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MUSIC PROM SLIABH LUACHRAAn introduction to the traditional music of the

Cork/Kerry borderland with notes on Topic records12T(S)309-311 by Alan Ward

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION

1 . WAIVERS and CLIFPOR.DS

2. PADRAIG O'KEEFE

3. MIGRATION

A. The Cliffords in Londonand Limerick

B. Denis Murphy in Kerryand New York'

C. Recent Times

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ABBREVIATIONSBOOKSCRE2 B. Breathnach, Ceol Rinnce Na

hEireann, vol.2 (1976)

O'Neil l! F.O'Neill, The Dance Music ofIreland^ 1001 Gems (190?)

RECORDSHL

KF

SAG

SMT

Topic 12TS311: The Humours ofLi sheen (1977) "

Topic 12T309: Kerry Fiddles(1977)

Claddagh CC5: The Star abovethe Garter (1969)

Topic 12TS310: The Star ofMunster Trio (1977)

APPENDIX A

Repertoire, Style and Technique 19

APPENDIX B

Notes on Kerry Fiddles, TheStar of Monster Trio, andThe Humours of Lisheen 24

PICTURE CREDITSJohn and Julia Clifford: pp. 6, 7 (middle andbottom), 13, 15, 16 ( top l e f t ) , 27. CCE:pp. 14, 25. Dan Cornell; pp. 10, 30. JohnHarrison: p. 31. Brldgie Kelleher: pp. it, 16(bottom lef t ) . Hugh Miller: p. 9 (bot tom).Kathleen Murray: 17 ( r ight ) . Jimmy 0 'Brien:p. 19. Ruth 0 'Riada: p, 17 (centrefold"lef ttop & bottom). Alan Ward: pp. 5, 7 ( top ) , 8,-9 ( t o p ) , 11, 12, 18, 29~.

APPENDIX C

Notes on other records "byPadraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphyand the Cliffords

FRONT COVER: Padraig O ' K e e f e in the early1950s, by courtesy of CCE, Dublin.BACK COVER: Denis Murphy, c. 1965, bycourtesy of Dan Connell, Knocknagree.

WORLD COPYRIGHT 1976 PRINTED IN ENGLAND

TRADITIONAL MUSIC MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED THREE TIMES ANNUALLY AND THE CURRENT SUBSCRIPTION RATE (POST PAID)IS £1.20p FDR THREE ISSUES (US 33.00). IT COVERS THE TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND ANDWALES,USUALLY FROM THE PERFORMERS' OWN POINT OF VIEW, AND EACH ISSUE FEATURES NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS AND OTHERILLUSTRATIONS, RECORD REVIEWS, RESEARCH NEWS, ETC. ALL ENQUIRIES: THE EDITOR, 90 ST. JULIANS FARM ROAD,LONDON SE27 ORS.ALL ENQUIRIES CONCERNING THE "MUSIC FROM SLIABH LUACHRA" SERIES OF LPs AND OTHER RECORDS FROM THE TOPICCATALOGUE SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO: TOPIC RECORDS LTD., 27 NASSINGTON ROAD, LONDON NW3 2TX.

PUBLISHED AS A SEPARATE BOOKLET (price 30p)AND AS PART OP TRADITIONAL MUSIC No.5

INTRODUCTIONI f i r s t got to know John and Julia Cl i f ford in October1975- A few weeks before, I had finally got round tobuying a copy of The Star above the Garter L.P.featuring duets and solos by Julia Clifford and herbrother Denis Murphy, and decided that it wascertainly the most attractive Irish fiddle music Ihad heard - especially when compared with the present-day stereotyped instrumental performance. I wanted tof ind out more about Denis and Julia, and their "Kerrystyle" music, and so set about f inding Julia, whoapparently still lived wi th her husband John inLondon; Denis, I knew, had recently died in Ireland.Nobody seemed to know where John and Julia lived asthey had been off the London Irish music scene forsome time, but I finally tracked them down to St.Ignatius's Catholic Social Club, Stamford Hill, wherethey played with a drummer to an Irish 'family'audience on Saturday and Sunday nights. Much of theirtime was spent accompanying singers from the audiencewith renditions' of Marta, Goodbye from The White HorseInn, and Country Western standards, but they f i t t e d ina few traditional dance tunes when the MC would letthem, and Julia even played an unaccompanied air ofsomewhat older vintage than I love you because. . .Later I visited them at their flat not far from theclub and have since got to know them well. It becameobvious that their music was seriously under-represented on record: Julia, a world famous championfiddle player, could be heard only on The Star abovethe Garter and, drowned by fellow-musicians, on onetrack of Topic's Paddy in the Smoke; performances byJohn, a stalwart of London Irish music since the1940s, had never been issued on record. Their equallyrenowned son Billy, a prodigeous flute player, couldbe heard on one track of the CCE's 1970 Fleadh recordand no more. Topic readily agreed to remedy thesituation by issuing records as soon as they couldbe prepared.

