Preview of Gradam Ceoil 2012 Concert

Short interviews and documentary clips about the 2012 Gradam Ceoil Irish Traditional Music Award winners. The bit about Paddy begins around 10:40...

Comic Song Tradition in Ireland

The comic song is a longstanding tradition in Ireland, from the legendary days when poets could compose songs featuring satire that could kill—or was at least strong enough to strip paint! 

In recent years, great songs have been written to commemorate the rash of moving statues of the Virgin in County Cork, various outrages and sporting events.

Radio host Paula Carroll has put together a great documentary on the Irish comic song tradition. The program focuses on some of the best  contemporary comic songmakers in the traditional idiom, featuring the songs of Michael Marrinan, Sean Mone, Robbie McMahon, Tim Lyons, Con O'Drisceoil and Brian O'Rourke.

You can have a listen to it here:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/songmakers.html

Originally broadcast on Clare FM.

Produced by Paula Carroll with sound supervison by Tracy Maloney.

Paddy O'Brien Honored As Traditional Composer of the Year

I'm over the moon and so proud of my husband, Paddy O'Brien, who was honored as Ireland's 2012 Composer of the Year at the recent Gradam Ceoil Irish Traditional Music Awards in Limerick. The awards are sponsored by TG4, the Irish language television network (now part of RTE, the national broadcasting service).

Paddy joins a long list of Irish traditional music luminaries with this honor, including previous winners Paddy Fahy, Vincent Broderick, Charlie Lennon, Peadar Ó Riada, and Liz Carroll.

WATCH THE CONCERT VIDEO

GRADAM CEOIL 2012 PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK

BACKSTAGE AT GRADAM CEOIL 2012 ON FACEBOOK

The broadcast kicked off with a bang: several of Paddy's compositions, SARAH'S DELIGHT, THE WOODEN CITY POLKAS, and THE SMALL HILLS OF OFFALY, as performed by the ensemble from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance! After a short interview, Paddy also performs a couple of his compositions, TINY THE TROOPER and THE TURF CUTTER, with accompaniment from guitarist Tommy O'Sullivan.

Here's some background on the awards from Paddy's website:

This year’s Gradam Ceoil recipients range over a wide spectrum of talents. Those honored in the various categories include a legendary Donegal fiddler who also spent most of his life in London, a US-based world-renowned composer and scholar originally from Offaly, an Armagh couple whose life has been spend teaching traditional music in that city and county and two young Gaeltacht musicians from Ring and Muskerry who, while still in their early twenties, have already achieved much in their chosen musical disciplines. The full list of TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2012 recipients is:

• Gradam Ceoil (Musician) – Brian Rooney, fiddle
• Ceoltóir Óg (Young Musician) – Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, uilleann pipes
• Gradam Saoil (Hall of Fame) – Danny Meehan, fiddle
• Cumadóir (Composer) – Paddy O’Brien, button accordion
• Amhránaí (Singer) – Nell Ní Chróinín
• Gradam Aitheantais (Contributions) – Eithne agus Brian Vallely, fiddle and pipes

Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012

This year’s awards were presented at the Gradam Ceoil 2012 Concert at University Concert Hall, Limerick on Saturday 24th March. Recipients were joined by a host of special guests in a concert hosted by Aoife Ní Thuairisg and Páidí Ó Lionáird that was also broadcast on TG4 on Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012. The program included performances from:

• Brian Rooney, John Carty, James Carty & Brian McGrath
• Nell ní Chróinín & Eoiní Ó Súilleabháin
• Danny Meehan, Tommy Peoples, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Dermot McLaughlin
• Brian, Eithne & the Vallely Family
• Paddy O’Brien & Tommy Sullivan
• Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, Seán Ó Fearghail, Dónal Clancy & Tomás Ó Gealbhain
• Ceoltóirí Dhámh Chruinne Éireann, Rince & Ceol, Luimneach

Past Winners of the TG4 Traditional Composer of the Year Award

Gradam Ceoil TG4 recognizes the importance of constantly adding to Ireland’s vibrant dance music repertoire by presenting Gradam an Chumadóra each year. Much of the work of these composers has already become a part of the tradition, regularly played at sessions and recorded by other artists.

