Paddy Joe Tighe is an accordion player, tin whistle player, lilter and singer who now lives in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo. Earlier this year, Jackie Small & Brian Doyle from the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) had the great pleasure of travelling to meet Paddy Joe in his own home, and record an interview with him. Born in Arderry, Aghamore, Co. Mayo Paddy Joe was steeped in a family musical tradition as well as that of his locality. His mother Kate played the accordion and over the course of this interview, her influence is often acknowledged. His love of music and his generous spirit have led to many musical friendships among both the settled and traveller communities, including the legendary Pecker Dunne & Margaret Barry. His detailed reminiscenses are interspered with tunes on the accordion and tin whistle as well as songs, reflecting Paddy Joe’s rich & unique legacy of style & repertoire, and his thoughtful approach to the place of music in his life.
This is an edited extract from the full interview. It can be viewed in its entirety at our premises in 73 Merrion Square, Dublin. ITMA would like to sincerely thank Paddy Joe for his hospitality and generosity in allowing us to film this video and in giving permission to make it available online.
Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla is a classic collection of traditional songs in the Irish language, one of the relatively few to contain notated melodies as well as words.
These songs were collected in Co Galway and Co Mayo by Mrs Eileen Costello (Eibhlín Bean Mhic Choisdealbha) of Tuam in the early 20th century, and were published by the Irish Folk Song Society in London in 1919 as a number of its journal, and again in Dublin in 1923 by The Talbot Press, commercial publishers. On a variety of themes, they are mainly love songs. Maigh Seola is an ancient territory between Loughrea and Headford in Co Galway.
Mrs Costello was born Edith Drury in 1870 in St Pancras workhouse in London, where her Limerick father worked as an attendant. Her mother was Welsh. She became a teacher, and was in the 1890s prominent in a number of the then many Irish cultural organisations in London. A highly active member of the Gaelic League from its London foundation in 1896, she learned Irish there. Her song collecting in the Irish language began in London (she first collected ‘Neillí Bhán’ on a train coming from Woolwich), but her collecting work really began in Ireland, in Tuam, where she came to live having in 1903 married a Dr Thomas Bodkin from the town. He was a medical doctor, historian, and fellow Gaelic Leaguer. Among her chief singers from 1904 was a Maggie Hession of Belclare, members of whose family are still involved in traditional music. Mrs Costello was active in the War of Independence and became a senator in the Irish Free State. She died in 1962. Although she supplied extensive source-notes to the songs and information on their backgrounds (with English translations mainly by others), her motivation was not academic. She intended her volume primarily ‘for popular use in the schools and Gaelic League classes of Connacht’.
Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla, which had become a rare antiquarian volume, has been republished several times in paperback facsimile since 1990 by Cló Iar-Chonnachta. A more extensive biography of its compiler as ‘Costello, Eileen’ will be found at www.ainm.ie.
The 84 melodies of the collection are now available here for playback and reading, and in PDF format for convenient printing.
Nicholas Carolan, Treasa Harkin & Jackie Small, 29 July 2013
The recording ‘Oileán m’Aislingí (Island of my Dreams) is a compilation of eighteen songs, ten in Irish and eight in English. It includes a mix of old Achill songs, John ‘Twin’ McNamara’s own compositions, old Achill poems to which he has composed the music and some of his other favourites. All the songs, apart from ‘Teanga Bhinn ár Máthar’, were recorded between his 84th and 86th birthdays.
Reproduced here are a selection of songs from the album. These are the songs for which John composed the airs.
0ileán m’Aislingí is an Irish translation of a Percy French poem ‘In Exile’ written circa 1903. Percy French spent time in Achill between 1900-1910 and did several paintings of Achill and stayed in the Slievemore Hotel. The poem was written in London and describes him dreaming of being back in Achill the “Island of his Dreams”. This was translated to Irish in 2019 and as far as we are aware, it is the first translation to Irish of a Percy French poem.