In conversation with the Cl i f fords I soon foundout about the wealth of music still to be heard inthe Kerry/Cork border area known as Sliabh Luachrawhere they were born, and about the dominantinfluence of Padraig O ' K e e f e who taught Julia andDenis to play. Topic were currently examining BBCrecordings of traditional musicians made in the 1950sand came across the session recorded by Seamus Ennisin 1952, when Padraig, Denis and Julia produced somegreat trio, duet and solo performances. A reissue ofthese recordings seemed the ideal way to open aseries of LPs devoted to the music of Sliabh Luachra,and so the idea developed.

In July 1976 John and Julia accompanied Hugh Miller,John Coakley and me on a recording trip to SliabhLuachra when numerous recordings for issue later inthe series were made. The opportunity was also takento visit Billy and his wi fe Catherine who now live inTipperary Town, and recordings made on this occasionwill be issued on volume four of the series. VolumesTwo and Three had already taken shape as The Star of,Munster Trio (i .e. ' John, Julia and Billy) and TheHumours of -Lisheen featuring John and Julia.

What follows in this booklet is intended to givebackground information on the first three records,and to serve as a general introduction to the wholeseries. This is not an exhaustive and definit ivestudy. I am not at present able to produce such a

study as I have only been involved with the musiciansand their music for a short time. Experts like SeamusEnnis,Breandan Breathnach and Seamus Mac Mathunarecognised the significance of Padraig O ' K e e f e ' s musicyears ago and would no doubt be able to give a muchfuller picture, especially of the local repertoire andits background in the national context and in relationto music from other areas of Cork and Kerry. But theyare busy men, and too many record issues have beenheld up for want of suitable full descriptive notes.The music is what really matters, and these recordsare not intended primarily to be an element in someresearch project; nevertheless it has been possible toassemble sufficient information to justify theproduction of this booklet, and it is hoped that bothacademics and general readers will f ind something ofinterest.

Besides, there is another side to the coin. Nowadaystraditional Irish music is heading rapidly towardsstandardisation. The development of communicationsand the widespread popularity of records, radio andtelevision are the main causes of this, helped along(though often not deliberately) by the ComhaltasCeoltoiri Eireann. Most aspiring young musicians areencouraged to evaluate their performance by nationalrather than local standards and to think of "IrishMusic" as a unified phenomenon with a very limitedrange of acceptable styles. Much lip-service is paidto the value of preserving "regional characteristics"but very little published research appears to have beendirected towards identifying these characteristics andthe attitudes of individual musicians who are stillrelatively unaffected by recent national trends. Inthis respect the present notes which take a personalnot to say blinkered view of their subject may serve asan antidote. The main aims here have been to followthrough the careers of Padraig O ' K e e f e , Denis Murphyand the Cliffords as they are remembered by the peoplethemselves or those that knew them, and to indicate theorigins of their tunes and of the way in which theyplayed them.ABOVE: Family and friends at the house of Mrs. Br idgieKelleher (sister of Julia C l i f fo rd and Denis Murphy).Far left: Julia Cl i f ford. Centre wi th white shirt: ArtO ' K e e f e . Far right: Julia Mary Murphy (Denis ' s w i f e ) .Front centre: Denis Murphy. Front right: Billy Clifford.Lisheen c. 1970.

