Éigse Mrs Crotty
Concertina Summer School, Kilrush, Co Clare
2006
Report by Shay Fogarty of Dublin
This year’s
Éigse was
different
for a number of reasons. A special award was made to Tom Carey on the
opening
night to recognise his contribution to it over the past 11 years. I am
indebted
to Neil Wayne for providing pictures as I could not be there on the
night.
Ciaran Hanrahan
of
RTÉ was fear a’
tí or MC and did a good job as usual
in
his own relaxed way. You may have heard Ciaran
present
Céilí
House
on RTÉ 1 radio which he has done for
many
years. Tom was joined on the night by his family and friends including
concertina
players Michael Tubridy. Gerald
Haugh, Tommy McMahon, Tim Collins, Jackie
Mc
Carthy, Sharon O’Leary,
Maread Considine
and
Katie O’Sullivan. A friend
of Tom’s gave a recitation made up of 51 tune names—you know the type;
The Bucks of Oranmore met the
Fermoy Lasses and they had a Jug of Punch
etc.
It was very witty. At this stage I should say that even though I was
not
present I have ways of knowing what is going on. Thanks to Mark
Davis
for recording the event. Here are some pictures of the
occasion showing some of the finest young female players around. Tom
has a knack of attracting and encouraging young players.
1. Rebecca Brew and
Marie Nolan making a presentation to Tom
2. Tom with two mighty players
Gerald Haugh and Tommy McMahon
3 . L to R Mairead
Considine,
Sharon O’Leary, Katie O’Sullivan and Jackie
McCarthy
Michael Tubridy
recounted how Tom and himself had become
friends
through playing in Crotty’s over 50 years
ago and
described some of the musical escapades which occurred back then when
the
boys were single and fancy free. Jackie McCarthy recalled how her late
father
Tommy and Tom learned tunes from Stack Ryan of
Kilmihil including the Shady Groves of
Peamount which they then played. It’s a
version
of Banish Misfortune and I referred to this tune in last year’s report
and
it is in fact on the Clare Concertinas album by Bernard O’Sullivan and
Tommy
McCarthy.
Mention of Bernard brings me to a
visit
which Neil Wayne and myself made to
Bernard’s House
on the Sunday of the Éigse. Neil
Wayne had
made the recordings of Bernard and Tommy in the house and was keen to
meet
Bernard again. He needed no introduction as he was immediately
recognised
by Bernard.
It was for me
a great honour to meet Bernard
who along with Tommy McMahon had influenced my style of music when
learning
the concertina way back in the 70s. Bernard, who was not very well,
welcomed
us as did his family and thanks to them for that. His grandson Devin O
Sullivan
who is 9 years old was present and is learning the concertina. I gave
him
the Mini Dipper to play a tune which he did very well indeed and showed
good
rhythm and timing for one so young. It is of course in the blood!
Pictures
of the occasion are as follows
7.
Devin and
Bernard
8.
Myself
showing a B flat Jeffries to Bernard with his two sons and
grandchildren looking on.
Bernard
told me that his brother Sonny had brought concertinas home from
England
after the war (WWII) and these were the first quality concertinas in
the
area. He had obtained his own Jeffries from James McMahon of
Tullycrine who still plays in the area.
The mini
Dipper is a little masterpiece
showing all Colin and Rosalie’s skills. It
has
a great touch—light as a feather and very responsive, fairly loud reeds
with a nice tone given by the burr mahogany ends.
It
compares well to a mini Jeffries which a
friend
Martin Hanley has. Here’s a pic
of
the two minis with a standard size Jeffries.
9. Mini
Dipper & Jeffries
This year saw the omission of Michael
Tubridy’s talk on Mrs
Crotty which is always very enjoyable.
Unfortunately
Micheal could not do it but hopefully it
will feature
again in the future.
In the absence of Michael’s
talk there was a good session
in Buggles followed by another on Sunday
afternoon.
The following pictures are taken from these
sessions.A feature for me this year was the
variety
of ’tinas being
played.
