Echoes of Erin 2006 by Comhaltas Concert Tour

Much has written about Chief O’Neill’s work and his

many publications and the fact that this 1907 publication is still referred to

today as ‘The Book’ adds further weight to his huge significance in the

development of Irish Traditional music. One of the most famous recordings of

‘The First Month of Summer’was by the legendary fiddler Andy McGann (1928-

2004).Many tributes have been paid to the great Andy McGann since his recent

death;he was a vitally important link to the great era of Michael Coleman and

had a truly distinctive style of fiddle playing and mastery of his instrument.

Andy McGann’s contribution to the development of Irish traditional music in

North America is and will remain ‘set in stone’.

This particular setting of ‘The First Month of Summer’ is associated with

whistle and pipes and was popularised by west Clare concertina, piper and

whistle player Tommy McCarthy who spent much of his time in London.

‘Cut the Sod’featured on the 1998 ‘Leitrim’s Hidden Treasure’CD.It was one

of the tunes learnt by Michael McNamara from Pee Fitzpatrick, a fiddle player

from Aughavas in South Leitrim.

2 Reels: John Brosnan’s (Comp J.Brosnan)/Leitrim Lilter

(Comp.C.Lennon) (Group)

Well-known accordion-player John Brosnan composed this reel over thirty

years ago and it became absorbed into what is termed core repertoire very

quickly.At present living in Killarney,John Brosnan recorded this reel on his long

awaited solo CD ‘The Cook in theKitchen’in 1999.

The second reel is yet another new composition,one of many tunes written by

the highly regarded composer Charlie Lennon. In his publication Musical

Memories, the renowned fiddler and pianist recalled his memories on hearing

the clear sweet notes of a whistler while he worked in a nearby bog as a child.

Charlie writes that when he wrote this reel he wanted to ‘capture the range and

musical qualities of the whistler and to mark the occasion in a tune.’ Charlie

Lennon’s compositions have long become part of the traditional repertoire in

Ireland and the world over. In recent years Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann has

honoured an Ard-Ollamh at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann,and the recipient for this

highly regarded award in 2005 was Dr.Charlie Lennon.

3 Jigs: My Former Wife/Neary’s (Geraldine O’Callaghan)

My Former Wife is included in O’Neill’s 1001 (No.110).Whereas O’Neill actually

sourced the tune from the South Leitrim piper Sergeant James Early when he

included it in his earlier publication, in 1903,O’Neill’s Music of Ireland Eighteen

Hundred and Fifty Melodies the collector wrote that it was actually the Tullamore

piper, Bernard Delaney, who had actually introduced this tune to the Chicago

musicians. Delaney, whom O’Neill described as ‘capable of craning or playing

the Connaught staccato system of execution, the free and rolling style with a

liberal sprinkling of graces and trills was his favourite.’Like Sergeant Early and,

indeed, so many of O’Neill’s musical associates, Delaney was an officer in the

Chicago Police Force.The same Sergeant James Early was one of Chief O’Neill’s

closest confidantes and indeed, along with Early’s musical duet partner Mayo

fiddler,James McFadden,was a source of some of the collector’s finest tunes.

‘Neary’s’ jig is associated with the repertoire of Jim Neary, a Mayo fiddler

who lived in Chicago. He was married to pianist Eleanor Kane. The jig was

recorded by fiddle and flute duet,Jimmy McGreevy and Seamus Cooley.This jig

has its own particular character and having been played by the Brosna Céilí

Band in the late 1990s,it has since enjoyed a revival.

4 Song:The Vales of New Direen (Donie Lyons)

The Vales of New Direen

Farewell,farewell my native land,

Farewell forever more,

I now must leave you far behind,

And seek a foreign shore,

But very soon the ocean wide,

Between us will intervene,

From that dear old home,

That’s mine no more,

In the Vales of New Direen.

Those sand dune seas I’ve crossed before,

And sought a foreign strand,

Although I soon would see,

Again my native land,

But like John Mitchell in his cell,

There’s something tells to me,

Of that dear old home,

That’s mine no more,

In the Vales of New Direen.