My main sources of information have been John andJulia Cl i f ford . John belongs to the latest school ofIrish musicians in the sense that he is well aware ofnational developments and has cultivated a wideknowledge of all aspects of Irish traditional music.He has a very clear and precise memory and his factualstatements are not clouded by prejudice. Although overthe years he has played music of all kinds in everysituation, he is able to remember which parts of hisrepertoire came from which source and period. Atbottom he has no axe to grind on the subject ofrecent trends in the music, but he certainly thinksback to the old times with affect ion. Julia thesedays is rather more concerned with her background inSliabh Luachra than John ( fo r reasons which shouldbecome clear) and has more to say about this thanother aspects of her career, the majority of whichhas in fact been spent away from the area. She isnot self-conscious and only evaluates her own andothers' performances in simple terms ("great", "nottoo good" etc .) ; in this respect she is much moretypical than John of older Irish musicians I havemet. Julia generally gives the impression of beingrather an old-fashioned sort of person, still wi thher roots in the country. She has a good memory forspecific events, and often recounts these in the formof a story - a performance like playing a tune on thefiddle. The words are pared down to the bare essentialand there is little hesitation. I have transcribedsome of what John and Julia have told me and theirwords appear as spoken, but have been arranged to fitwith the narrative. Speech hesitations etc.have been omitted and dots substituted, and missingwords or editorial explanations appear in brackets.I think the att i tudes which come across are genuine andI have avoided comments which seemed to be prompted byleading questions or a desire to please. The overallemphasis on the past would also not be normal.

For information about Padraig 0 'Keefe I have alsobeen helped by his former pupils John Spillane(Harrow, London), Paddy Connell (Cordal, Castleisland)and indirectly Jack Connell (Ballydesmond). SeamusEnnis gave a talk recently in Listowel about hisassociation with 0 'Keefe and I have been able to drawon this by courtesy of the CCE in Dublin who have atape-recording of it (see also Treoir vol. 2 no. 1p. 8). others with first-hand experience who have

helped me are Mrs. Bridgie Kelleher (Lisheen, JuliaCl i f fo rd ' s sister), Dan Connell (Knocknagree), Kathleenand Bridget Lyons (Scartaglen), C a l O ' K e e f e (formerlyof Casleisland, Padraig's brother), Art 0 'Kee fe (Lisheen),Timmy Sullivan (Ballydesmond), Jimmy O'Brien (Killarney),Dan 0 ' K e e f e , Maurice Leane, Lucy Farr, Kathleen Murrayand Reg Hall (all London). The latter has also helped agreat deal in his capacity as collector and expert, ashave Tom Munelly (Dublin), Mrs. Ruth 0'Riada (Coolea),John Coakley (Bantry) and Tony Engle (Topic Records).

SLIABH LUACHRA, "The Mountain of the Rushes" or perhaps"The Rushy Mountain" is the ancient name for the areastretching south of the Mullaghareirk Mountains andsurrounding the upper reaches of the River Blackwater.As far back as anyone can remember it has been notablefor the high concentration of musicians within itslimits. These limits cannot be defined precisely, butbeyond Killarney and Castleisland in the west, Newmarketand Millstreet in the east, Brosna in the north and theDerrynasaggart Mountains in the south musicians are saidto be less numerous and playing styles begin to bedif ferent . Certainly in the Brosna area we alreadyencounter musicians who would not regard themselves asbelonging to the same school of playing as those ofBallydesmond.

It will be seen that although Denis Murphy and to alesser extent Julia Cl i f ford are commonly regarded asarchetypal Kerry musicians, the district from whichthey came and whose music they inherited is as much inCork as it is in Kerry, although they were both bornjust on the Kerry side of the border. Similarly althoughtheir mentor Padraig 0 'Keefe was born some distance intoKerry at Glauntane, his grandmother, mother and uncles,from whom he originally learned his music, all came fromDoon, near Kishkeam, which is well over the border intoCork. Hence the continuing need for the term SliabhLuachra.

Local musicians can still probably be numbered inhundreds though their average age is rising as feweryoung people are drawn in. The district is still largelyself-sufficient in its dance music which, rarity ofrarities, Is still played mainly for people to dance to.BELOW: Sliabh Luachra looking south from Ballydesmondchurchyard (where Tom Billy and Din Tarrant are buried)across to the Derrynasaggart Mountains wi th "The Paps"in the centre. The nearest houses are in Ballydesmondmain street.

