 HOW WE MET! (PHOTO)Peter O'Connor and Els. It was the Eyes that did it!’ ‘I chatted so long to her best friend that evening about Els that everyone thought it was the friend I fancied,’ said Peter O’Connor as he reminisced with Kiely about how he met the love of his life, his Dutch partner Els. That was sixteen years ago and we are still together,said Peter who is renovating their new home, Glenribbeen Lodge, Lismore. ‘Glenribbeen is spelt with two B’s and two E’s I have checked the official spelling although some locals disagree, saying it has only one ‘B’ or ‘E’ in its name. Els and Peter who is a member of the very well known musical O’Connor family from Dundalk have owned their new house for three months and think the scenery around County Waterford is spectacular. Peter the second of three boys and a girl, grew up surrounded by music on all sides. ‘My dad was a good singer. My Mam Rose is still an excellent Irish musician, and with my sister Elish and brother Gerry,’Fiddle’ O’Connor are part of the Cuchulainn Ceali Band in Dundalk. They were filmed recently by a television crew for a documentary and the programme will be shown in the new year, and my Mam is excited to be making her TV debut after a lifetime in music. After finishing college back in the late seventies, Peter got the travelling bug, and set off to travel the world, visiting many places along the way including Africa and Cuba, just after the revolution. ‘Being a musician helped a lot, Peter remarked, it overcame the language barrier wherever I went’ he said. ‘After four years of travelling I stopped in Amsterdam‘for a couple of days,’ with some Hungarian musicians who had become friends of mine. It was there I met Els who was a dancer with the official Folk Dance Theatre of the Netherlands, and I just stayed on’ ‘My friends were a little late for an appearance at a venue and the concerned organisers, rang up. I went round to see them and when I walked into the room, Els was there and I said to my friend,’That’s her, the one with the eyes!’ a couple of weeks later we started dating and here we are still together 16 years later in Ireland. ‘After we arrived in 1998 we rented a house in Ring,Co.Waterford, for a year. While there I was asked by CCE organiser Michael Morrison if I would start a music class in the Community Hall in Coolnasmere teaching the fiddle. I accepted and have taught people of all ages from children of 5 to a lady beginner of 75, who is doing very well. One of my pupils a girl ages 17 who I had been teaching for six months came third in July in the Munster Fleadh, an event which is due to be staged in Lismore for the first time next year.’ ‘When I have finished renovating this house we intend to open it as a B+B and also to run weekend music workshops. If there is enough demand in and around Lismore, I hope to start music classes in an upstairs room in the Red House in the town and will be teaching to a syllabus of the Royal Irish Academy and Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann.' 'Although the fiddle is my main instrument I can teach on almost all other instrumentsincluding the tin whistle and guitar if required,’ he said. ‘I even give lessons on fiddle playing to musicians who are professional in other instruments, Peter added, as he started some more renovation of his house. You can email him on glenribbeenbnb@oceanfree.net .....and dont forget to say Pat Kiely sent you. (Go on there Peter, give us an old tune!) Stranded Dolphin. Recently while taking a stroll on Stradbally Cove, Co.Waterford, Els and Peter came across this dolphin which had become stranded on the beach. Here is a pic taken by Els of Peter giving the stranded dophin a push back out to sea.
|