At home in dear old Ireland,

I,fain,for e’er would stay,

But fate indeed was destined for me,

To wander far away,

From my native hills and valleys fair,

Where dwells the shamrock green,

In that dear old home that’s mine no more,

In the Vales of New Direen.

The parties that betrayed us,

They obtained their best desire,

The life of her blighted,

They surely blasted mine,

They sent us both a wandering,

With vengeance sharp and keen,

From that dear old home,

That’s mine no more,

In the Vales of New Direen.

When last I saw my native land,

It was with mournful eye,

The tears came trickling down my face,

And loudly I did cry,

The fall of night it soon came down,

And that was last I had seen,

Of that dear old home,

That’s mine no more,

In the Vales of New Direen.

So now I must end my end my few pen lines,

In case I might be late,

The mourning train from Ardagh,

Leaves at twenty five past eight,

So God be with you Ireland,

You’re my starlit ocean Queen,

And a fond farewell to all who dwell,

In the Vales of New Direen.

‘The Vales of New Direen’is a song of emigration from the West Limerick area.It

has been recorded by Treasa Ní Cheannaigh in the past who had learnt it from

the famous singer from that area, Con Greaney. It is one of many songs that

Donie Lyons remembers hearing over the years in his native West Limerick.

5 Reels: Morning Mist Comp.J.Burke/Eileen O’Brien’s Reel Comp.

E.O’Brien Pádraig King*

The first reel was composed by the one and only Joe Burke and the tune lends

its name to his most recent CD,The Morning Mist.Joe composed the reel in 1958

and having given it to Raymond Roland,the great East Galway accordion-player

who was one of the stalwarts of the London Irish music scene in the late 1950s

through to the 1980s Having been introduced to the London Irish music scene

the reel quickly became part of the established repertoire amongst traditional

musicians everywhere.It was first recorded by the Liverpool Céilí Band.

Eileen O’Brien,is daughter of the legendary Tipperary accordion player and

composer,Paddy O’Brien,who spent much of his life in America.‘Eileen O’Brien’s

Reel’ has been part of the core repertoire of Irish music for over twenty-five

years having been absorbed into the tradition very soon after she composed it.

Having played it at the All-Ireland Fleadh where it got one of it’s first ‘airing’

Eileen went to the first Cooley-Collins festival in Gort with her family where she

met the great East Galway flute player Paddy Carty. Like all great musicians

Carty appreciated hearing new and interesting tunes and immediately took to

the tune. Eileen O’Brien herself remembers in particular the fact that Paddy

Carty had ‘picked the tune up’with all its detail after she had only played it once

through. Many other well-known musicians in turn learnt the reel from Paddy

Carty and East Galway fiddler, Conor Tully, and like all good newly-composed

tunes the reel has ‘stood the test of time’and is played ‘as if it was old’.

6 Reels:Tom Ward’s Downfall/The Ireland We Knew

(Daire McGeown Accompaniment Damien Mullane)

‘Tom Ward’s Downfall’ has been part of ‘core’ traditional repertoire since the

legendary South Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman recorded it in April1922.Much

has been written about the legacy of the Irish immigrant musicians to North

America who included Coleman, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, Tom

Morrisson,Patsy Tuohy,John McKenna,P.J.Conlon and so many more,and it is

testimony to their era and the crucial ’78 r.p.m.recordings,that we still pay these

tunes and tune selections today over eighty years later.

The second reel was composed by Ed Reavy (1898-1988), the fiddler and

composer who emigrated from Cavan to the U.S. in 1912 and settled in

Philadelphia.Like many of the great musicians of the time,he played not only as

a solo performer but also in various dance bands. These immigrant bands

played a variety of music, which included hornpipes, for the Irish immigrant

population in dance halls in the major American cities. Reavy’s compositions

have been, and still are, amongst the most popular tunes in traditional

repertoire.Indeed it is perhaps very appropriate that the last known recording

of Michael Coleman made in 1944, a year before he died, includes Ed Reavy’s

composition ‘Lad O’Beirne’s Hornpipe’, which he named after the great fiddler.