This poem was written by the Achill/Erris poet Padraig at the beginning of the 20th Century. Daeid was the known as an ‘Táiliúir Gorm’ and he wrote this poem in praise of a woman named Nóra who gave a meal to him one day he was going to the fair. This is one of John Twin’s favourite poems and it reminds him of his sister Nóra who died at a young age.
This song was written in 1984 about Achill and the Islands of Ireland. The air was inspired by the gift of a fife from the 1882 fife and drum band to John ‘Twin’ by Martin Joe McNamara. The fife had been played by Martin’s brother Sonny.
While John ‘Twin’ was trying out the fife the air to this song came to him. At the time he was looking over across the river from his home at the ‘Joe’ brothers walking up their land to harvest the crops.
This song was also recorded on the album in Irish
Corie Dubh Linn is one of Darrell Figgis’ poems from his book of poetry called the ‘The Mount of Transfiguration’ which was written during his time in Achill, 1914-1916.
Corie Dubh Linn is a beautiful lake at the back of Croaghaun Mountain. In 1914 Figgis took part in a production of Douglas Hyde’s ‘Casadh an tSugáin’ in Achill, directed by the artist Paul Henry, who also made Achill his home. Incidentally, John Twin’s grandfather Johnny Tom Owen McNamara named one of Henry’s paintings ‘The Lake of the Tears of the Sorrowing Women’
Figgis was a prominent member of the first Dail and he chaired the committee that drew up the State’s first Constitution.
This recording combines two songs. The first part is a poem which recollects the Clew Bay drowning disaster which took place in 1894, when a boat carrying migrant workers from Achill to Scotland capsized in Clew Bay with the loss of 32 lives. The bodies of the dead were transported on the first steam train to Achill.
The second part of the song was written by John ‘Twin’ McNamara and recollects the Kirkintilloch bothy fire disaster of 1937 in which ten young Achill Island boys, who were working as migrant workers, lost their lives. Their bodies were transported to Achill by train from Dublin. This fulfilled Brian Rua Ó Cearbháin ‘s prophecy that the first and last trains to Achill would carry bodies of the dead.
This song ‘Seideadh no hAdhairce’ (Blowing of the Horn) describes the old tradition of gathering seaweed from the shore to fertilize the crops which took place in Achill in late 1800’s. Traditionally a May storm known as ‘Garbh Shíon no gCuach’ or ‘The Cuckoo Storm’ would release the seaweed from the bottom of the ocean, and it would come ashore on the tide.
In Dooagh and in other parts of Achill, people were appointed as ‘herds’ to notify people when the wrack came ashore by blowing horns. The original herds in Dooagh were Pat Callaghan and Anthony Kilcoyne and the task was handed down from generation to generation. Pat blew the wrack horn for the Leic side of the beach and Anthony for the Bruach Dubh side.
Lots were cast for the seaweed, and everybody got an equal share. The items used for casting lots were the Root (of the seaweed}, the Fruit (of the seaweed}, the Pebble, and the Bruach (clod of turf from Bruach Dubh). People who did not have a stake were only entitled to the seaweed from a part of the beach known as the Pauper’s Divide. The original horns used are still in Dooagh.
Darrell Figgis came to Achill circa 1913 and was responsible for setting up Oglaigh na hEireann in the area together with An Paorach. They appointed John Twin’s father Anthony as their first captain in Achill. Figgis wrote numerous poems about Achill, one of which is named Anach, a secluded beauty spot on the island. Local folklore has it that he was planning that Anach would be used as a landing place for arms. He was arrested in Achill in 1916 for his involvement in The Rising.
There is an old ruin of a building in Anach called the ‘Scotch House’ which was used by the fishermen employed by Alexander Hector, who owned fishery rights on Achill at the time.
Four of the fishermen are named in this short rhyme:
‘Tommy White the foreman, Cassidy the Cook, McNamara was the stoker and Mickey Eamon drawing bruachs’
There is a carving on a stone in the Scotch house “TW 1879” which indicates the time period.
