Traditional music, song and dance kept the soul of Ireland alive down through the centuries. Just listen to that beautiful air Dan is playing. A boy of twelve years listened to an itinerant singer at the fair in Boyle, many years ago, he was singing “The Valley of Knockanure” and he inspired the listener with deep feelings of history. We treasure his talents. The singer was O’Reilly and he is buried in Kilcolman graveyard outside the town. This young man grew up and collected and composed ballads and studied folklore and became one of the foremost ballad singers of today like many other young men throughout Ireland. We are ever grateful to Frank Harte whose people came from Co. Sligo. Fairs and markets were the platform for listening and learning ballads and music long age, but there are no more fairs or markets.

There is no doubt that it was from the local history the songs developed. And the music, airs, reels jigs, hornpipes and set dances stemmed from the songs. I always feel it is incomplete without the history of the people.

We can go back in time in this area to 1660 when King Charles 11 returned from exile with many of his followers; among them Dubhaltacht MacCoisdealbha called Dudley the Rapparee. The Costellos had five castles in the area. Castlemore was the first and main one. George Petrie collected many tunes and one of them was Castle Costello. It is no. 838 in part 11 of his collection. The Irish Catholics had supported Charles 11 overseas and they assumed that their confiscated lands would be returned to them. This did not happen so Dubhaltacht and a party of his followers carried on a vendetta of raids against the Dillons in the baronies of Costello and Gallen. Dubhaltacht was murdered on the slopes of Sliabh Lugha at Barnalyra beside Connacht airport in 1667. Stephen Dunford has a lament for Dudley in his book on Irish Highwaymen. Here is part of the lyrics.
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No more will Barnalyra Wood
Hear through it’s dale and glade
The echoes of it’s Colonel’s voice
Nor his feared Toledo Blade.

Poetry and music was as important then as it is today. To continue Dubhaltach’s son was fostered by an old retainer Michael Rushe, who had lived in Tullaghan Rock, and to make sure of his safety he took the boy to the north where they lived in Lisburn. When they decided to return Rushe heard of the power of the Dillon Landlords. Young Tomás believed he was Rushe’s son. This went on for two years; Hurling was the national game at this time and Gaelic was the spoken language. Young Tomás was the hero of the day at one of these matches. He became known as Tomás Laidir from that time on. Rushe was so proud of him that he rushed through the crowd and proclaimed him to be the son of Dubhaltacht. Young Tomás made his way to Tallaghan Rock where he found the Toledo blade. He vowed to make war on the Dillons. Reports of his strength and prowess grew each day. He was at a banquet in MacDermots of Moylurg one evening and he fell madly in love with Úna daughter of The McDermott. She fell in love with him. But her father was totally against the Costellos as they had lost their land to Dillons. Tomás had fought against the Cromwellian forces on the Curlew Mountains. Úna was sent to Trinity Island on Lough Cé and died there in grief. Tomás was devastated and he went to her grave and he composed a poem in her honour the likes of which never was heard before. It is called Úna Bhán. Here we play the air.

The light on Sliabh Lugha never went out. It may have dimmed at times but despite poverty, hardship, starvation and oppression our culture survived, music, song, history, dance and friendship lived on. I continue to the time of Carolan who was born in 1670, and we are able to form some idea of the social conditions in Ireland at that time. It was in the province of Connacht he spent the greater part of his life. The structure of society was aristocratic but on a lesser scale than the previous century. The Big House was a country mansion owned mainly by Protestants but many were still in the hands of the old Catholics, like the MacDermots, the O’Conors and the de Freynes of Frenchpark. Every Big House had numerous retainers and dependents and while it appeared as a social unit, poverty was the lot of the poor, and they had no connection with the Big House, except to pay rent, which they could badly afford. As no rent was charged on uninhabited land the wealth of the owner of the Big House apparently laid in the paying tenants who lived on his property and the herds they attended.

