Companion to Irish Traditional Music

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a cappella. Singing performed without instrumental accompaniment. It may be solo or group, and may use vocal decoration, harmonies or counterpoint. Sean-nós singing in Irish is such, as is also traditional singing in English, and in both of these proper appreciation depends on the singer’s technical ability within the genre, and the listener’s understanding of the genre. Such groups as The Voice Squad and The Fallen Angels are a cappella too, but are ‘straight’, unadorned singers who use variance of voice pitches and harmony as their colour; these are similar to so-called ‘barbershop’ groups, but unlike them they mostly sing traditional songs rather than popular song.

Access Music Project (AMP). A Galway programme for people with some interest and ability in music who wish to have further training, it has provided opportunities for learning since 1999 under the national Community Employment Scheme framework. Specifically devised to meet the needs of the long-term unemployed, its participants take six nationally accredited modules in music theory, piano/keyboard, vocal skills, rhythm and percussion, sound engineering and communications, as well as exposure to other subjects. Traditional music is a performance option within it, and co-ordinator is fiddler Eilish O’Connor.

accompaniment. The interpretative, collaborative and/or supportive performance which is used to ‘back’ a melody player. The key elements of Irish traditional music are melody and rhythm, both established by convention as ideally supplied by the solo instrumentalist and interpretable by a savvy listener through enculturation. However, with the shift of music performance from smaller to larger spaces, and with the move from playing for dancing to playing for listening, ever since the 1920s accompaniment has been developing in form, style, diversity and creativity, first on piano, moving to guitar and tambourine, then to bodhrán, bouzouki and electronic keyboards.

Martin Hayes accompanied by Denis Cahill [Nutan]

routines. The introduction of melodic accompanying instruments has led to the establishment of set accompaniment routines which involve emphasising the melodic contour (or the bass or treble end of this), working rhythmically with the main tune structure, or playing parallel melodies or harmonies. This amounts to varying the texture of the tune, but not interfering with the melody. This fits (loosely) with the preferred aesthetic of ‘solo’ playing – i.e. melody is supreme. Such arrangement is not written, but is developed in performance and retained in memory. More complex arrangement is applied too in traditional music, particularly in modern bands as players seek difference and uniqueness, but this too is unwritten. Arrangement as such, in the orchestral sense, is applied by some traditional composers, and by contemporarymusic composers who work creatively, perhaps thematically, with traditional idiom, or who utilise traditional music in symphonic constructs.

self-accompaniment. All these forms co-exist, with some instruments also lending themselves to self-accompaniment, as most use one hand only for melody, freeing the other for support. Harp and piano are by definition self-accompanying – utilising chords and often runs of countermelody. All accordions are provided with varying degrees of chordal possibilities, and concertina has considerable potential for chordal self-accompaniment and brief parallel or contrapuntal melody, depending on the virtuosity, style or dexterity – and intention – of the player. Fiddlers will often utilise double stopping (sounding adjacent strings simultaneously) as a rhythmic and/or melodic self-accompaniment, and uilleann pipes regulators provide the potential for rhythmic harmonic support on dance tunes, and chordal complementarity on airs. One-time accompanying instruments themselves now feature in melody – piano (Patsy Broderick, Pádraig Rynne, Caoimhín Vallely, Geraldine Cotter, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin), guitar (Paul Brady, Arty McGlynn) and bouzouki (Andy Irvine, Alec Finn, Dónal Lunny, Mary Shannon) – in styles which mix melody and harmony in degrees specific to the player.

nature. Accompaniment may closely follow the detail of the tune – such as the interplay of two fiddles, one of which uses the lower octave (bassing) or double-stop droning. It may chordally follow the sketch or contour of the tune (as in typical keyboard, guitar or bouzouki accompaniment) or may enunciate the rhythm of the tune – as in bodhrán or snare accompaniment. Modern trends mix all styles, often (as in the work of Dónal Lunny or Steve Cooney) interweaving chordal interpretation, melody and driving the rhythm. ‘Double hand’ melody instruments (whistle, flute, pipe chanters) which can produce only one note at a time use other devices to mimic chordal or drone effects – such as a repeatedly-cited D which gives a drone illusion, or copious rolling which provides the continuity of a parallel, detailed backdrop to the core melody.

See also guitar; bouzouki; piano; bodhrán; bones.

accordion. One of the more popular instruments used in Irish music, this is a bellows-operated, free-reed, aerophone with both melody and accompaniment potential. The melody notes are articulated by buttons (or keys) operated by the fingers of the one hand, and the ‘bass’ or accompaniment notes by those on the other. Depressing a melody button moves a lever, which in tandem with opening and closing the bellows, directs air through a particular tuned ‘reed’ or set of reeds. The reed produces sound as a result of vibration generated by the air pressure. The kinds of accordion used in Irish music are: diatonic accordion (or ‘melodeon’ with button keys), chromatic accordion (typical button-key accordion) and the piano accordion (which uses piano keys). The button accordions generate a different note on push and pull, and the piano instruments the same note for both. The melody buttons are located on one side of the instrument – typically the right – and on the opposite side are located buttons (or keys) and associated reeds designed to produce harmonic notes for accompaniment; accordions are designed as self-accompanying.

Button accordion by Mengascini

button accordion. Any one note being played may (depending on the instrument and model) involve from two to four reeds. These are known as ‘voices’. In an instrument with two reeds per note, one of them is usually tuned slightly sharper than the other. Smaller accordions will have two reeds per note; larger ones (like the typical ‘two coupler’ Paolo Soprani) will have four, and others may have three. The more reeds in play the richer and more commanding the tone; the fewer in play the lighter the tone and the less dominant the instrument. In an accordion with three reeds per note, one may be tuned exactly to pitch, one slightly above, and one below. Alternatively, the ‘three-stop’ Saltarelle or Serrenellini instruments have two reeds tuned to the same octave (one slightly sharper than the other), the third tuned to the octave below. Larger accordions also have ‘couplers’ (switches) which can increase volume by bringing in another set of reeds which are tuned in the same way, but often an octave lower. In Irish music at the present time, some players adjust the reeds to suit their personal tastes, and in this way have altered and developed accordion style, and improved its appreciation. For instance, the small Hohner ‘Black Dot’ accordion with two reeds per note is very popular, but since the ideal in traditional music is to have a clear but non-aggressive melody, one fashion is to tune both reeds of each note to the same pitch, as in the concertina.