Previous Winners

2001 – Paddy Fahy, Co. Galway
2002 – Brendan Tonra, Co. Mayo
2003 – Vincent Broderick, Co. Galway
2004 – Richie Dwyer, Co. Cork
2005 – Josephine Keegan, Co. Armagh
2006 – Charlie Lennon, Co. Leitrim
2007 – Jim McGrath, Co. Fermanagh
2008 – Peadar Ó Riada, Dublin
2009 – Con Fada Ó Drisceoil, Co. Cork
2010 – John & Finbarr Dwyer, Co. Cork
2010 – Liz Carroll, Chicago, IL  USA

For more information about the Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012, visit:  Gradam Ceoil TG4

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Paddy O’Brien was born in Daingean, Co. Offaly in 1945. He took up the accordion as a youngster and travelled widely, seeking out older players, honing his craft and carefully building up his repertoire. His formative influences included Joe Delaney and Dan Cleary of Offaly, Galway fiddlers Paddy Fahy and Eddie Kelly, Donegal fiddler John Doherty, Frank Mc Collum of Antrim, Seán Ryan from Tipperary and Dublin’s Tommy Potts. Paddy moved to Dublin in 1969, where he often played with Clare fiddlers Joe Ryan and John Kelly. This experience provided a great learning ground where he continuously amassed a wealth of knowledge on tune settings and much anecdotal background information on repertoire and musicians. Given his penchant for collecting tunes, and his predilection towards unusual settings, it was natural, perhaps, that he would turn his hand to composition.

Paddy has been living in Minnesota since 1983, performing and teaching all over North America and Ireland, and was invited to perform in Moscow in 2008. Several of Paddy’s most popular compositions are ‘The Small Hills of Offaly,’ ‘The Antrim Rose,’ and ‘Sarah’s Delight’ which appeared on two classic 1970s LPs entitled ‘Is It Yourself?’ and ‘Spring in the Air,’ with Dublin-born fiddle maestro James Kelly (son of John Kelly, and TG4 Musician of the Year 2006), and Derry-born guitarist (and member of Altan) Dáithí Sproule. Both classic recordings were combined into a single CD entitled ‘Traditional Music of Ireland’ (Shanachie 34014), which continues to influence Irish musicians worldwide.

In September 1994, Paddy received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that enabled him to record the 500 tunes that comprise The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection – Volume One: A Personal Treasury of Irish Traditional Music, an impressive and a massive undertaking that has been acclaimed worldwide. Volume Two of this collection followed in 2011, with 150 double jigs, 120 hornpipes, 100 polkas,  100 reels,  and 30 slip jigs. This is a unique corpus, the output of a lifetime’s collection of unusual settings and versions, and some original compositions, with detailed notes.

Over the course of his long career, Paddy has composed approximately fifty tunes, spanning many dance forms within the tradition, including 24 reels, 4 marches, 4 polkas, 1 slide, 9 jigs, 4 airs, and 3 hornpipes. Some of these original pieces have appeared on his numerous recordings, and many were included as part of the Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection. Many of Paddy’s compositions have also been received into the tradition, and played in sessions and recorded by well-respected Irish traditional musical groups, including Solas, Téada, Danú, Trían, Nic Gaviskey, The Boys of the Lough, and Altan, among others.

As a musician, Paddy has played and recorded with a number of different céilí bands and groups since the 1960s: The Ballinamere Céilí Band, The Seán Ryan Trio, The Castle Céilí Band, Ceoltóirí Laighean, Bowhand, Hill 16, and currently O’Rourke’s Feast, Chulrua, and The Doon Céilí Band. His just-released second solo CD, ‘Mixing the Punch,’ features Teresa Baker on piano and guest artist (and fellow Offalyman) Felim Egan on button accordion.

Paddy has a well-earned reputation as a walking encyclopedia of Irish music, and as a highly regarded scholar, composer, and source for tunes. It is estimated that he carries in his head more than 3,000 Irish melodies. His previous honors include a 2006 Artist Fellowship from the Bush Foundation of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Lifetime Achievement Honor from the Irish Music & Dance Association in 2010, for his contributions to Irish music and culture in Minnesota.