1. WAIVERS &CLIFFORDS

William Murphy, the father of JuliaCl i f ford and Denis Murphy, was always called"Bill the Waiver". Some kind of nicKnamewas needed as there were so many otherMurphys in the area, and the name passed tohis children later on, so that Denis wasquite of ten called "Denis the Waiver" as ifit were his real name (he used to getletters addressed to "Mr. Denis Weaver"),and on our visi t to the district in 1976some people were still referring to "Juliathe Waiver" as a matter of course. The namehad been applied to the family for quite awhile and referred to their formeroccupation as linen weavers. Flax wasgrown, harvested and stored locally andjulia vaguely remembers seeing the disusedlooms at the family house at Lower LisheenCross about half-way along the road betweenKnocknagree and Gneevgullia (pronouncedlocally "guinea-gwilla"). A neighbour usedto make up suits out of the cloth for salelocally and Julia remembers being shown asheet woven by her grandfather which wasstill in use across the road where JohnnyDarby and his sister lived. Bill theWaiver's father was the last to carry on thetrade and by about 1890 when Bill took overthe family property he had gone over tosmall-scale general farming like most otherpeople; but he didn' t mind people continuingto use the name as it implied some specialskill and enhanced his social status. Hewas well over six feet tall and his mainoutdoor pastime was hunting rabbits andhares. His w i f e , "Mainie" Corbet t , was bornabout two miles away on the main Lisheenroad between Quarry Lodge and Lisheen, andthey had nine children.

Bill and Mainie (who was a singer) bothloved music and all the children whosurvived infancy learned to play the fiddle,which was and is by far the most commonlyplayed instrument in Sliabh Luachra. TheWaivers already had a reputation as aprincipal musical family in the districtand Bill himself played the f i f e in aneffortless flowing style. He playedregularly at home and was much in demand athouse-dances and pubs in the neighbourhoodwhen .he often played with his friend JohnMahinney Barnard of Gneevgullia (see SMTside 2 track 1; HL side 2 track 3). Juliarather thinks he picked up more of hismusic from older itinerant musicians likeThaidhgin an Asail (see CRE2 no.38) andPhil Walsh (CRE2 no.312) than fromwithin the family. Bill is principallyremembered as the organiser of the Lisheenfife-and-drum band. Many of the local lads(mainly from the Gneevgullia rather thanKnocknagree side) were taught in a groupby Bill, who worked out set introductions6

ABOVE: Back row: Dinny Rourke, Mickey Joe Singleton,Denis Murphy, John Cl i f fo rd , Timmy Hickey. Front:Donal and Jackie Brosnan. oneevgullia c. 1930.and sequences for the marches they played. Most of the regularmembers of the band such as Matty and Danny Linehan, Taid Keefe,Con K e e f e and Taidy Willy O'Connor (who played big drum) aredead now, and Denis Murphy's old neighbour, Art 0 ' K e e f e ofLisheen, must be one of the last survivors. He can still playsome of the band arrangements on the tin-whistle complete wi thintroductions and link-passages. (Art 0 'Kee fe also plays thefiddle and supplied several tunes for CRE2. Two of his songswere recorded by Seamus Ennis and Brian George for the BBC in1947 and can be heard in the Sound Library at Cecil Sharp House,ref . 177/11887.) Julia and Denis learned some of the bandmedleys through constant repetition and used to play them overon the fiddle. The repertoire appears to have been standardIrish marches like Sean O 'Nei l l ' s March and The Wearing of theGreen interspersed with more local material. The bandperformed at local ceremonies and public occasions likeKnocknagree Races, but had ceased to function by about 1930.Military-style bands were not unusual in the area, however.Cullen had its fife-and-drum band, and Maurice 0 ' K e e f e ,The well-known fiddle player (see HL side 2 track 11and picture on back of sleeve) used to play the trom-bone in the Kishkeam brass band in his youth.

In later years as he lost his teeth Bill the Waiver went overto playing the tin whistle and was recorded for the BBC in19/47 playing The Humours of Ennistymon (Cecil Sharp House ref .187/12/491); but he was ill at the t ime and the performance giveslittle indication of his real abilities. He died soon afterwards.

Bill's eldest daughter Bridgie took up the concertina at anearly age but gave it up as family responsibilities left herwith little time to play. She married a builder, Con Kelleher(who died recently) and lives in a house built by her husbandand Denis Murphy on the site of the Waivers' original dwelling,still a remarkably active and energetic woman of over eighty.All her children have emigrated (mainly to America) and shehad just returned from a trip to the States when we visitedher- She can still play a few of the old tunes on the concertinabut is more familiar these days with the fiddle which shebegan to play at a later stage as her brothers and sisters tookit up (see front cover, Traditional Music No. 5).