chromatic accordion. This is the typical buttonaccordion type which is used in Irish music. It has a full range of semitones available, and each button sounds a different note on press and draw of the bellows. [EDI]

accordion in Ireland. Its earliest form was introduced to Dublin in 1831, and it was being advertised in variety by the mid-century; one form was the French ‘flutina’, and all forms were outside the reach of the non-wealthy. Inside two decades, mass production of the German ‘ten-key’ accordion or ‘melodeon’ brought down the price, opening the way for popularisation. Thus the accordion was rapidly adopted into Irish music early in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its arrival coincided with the decline of the uilleann pipes and the popularisation of quadrille dancing. It was necessarily played in the ‘push and draw’ manner as it has two notes on each button, giving a staccato articulation and bouncy phrasing accented by the bellows work. Often referred to as ‘the poor man’s pipes’, the melodeon quickly became popular as an instrument played for dancers, this for several reasons: it was new and modern and easy to carry, its reeds would hold their tuning for longer than the pipes during inclement weather, it had a bright, clear tone, enough volume to cut through loud crowd noise in pre-amplification days, it was easier to learn and, importantly, it involved no pre-playing fuss such as tuning. [MAO]

B/C chromatic accordion notes: ‘in’ = push, ‘out’ = pull [from The Box, courtesy David Hanrahan/Ossian]

Freeman’s Journal advertisement for accordions, 22 Dec.1855 [MAO]

early accordionists. The earliest documented evidence we have of the sound of the accordion is from the cylinder and disc recordings made in America at the start of the twentieth century. The first person to be recorded playing Irish dance music on it was John J. Kimmel, and one of the first Irish-born players to record in America was Peter J. Conlon who had a prolific output of highquality recordings between 1917 and 1930. During the early decades of the 1900s, the accordion came into its own in the Irish emigrant dance halls of America, where it was one of the dominant instruments in early dance bands, its powerful volume and consistency guaranteeing it favour. At this time instruments which could withstand the pressures of playing seven nights a week in humid, hot, noisy dance halls were developed, with some single-row models having up to six sets of reeds for extra loudness. Baldoni-Bartoli and F.H. Walters were two of the most popular New York manufacturers of these. [MAO]

melodeon. This has a more guttural, staccato sound than the accordion proper and is made in various keys (for Irish music most popularly in D and in G) and has only the note values appropriate to its key. Typically it has ten buttons all in one row, these giving a fixed scale that denotes the key of the instrument. The single-row, diatonic, D-melodeon scale is:

Melodeon players deal inventively with the lack of notes (such as C and F naturals on a D instrument). The choice is to either change the key of the tune – for instance from G to D – or to make subtle changes to avoid the missing notes. The earliest stylistic evidence of dance-tunes playing, and of getting around the melodeon’s limitations, is heard on Kimmel’s (c.1904) recordings. The melodeon was largely replaced by the chromatic button accordion after the 1930s, but is still favoured by certain players and may be treasured for dance playing where the choppy texture generated by its push and pull action is rhythmically invigorating. Present-day players who have recorded on it include Paul Brock, Bobby Gardiner, P.J. Hernon, Johnny Connolly, Tom Doherty, Breandán Begley and Dermot Byrne.

Melodeon by Castagnari

differences. The older, colloquial term for all melodeons and accordions is simply ‘melodeon’, regardless of construction, for the button accordion and melodeon are basically the same instrument in that both use button fingering and both are single-action (producing a different note on push and on pull on any one button). However, the term ‘accordion’ in traditional music usually means ‘two-row’ accordion – the chromatic button accordion. Melodeon and accordion are distinguished properly only by style, nationality of construction and use of terminology. The melodeon represents ‘German’ style, the accordion ‘Viennese’ style. The melodeon normally has one row (but in the past has had two or three rows) of melody buttons, and it can come in different pitches. The accordion may alternatively have piano keys, or two or more rows of buttons; the more buttons, the greater the playing potential. Stylistically the melodeon is ‘open action’ – its mechanism is often visible, sometimes decorated, and its left-hand bass notes will be mounted externally on a box-like addition. The accordion is modestly ‘closed in’ and streamlined, a grille covers the levers, and its left-hand bass notes are built in, hidden from view. The melodeon generally has reed-engaging ‘stops’ on top, the accordion generally not. Melodeons as used in Irish music may appear style-eschewing in design, yet have an understated chic. Accordions traditionally have been as visually impressive as their sonic power is commanding: highly decorative veneers and plastics, chrome grilles and name-badges, sometimes sequinned, boldly proclaiming either the manufacturer’s name (in the manner of motor cars and designer clothing) or (in the US) that of the player. [EDI]

makes. The , it offered great flexibility and adventure to curious and skilled players. A three-row accordion – the Hohner ‘Shand’ Marino – was produced for Scottish dance band leader Jimmy Shand but made only a brief impact in Ireland. Many different makes of accordion are in use today, the choice of instrument a consequence of the desired sound, or potential. Hohner and Paolo Soprani are still used, but Saltarelle and Castagnari are becoming popular. Accordions have been manufactured in Ireland from the 1960s by Cáirdín in Co. Tipperary, and Kincora in Ennis, Co. Clare. [EDI]

structure. Accordions /D, in each of which the player uses the buttons differently, resulting in two basic styles. [EDI]

playing styles. By – ‘press-and-draw’, and ‘B/C’.

press-and-draw. In accordion and is credited with advancing the popularity of the instrument through the 1950s and ’60s.

B/C style. The button accordion pitched in B and C (B/C) began to be played in Ireland in the late 1920s. By the latter decades of the century it had become the most popular of the many instruments in its family. Michael Grogan played on it, and was one of the first to be recorded on it by Regal Zonophone when that company began recording in Ireland in the early 1930s. Sonny Brogan (who played with Seán Ó Riada in Ceoltóirí Chualann) played on a B/C also, but the name most associated with that style has come to be Paddy O’Brien from Newtown (near Nenagh), Co. Tipperary who developed a method which became the standard during the 1960s; one of its most renowned current exponents is Joe Burke. The B/C system uses the full potential of the notes of both rows on the instrument, and thus requires less bellows-work than the old ‘push and draw’ system, giving a quite legato style. However, since the ‘push and draw’ system is closer to the older, rhythmic melodeon style it has also been favoured by set dancers, adding to its popularity. Among the noted ‘push and draw’ players are Jackie Daly, Máirtín O’Connor, Charlie Harris, Paul Brock, Tony MacMahon and Johnny O’Leary. Some musicians use both systems, playing B and C on a two-row accordion as well as using the press-and-draw system on a single-row melodeon; among these are Bobby Gardiner and P.J. Hernon. [MAO]

