I composed this waltz for a friend’s young son.It was originally just in two parts and easy enough for a child to play, hence the simplicity of the melody.I decided to develop this simple waltz into an expanded version reflective of my mood during the pandemic.

Séamus Ennis was always made to feel welcome by Colm Ó Caodháin and his family. In his diary 26.6.43 he noted ‘of all the people I have ever met, Colm Ó Caodháin is the person I most enjoy working with’. Described by Ennis as ‘a very kind man and always inclined to laugh’ (26.5.43), Colm Ó Caodháin provided a rich store of songs and tunes for Ennis and he collected extensively from him during his time as collector of music and song with the Irish Folklore Commission. This jig, transcribed from Colm, is a variant of ‘The Bridal Jig’ which was published in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland (No. 310) and in the 1883 publication Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (p. 112). It can be found in Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra (No. 311) and was also included in Allan’s Irish Fiddler. 

From when he first met him, Séamus Ennis was very taken with Dudley Cloherty, his music, his lilting and his personality. In his  diary on 1.7.43 he described Dudley as ‘an old man, a little over 70 years of age’ with ‘a very sweet voice’. According to Ennis, Dudley liked to make people laugh… ‘you would die laughing at his antics’ which included using a walking stick to imitate the fiddle and whistle with his most comical trick being the way he raised his left foot over his right knee in imitation of piping. This slip jig transcribed from Dudley is a variant of the slip jig ‘The Silvermore’ in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (No. 1141) and is closely related to ‘The Humours of Whiskey’ in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 1 (No. 66).  

During the month of July in 1943 Séamus Ennis made regular visits to Maínis to Dudley an Phortaigh [Dudley of the Bog] [Darach Ó Clochartaigh] Cloherty whom he called ‘the man with the tunes’ noting that Dudley had ‘old tunes that he inherited from his father’s lilting and from travelling musicians long ago’. Séamus Ennis transcribed a good number of pieces from Dudley including this slip jig. A variant of Hardiman the Fiddler, it can be found in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland (No. 412) and in The Dance Music of Willie Clancy (No. 127). A version of this slip jig was published in Ceol Rince na hÉireann 4 ( No. 39) with the title The Swaggering Jig although it is pointed out in the notes that this is a different tune to the slip jig of the same title found in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland. (No. 413).

Johnny Óg Connolly began playing music on the accordion when he was nine years old. He learned a great deal of his music from his  father Johnny Connolly, from the Conamara island of Inis Bearachain and from Micheál Mheáirt Ó Coisdealbha. He was also greatly influenced by musicians Joe Burke and Andy McGann. Aged fourteen, he spent some time playing with the Conamara group Na hAncairí. His music has brought Johnny Óg across the world and in 2013 he settled in Conamara. He is also a composer and he has released a number of compact discs. These include ‘Aisling Yoshua’ (Joshua’s Dream) published in 2011 which won the Irish Times ticket award for the best traditional album. His CD ‘Fear Inis Bearachain’ was published in memory of his father and on this CD  Johnny Óg plays the melodeon, an instrument his father encouraged him to play. A work was commissioned entitled ‘An Cosán Draíochta’ (The Magic Path) which premiered at the opening of Stiúideo Cuan in An Spidéal in November 2021. Cosán Draíochta was the name the islanders gave the path that appeared during low tide from Inis Bearachain to the mainland.

Séamus Ennis first heard of Colm Ó Caodháin in late August 1942 when he was recommended to Ennis as a good singer from Glinsce, north of Carna. In December of that year on a return visit to Conamara he made an effort to meet with Colm Ó Caodháin but bad weather forced him to abandon the visit. It was to be 25 May 1943 before Séamus Ennis would meet Colm and discover that he had ‘a vast store of tunes and songs’ including this jig.  This first part of this tune is closely related to the first part of ‘Rory O’Moore’ as recorded by Mary Ellen Conlon in New York in 1923 on the Gennet label. Mary Ellen, from Milltown in North Galway, was a sister of P.J. Conlon, one of the first Irish-born melodeon players to record commercially in America. ‘Rory O’Moore’ was composed by Dublin native Samuel Lover as part of a comic opera in 1837. It was published as a jig in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (p. 120) and in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland (No. 116). 

This jig is the fourth in a group of tunes lilted by Colm Ó Caodháin and transcribed by Séamus Ennis. In notes on the transcriptions to the tunes Ennis labels them ‘Sean phoirt béil ó Cholm Ó Caodháin’ [Old Tunes lilted by Colm Ó Caodháin]. The tunes included a reel he titled ‘Port na Giobóige’ [The Tune of the Unfortunate Woman], a jig he named ‘Port na Sióige’ [The Fairy Jig] and a tune he called ‘Titse Miller’. While the tune ‘Titse Miller’ is known as ‘Dusty Miller’ and played widely, the other tunes in the group appear to be local tunes. Séamus Ennis often sang songs and played tunes that he had collected in Conamara when he visited Donegal. ‘I was asked to sing and I sang ‘Fill, Fill a Rúin Ó’ [Return, Return, Oh My Darling] (Spidéal). It raised the roof….that is a great reflection on Conamara songs’. (18.8.43) 

Johnny Óg Connolly, melodeon, playing 5 tunes collected by Séamus Ennis in Conamara from Darach Ó Clochartaigh (2) and Colm Ó Caodháin (3)

Colm Ó Caodháin 

(Colm Mháirtín Thomáis) (1873-1975) was from Glinsce, between An Caiseal and Carna. He received little formal education and was a fisherman and farmer. Of all the people from whom Séamus Ennis collected songs, music and lore, Colm was his favourite. Colm was also a dancer and composed songs. He was full of fun and had his own personal philosophy of life. He would visit the well on Cnoc an Chaisil in search of peace of mind if anything troubled him. He lost the dole because of scallop fishing. He gave his songs to his family and his daughter, Mary, recalled learning songs from him. His brother John died at a young age in Glasgow and another brother Tomás (1910-1934) died at home. It seems Ennis tried to arrange for Colm to go to the Oireachtas but he did not go.