The reel is included in Where The Shannon Rises,the book of one hundred and

twenty-seven compositions of Ed Reavy.Reavy was anxious to ensure that the

title of his tunes said something about his own values: his personal feelings

about Ireland and about the people he loved.He also wanted to share some of

his own life experiences with his friends – to give them something else to reflect

on as they sat down to hear his tunes played. Included in Where the Shannon

Rises are Ed Reavy’s personal anecdotes on each tune and this is what the

composer himself wrote in relation to ‘The Ireland We Knew’:

‘Much has come and gone in Ireland since the early days of this century.

Nothing remains the same in a world that has since entered its most advanced

technological age. But poets dream their dreams, and the heart of every

Irishman longs for the Ireland he once knew.’

The reel has been recorded by the Irish band Téada on their Inné AmárachCD.

7 Gol na mBan san Ár/George Whites Reel (Sabina McCague)

This challenging descriptive piece was first recorded at the turn of the century

by the Kerry piper Micí Combá Ó Suilleabháin. This piece is included in

Allisdrum’s March - a complex piece of music which commemorates the Battle

of Cnoc na nDos which was fought on 13 November 1647.Inchiquin defeated

the Irish forces under Lord Taffe in the battle and Alasdair Mac Domhnaill was

killed afterwards.

Interestingly another very different version of ‘Gol na mBan San Ár’was recorded

by Pilib Ó Laoghaire on the first ever CCÉ album The Rambles of Kitty.The source

for this particular setting was the playing of Eoghan Ó Súilleabháin from

Waterville in County Kerry.His daughter Treasa Bean Uí Bhreallacháin played the

tune for Liam De Nóraidh in 1942.To add further variety to the history of Gol na

mBan san Ár another version of this air was notated from Seán Ó Fionnghaile by

Séamus Mac Mathúna and Breandán Breathnach in Tacair Portc.1961.

George White’s Reel has been a core repertoire tune for many years.

According to Harry Bradshaw’s research on the Fluters of Old ErinCompilation,

from which much of our present-day knowledge of the flute players of the 78

r.p.m.era is derived,George White owned a dance hall in New York during the

early years of the twentieth century. The reel formed part of a well-loved

selection, ‘George White’s’ and ‘The Carracastle Lass’or ‘Miss Langford’ which

were recorded in 1935 by Paddy Sweeney, a fiddler from the area known as

Powelsboro,near Tubbercurry in Co.Sligo.

8 Jigs:The Luachrachán’s Jig (Composer Junoir Crehan)/

The Millers Maggot (Vincent Jordan – group *)

Both of these relaxed jigs are associated with two of the true ‘greats’ in our

musical tradition,Junior Crehan and John Kelly,both from West Clare.The first

was composed by Martin ‘Junior’ Crehan, (1908-1998) from Ballymackea, near

Miltown Malbay. Not only was Junior Crehan, a most respected musician, he

played both the fiddle and the concertina.He was also a man who had a great

insight into the broader spectrum of the Irish culture – the language, stories,

house dances, seanachas and oral history among them. ‘Junior’ Crehan was

taught the fiddle by Scully Casey,father of another ‘great’Bobby Casey,but he

also played the concertina.This tune ‘The Luachrachán’s Jig’ was, like many of

Junior Crehan’s compositions,a response to a person,an event or a feeling and

it also provides us with a fine example of Junior as a raconteur. The jig is

accompanied by the following story as taken from the recently published

Martin ‘Junior’Crehan’s Musical Compositions and Memories1908-1998.

...As I sat by the fire with my son Páidín,a sudden change came over the scene.

Down the chimney came a little man so old,and I asked him for the Crock of Gold.

“No gold I have but good advice,and if you heed it you will be wise,Grow small

barley and keep a pig,and play this tune ‘The Luachrachán’s Jig’.”