sound. The ‘sound’ of the accordion in Irish music has undergone major changes since the mid-1970s. Prior to then, a two-row instrument produced a ‘wet’ sound – this the result of the reeds in each note-group being ‘widely’ tuned, so creating a vibrato tone. Jackie Daly has been credited with introducing a ‘dry’ sound, achieved by tuning the reeds in each note-group to the same pitch, making the sound close to that of a concertina. This was first heard on Jackie Daly agus Séamus Creagh in 1977, and numerous variations on it can be heard among today’s younger players. From the early 1980s the accordion has been a feature in many of the prominent groups playing traditional music, such as De Dannan, Patrick Street, Buttons and Bows, Altan, Arcady, Four Men and a Dog and The Sharon Shannon Band. Major talents arise in each decade, and those of the 1990s include Dermot Byrne, Derek Hickey and Sharon Shannon. [MAO]

piano accordion. This uses black and white piano-style keys with the same note values as the piano. Unlike the button accordions it uses ‘double action’ (the same note on push and draw). Invented by Bouton of Paris in 1852 and greatly improved in the 1920s, there are both short- and long-keyboard piano accordions, the former less domineering. The piano accordion’s more ‘liquid’ note production style tended not to be favoured in what became the well-defined, late-twentieth-century aesthetic of Irish traditional music. It has been used in Irish céilí bands in the past, but like modern-day electronic ‘keyboards’ and their immediate predecessor the electronic accordion (Cordovox, etc.), the piano appearance is less favoured in present-day traditional music. The piano accordion is, however, the standard such instrument in Scottish music, a legacy from fiddle-orchestras and 1940s–50s dance bands. Like the five-row ‘continental’ button accordions, and despite the existence of top-class players (e.g. Alan Kelly, Séamus Meehan, Colette O’Leary), the piano accordion is somewhat peripheral in Irish traditional music. [EDI]

Piano-key accordion

céilí band accordion. The accordion was for many years somewhat emblematic in northern counties. The piano-key instrument was more favoured in past years, used predominantly by bands for céilí dancing, which remained popular in northern nationalist culture, and by ballroom and old-time dance bands, for which it had limitless potential. Indeed in the 1950s and ’60s, Donegal brothers Richie and Barney Fitzgerald’s band was voted the favourite band in Ireland in a national poll run by Mitchelstown Creameries. The Fred Hanna (Portadown), Malachy Doris (Cookstown) and Vincent Lowe (Newry) ‘céilí’ bands influenced many through BBC broadcasts and recordings. But all played mainly for ballroom dancing, and Irish music for them was a sideline. The same was partly true of five-row player Jackie Hearst (Newry), although he did for a time participate in a ‘tunes’ band, The International, with piano-accordionist Fintan Callan. Seán O’Neill’s Aughnacloy, Co. Tyrone, Inis Fáil Céilí Band produced two LPs for Ember records in the 1960s and toured the USA frequently. They recorded in the 1980s and ‘90s (40 Irish Accordion Favourites, 40 Irish Pub Songs, etc.). From Antrim there was Wilcil McDowell (All-Ireland champion) and Leslie Craig. Francie Murphy of Fivemiletown played with the prizewinning Pride of Erin Céilí Band; Tommy Maguire from Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh, played both the two-row and five-row accordions. Accordion is particularly strong in Fermanagh and its older exponents include Larry Hoy (Derrygonnelly) and John McGurran (Garrison), the latter a longtime chairman of Belfast CCÉ. Tyrone is strong on accordion too – Billy Rushe of Drumquin, John O’Neill of Donaghmore (who led the Old Cross Céilí Band), Patsy Farrell of Ballygawley, and Sean McCusker of Dromore. Tommy John Quinn from Derrylaughan, Coalisland (accordion and melodeon) was a well-known session player all over Ireland. Johnny Pickering from Markethill, Co. Armagh was also leader of a famous band which featured regularly on broadcasts from Radio Éireann. In Antrim there was Dan Doherty (Loughguile), while James McElheran (Cushendun) plays for set dancing, and Ronnie Bamber of Cullybackey is an instrument repairer as well as player. Today there are many younger players, notably Gerry Lappin (Armagh), John Hendry (Derry) and Damien McKee (Dunloy), Jim McGrath (Monea) and Annette Owens (Tempo). Accordion remains a significant element in traditional music in the northern part of Ireland. [SEQ]

accordion style and class. The accordion’s stylistic innovations reflect players’ and audiences’ attitudes to modernisation, immigration, class and national culture. The 1920s and ’30s recordings of American emigrant players such as Joseph Flanagan, Peter Conlon and Jerry O’Brien show that high standards of playing had been established, and the instrument linked to the possibilities offered by a modernised tradition. This first generation of players used a press-and-draw style based on melodeon playing.

‘fiddle’ style. The innovations of chromatic B/C accordion playing developed by Paddy O’Brien in the 1940s show strong influences from the US-based Sligo-style fiddle masters Michael Coleman and Hugh Gillespie, an association which consolidated the power of emigrant models in accordion style development. The new ‘on-thedraw’ style was most enthusiastically adopted by young male players in the 1950s and 1960s (who were often part of local céilí bands) as well as by emigrants to post-war Britain and further afield. The style became strongly linked to the working class culture of this group, and embraced a modernity exemplified by the powerful, smooth and controlled musical sound, and the streamlined Paolo Soprani accordion which was favoured. This could be interpreted as this generation’s rapprochement of Irish provincial rural culture with urban working-class modernity. Despite its popularity, the style elicited strong criticisms from intellectual commentators such as Ó Riada and Breathnach.

press-and-draw. When the B/C chromatic style itself was partly displaced by a revised pressand-draw style in the 1980s, that stylistic recursion reflected the increasing valuing of regionality in the traditional music movement, and a return to the historicised legacies of Irish-American recordings. With his ‘dry’ tuning, and the more staccato sound of press-and-draw playing, Daly’s accordion could also blend felicitously within small instrumental groups. Sharon Shannon also promoted this style, and thus moved the image of the accordion further from the generation of male, post-war emigrant, working-class players. [GRS]