Next came another daughter, Nell, who established a patternof emigration by leaving for America early in l i fe , originallyto live with an aunt in Portland, Oregon, of all places. Shelater settled in New York where her son Andrew Horan stilllives - like Julia's son Billy he is a fine flute player andas a tall, constantly good-humoured man he reminds people ofhis uncle Denis. The next four children Mary, Dan, Taidy andHannie also left for New York early in l ife and the two

survivors, Mary and Hannie, are still there. Maryoriginally took up dressmaking in the Lower Li sheenCross house af ter her father and the rest of thefamily had moved over to his w i f e ' s family house inLi sheen proper. Mary was good on the f iddle and Juliaremembers dances at her house as being among the mostenjoyable. After moving to New York she ran an all-female band for a while: "The Maids of Erin".

Dan was perhaps the f irs t to be regarded asoutstanding as a fiddle player but no sooner had heestablished himself than he left for the States, inNew York he played with all the great emigre musiciansof the day, including Paddy Killoran (Sligo) with whomhe had a radio show. Taidy was also highly regarded andwas around long enough for Julia to remember himplaying for the cross-roads "patterns" at LoumanaghCross where there was a platform for the musicians. Hispockets always seemed to be bulging wi th money fromthis source.

Hannie followed Taidy and apart from another childwho died very young, Denis, and about five years af terhim, Julia, completed the family. Julia was thus verymuch younger than several of her brothers and sistersand does not remember Dan (whom she did not see againafter he went to the States) at all. Taidy made moreof an impression, however, and helped Denis and her topick up the fiddle:

JULIA CLIFFORD: I remember, I was mad for music, andI was only very small, and Taidy. . .and Denis andmy father in the evening when any bit o 1 work -doing turf or hay or something - was f inished, they'dget in the kitchen and start playing music - and thethree o ' them'd be sitting there playing away y'knowand they'd play for about a couple of hours and they'dleave the fiddles lovely in tune also y'know. Andthey'd get up and go away out. . ."rambling" they callit back there, rambling into next door's house or afew doors away. . .and o'course I d idn ' t use to go.And the very minute they'd go I 'd go for the fiddle,and m'mother 'd say "Put that away or you'll break it". . .1 was so small you know; . .But 'twas Taidy thatlearned me the f irst tune - I 'd be craving him tolearn me one.

The Waivers were constantly preoccupied with music andit is not surprising that Denis and Julia were drawn inyoung. Julia regards her father as the greatestinfluence on her early development, but there were many,many other musicians around, and numerous opportunitiesfor dancing at home and in neighbours' houses, at theold outdoor "patterns", and in the dancehalls whichwere beginning to replace them. These halls were normalnormally large corrugated-iron shacks owned by a localentrepreneur. There was one at Lacka run by peter Gray,built adjacent to Lacka crossroads where the patternshad previously been held - Julia remembers walkingacross the fields to it from Lisheen. Others wereestablished in Cullen and Knocknagree but perhaps thebest remembered is Taidy Willie O'Connor's hall inGneevgullia. Then as now the "sets" ( i . e . sets ofquadrilles) were by far the most common and popular formof social dance in the area ( f o r more details see below,appendix A ) . The better musicians could virtually earn aliving from music, and there was plenty of demand forfiddle-teachers (though, as elsewhere, people do notseem to have thought of other instruments as needing tobe "taught"). The influence of a few outstanding fiddleplayers of Bill the Waiver's generation is still felt inthe region today. One was Cal Callaghan of Doon, southof Kishkeam,who operated more on the Cork side andplayed at Loumanagh Cross - he doesn't seem to have hadmuch direct contact with the Waivers. More in evidencewas Din Tarrant of Kingwilliamstown (now Ballydesmond),universally regarded as a great player of polkas whosetunes are still used by many local musicians. Hisnephews Paddy and Sammy later moved to London wherethey became well-known in the dancehalls - Paddy playedwith prank Lee's Tara Ceilidh Band. But undoubtedly themost highly regarded fiddle player in the early part ofthis century was Tom Billy Murphy of Kingwilliamstown(1879 - 19¥t).