The second jig was played by the late John Kelly (1912-1987), fiddler and

concertina player,a native of Rehy,Loop Head,Co.Clare,who lived most of his

life in Dublin.John Kelly’s shop ‘The Horse Shoe’in Capel Street was a meeting

place for so many musicians in the capital.John Kelly was not oly famous for his

musicianship and his highly significant contribution to the Castle Céilí Band and

Seán Ó Riada’s Ceoltóirí Chualainn and of course, like ‘Junior’ Crehan his

contribution to the Willie Clancy Summer School,he was also highly respected

authority on Irish music with a wide and deep knowledge of the music,singing

and indeed the Irish Language. John Kelly had a particularly extensive

repertoire and it included many very old distinctive and particularly musical

tunes such as this jig,a jig that the younger generation of the Kelly family,John

Kelly Junior and his brother James, play with the old setting of the Cliffs of

Moher.Whereas it is often referred to as ‘John Kelly’s’this jig was first published

under the title ‘The Miller’s Maggot’in the milestone collection O’Farrell’s Pocket

Compnaion for the Irish or Union Pipes, which comprised a number of volumes

published circa 1804/5 – 1810.

9 Reels: Alice Fitzgerald’s/The Gatehouse Maid (Séana Agnew*)

John Kennedy was born in 1928 near Cullybackey, Co. Antrim. He was

encouraged to sing by his mother, Mary, and later learned to play the fife in

Duneaney ‘First Flute’band.Willy Nicholl of Killyliss then taught him whistle.John

Kennedy began teaching whistle and flute in Portglenone CCÉ in 1973 and

Dunloy CCÉ 1974,where he continued to teach for twenty-five years,producing

many established musicians through Co.Antrim and Derry.Throughout this time,

John began composing tunes and competing in the newly composed ballad

section at Fleadhanna at which he won All Ireland titles in 1984,1986,1989 and

1994.In 2001 a book of his life and musical compositions was published and a

CD recorded to much critical acclaim.John Kennedy received this year,2006,one

of the highest possible accolades when he was awarded the OBE for services to

Irish Traditional Music in the Queens Birthday Honours List 2006.

‘Alice Fitzgerald’s Reel’was named in honour of the Dungarvan singer,whom

John enjoyed many a singing weekend with. Alice Fitzgerald is well known in

both singing and drama circles all over Ireland and has been a regular presenter

on many Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Concert Tours.‘The Gatehouse Maid’is part of the

core South Sligo repertoire having been originally recorded by Paddy Killoran in

America.Killoran recorded The Gatehouse Maid with Down the Broom and like

some of his other recorded selections, such as ‘The Enchanted Lady’ and ‘The

Holy Land’,the selection has stayed together ever since.

10 Reels:The College Groves/Down the Broom (Eimear Buckley)

The ‘College Groves’ was one of many tunes popularised by the South-Sligo

fiddler, James Morrison, who was a contemporary of Michael Colman.No.485

in O’Neill’s 1001, where it titled the College Grove, O’Neill obtained the tune

from John Ennis,a piper and flute-player originally from County Kildare – and

yet another musical ‘patrolman’in the Chicago police force.Some of the other

tunes that were notated by James O’Neill (Francis O’Neill’s scribe) from Ennis

were the reels ‘Trim the Velvet’‘Toss the Feathers’‘The Dogs among the Bushes’,

‘The Reel of Bogie’ and hornpipes ‘The Kildare Fancy’ and ‘The Wicklow

Hornpipe’all tunes that are highly regarded. O’Neill had also obtained a two-

part version of the College Grove from James Kennedy,originally from Leitrim

who had learnt the tune from his father a fiddler, Peter Kennedy from

Ballinamore. O’Neill later observed that ‘The College Grove’ may have

originated in the Scottish tune ‘Miss Corbett’s Reel’.The tune offers great scope

for exploration and attention to detail is regarded as one of the finest in Irish

music.It is particularly associated with the music of the great West Clare fiddler

Bobby Casey.