’ac Dhonncha, Seán. (1919–96). Sean-nós singer. Third youngest of ten children from Carna, Connemara, close to the birthplace of life-long friend Joe Heaney, he was encouraged by teacher Bríd Ní Fhlatharta in Aird National School to sing and learn old Irish songs and their background. Trained as a primary teacher in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin in 1940, he went on to teach in Cashel National School, Connemara from 1943 where he established a friendship with Séamus Ennis, who was collecting songs and music locally. He taught in Co. Cavan from 1947 and won a county medal with Mullahoran football team in 1949. Twenty-five years followed as principal in Ahascragh National School near Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. One of the first traditional singers to record on the Gael Linn label, he won a gold medal at the 1953 Oireachtas and received Gradam Shean-nós Cois Life in 1995. On his seventy-fifth birthday in 1994, Cló Iar-Chonnachta issued a special CD selection of his songs in Irish and in English, Seán ’ac Dhonncha: An Spailpín Fánach. His songs are also available on Gael Linn, Columbia, Claddagh and Topic. [LIM]

acetate discs. rpm, and were named after the chemical make-up of their acetate/shellac base which was moulded on an aluminium core. Acetates provided a ‘direct cut’, unlike the factory-made 78 disc which required an elaborate factory-pressing process to manufacture. Basic home-recording machines with supplies of blank discs became available but their cost and availability limited their use among Irish musicians. Some regional entrepreneurs in Ireland, such as Kiltimagh popular and céilí music bandsman Liam McDonagh, made local commercial recordings on acetate discs in the 1950s, and fiddler Ed Reavy in Philadelphia recorded on such a machine. Small numbers of his and others’ acetates survive, some at the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA). Acetates were intended to have a short lifespan and were recommended to be replayed about ten times before deterioration of the playing surface became evident. [HAB]

See also recording; gramophone; Radio Éireann.

acoustic. The term used to describe non-electric/electronic instruments. It is also used to describe a performance which does not use microphone amplification. All traditional music instruments are ‘acoustic’, but in band situations, studio recording and in sophisticated solo performances, electronic keyboards and electric bass are often used. ‘Session’ playing is by definition without PA, and so is described as ‘acoustic’. A venue may also be described as having a good or bad acoustic – relating to how music is felt to resonate within it.

ADCRG. The acronym for the formal Irish dance adjudicators’ qualification administered by both Irish step dance organisations, each being of equal prestige. That of CLRG is titled Ard Diploma An Coimisiún Na Rince Gaelacha; that of CMRG is named Ard Diploma Na Comhdháil Na Rince Gaelacha. A person with an ADCRG will always also have a TCRG, and is ‘qualified to adjudicate Irish step dancing on any competitive level throughout the world’.

adharc. Ancient Irish trumpet form.

See aerophone; trumpets.

aerophone. Literally, ‘instrument the tone of which is produced by wind’, aerophones are subdivided according to how the sound is produced: 1. flutes, 2. trumpets, 3. reeds and reed-pipes.

1. flutes. The sound is made by directing a stream of wind against a sharp edge, the resultant turbulence producing an ‘edge tone’; the pitch of the note is regulated by the position of fingerholes, as in flute and tin whistle, or by the length of individual pipes, as in pan-pipes. The stream of air may be made directly at the lips (as in concert flute, or kaval, etc.), or it may be focused by a narrow channel in the mouthpiece of the instrument (as in tin whistle, recorder, etc.). Flutes are blown from the mouth, but some forms use the nose; they may be long and slender (tin whistle) or globular (ocarina); they may be end-blown or side-blown. Serviceable flutes may be made of any stable material including woods, plastics, metals, glass and ceramics. Improvised flutes have been made from all materials, including copper waterpiping and bicycle pumps.

See flute; fife; whistle.

Aerophones: concert flutes being played by (left) Desi Wilkinson of Cran, and CITM editor Fintan Vallely

2. trumpets. The sound is made by setting up a vibration with pursed lips (as in trumpet, or ancient-Irish horns adharc and dord, etc.) Blown animal horns – used still in many African countries – had some currency in ancient Ireland. One of these, preserved for many years in a wall at Coolea, Co. Cork, and stolen from a car in Dublin in the 1970s, was attributed to Ó Súilleabháin Béara; it was of the kind described as ‘barra bua’ in the tales of the Fianna. Today some Irish-music players use Australian didgeridoo to produce a fixed-pitch drone with tongue, vibrato and mouthcavity effects. Trumpet notes are achieved by a combination of ‘overblowing’ harmonics (adharc, hunting horn) and/or shortening and lengthening the air column in the instrument (with a ‘slide’ in trombone, via valves in trumpet).

3. reeds and reed pipes. The sound is made by air vibrating a metal or wood ‘reed’. Reeds may be (i) single idioglot (all in one piece, as those in uilleann pipe and bagpipe drones), (ii) double (as in uilleann pipe chanters and regulators, and in bagpipes), (iii) free (as in accordion, concertina, melodeon, harmonica), or (iv) single tongue (as in clarinet, saxophone). Among the ancient Irish wind instruments listed by O’Curry are cuisle and pipai, these likely relating to reed instruments. [EDI]

aesthetics. In Irish music these have been at odds with aesthetic standards of western Europe for most of the last three hundred years. Irish music, predominantly melodic, has led to a very refined aesthetic sensibility in that area. The subtle placement or emphasis on one note in a melody can bring about a very strong emotional response for the listener or musician who shares this aesthetic sensibility. In the western polyphonic world, appreciation for this subtlety is diminished in proportion to the aesthetic preference for polyphony. The non-adherence to the western tempered scale was common in much of the fiddle music of Clare, Sliabh Luachra and other regions. In the context of western music, this has very often been misunderstood and simply confused with poor intonation; whereas in the case of many of these musicians, they were operating inside a world of aesthetics that derived value from the use of slightly flattened or sharpened notes. Familiarity with nuanced playing styles leads to aesthetic appreciation of the variety of unique personal technical attributes of a particular musician. The triplets of Paddy Canny are unique to him, as are the triplets of Tommy Peoples. They are aesthetically pleasing to the initiated listener and may have little appeal to those unfamiliar with the music. [MAH]

Ag Déanamh Ceol (‘Making Music’). A 1970s RTÉ television series produced by Tony MacMahon of some eighty programmes which focused on different regions, age-groups and localities.