From his very first meeting with Colm Ó Caodháin or Colm an Bhlácaigh as he was also known, Ennis recognised that he had met with an amazing informant. When this the collector wrote:  ‘Colm an Bhlácaigh was expecting us, as Maidhcilín had sent him a message. We brought our musical instruments along. We were made very welcome and we played music, danced and sang. Colm sang songs and lilted tunes and danced as well. An individual dance is called a ‘breakdown’ in Conamara. We spent the evening egging Colm on.’ And the following day, he realised what a discovery had been made. He wrote on 26 May 1943: ‘I spent the afternoon and the evening (a wet day) with Colm an Bhlácaigh [Ó Caodháin] and I wrote down a considerable number of old tunes. He asked me to come again tomorrow.’

As they became better  acquainted, the collector was able to write, on 26 June, 1943: ‘He [Colm] made me very welcome and was delighted to see me again. I spent a long time talking to him. I wrote material down from him while he was cutting turf.’ At the end of that particular collecting trip he further underlined the closeness that had come about, writing on 4 August 1943: ‘I was very lonely leaving Colm and he was lonely as well, because we are very friendly with each other. Colm is a man who is rough and hearty in his ways, but he could sit in company at a grand feast, say in the President’s residence without embarrassment or fear of embarrassing anyone with him, he is so courteous. He can make clever conversation on any topic, I was sad leaving him and I look forward no end to seeing him again.’ Ennis also discovered that Colm had all kinds of material and this emerges in the diary entry for 19 May 1944 when Colm ‘started to describe his own work since Christmas – planting, seafaring, gathering scallops and decorating the house, building walls, making a quern for grinding among other things.’

On occasion, Ennis had the use of an Ediphone machine on which he recorded Colm. The collector wrote of Colm’s reaction to it on 12. June 1944: ‘Colm was initially very frightened by the Ediphone and for a long time he would not place it correctly to his mouth and would not speak properly into it. He spoke a few pieces that were very poorly recorded. At last, he placed it on his chin and when he was about to speak he asked me what he should say…. He started then in a single flow of speech and he said:  “I wonder if I put it under my chin like this would it not produce a better sound? I do not like the sound that comes from it – it seems to me to be very deafening and so on.” We recorded a few songs and a few items of lore on it before bedtime. Colm had great sport listening to his own voice coming again singing the songs and saying the pieces.’

Collectors with the Irish Folklore Commission often helped informants with official letters, forms and other matters. Ennis wrote that he helped Colm in relation to unemployment assistance on 2 June 1945. He wrote that Colm ‘ wanted me to write a letter to the people in charge of the dole in Galway – they do not believe that scallop fishing has finished. When I had written it on his behalf, I started reading and correcting his text with him and had completed almost forty pages of it by eleven o’clock, and we decided to visit to Inis Ní tomorrow, please God, if it is a fine day.’ Ennis often visited Colm to ensure that he had written what Colm said correctly and to ask any questions he might have for Colm. Ennis was seen almost to be part of the family and was sure of a great welcome when he visited. Ennis wrote once when he arrived at Colm’s house on 26 April 1945: ‘”May there not be more straws on the house than the number of welcomes for you!”’ said Colm’s mother.’ Colm’s endless store of material was highlighted by Ennis when he wrote about Colm at the end of his collecting trip on 1 August 1945: ‘Although I can say that I have finished working with him, I could never pay him a visit that he would not have thought of something new for me to write.’

Darach Ó Clochartaigh  

(Dudley Cloherty) lived in Portach Mhaínse, Carna, where he was born and grew up. His father was a boatwright. His brother Learaí opened a shop in Carna. He died in the 1950s. Ennis wrote that the best thing about Darach, and the pleasure he got from the music, was the way he lilted the tunes for himself and the old lady, his wife, in the kitchen when only the pair of them were present. One evening when Ennis visited, they were doing precisely that and they were laughing with one another. His wife said that he tries to entice her with tunes and dancing, just as he used to do before they married long ago. Ennis said he never met such an amusing man as he for good fun and sport as Irish people had long ago (See NFC 1280: 412–3).

Ennis visited Darach on 10 July 1945 and his diary entry for that day translates:

‘I went to Maínis in the afternoon to Darach Ó Clochartaigh, the old man who gave me the tunes in 1943, to visit him and to take his picture. I found him and his wife as full of fun and happy as ever (they have no children). Darach was afraid that I was going to put his picture in tomorrow’s newspaper and I had a job to entice him to allow me to take his picture at all. But when I explained to him that I would like to have his picture, he was very happy and his wife stood with him and I took them so that the house and everything around it were in the picture as best I could manage it.

I spent a long while talking with him and his wife, because I have always liked both of them very much. His wife told me that he still lilts the tunes constantly in the house to entice her, even now when they are both elderly. Aren’t they lucky to have such spirit!’