‘Down the Broom’ is the first reel in the well known South Sligo selection

(Down The Broom/The Gatehouse Maid) referred to in Track 10 above. This

particular setting of ‘Down the Broom’is most associated with the music of the

famous Castle Céilí Band.

11 Air/Jig: An Buachaill Caol Dubh/The House Keeper (Damien Mullane)

Damien learnt this setting of ‘An Buachaillín Bán’from the Baile na nGall singer and

accordion player Séamus Ó Beaglaoich.The song has been in the Ó Beaglaoich

family singing tradition for many years – Séamus’sister,Eibhlín,also sang this song

many years ago.Instrumental settings of this air have been played by Willie Clancy

amongst others, while the words of the actual song date back to the mid-

eighteenth century to the Munster poet Seán Ó Seanacháin, a native of Tulla in

County Clare who settled in Glin by the Shannon estuary in County Limerick.

The House Keeper No.82 occurs in the 1998 Publication Tunes of The Munster

Pipers – Irish Traditional Music for James Goodman Manuscripts (Ed. Hugh

Shields/Pub ITMA). Born outside Dingle in County Kerry into a family who had

been Church of Ireland curates for many years,the young James Goodman spoke

Irish and listened to, and subsequently played on uilleann pipes, the tunes he

heard around him.Canon Goodman enjoyed a notable reputation as a Gaelic Irish

Scholar,becoming a Professor of Irish at Trinity College in Dublin,the latter while

acting as rector of Abbeystrewry parish near Skibbereen in West Cork.Goodman’s

Manuscripts are contained in four volumes in Trinity College Library.Amongst the

mammoth collection of tunes from various different sources are over five

hundred tunes which he marked with the letter K,which Goodman described as

having ‘transcribed from Munster pipers etc.’Some but not all of these ‘K’tunes

appear to have been sourced from Goodman from the Kerry piper Tom Kennedy

who visited,or may have stayed with the rector while he was based in the parish

of Ardgroom,just outside Beare in West Cork.‘The Housekeeper’features as one

of the ‘K’ tune from the 1998 Irish Traditional Music Archive publication and

heretofore has long been associated with Munster and various settings of it exist

including that favoured by Denis Murphy and other Sliabh Luachra fiddlers.

12 Reels:The New Road/ Cathal McConnell’s (Group)

The new road is a well known tune throughout Ireland.Published as a two-part

reel in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland 1850 MelodiesCollection, the third part that is

now played is attributed to Paddy Fahey. The new road was also a great

favourite of Ray Rolland,the accordion player from east Galway,who was one of

the stalwarts of the London Irish Music scene from the late 1950s through to the

1970s.Whereas the tune is often heard with each part doubled,each part here

is played only once,as Raymond Roland played and recorded it.

The second reel is a composition of the Fermanagh flute-player/singer and

entertainer Cathal McConnell, one of the founding members of the one of the

earliest groups to become internationally famous ‘The Boys of the Lough’.It was

recorded by another internationally acclaimed group,Buttons and Bows,and thus

continued to become one of the relatively new compositions which became

absorbed into the general repertoire.This tune has particularly fond memories for

the American CCÉ Tour 2006 Group.While on tour in Ireland Pádraig McGovern

played this tune as one of his solo reels. Pádraig’s interpretation of the tune –

including his intricate use of regulators- became a favourite with the entire group,

musicians,singers and dancers alike,but no-one was more enthusiastic than Nora

Butler who was constantly to be heard humming the tune,and invariably after a

time the reel became known as ‘Nora’s Tune’to the group.

13 Single Jigs: Siobhán Ní Chonaráin*

The first tune – referred to as a single jig was recorded by Boston based fiddler

Séamus Connolly whoneeds no introduction to American audiences.Originally

from Killaloe in Co. Clare Séamus Connolly a virtuoso fiddler has long been

based in Boston and was founder of Boson College’s highly successful Gaelic

Roots Festival. Connolly had learnt the tune from the playing of Paddy Canny

and Martin Mulhaire in the late 1950s.