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For more information, or to schedule an interview with Paddy,

please call + 1 651-698-2258 or e-mail paddyobrien@qwest.net.

PADDY'S WEBSITE:  http://www.paddyobrien.net

2012 TOUR OF IRELAND

ERIN HART'S IRELAND: ON HAUNTED GROUND

September 12-22, 2012

I know everyone’s been waiting for the news, and it’s now official! New Departures is taking reservations for a third Irish tour, this time called, “Erin Hart’s Ireland: ON HAUNTED GROUND.” The dates are September 12-22, 2012, and a full itinerary is now up at the New Departures website.

I’ll once again be leading an intrepid band of travelers to some of the mysterious and beautiful places that have inspired locations in my novels: The National Museum of Ireland, archaeological sites and castles, the bogs and lakes of the midlands, ruined medieval monasteries and haunted tower houses. And of course we’ll take in some traditional music sessions, too, along with a trip to the Guinness brewery and a whiskey distillery! (No such thing as too much research, I always say…)

We’re calling this trip after my first novel, ‘Erin Hart's Ireland: ON HAUNTED GROUND.’ The title of HAUNTED GROUND was actually inspired by a line from Byron: 'Where e'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground.' I’ve always thought that line really captured the spirit of Ireland, a place where so many undiscovered layers of history remain perpetually underfoot. 

My good friend Kathy Sidla from New Departures has organized this tour down to the last detail, from lovely hotels and companionable dinners, to bogwalks and visits to ancient tombs and fairy forts where the little people dwell.

If you’ve always wanted to visit Ireland, but wanted something a little more off-the-beaten track, this is just the ticket. 

We'll have a little history, a little science, a little folklore, a little music and a bit of pub crawling—of course! If you're inspired to join us, please give Kathy a call at New Departures:  1-612-305-0025 or 1-800-853-1880.

ERIN HART'S IRELAND: ON HAUNTED GROUND

September 12-22, 2012

A Brief Itinerary:

September 12:  Depart US for Dublin.

September 13-15: Dublin, Book of Kells, National Museum ('Kingship and Sacrifice' exhibit, ancient Irish gold, and the Faddan More Psalter), Guinness Brewery, Georgian House Museum, National Museum Collins Barracks,  An Góilín Singers' session, traditional Irish music session at Hughes's Pub, Chancery Street, overnight in Dublin.

September 16: Newgrange, Tullynally Castle and Gardens, Slane Castle, Corlea Trackaway Centre, overnight at Kilronan Castle, Ballyfarnon, Co Roscommon.

September 17-18:  Ceide Fields, Museum of Country Life, Westport, walking tour of Galway City, Ballynahinch Castle, coral beach at Carraroe, traditional music session at the Crane Bar, overnight in Galway.

September 19-20:  Portumna Castle, Clonony Castle Tower House, Leap Castle (most haunted place in Ireland), Kilbeggan Whiskey distillery, Clara Bog Visitor Centre, St. Manchan's shrine, Celtic Roots Studio (bog wood sculptures) at Ballinahown craft village, overnight in Tullamore, Co Offaly.

September 21:  Dysart O'Dea medieval monastery and Clare Archaeology Centre, Poulnabrone Dolmen, Corkscrew Hill, the Burren, fairy fort, Kilfenora, overnight in Ennis.

September 22:  Back home again!

Ennis, Doolin, Liscannor, Ennistymon

DAY NINE

Our last day in Ireland was spent in one of my favorite counties, Clare—aka The Banner County. We spent some time in Ennis, which is another great town for music, ducking into Custy's Music Shop, where Paddy's latest CD, Mixing the Punch, was playing on the PA system. What are the chances of that? 100%, I guess!

We had mussels again for lunch, and stopped to see the sheela-na-gig at the church in Kilnaboy, and then caromed around the Burren for the afternoon, stopping in for a drink at Gus O'Connor's pub in Doolin, quite possibly the most famous pub in Ireland.