Ahern, Fr Pat. (1932– ). Fiddle; promoter, educationalist. Early influences include fiddle player Barney Enright, a cousin from Moyvane village, and his mother, fiddle player Margaret Walsh from Sallow Glen, Tarbert. Ahern’s brother Seán is also a notable singer and uilleann piper. Taught dance by the renowned Kerry dance master Jeremiah Molyneaux, Pat Ahern studied music with Fleischman at UCC, becoming interested in choral work. His deep interest in and knowledge of traditional culture came to be expressed most vividly through theatrical production, initiative and expertise. This saw him produce the first Fleadh Nua (at Croke Park, Dublin, 1970) and also CCÉ’s inaugural two concert tours to North America (1972) wherein presentation was critical. He is best known for his setting up of Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, at Tralee in 1974 and for initiatives in dance for which he did field work in Bulgaria in 1995. He has received awards from CCÉ and an Honorary Fellowship from the ITT in 2009. [DAK]

Ahern, Pat ‘Herring’. (1953– ). Guitar; writer, producer. Introduced to traditional music by Jackie Daly and Seamus Creagh in Cork city in the early 1970s, since 1989 he has played with Con Ó Drisceoil and Johnny McCarthy as The Four Star Trio. Best known for his weekly traditional music column for the Irish Examiner (1994–2004), he produced It’s No Secret (with Seamus Creagh, Con Ó Drisceoil and Hammy Hamilton), Down from Your Pulpits, Down from Your Thrones by Jerry O’Reilly and Different State by Paudie O’Connor.

AIDA. Australian Irish Dancing Association. Affiliated to CLRG, this links to sixty-seven feiseanna statewide in Australia, the major event among which is the Australian Irish Dancing Championships held in September each year.

air. Abbreviation for ‘slow air’, and also used to describe the melody of a tune.

aisling. This is a poetic song form in which a fairy personage appears to a sleeping poet either in an allegorical representation of the Irish cause, or to deliver a prophetic message. It is particularly associated with the Jacobite period of Irish history.

See song in Irish, Jacobite.

Aisling Geal (‘Bright Vision’). An innovative general arts programme running from 1978 to 1980, usually in Irish, which always had a healthy representation of traditional music. It was presented by the Donegal poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh. [MAG]

album. In recorded music this indicates a thematically related collection of pieces, sets or songs. The term comes from the early recording practice of presenting long music works such as operas as a series of discs mounted in a hard-covered or boxed set of bound, paper record-sleeves. With the introduction of long-play vinyl records the term may have been no longer necessary, but persisted, and is still used to refer to CDs today.

All-Ireland. The All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. ‘Going to the All-Ireland’ indicates attending the event, ‘Winning the All-Ireland’ usually means achieving first place in the senior (over-eighteen) competition category, up to the 1980s the highest (visible) level of achievement, recognition or honour in the music.

See fleadh cheoil.

All-Ireland Sean-nós Dancing Competition. This takes place at Éigse Uí Ghramhnaigh, the Eugene O’Growney festival which is held each August at Athboy, Co. Meath.

allegory. The use of symbolic written, oral or artistic imagery in order to indicate something else, such as people, emotion, historical period or ideology. A common device in traditional song dealing with love or politics, it adds colour, mystery and interest, and was (and still can be) used to indicate partiality – to exclude those not ‘in the know’, or as a vehicle to express ideas. The classic form is in aisling song and ‘The Blackbird’ is the best known allegory, in which the bird stands for James III, the would-be Stuart king, c.1718. (See aisling.) The very air of a politically partial song could be regarded itself as allegory, and as early as 1715 some TCD students were arrested for whistling the air of a song about Charles II. A century later the whistling of the tune of Darby Ryan’s ‘The Peeler and the Goat’ could merit jail, and the tunes of major loyalist and republican anthems are still hugely provocative.

symbolism. Of this song type writer Padraic Colum said: ‘the songs most characteristic of the Midlands are the political ballads which the people call Secret songs or Treason songs. They are as full of obscure references as a symbolist poem. Indeed their unfailing symbolism is their most noticeable characteristic. In the songs of every subject people there must be an enigmatic expression. But the obscurity of our political songs was due to another motive besides the practical one of concealing a hope or an intention; one perceives in them that bias which a French historian has detected in the Irish mediaeval philosophers: The Celtic partiality for the rare, the difficult, the esoteric, strange combinations of words and ideas, enigmas, acrostics, occult languages, cryptography.’ (Colum, 1926: 98) The ballad ‘I Planted a Garden’ is an example, the first quoted verse packed with allegory concerning the distressed plight of early nineteenth-century Ireland, the final one providing a contemporary political solution:

2.  This garden’s gone wild for the want of good seed;

There’s nought growing in it but the outlandish weed,

Some nettles and briars and shrubs of each kind;

Search this garden all over, not a true plant you’ll find.

7.  Now to conclude and to finish my song,

May the Lord send some hero, and that before long;

May the Lord send some hero of fame and renown;

We’ll send George to Hanover and O’Connell we’ll crown.

Altan. Inspired by a 1983 album duet of Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (Ceol Aduaidh), by the late 1990s this group was the beacon among ‘straight’ traditional music bands. With flute (Frankie Kennedy), fiddles (Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Ciarán Tourish and, originally, Paul O’Shaughnessy), accordion (Dermot Byrne), cittern (Ciarán Curran), guitar (Mark Kelly, Daithí Sproule), and joined often by Jimmy Higgins (bodhrán and snare), they did not utilise the rock ethos of other ’80s groups in order to gain profile. Typically their material comprises structured arrangements of jigs, reels, Highlands, Germans and hornpipes, mediated by Ní Mhaonaigh’s traditional song. Defying sceptics, without resort to synthesised sound, they carved a niche for themselves in the awareness opened by The Chieftains, particularly in the USA. A major achievement has been their basing themselves largely in the once-unfashionable medium of Donegal music. As they developed they incorporated aesthetically sympathetic, outside performers such as Dolly Parton and Paul Brady into their albums and performances; by 2010 they had a dozen themed albums and numerous compilations. Altan’s 25th anniversary was celebrated by a performance of music and song in 2009 at the National Concert Hall, Dublin with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (arrangements by Fiachra Trench, conducted by David Brophy); this is released on CD as Altan 25th Anniversary Celebration.

Altan: Daithí Sproule, Cíarán Curran, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Dermot Byrne, Cíarán Tourish [NUT]

Alternative Entertainments (AltEnts). See under Dublin.