And so history records that the famous Carolan set out from Alderford at the age of nineteen, with the blessing of Mary Mac Dermot Roe and travelled the length and breath of Connaught on his horse and a guide on horseback also, carrying Carolan’s harp. At one stage on his way from Alderford to Turlough, Co. Mayo Carolan spent the night in a humble house between Boyle and Ballaghaderreen. The roads were no better than tracks. He was welcomed at Castlemore, the home of Charles Costello and his wife Giles daughter of James Farrell of Cloonyquin, Co. Roscommon. His tune for Mrs Costello was appreciated. He also visited Tullaghan, Co. Mayo where Edmond lived. Note that this part of Ballaghaderreen was Co. Mayo. He journeyed on to Loughglynn and visited Lord and Lady Dillon. The first tune he composed was for Richard the 9th Viscount. Then his composition for Lady Dillon who was the second daughter of the Earl of Clonrickard followed

He visited Benada Abbey and composed three tunes for John Jones, Loftus Jones and Squire Bumper Jones. As the years passed and the Jones family entered various orders, there was no one left but Mrs Jones. Up to 1857, the landlord was the Rev Daniel Jones. So Benada abbey and 900 acres was turned over to the Sisters of Charity in 1858.

Carolan composed many tunes for the Mac Dermot Roe family, who were his patrons. His most celebrated composition was ‘The Princess Royal’, for the daughter of The MacDermot, the Prince of Coolavin. I do not have to tell you where Coolavin is. Carolan died in 1738.

Now we come along to Anthony Raifteri the blind poet and fiddler. “ Born at Culte-Magh in 1779 he was a great favourite with the ladies. He recited his own poems and played the fiddle. He sang his own songs accompanied by his own fiddle music”. This is a quotation from James Hardiman of the Ordinance Survey. Brídín Bheusaidh is one of the most popular of his songs,” it was collected by Douglas Hyde. Frank Taffe was the local landlord at this time. Raifteri was a constant visitor there as Taffe’s mother had a soft spot for the blind poet. He had to leave Cill Aodáin because he was instrumental in killing Taffe’ best horse. He took to the roads but there was a welcome for him in every house in Galway. His father came from Ceis Corann and a brother Of Frank Taffe lived a mile outside Bealach ‘a Dóirin called Ishlawn House. Dr. Douglas Hyde made a thorough collection of Raifteiri’ poems and Eibhlin bean Mhic Coisdealbha of Tuam collected many of the airs. It was Raifteri who composed Cill Aodain, Anach Chuain and Máire Ni Éidhin.

The Barony of Costello was never short of musicians or poets down through the centuries. To the best of my knowledge the blind piper of Roscommon Johnnie Gorman was born in, or near Ballaghaderreen in the 1860’s. (on the De Freyne Estate.) Edward Creighton a prizewinner in the flute contest in the Chicago Feis in 1912 when home in Ireland attended a wedding where Gorman played. “There he said, was Ó’Gorman, mounted on a little stage in the corner of the room. His music was such as to set every foot in motion for it seemed no one could keep still. He had a fine set of pipes, which took, up a lot of room. The melodies he rolled out could never be forgotten.”
He was blind from birth and began to play the Union pipes at a very early age. Patrick Vizard, a relative was his tutor. Too poor to get a decent instrument his skill was so great the he made amends for this drawback. In a short time his skill drew attention from all parts of the countryside. One day while playing at a crossroads dance Lady De Freyne of Frenchpark was passing by in her carriage, and she stopped to listen. She was charmed and asked him to play the Coulin. He impressed her so much with his delightful manner and expert playing that she later presented him with a fine set of pipes and really set him on the road to fame. People came from far and near to hear him and he was in great demand to play at weddings and parties. He was excellent at close fingering and ‘Peppering’. In 1902 he took first prize at the Oireachtas in Dublin and George McCarthy and Denis Delaney got second and third place. A sidecar was always provided for him when going to weddings. The people then had great respect for him. Francis O’Neill wrote glowingly of him. Here Play The Coulin.