Laurence Reeves from the
US
had a nice Shakespeare with very intricate
fretwork
10. Shakespeare owned by Lawrence Reeves
11. Shakespeare owned by Lawrence Reeves
Note the very unusual fretwork with birds outlined
and the
unusual
decorative strap
rails. A very nice concertina which deserve a
little work
and TLC to improve it. Frank McNamara also had a Shakespeare
which
had been recently renovated
Claus Kessler ,who works with
Jurgen Suttner,
had a
fine example of his work which is shown here He’s not a bad player
either:
14. Here’s a picture of Claus,
F rank and Mark
Davies playing in Buggles
A young American called Jeff Thomas
had
a lovely concertina which he had made himself and a really nice job it
was
too. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of it but have just
discovered
that he has a website which shows his
’tinas in all
their glory.
There is a sound file as well which contains examples of his fine
playing.
It’s at
Thomas
Concertinas - The Maker
Mark
Davies was playing his nice pre-war
Wheatstone which I had the opportunity of playing at Mark’s musical
weekend
in Bradford just prior to the
Éigse. I am used to a Jeffries but
found
this Wheatstone very responsive with a lovely tone. It has an unusual
type
patina on the metal ends as you can see from this photo:
15. Mark's
Wheatstone
Devin O Sullivan came into
Buggles on Sunday and with little
persuasion played
a few tunes for us. Here he is showing great composure for one so young.
16. Devin
Neil Wayne caught the mood of the moment and
brandished
my mini Dipper in dramatic fashion. Here he is, a veritable rhapsody in
blue;
17. Rhapsody
in blue
I’ve included another picture to
show the relaxed athmosphere in Buggles where you can have a quiet tune
in the
afternoon. It also shows a concentrated Tom Driscoll giving us a tune
or two.
18. Gerry
Buckley a friend I have known for years provided banjo input and here
is a fine picture of Tom Driscoll and himself playing
together.
Saturday night led to a collection of concertina
buffs
assembling in Crotty’s kitchen. Tom
Driscoll, Mark
Davies and myself started the ball
rolling
with a good blast on the B-flat
’tinas. Then people gradually joined us.
Gerard
Haugh came in and
we put
away the B-flats. Gerard is inimitable. He
just
sits down with a smile on his face and belts out tune after tune in the
true
west-Clare style on his Jeffries.
19. Gerard,
Tom and Mark—a three
row in action. Also to the left of the picture are Eoin
and a bit of myself.
Eoin
O Ceirin joined in on a later model
Wheatstone
in need of straps. ( I’ll bring a couple
this year
Eoin just in
case!) Then the buffs came in.
Stephen Chambers , Neil Wayne, Richard
Carlin prominent
amongst them. Pity I did not take a pic or
better
still to have taped the conversation. That would have been very
interesting. Henrik Muller also joined in
on his
English, which he made himself. He has adapted it to suit Irish music
and
does a great job of the tunes. He describes this labour of love in
detail
on c.net , just look for Kitchen
Concertina. Here
are a couple of pictures to keep you going
20. Slide
engine 2
21. Slide engine 3
Early on Sunday Mark taped Tom playing in
Crotty’s parlour. Tom has a nice collection
of
very old versions of tunes from his father who played the fiddle and
from
the Killoughrey brothers
.
They all lived not too far from where the Rulles
lived and music was very strong in the area. I’m sure Tom can be
persuaded
to do a further taping session to get more of these rare tunes on
record.
22. Parlour Music
We finished with some tunes in
Crotty’s on a rainy Sunday and on
leaving
I bumped into Tommy McMahon. As he was rushing to get a
lift
we only exchanged greetings. Here’s
hoping
that when we next meet we can have a few tunes. Sadly
Bernard
O’Sullivan passed on two weeks after we had met. A
lovely
man and a fine player in his time. Air dheis
Dé
go
raibh
a anam.
Shay
Fogarty, Dublin, June
2007
PS Apologies are in order for
the long delay in completing
this report. If I did not finish it now this year’s
Éigse
would have
come and gone. As it is perhaps it will stimulate interest in those of
you
who can come to Kilrush this year. Geoff
Crabb will be there and Neil Wayne will be
launching
re-issues of the 1970s recordings of Bernard and Tommy, The
Russells, Chris Droney,
the Clare Concertinas compilation and John Kelly
Snr. More details on the web:
http://www.eigsemrscrotty.com/
Back to Lisa's
home page
