BRISEANN AN DÚCHAS

BRISEANN AN DÚCHAS TRÍ SHÚILE AN CHAIT

Born in 1955 and reared in a house full of Music, Culture and Folklore, everything from Séamus Ennis to Schubert to Seanachaí’s, popular culture came to our hearts much later...

In 1957 my father set up a record company called Comhlucht Céirníní Éireann and he issued two 10" LP's (which were between the 78rpm and 12” LP’s): The first was a choir singing as Gaeilge called An Claisceadal and the second was a fiddle player and piper, Seán McGuire. This was my first intro to recorded sound!

My father also built amplifiers, speakers and even put together (black & white) TV’s! My Grandfather on my mother's side in Co. Mayo (Thomas 'Sonny' Cusack of Westport) taught me my first tune on the fiddle, a jig called The Blackthorn Stick and one of his sons, Jim, was a traditional fiddle player who emigrated to Leicester in the 1940’s, followed by his brother Joe. He returned to Westport in the late 1970's to open a pub, which he called The Music House.

It was a mecca for musicians of all shapes and sizes but only lasted a few years until his wife got ill and they returned to England. The Music House was situated across the road from the later developed famous music pub Matt Molloy's! My father's brothers were involved in classical music, Irish music, acting and politics. One was a Cigire Ceoil with Dept. Of Education, another uncle was an actor and traditional singer, while a third was a political activist (!) - and there were plenty of political debates in our household, my grandfather and his brothers and sisters having served in the IRB, oifigeach in Arm na Poblachta, Cogadh na Saoirse.

Our mother (the Westport connection) had the patience of Job! She was an educator, the eldest of 10 children, who got a scholarship to study teacher training in Dublin. She qualified in the mid-1940’s but had to resign her post in 1950 when she married because of what was commonly called ‘the marriage bar for women’. She was re-instated to her position when a temporary shortage of teachers in the 1950s led to the lifting of the marriage ban for that profession in 1957.

She reared 5 children and each of us studied two instruments, after school, under her supervision. When I think back now on what that must have entailed...! Both of our parents were also involved in the nurturing and promotion of the Irish language, at home and in the local community. In 1963 our parents brought us on a road trip - to Germany. My father was going to visit the Deutsche Gramophone factory in Hamburg (who had pressed the 10” LP’s for his record company) and we were visiting family friends in Bonn. I remember visiting Beethoven’s house, which started my long love-affair with his music.

“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”

Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer

I have an early recollection - as a 10-year-old - lying in the back garden on a beautiful summers day watching German and Allied war planes being shot down, as the filming of Hollywood movie, The Blue Max took place over Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnell in 1965, which was only a stones throw from our home in Cluain Dolcáin.

🎵 A recording of me as a boy soprano! 🎻

I did my Leaving Cert at the age of 17 and ‘floated’ for a few years, trying College and failing miserably(!), twice!! While studying violin in the College of Music in Chatham Row I played in the Irish Youth Orchestra in the early '70's.

I then got involved in the Irish Music scene... mostly sessions with my (still!) good friends and also played in a couple of groups. The folk revival was in full swing... My first paid gigs were in summer of '73 in Westport, Co. Mayo. The musicians I met back in the '70's and '80's became life-long friends. They are still playing and we get together, not often enough, to have a blast

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