It is difficult to overestimate the importance of music in Ireland. Like food
in France or football in Brazil, it is a criterion of the people. The rich
musical tradition that stretches back to the time of the ancient Celts bears
the scars and flourishes of the entire history of Ireland, making it unique.
It is also something that goes terribly well with Ireland¹s other national
pastime - pubs.
Eager to learn more about the music, I booked myself on to a weeklong tin
whistle course at the Queen Maeve Summer School in Sligo. The beauty of the
tin whistle is that it costs less than £5 and you can carry it in your hip
pocket. Furthermore, you don¹t have to be a musical prodigy to grasp the
rudiments.
In the first lesson, after only fifteen minutes practising the scale on our
whistles, we were learning our first tune, a slow air. "There you have
it, good man," the teacher exclaimed. And I did, sort of.
By day two, we were learning by ear - the easiest and most natural way to
learn: this is how the six thousand or so jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas and
slides that form the corpus of Irish instrumental music are past down
through the generations.
A session - the nirvana of Irish traditional music - takes place when a group
of musicians, often unknown to each other, gather in a pub and fuelled by
drink and bonhomie, play long in to the night. This is where the alchemy of
Irish music happens. Being in the right place to catch a "mighty session"
is a stroke of good fortune, but I wanted to go further. I actually wanted
to play in one.
In the right hands, the tin whistle is an integral part of a session. In the
wrong hands, it is like nails clawing on a blackboard. By the time I left
Sligo, mine were still the wrong hands and I knew as much when I reached the
tiny village of Feakle in County Clare for the annual music festival.
I arrived in time to see the prodigious Martin Hayes in concert at the altar
of St Mary¹s church. I also saw Matt Molloy, formerly of the Chieftains, a
band that started the Irish music revival in the 1970s, and a flute-playing
legend.
"Go an boy, lovely", the man sitting next to me roared at the end. "You¹ve
been a lovely congregation," Matt replied. Down the lane in Pepper's
Bar, a session was already going along at full tilt. I found space beside
Dermot, a mandolin-player from County Cavan, in the corner of the snug bar
where a group of musicians were belting out the reels. I mentioned what Matt
Molloy had said: "Aye,'tis the new church of Ireland," Dermot
enthused.
"And do you play yourself?"
Having heard so much good music in Feakle, I could hardly boast of my meagre
achievements: "No," I replied. "But you will yet," he
said, holding his pint up to his chin and tipping his head at me, "You
will yet."
Irish music events
Music is back at the centre of Irish cultural life in the 21st Century. Summer
schools, where beginners can learn the basics and professionals can hone
their skills, have proliferated across Ireland. Happily, they are often tied
in with traditional music festivals. If you want to learn the tin whistle,
the fiddle, the squeeze box or the bodhran, someone will be teaching it
somewhere in Ireland throughout the summer.
If you only want to listen and learn about traditional Irish music, rather
than play it, the best place to start is Glór Music Centre, a wonderful new
exhibition and performance space devoted to the subject in Ennis, County
Clare. There is a daily programme of very good concerts and events.
Learning to speak Irish Gaelic is not for the faint-hearted, but courses in
this distinctive and delightful language are more popular than ever. Many
take place in Gaeltachts, areas where the native Gaelic is still widely
spoken. Beginners are welcome.
The Irish are well known for being loquacious and many argue that this is a
legacy of the ancient tradition in, and love affair with the spoken word.
Today, poetry remains very popular in Ireland and as well as festivals
celebrating the art, there are courses to train up all would-be Yeats' and
Kavanaghs.
Sligo and Monaghan are the counties to visit if you want to get on the trail
of either Yeats or Kavanagh. Such is the importance of the Irish
contribution to the body of English literature that most places, it seems,
have some shadow of literary association.
Dublin, of course, has it in spades and the apogee of this is Bloomsday, the
annual celebration of James Joyce¹s immortalisation of the city. On June
16th every year, Dublin comes alive with re-enactments and street
improvisations of the great book, Ulysses.
MUSIC SCHOOLS, LANGUAGE AND FESTIVALS
The Queen Maeve Summer School takes place in Sligo town on 1-5 August, 2005.
There are classes in tin whistle, flute, fiddle, banjo, bodhran and
traditional singing (www.cygo.ie/tradmusic). Courses cost £61.
One of the most renowned summer festivals is the Willie Clancy Summer
School in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare (2 -10 July 2005,
www.setdancingnews.net/wcss). It is Ireland's largest traditional music
summer school, attended by 1,000 students from all over the world, with 120
graded workshops daily, as well as lectures, recitals and sessions.
For further information on traditional music summer schools contact the Irish
cultural organisation Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann (www.comhaltas.com).
The Feakle International Music Festival is highly acclaimed
because of the calibre of musicians it attracts. The village of Feakle is in
East Clare (5 -9 August 2005 - www.feaklefestival.ie).
Glór Music Centre (www.glor.ie)
Oideas Gael, a cultural centre in a beautiful position in
Donegal (www.oideas-gael.com) run language and culture courses during the
summer. A week-long Irish Gaelic course costs £100.
Covering all types of literary endeavour is the ever-popular Listowel
Writers Week in Kerry (1-5 June 2005, www.writersweek.ie).
For all information about Bloomsday http://www.visitdublin.com/bloomsday/
GETTING THERE
Stena Line ( www.stenaline.co.uk) operate several ferry routes from Great
Britain to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (including Holyhead
Dun Laoghaire or Dublin Port, Fishguard Rosslare and Stranraer
Belfast).
Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.ie) and Ryan Air (www.ryanair.com) cover most of the
airports in Ireland between them.
READING
Ireland Handbook (Footprint) is an excellent, thoughtful guide.
Rob Penn's book The Sky Is Falling On Our Heads a
journey to the bottom of the Celtic Fringe is published by Hodder &
Stoughton.