One day when he was sitting in Mrs. Deane’s shop sipping tea with her, Johnnie Flannery from Monasteraden walked in. He was a good musician himself. Mrs Deane introduced them. She was the Monica Duff that, that great shop was called after. The outcome of the meeting was that O’Gorman spent the next two weeks in Monasteraden. Never had such good music been heard. (Taken orally from the late Patsy Mc Hugh of Monasteraden who played the accordion in the Aiséirigh Céile band we had in the forties). There can be little doubt that the great musicians of that era got much of their music from O Gorman. Michael Coleman and Jim, James Morrison and John Mc Kenna were his avid admirers. When O Gorman visited Drumfin he stayed with Charlie Dolan the step dancer and people came from a radius of fifteen miles to hear him. This is where Coleman and Morrison and McKenna met and exchanged tunes and learned dancing. The connection with Mc Kenna was Jack Dolan; James ’Morrisons grandfather came from Drumkieran. Co. Leitrim. Charlie was his son. His house was in Lackagh, near Drumfin. There is a picture of the house in Cooper Hall where the Morrison festival is held every year. Gorman took a special interest in Morrison because he could read music as well as being a gifted player. Johnnie Gorman visited Drumfin, Killavil and Drumkieran every year, and he left his stamp on the style of music played in Roscommon, Sligo and Mayo.

I looked up the Griffith valuation published in 1857 to find out where Johnnie Gorman came from. In Lecarrow, in the parish of Tibohine on the De Freyne Estate, Mary Gorman had one rood of land with total annual valuation of 10s. In Gortaganny a Patrick Gorman had 22 acres, 2 roods and 28 perches with total annual valuation of £4 10s.in the same town land a Mary Gorman had 30 perches of land with annual valuation of 10s. There was another Patrick Gorman in Drummad in the parish of Tibohine who had 16 acres 3 roods and 10 perches with annual valuation of £12. My guess is that he was the son of Mary Gorman in Lecarrow. They were very poor and you could not have much on one rood of land, especially as the famine was still raging. If anyone here has a different story I would be glad to hear it. Johnnie brought joy to all hearts with his lovely music.

There are great stories about those days. Again Patsy McHugh related this one. There was a party being held in the new Monasteraden Hall (built by The MacDermots of Coolavin). All the greats were to be there. Jim Coleman and Johnnie O Gorman were to start the night. The hall was crowded and people were excited. Then in comes Jim, with one hand as long as the other. Madam said to him: Where is your fiddle and sheepishly he replied. “Sure didn’t the wife go and burn it. We had no turf and she asked me to get a few sods from the bog (which was just outside the door.) I was not quick enough. She grabbed my fiddle and made a good fire out of it. Well the Madam was not daunted. She sent to the big house for her daughter Ruth’s, violin. Jim never had an instrument like this in all his life. He was in a daze and he never played so well. I remember Maenie Dyer, Jim’s wife. She was a tiny wiry little woman and they lived in Drumacoo in a tiny house with a half door. Because my grandmother came from Drumacoo, my mother and I went visiting all the neighbours when I was very young.
Jim Coleman was a legend. Years later Marguerite Henry from over in Barroe played with Jim at the Ceilí’s in Clogher. Before she died she left me her fiddle. My granddaughter Ciara plays it now. The Crehans did a great job of restoring it. Looking over PJ Giblin’s book published in Germany in 1928, I found that the second reel he collected is Gorman’s reel. Their paths must have crossed.

PJ Giblin was an amazing man. He was born around Castlerea, worked in England for years, returned to Ireland and married and settled in Charlestown. He had studied music in England and played many instruments. He loved the violin. He published his collection in 1928, and thanked Arthur Darley for his valuable assistance when he told him of his intention to publish this book. Arthur Darley wrote that he liked this book of dance tunes and was impressed with his bowing and editing. In announcing the result of the violin solos at the Mayo Feis, Mr. Franklin, Sligo, the well-known violinist, paid a warm tribute to the book of Irish music compiled by PJ Giblin. The bowings and markings in Mr. Giblin’s book were superior to any. He adjudicated at Feiseanna throughout Connacht with Arthur Darley. It was he who cycled to Ballaghaderreen every Saturday morning in all kinds of weather, to teach the Boy’s Fife Band in the De La Salle school in Ballaghaderreen in the forties. Eventually Br. Cassian gave permission to the teaching of the violin to girls. I was one of the lucky ones. Br. Cassian had said that a girl would never be allowed cross the threshold of the boy’s school. Changing his mind was not easy. Many of the marches in PJ’s book are his own composition. Folk songs are airs arranged for Feiseanna and the words are by Mr. J.D.O’Connor of Limerick.