Tom Billy's family were quite well-off and couldafford to support Tom, who was unable to earn a livingby conventional means as he was both lame in one leg and

PICTURES.TOP: Art O ' K e e f e , Lisheen 1976. MIDDLE: BridgieKelleher, Seamus Kelleher (Bridgie 's youngest son), Mrs.Mainie Murphy (Bill the Waiver 's w i f e ) , Lisheen c. 1945.BOTTOM: Julia Cl i f ford with her sisters Mary and Hannie,and her mother. Lisheen c. 1955.

7

blind. The family owned a big house at GlencollinsUpper and Tom lived there all his l i fe , contrary to thebelief in some circles that he ms a permanent itinerant.Despite his disabilities he became a celebrated fiddleplayer and occupied, his time by teaching pupils aroundthe district. His form of transport was a donkey,already very unusual by this period, and he could relyon the animal to reach the destination after it had beenshown the way a couple of times. Tom also had the blindman's keen sense of hearing and smell and could identifypeople at long distances by their footsteps, or housesalong the road by the smell of the smoke from theirchimneys. He seems to have ranged quite widely as, forinstance, he taught Maurice Leane of Annagh nearCastleisland ( for more of whom see p.15) and Dan Learyof Kilcummin near Kilarney, and many more includingJulia's brother Dan. Unable to write music he calledout the notes by name and got the pupil to write themdown. On the evidence of his pupils' present-dayperformances, it seems that he did not go in for agreat deal of ornamentation most of the time and wasprobably much the same in style as an ordinaryproficient player - the difference perhaps being in hissweetness of tone (not a common Sliabh Luachra trait)

and breadth of repertoire, coupled with an ability toteach. He certainly had several extraordinary tunes,such as the first of the two jigs attributed to himplayed by Denis and Julia on SAG (side 1 track 5; seealso CRE2 no. 48). Tom Billy also looms large as a"character". He had a wide knowledge of politics andworld events and enjoyed sitting in pubs for hours onend arguing with people. He is buried in BallydesmondChurchyard and is remembered with affect ion by the oldergeneration for miles around.

Denis Murphy's early efforts on the fiddle did notarouse much enthusiasm and his experience was limitedto what he could pick up within the family andinformally from others until he was well into his teens.His earliest really formative period was in partnershipwith John Cl i f ford who was about six years younger thanhe was and lived about half a mile nearer Gneevgulliaon the same road as his mother's house. John's familywas also immersed in music: his father (John) played theJew's harp and was a noted dancer, his brother Timmywas good on the mouthorgan, tin whistle and accordeon,and his sister Eileen (who now lives in Leeds) was a

great singer and step-dancer. ( H i s mother was EllenBlake. His other two sisters Molly and Bridget stilllive in London and Chelmsford and had alreadyemigrated to England while John, like Julia theyoungest of the family, was still a child. Anotherbrother Jimmy still lives in Knocknagree were he wasuntil recently the village handyman.)

John played the tin-whistle in the Lisheen fife-and-drum band as a young lad but his speciality became the"button-key accordeon" which he picked up from hisbrother Tim. He started practising seriously and becamequite proficient:

JOHN CLIFFORD: Denis was working over in Co. Cork orsomething for a while you know, and he came onholidays or something. . .1 don't know whether heheard the music out in the road or not and he came inand he had the fiddle. . .he couldn't get over it. Iplayed the reel called The Broom. . .God he wasdelighted, he thought "Now I got a companion now and

I got a mate who can play. . ." And then we started.They had the musical heritage of both families to drawon, of course, but during this period seem to haveconcentrated on picking up material from gramophonerecords:

JOHN CLIFFORD: Every week one of us'd go down toKillarney. W e ' d get into D.F.O'Sullivan's or Hilliard'sand get one record. We made up a collection of "m.W e ' d every one that Coleman made. . .Morrison,Killoran, Paddy Sweeney. . .

The Cl i f fords had a gramophone and one of Denis 'ssisters brought a "table model" back on a visit from theStates, together with a quantity of Columbia records.Most of the music they listened to was by Sligo-stylefiddle players whose tricky reels accompanied by piano

ABOVE, LEFT: the remains of Julia's mother's house withthe roof of Denis 's bungalow behind. RIGHT: John andJulia outside the house where John was born. July 1976.