Altnaveigh House Cultural Society. Altnaveigh House was established in 1996 to service the needs of the ‘minority Protestant community living in the Newry and Mourne District Council area’ of Northern Ireland. In 2000 its Cultural Society was formed and has been in receipt of grant-aid from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the International Fund for Ireland to develop traditional music song and dance within this community through classes, workshops, projects and events. Its chairman, David Hanna, is a singer and highland bagpiper. The Society has developed a successful stage show entitled Piping Hot, which features Irish and highland dancing, piping and percussion, and song. Under the direction of multi-instrumentalist Brendan Monaghan, the performance has featured vocalist Amy Lowry from Bessbrook County Armagh. The show appears regularly in the Newry area, has toured in the USA and continental Europe, and has performed with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland in a collaborative initiative between musicians in Down, Armagh, Louth and Monaghan. [MAD]

America. See USA.

American wake. A night of social activity in a home to mark the emigration of a young person to the United States. These events typically had the form of a ‘house dance’, and were major occasions of music, song and dance. They took place all over the island in the years after the Famine and persisted up until the mid-1900s.

See also dance: house dance, barn dance, crossroads dance.

amhrán. Literally ‘song’, used particularly in reference to Irish-language song.

See sean-nós; song: in Irish.

ancient Irish music. See medieval Ireland; instruments.

AncientMusicIreland.com (AMI). An investigative experimental music and organological collective involving Simon O’Dwyer and Maria Cullen O’Dwyer. They have engaged with exploration, research into and reproduction of the surviving ancient Irish music instruments, and have introduced several of these to contemporary music disciplines including traditional, classical, rock, techno and jazz. Results of examination and reproduction of originals have been published on the internet and in the 2004 book Prehistoric Music of Ireland. A number of CDs have been released, including Coirn na hÉireann and Old to New. Most recent is Overtone (2009), which re-presents newly uncovered, acoustic colours in experimental tonic settings. AMI’s work has ‘uniquely brought to life early Irish music sounds which have been silent for millennia’, setting a benchmark which presents the potential for yet more acoustical investigation of ancient music practices and thus a better understanding of their society.

An Chomhairle Ealaíon. See Arts Council of Ireland.

Anglo-Irish folksong. Properly the term should be ‘Hiberno-English’ folksong [SEC], which indicates songs of Irish provenance composed in the English language.

See song, 2. mixed-language song.

An Tóstal – Ireland at Home. Literally taken to mean ‘muster’, ‘display’ and ‘pageant’, this was the new Irish state’s second major Irish cultural/arts event and, in geographical scale, a role model for today’s fleadh cheoil. It took place during the post-Republic ‘tourism crisis’ of 1948–51 [Zuelow, 2009: 125] and aimed at assembling and displaying a broad palette of Irish culture for both the Irish at home and Irish exiles abroad. It was sparked by a US PAA airline executive, agreed on and named by government, and inaugurated at Easter 1953 by the Irish Tourist Board in an effort to extend the tourist season. Under a national director, Major-General Hugo MacNeill of the Irish Defence Forces (who had fought in the War of Independence and Civil War), An Tóstal was organised nationwide, and saw itself in an historical continuum of the ‘great festivals of long ago – Tara, Tailteann, Carmain’, in the words of the brochure. It drew some inspiration from the 1951 Festival of Britain, but unlike that it had a bottom-up organisation and was pitched as authentic (of the people), focusing on history, and taking in ‘national traditions’ such as language, music, art, drama and folklore, as well as leisure pursuits.

LP record sleeve of the official An Tóstal album, subtitled Ireland At Home in Music, featuring the Tulla Céilí Band with singers Paddy Beades and Delia Murphy. Produced by Capitol Records (Hollywood, USA) c.1954, recorded in Dublin and sponsored by Pan American Airlines.

An Tóstal’s harp-based logo was commissioned from Dutch designer Guss Melai, however, not from an Irish artist, and the opening event was a Roman Catholic mass at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral – presided over by controversial Archbishop John Charles McQuaid – followed by a military parade in O’Connell Street reviewed by the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera; Cork had a similar cocktail of religion, rebellion and history, as had Ennis, Co. Clare. An Tóstal committees were marshalled in small and large towns, typically chaired by the Catholic curate, and involving businesspeople, sports organisers and teachers. It ‘presented’ rather than ‘promoted’, and so included open-air step and céilí dancing and traditional music where this was a feature of life, but covered ballroom dance and all other forms of music in concerts and revues. Typically it sponsored parades, field days, drama, Gaelic and soccer football matches, golf, clay pigeon shooting, industrial and agricultural exhibitions and tours, aquatic sports, motor racing, and horse jumping, and in its opening years had lavish origins-pageants concerning St Patrick, the Danes and the Normans. The town of Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, arcanely offered a frog derby as its core event, claiming to have ‘the fastest and longest jumping frogs in Ireland’. By 1958 An Tóstal was officially wound down for economic reasons, but it had the effect of initiating the Tourist Board financial support which made feasible many of today’s still-familiar events such as the Dublin Theatre Festival.

Because An Tóstal took place in the early years of the traditional-music revival organisation CCÉ, it is not surprising that Irish music should have played some part – especially with the PR claiming the descent of Ireland’s folk music from such as the piper and harper depicted on the Monasterboice cross. Though consciousness about traditional music was at a very low ebb at this time and in no way similar to what prevails today, a harper and dancer were indeed highlighted with spot colour in the magazine Ireland of the Welcomes – to draw attention to them among photographs of pipers, a choir, and a symphony. Neither the organisers nor the event’s chronicler Eric Zuelow note any particular ‘meas’ for traditional music (or indeed for art or literature either) in the programming. Yet since An Tóstal appealed to those with a hankering for the restoration of past Irish cultural practices, much traditional music was involved, though more at local levels, and at least one tune, ‘The Tóstal Hornpipe’ was composed – by Leo Redmond of the Austin Stack Céilí Band.

