flatharta, Rosie Stewart, Nell Ní Chróinín, Cormac Ó Beaglaoich, Emma Ní Shúilleabháin agus Torgeir Straand ón Iorua. Ticéid €20 le fáil ó Óstán Chuan Charna (095) 32255.

Tuilleadh Eolais :

Micheál Ó Cuaig – (095) 33599 / michealocuaig@hotmail.com

Áine Ní Chuaig (086) 3778055 / ainenichuaig@yahoo.ie

Beatha Seosamh O hEanaigh

The Joe Heaney Commemorative Festival of Traditional Singing and Music takes place in Carna Village, in Connemara, Co. Galway over the May bank holiday weekend: 29 April–01 May 2011. This annual event, celebrates the life and musical achievements of the legendary singer who died in Seattle, USA, and is buried in his native parish. This year is a special celebration to mark 25 years of the festival, which has grown from strength to strength over the years.

Pride of place at the festival is given to Sean Nós, and Traditional Singing in any other language, but instrumental music and dancing are also catered for. The official opening will take place at Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim on Friday 29^th April at 7.30pm. Guest speaker is Róisín Nic Dhonncha.

Some of the main events in this year’s programme include two book launches: ‘Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man’ by Dr. Lillis Ó Laoire & Dr. Sean Williams; and ‘An Chearc Fhraoigh’ which is comprised of musical compositions by Carna flute player and maker Marcus Hernon; premiere launch of the long awaited solo album from North Kerry box player Danny O’Mahony; Sean Nós Dancing and Singing Workshops; Instrumental Workshops (all workshops free of charge); a visit to Joe Heaney’s grave; A presentation of Norway’s musical traditions with Hardanger fiddle player Torgeir Straand and Traditional Singer Arnfinn Staurheim; Children’s Singing Competition, where the Joe Heaney Perpetual Cup will be presented; Piping and Lilting Recital with artists from Ireland and Scotland such as Mick O’Brien, Seán McKiernan, Fiachra O’Regan and Allan McDonald; Céilí and Set Dancing.

An exhibition of photographs and material celebrating 25 years of the festival will also be held at Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim throughout the weekend.

A main feature of the festival is the traditional concert which takes place in Carna Bay Hotel on Saturday 30th at 7.30pm. A host of artists will perform on the night, including: Mairí Smith, Allan McDonald & Griogair Labhruidh (from Scotland), Danny O’Mahony, Patsy Broderick, Mick Mulkerrins, Liz & Yvonne Kane, Róisín Nic Dhonncha, Bairbre De Búrca, Ciarán Somers, David Power, Pádraic Ó Flatharta, Rosie Stewart, Nell Ní Chróinín, Cormac Begley, Emma O’Sullivan and hardanger fiddle player Torgeir Straand from Norway. Tickets are €20 and are available in advance from Carna Bay Hotel (095) 32255.

Marcus & PJ Hernon & Family will provide music for dancing throughout the weekend, accompanied by the great Don Stiffe and there will be plenty of Informal Singing and Music Sessions held in Carna Village during the festival. All festival events available at: www.joeheaney.org

Ben Lennon was born into a musical family in Kiltyclogher, Co. Leitrim, in 1928, the eldest of four sons.  His father, uncle and grand uncle all played fiddles and his mother Sally played piano and could also play fiddle, accordion and banjo.  Their home was always open to callers and many of the locality’s musicians were regular visitors.