This poem was the winning entry at the Feis Cheoil in 1903 and was published in An Claidheamh Solais that year. It is a motivational song for the Irish language. John put music to the song in 2008 and added a verse about Achill. It was recorded along with the teachers of Scoil Ada during the Summer school of 2008. The first public performance was at the Scoil Acla Gala Concert of that year in which he dedicated the song to his first grandchild Seán and to his son Seán who passed away in 1995. The song was subsequently recorded in Scots Gaelic by the great Scottish folk singer Kathleen MacInnes
Laoise Kelly from Westport, now living on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, is one of Ireland’s leading traditional harpers. She has pioneered a new style of driving instrument harp playing, combining the techniques of fingerpads in the bass, and fingernails in the melody, on a thirty-four gut strung Paddy Cafferky harp.
Laoise has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with the foremost artists in Irish music from The Chieftains to Kate Bush, and has recorded three critically acclaimed solo albums.
She is Director of the Achill International Harp Festival, and in 2020 was awarded the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Musician of the year.
The fifteen tracks in our audio playlist this month are a selected snapshot of newly composed tunes and songs commercially released by Irish traditional musicians and singers between autumn 2015 and spring 2016. The collection highlights the wide spectrum and diversity present in contemporary Irish traditional music and song. Performers/composers featured are Irish, Australian, English, Finnish, Polish and American and bring different approaches in terms of style, arrangement, instruments and sources of inspiration. This collection also highlights ITMA’s remit to collect traditional music in a broad and inclusive way reflective of each generation of performers.
As a solo artist and an integral part of The Chieftains since 1979, Matt Molloy stands apart as one of the country’s truly outstanding musicians.
By the time Matt moved from his home in Ballaghadereen Co. Roscommon in the mid 1960s he had already gained a reputation for his musical ability on the flute, amassing a string of successes at the Fleadh and Oireachtas competitions. Once in Dublin he quickly became a leading figure in the bourgeoning music scene. A founder member of The Bothy Band, Matt also spent a short period with Planxty. He has enjoyed enduring and powerful musical relationships with many musicians including Liam O’Flynn, Seán Keane, Paul Brady, Tommy Peoples, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Dónal Lunny.
In the December episode of Drawing from the Well, Mayo harper Laoise Kelly presented the story of fellow Mayo native Hugh Higgins who played at the Belfast Harp Festival in 1792, and whose airs were documented by Edward Bunting.
John ‘Twin’ McNamara was born in Dooagh, Achill Island on 7th June 1935 and is one of Achill’s most important historians, folklorists and collector of songs, poetry and stories associated with Achill and its connections to significant aspects of our local and national cultural heritage.
Born in Westport, she learned with Mayo harpist Anne-Marie Scanlon (a student of Nancy Calthorpe) and Kim Fleming of Roscommon, and studied music at NUIM and UCC. She plays Irish harp, specialising in dance tunes, music of the harper composers and also some international folk genres. A member of the band The Bumblebees, in 1992 she was winner of the Belfast Bicentennial Harp Festival. She has collaborated on projects and recordings with Dónal Lunny, Sinéad O’Connor, Mary Black, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Steve Cooney.
Matt Molloy stands apart as one of the country’s truly outstanding musicians.. As a solo artist and an integral part of The Chieftains since 1979, Matt stands apart as one of the country’s truly outstanding musicians.
By the time Matt moved from his home in Ballaghadereen Co. Roscommon in the mid 1960s he had already gained a reputation for his musical ability on the flute, amassing a string of successes at the Fleadh and Oireachtas competitions. Once in Dublin he quickly became a leading figure in the bourgeoning music scene. A founder member of The Bothy Band, Matt also spent a short period with Planxty. He has enjoyed enduring and powerful musical relationships with many musicians including Liam O’Flynn, Seán Keane, Paul Brady, Tommy Peoples, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, and Dónal Lunny.
Joe was born into a musical family in Geesala, County Mayo.. His grandfather and uncles played accordion and although he had no formal tuition on the instrument he picked it up. There was a lot of music in the locality when he was young and he got great encouragment from older musicians. He was influenced by the playing of Joe Cooley and Tony Mac Mahon, and plays a restored 1940s accordion to give him that same kind of sound.
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