Trip to Ireland for the Cork Dulcimer Festival

The initial purpose of this trip to Ireland was to participate in the Cork Dulcimer Festival, the first hammered dulcimer festival in Ireland. This festival was organized by Christie Burns as a result of her studies for her Masters Thesis entitled "Out of Obscurity: Discovering the Dulcimer In Ireland" which can be downloaded from the festival web site.  During her research, she identified three musicians currently playing the dulcimer in Ireland. Since they had never met each other, Christie came up with the idea for a Festival to bring them together. She also contacted several dulcimer players from the US that play Irish traditional music. David James and myself were able to go, but unfortunately, Karen Ashbrook was not able to attend.

I had been teaching the Irish hammered dulcimer class during Irish Week at the Augusta Heritage Festival that week. I was able to find a ride to Pittsburgh Friday at noon and catch a plane to Chicago where I met my wife, Mary, flying up from San Antonio, and take the AerLingus flight overnight to Shannon. We rented a car and arrived in Cork about 2pm. (By the way, the rental car was the most expensive part of the trip. We managed to save the collision damage waiver of about $130 by using a Master Charge gold/platinum card; can’t use Visa for this. Even so, the cost of a mid-sized car was about $340 for 8 days.)  B&B's were 40 to 50 Euros ($40 to $50) for two.

The highlight of the Dulcimer Festival there was a Seminar on Saturday afternoon by the three dulcimer players Christie located: Nat Magee from Antrim, Barry Carroll from Dublin, and Seamus Brady from Waterford.  About 40 people attended.

	The three dulcimer players in Ireland meet for the first time.  l to r: Nat McGee, Seamus Brady, and Barry Carroll

Nat Magee was a cousin of John Rea of Glenarm, Co. Antrim, one of only two older Irish dulcimer players of note during the last century. (The other was Andy Dowling, from Clonmeen, Errill, Co. Laois.) Nat’s dulcimer is an exact copy of John Rea’s and does not have a sound hole in it. Just like John Rea, he elevates it with a small wooden box; if laid flat on the table, all of the sound is dampened and the instrument is very quiet. Nat spent most of his time talking about his relationship with John Rea and how they became interested in the dulcimer and learned to play them; he played only a few relatively simple tunes. Nat’s beaters, as he called them, were made from old bicycle spokes; he said that John Rea’s beaters were made from the wire of an old bird cage. (In contrast, when I visited Andy Dowling in 1989, his hammers were made from the aluminum rods of an old television antenna.) Nat made several strong comments on how the music and the dance had no politics. He said that he was a Presbyterian but many times that he had played with Catholics and there never any problems.

Barry Carroll is originally from Lisburn, Co. Antrim, but now lives in Portmarnock, Co. Dublin. Barry said he was heavily influenced by John’ Rea’s playing, although he never studied with him. Instead, he learned the music playing in sessions in the pubs. As a result he played primarily up-tempo dance music in a very rhythmic style. His last selection was a suite from Derry.

In sharp contrast, Seamus Brady is primarily a champion sean nos singer of the old Irish airs. He is a woodworker, and built his own dulcimer perhaps more as a challenge than anything else. He seemed very humble and apologetic about his playing, but I think that is a characteristic of sean nos singers. He has developed a style of playing that lets him transform his airs into lovely tunes on the dulcimer. The first air he played was A Stoir Mo Chroi followed by Sliabh Geal gCua and Sliabh na mBan. All three of these he first sang in Gaelic and then played on the dulcimer. He made extensive use of tremolo as a means of stretching out the long notes of the tunes. He had as much soul in his playing as he did in his singing.

Afterwards, the three dulcimer players of Ireland had an opportunity to meet each other for the first time.  I had met Seamus at the All-Ireland music competitions in Clonmell in 1993 and 1994, so we had a chance to catch up as well.  Afterward he gave me a limited-production CD he had made; it is a real treasure.