The people, who have now gone, talked about many of the musicians who played in the South Sligo/North East Mayo area from the early part of the 20th century. Names such as
P.J. McDermott, Birdie Towey from Cloontia, Bat Henry the Ballymote, schoolteacher, Pake Talbot from Ardvarna and his three uncles from Kilmovee; all great flute players, (taken orally from Tommy Hayden from Kilmovee some years ago.) Johnnie Henry of Doocastle, Mick Joe Ryan, Whistler McCann, and umpteen others left us a legacy we should look after. Dongeons in Gurteen was the home of music down through the years. And Cloontia and Doocastle were not too far away.

One person I knew well was Jim Donoghue from Drumacoo who played the Flute in his younger days and the whistle later on. He lived next door to my grandmother, and many is the day on his way to Ballaghaderreen he would sit on our wall when my mother was doing the front garden and talk of old times. Jim was a very special man and was a familiar figure in Seán Donegans in Gurteen. Musicians came from the four corners of Ireland to hear him and listen to his music. There was always a welcome in his home, situated on the Sligo side of the mearn of Roscommon and Sligo. I even heard his reel played on radio last Sunday morning. When driving from Ballaghaderreen some years ago, our car was full and the talk was about local musicians. Suddenly we saw a man walking along the side of the road and I said “That is the musician we were talking about. “ We stopped and squeezed him in, I said “will you play a reel for the visitors from Dublin.” He managed in spite of the crush to take the whistle out of his pocket and he regaled us with “The Carrycastle Lass”.

My earliest memories of traditional music goes back to when I was five years of age. A party for returned yanks (relations) lives still in my memory. It was in my maternal grandfather’s old home in Kilmovee, the music, the dancing, the food, the barrels of Double X being tapped, the sean-nós songs, the merriment and happiness flowing. I was so lucky some years later to be taught by P.J.Giblin. We all heard names like Frank Jordan, Pat Finn, and of course Rainey the piper who travelled from the far north every Spring with his wife Alice, who held the cap and sang an odd song. He would reach each town for a fair day and he perched himself outside Cuniffe’s Butcher shop. It was years later I heard they made their way to Renvyle in Connemara and then to Caherlastrane to the Keane household where they swapped songs with the famous Keane sisters.

In the late thirties there was a group of elderly men who played after football matches in the local fields, and played on Christmas Eve around the village as they counted the candles in every window. It was usual for them to leave the big Drum and the kettledrums upstairs in our back room. And then go down to Phillips’ pub for a jar. We minded the drums so well that we were upset when the local parish priest sent some men to collect them. And that was the end of that simple amusement. There was no explanation given.

In the mid forties there was a local band called the Áiséirighe Céile Band. Par Casey, a good fiddler player, Mike Talbot fiddle and flute, Joe Keenan, drums, Joe Giblin fiddle, Patsy McHugh Piano accordion, Kevin Corcoran Acc. and Roger Casey Drums all came together to play music. When I was 16 I was allowed to play with them. It was full of “Draoicht”. We got first place at a Feis in Boyle and were we thrilled? Local musicians were Jimmy Higgins, Jimmy Dowd, Dave Morrisroe and others. Dave was a legend. He would stay up all night playing and was a great favourite with all. Then there was Tom Cawley from the town, and Matt Mulloy who were pupils of PJ Giblin. Matt’s father and uncle were good flute players. Peadar Noone who came to live in Ballaghaderreen and taught in the Vocational school there, also taught music to various students
So there was a never-ending wealth of traditional music in this area and there still is. I can still remember our house on winter nights when my mother would invite all the musicians from the area. Often 12 musicians played for the Lancers, the Mazurka, half sets and two-steps and the happiness was indescribable. We finish with a slip jig collected by P.J.Giblin called Barney Bralligan. Dan will round it off with The Valley of Knockanure and the deep thoughts of the history and culture we have.