Disgruntled literary, political and artistic avantgardeists who had to duck the swing of many batons and croziers at the time provided a metaphoric memorial to this minor mass movement. An Tóstal’s symbol was a sculpture in the form of a moving ‘bowl of light’ displayed on a pedestal on Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge (‘a plastic flame poking up through a hideous metal dish’ [Morash, 2004]). This eternal fire was lit by President Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh following a night of enthusiastic celebration, sod-throwing and window-breaking by disaffected youths for whom ‘culture’ and An Tóstal were a mystery. Regarding the sculpture as something of an affront, considering the hardship of the artist’s life at that time, writer Anthony Cronin (who was later the instigator of Aosdána) notes that ‘thinking people regarded An Tóstal as the ultimate snub to intellectualism and art’. This rendered ‘the bowl’ a target for considerable derision and it was satirised by, among others, Flann O’Brien. On one boisterous occasion Cronin lobbed a stone into the device, frustrating its mechanism. He was struck from behind by a baton, and unaware of the nature of his assailant lashed back blindly with the portable typewriter on which he had been working in The Bell magazine’s offices, thereby inadvertently committing an assault also on a Garda. Various other notables of the thinking classes were present, and one of them, Brendan Behan, transformed the occasion into verse in ballad tradition, parodying The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:

‘Awake! For Cronin in the bowl of light

Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight.’

The ‘bowl’ was later dumped in the Liffey by drunken students (among them a successful solicitor-to-be) in circumstances similar to those that prevailed on the night of its inauguration. An Tóstal outlived its monument, notably so at Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim where it has run continuously since 1955. But its 2009 programme retrospectively accords prophetic justice to Cronin’s frustrated action, for the listed events now include ‘The Culchie Pentathlon’, and its other offerings similarly underscore that An Tóstal’s primary function is less about the mind and more about mardi-gras.

Antrim. The most north-easterly county of Ireland and, along with the eastern side of Co. Down, the area with the strongest and most long-lasting links and shared influence with the lowlands of Scotland. The scenic glens of Antrim along the eastern seashore are, perhaps surprisingly, not well known as music districts, though Glenarm was home to John Rea, the noted player of the hammer dulcimer. The musical heart of the county is further inland, in a district bounded by the northern shore of Lough Neagh, extending west across the Bann river into Co. Derry and north into the basin of the Main, Braid and Kells rivers. This district is home to a wide variety of strong musical traditions, within and shared between the Protestant and minority Catholic communities. This is the catchment area of the Counties Antrim and Derry Fiddlers Association, founded in the 1950s, the European champion County Antrim Accordion Orchestra and numerous highland pipe bands. The area also has some of the strongest and most active branches of CCÉ in NI; much song was collected from singers in this district by Sam Henry and Hugh Shields. The area is home to a number of noted traditional musicians and musical families, including the O’Briens of Portglenone who formed the group Déanta in the 1990s, the Boylan family of Garvagh, singer and fiddler Joe Holmes and the singer, fifer, whistle and flute player John Kennedy of Cullybackey. The diversity of the music of the district is celebrated annually at the ‘Gig ’n the Bann’ festival in Portglenone. [MAD]

twentieth century. Dick Glasgow’s web-documented research and promotion of music in North Antrim gives evidence of vibrant regional music which served communities aesthetically and practically: ‘40 local fiddle players … were active in living memory, which indicates just how popular traditional music was in North Antrim … before the TV, traditional dances were very popular, and fiddle and accordion players would play in all manner of Parish and Orange halls throughout North Antrim’, a time ‘when traditional music was not the property of one community alone, but was rightly enjoyed and practised by all, as a shared legacy and heritage as part of everyone’s culture.’ The wide geographical spread of the earlyto mid-1900s Antrim fiddlers shows how deeply ingrained in the fabric of place music and musicians were. An older generation who preceded these was mentioned in Sam Henry’s ‘Songs of the People’. The present generation includes such wellknown names as Jim McKillop, Dick Glasgow and Kathleen Smith. [DIG]

Antrim and Derry Fiddlers’ Association. This was inaugurated on 14 May 1953 with the objectives: ‘To preserve the art of country fiddling in as pure a form as possible, free from commercialism, and to encourage juveniles to take up and carry on this art, as did their fathers before them. The Association, as a body to be absolutely non-political and non-sectarian. To foster public interest in folk music generally and country fiddling in particular. To protect country fiddlers from exploitation and give them, as an organisation, a very large measure of control of programmes which their committee decide to contribute in aid of charity. Active membership not to be confined to the counties Antrim and Derry, but open to all who are genuine country fiddlers and wish to enrol. To become a strong and real brotherhood in the real sense of the word in keeping alive one of the very few remaining arts by which the executants make their own entertainment and at the same time give great pleasure to their countless admirers.’ There was a further rule: ‘An active member on attaining the age of 70 (that is to say a fiddler who has been performing regularly up to that age) shall become an honorary member. Thus we wish to encourage the young and honour the old.’ Most members were from Co. Antrim, with some from Derry and a few from Down. Founder members included Alex Kerr (Newtown Crommelin) and Mickey McElhatton (Glenravel). Drawing its membership from both religious traditions, it gave performances in aid of charity in Catholic and Protestant church halls and in Hibernian and Orange halls. It is still in existence, in its latter years meeting at the Tullymore House Hotel in Broughshane, Co. Antrim. [JOM, SAJ]

Causeway Music. A term adopted for the tradition of fiddling on the north Co. Antrim coastal area where some forty players are renowned in living memory. Scottish tunes always featured in the repertoire and céilís in a Parochial Hall one week and an Orange Hall the next were common practice. Fiddle makers emerged to meet the demand for instruments, among them Dan O’Loan of Cushendall, Sam Stevenson of Broughshane, John McGill of Ballycastle and Jim McKillop of Waterfoot. North Antrim has produced many fine fiddle players too, such as Sean ‘The Shadow’ McLaughlin of Armoy (All-Ireland winner, 1958), McKillop himself (1976), Frank McCollam of Ballycastle (composer of ‘The Home Ruler’ hornpipe) and Joe Holmes of Ballymoney and Stump McCloskey of Cloughmills (both of whom were also singers). Among today’s fiddlers there are Dominic McNabb and Chris McCormick of Ballycastle, and Jayne Bonnar. [DIG]

see Kennedy, John; McCollam, Frank.

East Antrim Traditional Music School (EATMS). A traditional music teaching facility begun by Martin Shane in 2001 to ‘provide a facility for the local, largely Protestant population, to become re-engaged with their common traditional music heritage without applying colour or tags’. It is based in several locations and began on a voluntary basis teaching harp, fiddle, flute, whistle, bodhrán, mandolin, banjo and guitar. A set tune-book acts as a central curriculum so that when students come together they have tunes in common. Performance is aided by the arrangement of ‘slow sessions’ at the Gasworks Museum in Carrickfergus. A democratic body, EATMS uses a web-based resource pack (eatms.co.uk) which is open to anyone who wishes to access it.