Saturday night was a concert at a small theatre in Cork.  Jenny Coxon on the dulcimer and Adrian Schofield on the Northumbrian small pipes played English traditional and original music; they are from the Nonesuch Dulcimer Club in England.  They were followed by a trio from Glasgow, Jack Bethel on dulcimer, Colin McAllister on bodhran, and  Gearóid O Laoghaire on fiddle playing Scottish and Irish traditional music.  The concert was concluded by All-Ireland champion David James plucking and bowing the dulcimer as well as hammering and singing some original songs; he was joined on a couple tunes by by Mel Mercier, a great bodhran player and Christie's thesis advisor.

My first contribution to the Festival was a workshop on Sunday afternoon on Playing the Dulcimer in an Irish Session. I was joined by several other musicians to represent a session. Rob Thornburgh now lives in Sligo where he plays and teaches fiddle, but used to play with Celtic Thunder and session in the Washington-Baltimore area. David James also played fiddle in our "session"; David of course plays dulcimer in the Chicago area and also provided experience in playing the dulcimer in Irish sessions. A couple of Christie’s friends who play in the local Cork sessions helped out on mandolin and guitar. We talked about the differences in typical U.S. dulcimer sessions and Irish sessions and how one generally needs a larger repertoire for Irish sessions: 30 tunes played 3 times each, rather than 3 tunes played 30 times each.  Also, we discussed some differences in playing styles and how the timing of the notes can clash.

Cindy Ribet, a great dulcimer player from Durham, NC, entertained the crowd with her dulcimer playing of American traditional tunes and many of her original compositions.  This trip was not only Cindy's first trip to Ireland, it was were first airplane ride.  She had some great stories to tell about it.

Later, in my concert slot, Matt Cranitch, who lives just outside Cork, joined me for a couple of tunes. We played a set of hornpipes, Padraig O’Keeffe’s and Mickey O'Callahan’s Fancy, and then a set of reels, The Palmer’s Gate and Glountane School – 1862, from the album Gleanntan, which Matt’s group Sliabh Notes produced a couple years ago. That was one of the high-lights of the trip.  For more details on the Festival see the Folkworld report as well as the Festival web site.

After leaving Cork and the new friends we met there at the Cork Dulcimer Festival, we drove to Thurles, Co. Tipperary, to visit some old friends – the family of Charlie Byrne, probably the quintessential bodhran maker of Ireland. Along the way we entertained ourselves by identifying towns and places with tunes. On this drive we "saw" the Fermoy Lasses, the Maids of Mitchelstown, the Belles of Tipperary, and the Galty Ranger. I first met Charlie Byrne at the Fleadh in 1986 in Listowel. Since then I have visited the family several times, and Mary has been there once. The tune Mighty Goat on my CD The Coming of Spring was written for Charlie.  We visited, had a fry, and played a few tunes as Charlie played his button accordion and even a little baby accordion. We spent the night at the home of their daughter and her husband, Nuala and Richard Ryan. It was their daughters, Edel and Sharon, that back in 1989 showed me how to play the Carolan composition Captain O’Kane as a round and introduced me to the Paddy O’Brien tune "The Coming of Spring" which became the title of my CD.

Speaking of Paddy O’Brien, the next day we drove to Nenagh to visit his daughter, Eileen O’Brien Minogue. She took us to lunch in a favorite pub nearby their home, where we got to meet her daughter who works there. Eileen holds a weekend festival each year in memory of her Father; I was privileged to play at this Festival in 1997.  After lunch we drove along Lough Derg, which is a lake on the River Shannon.  At the foot of the lake we crossed the river into Kilaloe site of St. Flannan's Cathedral built by Donal Mor O'Brien, a descendent of Brian Boru, about 1200 A.D.  In the church is a 12th-century high-cross from the churchyard at Kilfenora, which we would visit later, and an old Ogham stone, dating from about 1000 A.D.; this stone is unique because it contains the same message in both old Gaelic and Norse lettering or runes.  We drove on through Limerick and spent that night in Ennis where we went down to Cruises pub in the Queen’s hotel for the nightly session which runs from 9:30 until 12:30 when the pubs close.