This second single jig would be more commonly referred to as a slide.

(Whereas both of these tunes were played in 12/8 time,some single jigs are in

6/8 time especially those associated with dancing).This slide is associated with

fiddler Paddy O’Connell from Cordal in North Kerry.The tune was identified in a

manuscript of Pádraig O’Keeffe’s music by Kerry fiddler Máire O’Keeffe who

recorded on her Cóisir House Party CD. These two tunes are very much

associated with the playing of Nickie and Anne McAuliffe from Castleisland in

Co. Kerry.They featured on a home-recording made by the McAuliffes for Bill

McEvoy some years ago,a tape that has now circulated all over the world.While

at home on holiday Bill asked Nickie and Anne to record some of what was

known to be their very extensive repertoire for him.Bill brought the tape back

to America and,as has happened so many times in the past,copies of the tape

continued to be made.

14 Slow Piece: Moran’s Return (Group)

This slow piece is included in the Joyce 1909 Collection Old Irish Music and Songs

– A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs Hitherto Unpublished. Patrick Weston

Joyce was not only a pivotally important music collector he was also a highly

regarded historian, Irish language scholar and educationalist. His 1909

collection was one of two music collections that he published – the first

collection in 1873 consisted of One Hundred Tunes Hitherto Unpublishedand like

his substantive 1909 Collection if included many interesting notes to the tunes.

In 1888 PW Joyce also published a less spoken about collection of Irish Music

and Song,a collection of Gaelic Songs which significantly matched the syllables

of the words to the actual melody of the songs. This latter publication was

actually undertaken for the Society for The Preservation of the Irish Language.

The all-round scholar’s 1909 Collection included tunes from his own memory

and his own collections but also from the Forde and Pigott Collections in

addition to tunes he had obtained from his antiquarian colleagues, such as

Petrie- who actually published many tunes he had obtained from Joyce and

other similarly motivated people with whom he had been in communication

during the second half of the nineteenth century.Joyce had notated many airs

and melodies from singers and ‘Moran’s Return’is one such tune,the footnote

to which stated that he had written it down from singers about 1844.

15 Jigs:The Old Walls of Liscarroll/The Knocknagow (Ronan Greene)

In 1922 O’Neill published Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melodyin which he put to

print three hundred and sixty five tunes or variants of tunes which he had not

published in his other Collections.These were generally sourced from a variety

of manuscripts which he had obtained.On August 28th1922,O’Neill concluded

the introduction to the Waifs and Strays by writing that ‘As a sixth and final

contribution to the cherished cause of perpetuating Gaelic musical tradition,

the compiling of this work (i.e.Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody) – unique in

many respects – was undertaken in the sunset years of a long an adventurous

life, and at a time when the difficulties of publishing were most discouraging.

Should the musical antiquary, or modern composer derive from the study of

Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melodyas much profit as the editor did of pleasure in

its compilation and publication, all is well, and the desired end has been

attained.’One can only hope that O’Neill had some glimpse of just how much

musical profit has been gleamed from all his publications,but unfortunately a

study of his life story reveals that,like many great visionaries,it was only after his

death that the value of his work was truly realised.

The ‘Old Walls of Liscarroll’appears in the Waifs and StraysNo.179 and was

obtained by O’Neill from the manuscripts entitled ‘Prof.of Dancing,London and

Castleisland’on donation by Prof.P.D.Reidy in 1902.The footnote to this tune

includes some interesting comment by O’Neill:

... In the year 1902 a thin oblong book of Mss.Music came to hand from P.D.

Reidy ‘Prof. of Dancing, London and Castleisland’. Although it included forty

tunes from the repertoire of five competent fiddlers,nearly all were variants of

tunes already in our possession.This jig,however,as played by Daniel J.Kelleher

is one of the exceptions.There can be little doubt that Mr Reidy’s title was a well

deserved, because his fame as a dancer and dancing master in early life in

North Kerry was successfully maintained later in life in London,where he was

esteemed as an authority on the subject. Frequent mention of his name

appears in Irish Minstrels and Musicians...