At the seaside in Doolin, I read aloud to the group Paddy's recent poem about Micho Russell, a great whistle player and wonderful character who embodied the spirit of West Clare music. Here's a little taste:

Four years later, I went to a seaside spot
And heard his mild way of talking
Heard him hum a few notes
Saw him feeding squawking gulls
As they fluttered and pecked on the sand.
When his inky black jacket flew open to the wind
I saw a tiny tin whistle
That stood in his inside pocket
‘Faith’n,’ he said,
‘Look how they fight with the wind!’
‘Tis God’s will they fly at all.’
‘A mistake in the making.’
‘If we pluck them for cooking,
Not worth a hazel for atin’
An air might do them good
Before we leave them alone.’

And of course, no trip to Clare is really complete without at least a perfunctory visit to Saint Brigid of the Phone Box, the holy well outside Liscannor. Beside the saint in her glass case is an underground grotto filled with holy statues and rosaries and offerings for the dead.

After our final celebratory dinner together as a group at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, a few of us ventured out in the rain to local pub, where hot whiskey was the order of the day.

I took this photo over my head, just where the barman was preparing the lemons, slicing them carefully and studding them with whole cloves. It turned out looking like a Flemish painting, don't you think?

Clonmacnoise, Clonfert, Clontuskert

DAY SEVEN

From Galway we pressed onward into the Midlands, the next thing to heaven for bog-lovers! Started out at Clonmacnoise, an early Christian monastery with many high crosses and grave slabs, and an interpretive center that imagines life there in the eighth and ninth centuries. The site looks over the River Shannon, and the fall color was spectacular—especially the currant bushes outside the entrance. Early autumn is a great time to travel in Ireland; most heritage sites are still open, and September is (statistically speaking, of course) the least rainy time of the year.

From Clonmacnoise we began to make our way over to Clonfert Cathedral and Clontuskert Priory, but our wonderful guide and driver Patrick pulled over when he saw a tower house and thought we might be interested in snapping a few photos. Paddy and I had visited this place, Clonony Castle, about seven years ago, when it was uninhabited and covered in graffiti. Now there was a large gate (closed, of course), but as we approached, a dog came out of the tower. And then a woman appeared, and asked, "Would you like to come inside?" Who could say no? Rebecca and her faithful Schnauzer Oscar, live in the tower; she's in the process of restoring it. The castle was once home to Mary and Elizabeth Boleyn, cousins to Queen Elizabeth I, lived out their lives here; their tombstone still stands on the castle grounds (it's now under the tree in the photo). Clonony was also occupied for a time in the early 17th century by Matthew de Renzi, a cloth merchant who was supposed to have created the first English-Irish dictionary.

Clonfert Cathedral is in a tucked-away little village in east Galway. It has a wonderful Hiberno-Romanesque arch, with six orders of arches featuring strange human and animal heads.Some of the faces are recognizable as individuals, and some have exaggerated features, similar to carvings from Mexico and South America. When we went inside, there was some fluttering movement, almost too quick for the eye to see. At first I thought it might be a few bats from the belfry, but it turned out to be a flock of orange and brown moths.There's also a nice little mermaid carving on the wall, below a row of angels.

Not far from Clonfert is Clontuskert Priory—you may be wondering why all these places have 'clon' in their names. It comes from the Irish word 'cluain,' which means, 'meadow.' Clonfert is actually 'cluain feartha,' which means 'meadow of the grave.' Place names in Ireland are clues to the human and natural history of a particular spot.

I like to revisit Clontuskert because it was the inspiration for the excavation in HAUNTED GROUND. Cormac and Nora are working away, sifting through earth and gravel for clues to the human habitation of the place, and Cormac asks Nora to look across the fields and tell him what she can see. What she sees is this... an ancient burial mound masquerading as a hill, out in the pasture with the cows. There's also a broken Christ figure that I put in the story. Reading from the story while we're looking out over the place that inspired that very passage always gives me goosebumps.

DAY EIGHT

One of the highlights of the tour (for me!) was our visit to Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan. It was founded in 1757, and is now a museum. The tour shows off all the old machinery and huge wooden vats, the barrel-making operation, and of course you get to sample the wares, both the un-aged clear whiskey (yikes!), and the smooth and golden finished product. There's even a challenge, to see if you can discern the difference between regular and peated whiskey (that one's a doddle!) and regular and sherry-casked. Congratulations to our friend Pat Wellingham-Jones, who won the whiskey challenge!