The shores of Lough Derg	Cliffs of Moher

The next day we drove west through Clare to the Cliffs of Moher. After passing by the Road to Lisdoonvarna, we drove down to Kilfenora. We stopped there to visit a very nice museum on the ecology and history of The Burren, a very rugged, picturesque area of Clare. When we went over to Linnane’s pub for lunch, we noticed a sign that said that some of the members of the old Kilfenora Ceili band would be having a session there that night. The pub owner helped us find a B&B in the area so we could stay there that night. We then spent the afternoon driving through The Burren and visiting a very old abandoned churchyard with several buildings dating back to the 1100's. While in the Burren, we stopped at the Pulnabrone Dolmen, a 4000-year old megalith tomb, getting there just about 10 minutes ahead of 3 tour buses - what luck!  Later that evening Cliff joined in the session at Linnane’s.

Ruins of Kilmacduagh (Cill Mhic Dhuach) founded in the 7th century.  The round tower is from the12th-century and the cathedral in front is from the 11th.  St. John's church, in the center, is still older.	An intricate carving viewed through a window of the cathedral at Kilmacduagh

At 4000 years old, this pre-historic dolmen makes Cliff feel young at 60.	Cliff sessioning with members of the old Kilfenora Ceili Band at Linnane's Pub in Kilfenora.

Wednesday morning we drove to Gort and visited Thor Ballylee, a 16th-century Norman tower which at one time was the home of William Butler Yeats. It is nestled in the woods at the confluence of two small streams – very idyllic. Then we headed north to Galway to attempt the second objective of the trip – to get a picture of a curlew, a wading bird that looks something like a large sandpiper but with a beak that curves downward. The title tune of my next CD is going to be "The Curlews" which is a reel by Josephine Keegan, so we hoped to get something to use for the cover art. We tried first along the beach in Galway, and then the next morning along the shores of Lough Corrib and in a field nearby where we had been told curlews had been flocking each morning for the past couple weeks or so. Nothing. So we gave up and headed to Connemara where a friend had promised to help us find curlews. A few miles up the road I spotted a flock of about 2 dozen curlews in a field along side the road. We swung around and stopped, but they immediately moved further back in the field away from the road. We managed to get a few pictures, but even with a 300mm lens, they weren’t very close up.

On the way to our friend’s house in Carna in Connemara, we stopped at Cong Abbey. This monastery was originally founded in the 7th century.  It was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the 1100's, and then rebuilt again after being destroyed by the Normans in 1203.  The sculptured columns are considered some of the finest in Ireland of that period.  It is not true that after the abbey was rebuilt by the king that is was named King Cong Abbey in his honor.

We stopped to visit with Marcus Hernon in Carna, Connemara with hopes of getting better curlew pictures.  I had met Marcus at the Gaelic Roots Irish music workshops in Boston last year where he was one of the flute teachers.  He had just produced a CD of tunes he had composed, each named after a bird of Connemara.  One tune was called "The Cry of the Curlew," and Marcus told me that they flocked on Feenish, an island just off the coast where he lived. Marcus's family lived on the island until 1984, but it is now abandoned except for rabbits, cows, and birds.  Marcus rowed us out to the island so as not to scare the birds with the sound of the motor.  We found where the curlews were flocking, but each time as we walked toward them, rabbits would bolt and  scare the curlews away.  Never did even as close as the picture above.  The closest we came to a curlew was on some stamps that my wife bought.

Stone houses from the shore of Feenish		The curlew appears on an Irish stamp

After leaving Carna, we drove up through Connemara to Westport to visit some friends from San Antonio that were spending the summer there.  They took us out to Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St.Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.  Near there is a bronze sculpture called "The Coffin Ship" in memory of the  multitude of people who emigrated from Westport to escape the Great Famine, only to die aboard the ships.

We spent the last night at a B&B in Tulla in East Clare, home of the great Tulla Ceili Band.  Tulla is less than a half hour from Shannon airport so it seemed like a convenient town to stay in.  Not much going on.  Ennis has more night life and music.  However, the Merriman Set Dancing Weekend was going on in Killanena, a crossroads village about 15 miles from Tulla, so we drove up there to watch the dancing for a couple hours.  The people who ran the B&B were very nice; they even waited up for us to come back from the Set Dances fearing we might have gotten lost.  Sadly we were going home the next morning, because there was going to be a great concert in Feakle the next night with Mary McNamara and Martin Hayes.....(sigh). 

It was an exciting week and a great way to spend my 60th birthday.  Can't wait to go back.

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