‘The Knocknagow’ became popular after it was recorded by Joe Burke on the

1970 album,Galway’s Own Joe Burke.Joe had heard the tune in America and it

was after this recording that the Knocknagow jig became popular in Ireland and

has remained so ever since.‘The Knocknagow’is included in O’Neill’s 1850(No.

1113) and,like many of the finest of the tunes in O’Neill’s 1001 and O’Neill’s 1850

was sourced by O’Neill from Edward Cronin, a fiddler originally from Limerick

Junction on the Limerick-Tipperary border. Chief O’Neill published many fine

tunes that were sourced from Cronin and indeed the same fiddler composed

‘Chief O’Neill’s Hornpipe’.

16 Song: An Buachaillín Donn (Nora Butler)

An Buachaillín Donn

My true love he dwells on the mountain

Like a war eagle fearless and free

By the side of a low tuning fountain

That wanders through wild Annalae

His soul has more valour and honour

Than a king with his palace and crown

For the blood of the race of O’Connor

Fills the veins of my ‘Buachaillín Donn’

Soft ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’I’ll give him

Every Sunday when he comes to me

And sure what can I do but believe him

When he whispers ‘A Cuisle Mo Chroí’

For his look is so truthful and tender

From his bright roving eyes of dark brown

That I’m sure any lady of splendour

Could be coaxed by my ‘Buachaillín Donn’

My father has riches in plenty

And suitors for me in his eye

Ah but let my age come to twenty

And it’s I’ll give them all the good bye

I long for a home on the mountain

Far away from the dust of the town

With the music of a low tuning fountain

And the love of my ‘Buachaillín Donn’

Nora Butler has fond memories of learning this song many years ago when she

was a young girl of sixteen.A local man named Martin Power from Ballycommon

near Nenagh,who had a great interest in singing,met Nora one day after she had

danced at a Feis.Martin told her that he had ‘a lovely song that would really suit

her’. Nora went on to sing ‘An Buachaillín Donn’ on many an occasion all over

Ireland,a song which had not been previously heard on a widespread basis.

17Slides: (Eimear Buckley,Pádraig King,Siobhán Ní Chonaráin,

Geraldine O’Callaghan)

These first of these three slides is a popular one in West Limerick. It occurs in

Breathnach (Vol. 2) as a number of slides and polkas which the collector

obtained from a manuscript that had belonged to a David Collins from

Abbeyfeale in West Limerick. Breathnach obtained the manuscript through

fiddler Tom Barrett who lived in Listowel.

The second tune has been a very popular tune for many years and was

published in the Roche Collectionas ‘The Echoes of Killarney’. The Roche

Collectionwas published in 1911 and the East Limerick collector and dancing

master and Roche hoped to avoid including material already published – quite

a mammoth task given that by this time,especially from 1855 onwards quite a

number of significant collections of Irish music had been published. The

inclusion of such a wide variety of tune-type, including marches, single and

hop-jigs, set-dances and quadrilles has always rendered the Collection one of

the most interesting and popular. The third slide is most associated with the

Brosna Céilí Band in North Kerry which and was one of the many tunes

popularised from their radio broadcasts during the 1970s. The late1960s

and1970s was a period during which many of the Céilí Bands which went on to

become household names played not just at Fleadhanna Cheoil but also at the

annual Oireachtas. Bands such as the Castle Céilí Band (c.f. Track 10) and the

Brosna to name just two featured on radio broadcasts at a time when much music

was still learnt from the radio.Many older musicians still talk about the impact of

these radio broadcasts from the late 1950s through to the 1970s. Musicians

listened to tunes that they often had not heard before and often recall the fact

that they had to listen very attentively indeed to ensure that they ‘caught’the new

tune properly as,unlike a record,there was no chance of replaying it.