ABOVE: Main Street, Ballydesmond, looking east.BELOW: Main row of shops, Knocknagree, lookingnorth-east. Both July 1976.made a striking contrast with the typical localrepertoire and style; they were clearly very attractiveto John and Denis if only because of their novelty. Thenew partners practised hard and took on two regular paidengagements- at Gneevgullia Hall on Sunday afternoonsand at Lacka Hall on Sunday evenings, starting in about1933. Through this John was able to earn almost as muchas his father, an unskilled farm worker (who got 157 - aweek at the time) and came nearer to being a full-timeprofessional musician than at any later stage.

He developed into a very good button-box player indeed.He used a 2-row Hohner instrument tuned in D and D sharp,and based the melody round the D sharp row, which meantthat all his tunes came out a semitone higher thanconcert pitch, the subject of much annoyance to Deniswho had to tune up (and frequently break) the strings ofthe fiddle to play with him. John worked most of histechnique out for himself and was one of the first i fnot the f irst in the area to develop a 2-row style ofplaying with its greater flexibility and wider range ofpossible ornamentation. He probably sounded like theDublin accordeonist Michael Grogan whose records he muchadmired when they first became available (one was re-issued on Folkways FW8821). Even now most of the SliabhLuachra accordeonists of John's generation play in asingle-row style and all those I have spoken to rememberJohn with great admiration. Denis O ' K e e f e , an excellentsingle-row player from Rathmore still remembers hearingJohn's first broadcast (see Chapter 3)from the IrishRadio Cork studio 35 years ago, and how much he wasimpressed by it.

As John and Denis were getting together, or a littlebefore, Julia began to show great promise on the fiddle:

JULIA CLIFFORD: There was an old bazaar came into thevillage (Knocknagree). Gordon Taylor he was a Scotch-man, and he used to put up bazaars for prizes and onething and another - a bazaar and concert combined. Andhe drew every old man and every old woman that never

went outside the door he drew'm into that hall. Henever charged at the door but sold tickets and gaveout fantastic prizes. He used to book the dancehall.So anyway. . .there was a competition for music- "goas you please". Every musician in the townland radiusround the place came in to play - schoolteachers andeverything. And I was there and I was after stealinginto it. My father and mother wouldn't leave me go -you know, you're young. . .1 was after stealing awaymyself - made an excuse I was going somewhere else andI landed at the bazaar anyway. So there was a couple ofrelations at it and they knew me. And the place waspacked to capacity. They says to me "Julia aren't yougonna play in the competition?" And I was kinda scaredelse they should find out. . .that I was playing in thecompetition. I would get told o f f . Anyway they saidnever mind, go up and try. It went on for three weeks.So they put me up on a plank - I was very young nowand I went up to play - the first night. I won itanyway. I dunno whether I told them at home then or not.So I went back the next night for the semi-final - therewas an awful lot o f 'm. The prize was big then - I don'tknow what it was - £10 I think it was. And I went backagain and d idn ' t I win again.1 The final came up. Every-body was in for it. They were so sure of it they hadbooked the drink wi th the prize down the local villageyou know. So I went up - sure to God didn ' t I win it -d idn ' t I win the prize! I won that - gee I was veryyoung. He (Gordon Taylor) says to me "Will you takethe money or take the clock?" Really and truly Ishould've taken the money. And he gave a little speechafterwards that he just gave it to the person hethought deserved it , you know. There was nothingbehind the scenes - he just gave it to me on meritalone. But he says to me quietly, he says "If you hada few lessons in music it would be very good for you".

So they were passing along from the concert. Myfather and mother was in bed. And before I arrived homethey were knocking at the window saying "Julia won i t JJulia won it.1" 'Course my father- mad for music - wasdelighted. Anyway they decided then to bring in Padraig.That's how I met Padraig.