After Kilbeggan, we headed out to Leap Castle, which has gained a reputation as the most haunted castle in Ireland. We met Sean Ryan, the man who lives there with his family. Sean is a whistle player and storyteller, so in addition to playing a few tunes, he also gave us a bit of the castle's colorful history. Then he lit some candles and let us take them up the winding stairs to the Bloody Chapel, where one of the O'Carrolls murdered his favored elder brother, a priest, way back in the 12th century. We also heard a bit about the spirits that the Ryan family has encountered while living there over the past twenty years.

Very near to Leap Castle is a place where the road splits, and goes around a small blackthorn tree known as Saint Kieran's Bush. It's a rag or 'clootie tree,' a place where people visiting Saint Kieran's well just down the hill can make offerings or intercessions on behalf of someone who has died or is in poor health or spirits. Like other rag trees found all over Ireland, this bush is covered in bits of cloth and rags, old socks and neckties, plastic bags and key chains, rosary beads and eyeglasses and baby shoes. Each represents a wish or a prayer for some ailing person. It's a bit of pagan Celtic culture lurking under the veneer of Christianity. After seeing Saint Kieran's bush for the first time, I had to include a tree like it in LAKE OF SORROWS, which is all about the notion of sacrifice, past and present.

We arrived at our hotel (the Hodson Bay in Athlone) in late afternoon. I had cut some rushes at the cliffs at Bunglas, and after keeping them alive in bathtubs of various hotel rooms, I finally sat down before dinner and showed interested folk how to make a traditional Brigid's Cross. Many thanks to Marty Davidsohn for her scissors and yarn to tie up the ends, and to Carey Sidla McKay for sharing this photo!

Connemara, Galway City

DAY SIX

A half day's drive through Connemara started with a trip to the coral beach outside Carraroe, Co. Galway, where we hunted for shells and studied tidal pools. It's a magical place, one I always imagine as a spot where a selkie might come ashore.

Found a perfect, intact scallop shell that opened just like a mermaid's compact. The beach itself is not sand, but bits of coral that feel and sound like crushed bone beneath your feet. A great spot for beachcombing and just communing with nature. You can hear the sound of the water at this beach in a short video I shot in April 2011. I think everyone loved this place.

The landscape of Connemara is one of my favorite places on earth, probably because I spent a bit of time there in my youth, going to Irish school for a few weeks in Carraroe. The blue and purple colors of the stone, the blooming heather, the dark green bracken ferns bring it all back. We saw some beautiful Connemara ponies about, and whenever you're in Connemara, there's usually an opportunity for a great shot of a white cow in a stony field. On that score, our trip did not disappoint!

We made our way to Roundstone (a bad English translation; the place is actually 'Cloch na Rón,' or 'Seal Rock' in Irish). There we visited Malachy Kearns, Ireland's preeminent maker of bodhráns, the traditional Irish goatskin drums. We had a bite to eat and visited with Malachy and his wife Gifty, and then had a look around at the workshop, where goatskins were being dried and stretched before being nailed to round wooden frames.

On the way back into Galway, we stopped off at the grounds of the Ballinahinch Castle Hotel, to walk the labyrinth made out of stones from the sea. It's a peaceful, meditative exercise, walking the concentric circles of the labyrinth until you reach the center. The site is open to the public, just part of the parklands around the hotel. Fly fishing seems to be the real ticket there. A lovely spot.

After our day trip, we had a little time off, so we walked around Store Street in Galway City, looking at all the marvelous medieval buildings. After perusing some great shops and pubs, and we ended up having dinner at the King's Head, built in 1612, and so called because the place was supposed to have been granted in payment to the Galway man who beheaded Charles I of England in 1649. Mussels, fish and chips, Irish coffee, beer, and a bit of bloody history. What more could a body want?

We had a little time to visit the statue of Oscar Wilde in the city centre, and poke our noses into a few pubs just as the music was starting. Galway is a great town for traditional music, but the sessions usually don't begin until 9:30 or 10 pm.