18 Hornpipes:The Green Island/The Lone Bush (Group)

The first hornpipe,The Green island, is included in O’Neill’s 1850(No.1774) the

source of the tune being Captain O’Neill himself.Given the many references to

Ireland in some of O’Neill’s tune titles it could be easily assumed that ‘The Green

Island’was a reference to the island of Ireland but it is highly likely that it is a far

more specific reference to a landscape feature on view from O’Neill’s home in

Tralibane in West Cork. Nickie McAuliffe (c.f.Track 13) while on a visit to view

O’Neill’s homestead met a local man who pointed out a little green patch of

ground at the crossroads at Tralibane Bridge.He told Nickie that in times gone

by local people used to dance on this patch of ground,a patch referred in local

folklore to as The Green Island. Nickie immediately linked this local custom to

the name of the said hornpipe in O’Neill’s Collection. Many of O’Neill’s tunes

have names with links to the Captain’s West Cork connections – ‘Banks of the

Ilen’, ‘The Bantry Hornpipe’, ‘The Humours of Drinagh’ and it is thought that

O’Neill may have named some tunes, which came to him without titles, after

places and memories from his childhood.

‘The Lone Bush’ is another of a composition of Ed Reavy. As stated

previously (c.f.Track 6) Reavy was anxious to ensure that the title of his tunes

said something about his own values: his personal feelings about Ireland and

about the people he loved.In Where The Shannon Rises,Ed Reavy himself makes

the following comment on this lovely hornpipe.

‘The Lone Bush’: There was a bush that bloomed alone outside Ed’s

farmhouse.Many times he has wondered about that bush and why it survived

when all around it perished. It has meant many things to him and has always

been a life-sustaining thought.’

19 Reels: New Mown Meadow/Bonnie Kate (Damien Mullane)

This first reel has long been a favourite of melodeon players,each of them finding

it gave them the scope to explore the potential of their instrument.The final reel

of the album,‘Bonnie Kate’,recorded with Jenny’s Chickens by Coleman in 1934,is

one of the all-time favourites in the traditional repertoire.Included in O’Neill’s 1001

(No. 545) in his earlier 1903 Collection 1850the collector noted that he has

obtained the tune through James O’Neill.‘Bonnie Kate’is Scottish in origin but like

many Scottish tunes that became popular in Ireland but with the passage of time

they have been phrased and interpreted by Irish traditional musicians in such a

way that they fit in with the oldest Irish tunes.Any repertoire associated with a folk

or traditional music will always be changing and constantly expanding according

to the preferences and influences on the musicians playing the music at any given

time and in the same way as the Irish traditional repertoire has benefited from

other musical genres and repertoires in the past so also has our Irish Traditional

Music has enhanced many other musical genres and repertoires the world over.

* indicates harp accompaniment by Sabina McCague

Acknowledgements

Recorded at:CCÉ,32,Belgrave Square,Monkstown,Co.Dublin

Tracks 1 and 7 Recorded,mixed and mastered by Dónal O’Reilly at

Green Meadow Studio,Killeshandra,Co.Cavan (086) 604 4227 (August 2006)

Tracks 3 and 10 Recorded,mixed and mastered by Ally O’Riada at Studio Leath Dhoras,

Cúil Aodha,Co.Chorcaí (August 2006)

Producer:Siobhán Ní Chonaráin

Singing Advisor:Séamus Mac Mathúna

Sound Engineering:Brendan Knowlton,CCÉ Email:Brendan@comhaltas.com

Design & Layout:Daire Ó Beaglaoich,Graftrónaic

CD Mastering and Replication:Trend Studios

Sleeve Notes:Siobhán Ní Chonaráin,Sabina McCague,Nickie McAuliffe and Paddy

Ryan.Thanks also to Séana Agnew,Joe Burke,Eileen O’Brien,Domhnall Ó Lideadha,

Kathleen Nesbitt and to Con Herbert for a variety of contributions.

Special thanks to Bernard O’Sullivan,Tour co-ordinator,and all the staff at CCÉ Monkstown.

Average Customer Review: