Both of these tunes are named for birds. An roilleach is the Irish word for an oyster-catcher while an siocán sneachta is the word for a fieldfare.

In the cold winter of 2011 Joe was at home and began composing An siocán sneachta.

It was a turn in a jig that Joe Cooley did and it stuck in my head and I just kept adding to it.

Siocán sneachta is a thrush-like bird that comes to Ireland during very cold winters. There were many of them around that year, although at the time Joe couldn’t remember the Irish name for the bird. A visit from his friend, Paddy Fitz, provided him with the missing words, and it was Paddy who suggested that he also use the Irish name of the bird as a title for his new jig. On a walk later that day Paddy and Joe spotted an oyster-catcher in the estuary and Paddy told him that he had to compose another jig to go with the first, and that he should call it an roilleach, after that bird.

Both of these tunes are named for birds. An roilleach is the Irish word for an oyster-catcher while an siocán sneachta is the word for a fieldfare.

In the cold winter of 2011 Joe was at home and began composing An siocán sneachta.

It was a turn in a jig that Joe Cooley did and it stuck in my head and I just kept adding to it.
Siocán sneachta is a thrush-like bird that comes to Ireland during very cold winters. There were many of them around that year, although at the time Joe couldn’t remember the Irish name for the bird. A visit from his friend, Paddy Fitz, provided him with the missing words, and it was Paddy who suggested that he also use the Irish name of the bird as a title for his new jig. On a walk later that day Paddy and Joe spotted an oyster-catcher in the estuary and Paddy told him that he had to compose another jig to go with the first, and that he should call it an roilleach, after that bird.

Emer Mayock was putting together a collection of New Music of Mayo and she asked Joe to write some tunes as part of the project.

In this area there’s a lot of bog so I thought I’d have to name the tunes for it.

Emer Mayock was putting together a collection of New Music of Mayo and she asked Joe to write some tunes as part of the project.

In this area there’s a lot of bog so I thought I’d have to name the tunes for it.

Dympna O’Sullivan asked me if I would compose a tune for her album. I knew she liked playing waltzes so I wrote this one and we played it together on the recording.

This song started life as a poem by a local historian in Gort named Peter Fahy. On reading the poem the first time Joe realised that it would make for a lovely song, but that it would need to be changed and adapted first. He asked Peter’s permission to work on it and the song is now sung regularly at singing sessions.

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.