Ben Lennon

Ben received his first music lesson at the age of ten from a dancing master named Seán O’Donoghue, from Ballyshannon.  The young Ben also learnt much from nearby Fermanagh fiddlers John Timoney and John Gordon and from local piper, fiddler and flute player Francis John McGovern and ended up with a mixture of North Leitrim/ Fermanagh/Sligo styles. The old 78s coming back from America were also inspiring, especially those of Coleman, Morrison and Killoran.
Ben left for England in 1949 and, following in his father’s footsteps, he studied the clothing trade in London before returning to work in Limerick, Cork and later Donegal. In all these places he met and played with an interesting array of local musicians including the Russells, Paddy Canny, Vincent Griffin, Francie Donnellan, Séamus Connolly, Con Foley, Jim Sullivan, The Carroll brothers, Mick Milne, Dick Nangle, Joe Burke, Danny Meehan, John Doherty, Frank Curneen, Phil Rooney.
While working in Cork, Ben formed a band with Jackie Daly, Charlie Piggott and Gary Cronin, playing every Thursday night in summer in the Sunset Ridge Motel in Blarney. In 1989, shortly after retiring from the famed Magee & Co of Donegal, Ben recorded  Dog Big, Dog Little, an album on the Claddagh Records label with Fermanagh musicians Séamus Quinn, Ciarán Curran and Gabriel McArdle. He was involved in a family album on the Gael Linn label in 1993 entitled Dance of the Honey Bees and in 1999 he recorded The Natural Bridge, in the company of his many musical friends, sons Maurice (Stockton’s Wing) and Brian and his brother Charlie, also an accomplished fiddle player.
In 2006, he helped produce (with Charlie and son David) a tribute CD to one of his great heroes – local fiddle player John Gordon.  Ben’s music also features on Within a Mile of Kilty, a CD celebrating the rich  local fiddle playing area. His most recent recording, entitled Rossinver Braes, was recorded in 2008 and is a duet album with west Limerick concertina player Tony O’Connell.
In addition to his many TV appearances, himself and Charlie were the subject of a Sé Mo Laoch documentary profile for TG4. In 2007, in an unprecedented move by Leitrim County Council, both brothers were honoured for their music and awarded the Freedom of Leitrim.
He teaches at the annual Joe Mooney Summer School in Drumshambo and at  Willie Clancy Week and is often heard playing at various concerts, lectures and recitals.
A much loved character, he is affectionately known in traditional music circles as “Lord Leitrim”. His music is full of warmth, heart and Leitrim lift, with a strong emphasis on timing, tempo and phrasing and his name is synonymous with tasteful fiddle playing, rich in tradition and style. He now lives in Rossinver, just four miles west of his native Kiltyclogher, with his wife Patsy and can often be heard enjoying a tune with local accordion player and friend, Jim Connolly.
In 2011, he was awarded the TG4 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Concertina player Noel Hill was born in 1958 in Lissycasey, eight miles south west of Ennis in Co Clare into a large family with seven siblings. His parents and grandparents, on both sides, all played concertina. Initially Noel learnt from his mother and father and he was also particularly influenced by his uncle Paddy Hill, a man who held many musical evenings in the family home. These introduced Noel to the to the playing of Paddy Murphy, Willie Clancy, Paddy Canny, Peadar O’Loughlin, John Reid, Mickey Hanrahan and many more. To this day much of the music he plays, comes from the music he heard as a child from these great Clare musicians.
His talent quickly became apparent and by the age 17 he had already recorded the album Inchiquin with the group of the same name: fiddler Tony Linnane, guitarist Tony Callanan and banjo player Kieran Hanrahan. Callanan and Hanrahan left to form Stockton’s Wing and in 1979 he teamed up in the studio with Corrofin fiddle player Tony Linnane. The result was the celebrated album Noel Hill and Tony Linnane, which won immediate recognition and is regarded since as a classic recording. Their unique blend of concertina and fiddle earned them live concerts at home and abroad and they also recorded with Christy Moore The Iron Behind the Velvet (1978) and Planxty: The Woman I Loved So Well (1980).
The two drifted apart when Noel moved to Dublin while Tony stayed in Clare.
1985 saw Noel duetting on another outstanding album. This is the masterful I gCnoc na Graí recording with Tony MacMahon and a group of Clare set-dancers, recorded in Dan O’Connell’s bar in Knocknagree, in the heart of Sliabh Luachra. This album captured the energy of a country house or pub dance in all its glory.
The Irish Concertina One followed in 1988 and was voted the Irish Folk Album of the Year.  He recorded Aislingí Ceoil in 1993 with Tony MacMahon and Iarla Ó Lionáird. From the mid 1970s to 1980, he guested on many recordings, namely those of Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, Paul Brady, Christy Moore and Mick Hanly.
He is noted for his evolved style and his name has been synonymous with great concertina playing for the past thirty years. PJ Curtis wrote of him in Notes from the Heart:

“Here we have a stylist who has taken his instrument to new heights without compromising the tradition from which he springs . . . Noel shapes each tune as a finely sculpted piece of intricate musical art, delicacy and beauty”.

His most recent CD is The Irish Concertina Two recorded in 2005 with Alec Finn, Arty Mc Glynn, Brian McGrath, Liam O’Connor and Steve Cooney. One critic, described it as “a masterclass of traditional expertise and music accomplishment”.
Noel Hill has toured all over Europe, North America, China, Hong Kong and Australia and has taken the concertina from the house dances of Co. Clare to stages all over the world while at the same time keeping his style firmly rooted in the tradition of his native county. He teaches concertina at the The Noel Hill Irish Concertina Schools in Ireland and throughout the United States. He lives in Connemara with his two children, Ashling and Seán, who are continuing the family musical tradition.
In 2011 he was honoured with the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Award.

Irish Minstrels and Musicians, by Capt Francis O’Neill (1913). A key work in the bibliography of Irish music.

Irish Folk Music – A Fascinating Hobby, by Capt Francis O’Neill (1910). Includes ‘Hints to Amateur Pipers’, by Patsey Touhey.

Pipemaker Bill Haneman from Skerries is to be congratulated for putting online these two very important books in the story of Irish music.

O’Neill’s The Dance Music of Ireland
O’Neill’s Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melodies
All of the Captain’s original scores

The Complete Collection of Irish Music, George Petrie. 1902. Ed. George Stanford. (In PDF format).

Annals of the Irish Harpers, by Charlotte Milligan (1911). Bunting, O’Neill and many more.
===

Notes on the Beginning of Concertina Playing in Ireland, 1834 – 1930, by Dan Worrall:
http://www.concertina.com/worrall/beginnings-concertina-in-ireland/

===

A History of Irish Music, by William H Grattan Flood (1905). From the 6th century to the harp festivals of the early 19th century.

On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Eugene O’Curry (1873). Includes writings on ancient musical instruments. More Here.
===
Irish Melodies, by Thomas Moore.
A classic collection with lots of lyrics and informative footnotes.
===

Irish Melodies: The Original Airs Restored and Arranged for the Voice with Pianoforte Accompaniment, by Charles Villiers Stanford (1895). Includes notes by composer and academic Stanford. What a grand title!
===
Songs of Old Ireland: A Collection of Fifty Irish Melodies.
The words by Alfred Percivel Graves, the music arranged by Charles Villiers Stanford (1882).
===

Songs of the Glens of Antrim, and More songs of the Glens of Antrim, by Moira O’Neill (1922).

===

The poets and poetry of Munster: A selection of Irish songs by the poets of the 17th century. With poetical translations by James Clarence Mangan, and the original music; biographical sketches of the authors; and Irish text revised by W.M. Hennessey, M.R.I.A. Ed. by C.P. Meehan, C.C (1884).

Joyce Collection of Irish Music and Song. By Patrick Weston Joyce. At the ITMA.

Ballad Sheets from the Leslie Shepard Collection. By Leslie Shepard (1917–2004).

Guide to Irish Dancing 1902. J.J. Sheehan (Seaghan O Siothchain).

Harding’s All-Round Collection of Jigs, Reels and Country Dances. By Ed Harding, 1922.