Feis na nGleann. Established in 1904 in Glenarriff, Glens of Antrim by a group of cultural enthusiasts who wished to preserve the Irish language, traditions, songs, music and games and pastimes. The Belfast Gaelic League’s president was Glenarm historian and Gaelic scholar Eoin MacNeill, who took part in Glens céilís, historical lectures and tours, Irish-language classes and concerts. The feis was suggested by Francis Joseph Biggar, a Protestant nationalist, Irishlanguage enthusiast lawyer and GL activist from Belfast. English-born Ada McNeill, who lived in Cushendun, was a member of the founding committee, a staunch nationalist who embraced the Gaelic Revival and rejected her unionist family’s views. Also present were Rose Young, from a Galgorm, Ballymena unionist family and Margaret Dobbs, a language enthusiast and scholar from Cushendall. The festival’s first president was Barbara McDonnell. Native speakers of Irish still existed in Glendun, Glenariff and Rathlin at that time, and the feis coincided with the Home Rule movement. Pipers from Armagh led the opening, and two-thirds of Rathlin island’s Irish speakers were brought over by Roger Casement, accompanied by their own piper. A shinny (hurling, shinty) game was a major feature; there were craft exhibitions and Irish dancing over two days. Poet Joseph Campbell, who wrote the lyrics to ‘My Lagan Love’ and ‘The Blue Hills of Antrim’, was also involved. The feis continues, and drew 2,000 visitors on its centenary in 2004.

Antrim musicians Kate O’Brien (fiddle, Portglenone) and Deirdre Havlin (Ballymoney, flute), both members of the band Déanta

CCÉ. There are eight branches in the county, in Antrim town, Belfast, Ballycastle, Dunloy, Cushendall, Port glenone, Loughbeg (near Toome) and Rasharkin; all except Belfast have teaching activity, either full instrument tuition from beginner level or teaching repertoire to established learners and preparing performers for fleadh competition.

teaching. In Belfast, teaching of traditional instruments is done by many private individuals, by the Belfast Set Dancing & Traditional Music Society (belfasttrad.com), the Francis McPeake School of Traditional Music in the city centre and the Andersonstown School of Music in west Belfast. In the Glens of Antrim, the teaching of traditional instruments has been undertaken by an independent organisation, the Antrim Glens Traditions Group, but many young and maturing musicians are subsequently ‘brought on’ by Glens CCÉ in tune classes and junior sessions based in Cushendall.

sessions. CCÉ branches in the county have regular sessions, typically in local pubs where many other musicians join in. Most notable of these venues are: McCollam’s, Cushendall; O’Connor’s, Ballycastle; The Wild Duck, Portglenone. Other regular Antrim sessions include: The House of McDonnell, Ballycastle; The Crosskeys Inn, near Toome; The Skerry Inn, near Ballymena; The Tap Room, Hilden Brewery, near Lisburn. In Belfast city the most popular open session venues are Maddens, Smithfield and the John Hewitt pub in Donegall St., while ‘paid’ sessions are run in a number of other city centre venues. A weekly session runs also in the Irish language centre An Cultúrlann, on the Falls Road.

organisations. The Antrim and Derry Fiddlers’ Association operates in mid-Antrim, the East Antrim Traditional Music School in Carrickfergus, and Dick Glasgow’s Causeway Music enterprise on the north coast; this includes the Jim McGill School of Traditional Music among its many activities. Unlike CCÉ generally, these organisations, and the Belfast SDTMS, have a broad support base, attracting participants from both nationalist and unionist backgrounds. The Belfast branch of CCÉ was broadly based at its foundation in the pre-Troubles era, but that changed after the 1960s, and, unlike the rural areas of the county, Belfast city’s traditional music scene is quite independent of and uninterested in CCÉ. [SEQ]

McFadden, Frank. (1911–76). Piper, pipe maker. Born off the Springfield Road, Belfast, his father, Peter McFadden, was a pipe maker, principally of warpipes, but also uilleann pipes. Peter was friendly with Francis Joseph Biggar, MRIA, one of the editors of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, and keenly interested in traditional music. The ‘house piper’ to F.J. Biggar, Peter named his son after him. With the retirement from pipe-making of both his father and R.L. O’Mealy, Frank took on the business, becoming adept at reed-making. His matching of reed to chanter was superb and he enjoyed a huge reputation. He played regularly for the BBC on Piping, Fiddling and Singing for almost twenty years. McFadden’s style was very tight, reminiscent of O’Mealy’s; this, he maintained, was the old style of piping, and the particular style of Ulster. He started many pipers off, supplying and perfecting instruments and teaching technique. [WIG]

McGill, John. Fiddler. Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. A music colleague of Frank McCollam, who played widely for local country dances, he was a coachbuilder who made fiddles in his spare time. Memorably he made a copy of a perspex violin – which he had seen on a Pathé newsreel – out of material salvaged from a Canadian plane which had crashed in Glenshesk in December 1943. He also made fiddles and banjos using Irish lancewood, aircraft wreckage, tin, and mahogany from old landaulets (small carriages).

McLaughlin, John (Seán). Likely the most reputed north Antrim fiddler, from Armoy, he made many recordings and won the All-Ireland senior fiddle competition in 1958. He learned his early music from Ballymoney player James Kealy, and fought in the Second World War with the Royal Ulster Rifles, following which he worked in England and then at home in Armoy. A painter too, he composed a number of tunes including ‘McLaughlin’s Dream’, ‘Golden Shadows’ and ‘McLaughlin’s Lament’. [DIG]

O’Loan, Dan. A famous Antrim Glens fiddler, he was a carpenter who made boats, furniture and fiddles. He recorded for radio, and taught his children to play fiddle and banjo. His music legacy emerged again in his great-grandchildren, the Bonnars – who play on O’Loan fiddles – taught by Jim McGill, Dennis Sweeney, Dick Glasgow and Sean Maguire, as well as by local classical tutors Kate Keenan and Mrs Darling. [DIG]

Stevenson, Sam. Fiddler. He was born, lived, worked, reared his family and died in the Braid valley within sight of Slemish Mountain, Co. Antrim. A founder member of the Antrim and Derry Fiddlers’ Association, he was a lifelong friend and playing companion of such as Sean McGuire, Jim McKillop, Dennis Sweeney and Maeve McKeon. A maker of fiddles, violas and cellos, his skills were renowned: violinist Fritz Kreisler once visited Stevenson’s workshop in Ballycastle with his students to observe fiddle making. Stevenson was in great demand as