2. PADRAIG O'KEEFEPadraig O ' K e e f e was born in about 1888 at Glauntane(or Clauntane), Co. Kerry. His father John O ' K e e f e wasschoolmaster—in-charge of the National School atGlountane and the family lived in a house across theroad from the school which remained Padraig's homeuntil his death during the severe winter of January1963- Glountane is a relatively isolated place aboutmid-way between Ballydesmond and Castle island and thevillage consists only of a few houses, although theschool was attended by children from a wide area.Padraig's mother Margaret Callaghan came from Doon (orDoonasleen) south of Kishkeam, Co. Cork, and she and herbrothers were all musical, doubtless under the influenceof their mother, a fine singer. Margaret is rememberedbest as a concertina player but she also seems to haveplayed the fiddle as did her famous brother CalCallaghan (short for Callaghan 0''Callaghan). "Callaghan''is now thought of as an influential player ofTom Billy's generation but this may well be largelyreconstruction based on the fact that there are severaltunes named after him which were popularised in thedistrict by his nephew Padraig (see notes on KF side 2track 5s appendix B) . He may have been a travellingteacher like Tom Billy.

The music of the Callaghans was inherited by the0 'Keefes and all Margaret's children developed someability. Mike became a good fiddle player and Abinawell-known on the accordeon, but it was Padraig, theeldest child, who was outstanding. Presumably under theinfluence of his father (who was not musical) Padraigstudied music theory as well as learning dance musicand songs from the Callaghans with whom he used to stayduring his holidays. He went to his father's schoolfirst, then to Ballydesmond school, and finally trainedas a national school teacher in Dublin. He did notattend University College as is usually stated but hemay have had some formal lessons on the violin. He seemsto have given up the accordeon and concertina, both ofwhich he played in his youth, at an early stage.

Probably fairly soon after his return home Padraigtook over as schoolmaster at Glountane and is rememberedas a tolerant, easy-going instructor in contrast withhis father who was very strict. The story goes thatPadraig had a sweetheart whom he intended to marry. Sheemigrated to America but provided the money for him togo and join her. Padraig was torn between his home-ties and his intended wi f e ; he finally resolved theproblem by drinking the money. Thereafter his l ifebecame dominated by two activities: playing the fiddleand regularly consuming Guinness's stout. He nevermarried and Seamus Ennis tells the following well-known story:

Padraig called his fiddle "the missus". I asked him"Why do you call it 'the missus?'" and he said "I 'mnot married. That's the only w i f e I have. I ' mwedded to her, and a great wi fe too" he says "notrouble at all. One stroke of the bow across thebelly and she purrs I"

He lost interest in the school and eventually resignedin anticipation of dismissal. His sister Mrs. Carmodytook over and remained at the school for many years; itfinally closed down in July 1976. The events leading upto his leaving the school were described by Padraig asfollows, as remembered by Seamus Ennis;

There was one night Padraig was at a spree. . .and itwas a summer night and a lovely sunny morning. About

10

half six or seven in the morning Padraig landedhome and he didn ' t have to go to school till halfnine. So he walked into Castleisland and vent intoa . . .public house and called for a pint of stout.. . .The local nackneyman, the local taxi, he camein and he says "Padraig, I 've a man down theretrying to hire my car to go out and inspect yourschool" - a school inspector. And Padraig said tohim "Is he a tall thin fellow or is he a small red-haired fellow?" "Oh a small red-haired fellow,Padraig. Come on till I get you there before - Itold him I 'd another fare before I could bring himout there. . ." "That small red-haired fellow"Padraig says "you take him out to my school and askhim to inspect it, and tell him you saw me and thatI said I hope he finds the school up tospecification." That's how Padraig resigned fromschoolteaching.

According to Julia Clifford, Padraig had left theschool before she first got to know him, which wouldhave been in the late 1920s. He raised and sold somestock on the land inherited from his father, andlooked af ter his mother until her death, acquiringsuff icient skill as a cook and tea-maker for this tobe remarked on. He got a job in the Ministry of Labourat Tralee but didn ' t stick at this for long; normally

ABOVE: Padraig 0 ' K e e f e c. 1950

his daily routine was to walk the roach; and tracks ofthe area, perhaps travelling 20 or 30 miles a day,calling at the farms and houses where he gave lessonson the fiddle. For a period he also" taught some pupilsat his own house on Sundays, and was able to earn enoughto cover his needs. By this time Padraig already had themusic of the Callaghans and some formal training to drawon, and according to JacK Connell, one of his laterpupils, he also studied the fiddle-playing of"Fitzgerald" of Lacka and of Corney Drew of Drumoltannear Scartaglen who in turn got his music from "Graddy",a travelling teacher from Tipperary. Presumably he hadaccess to printed collections then available, and JohnCl i f ford remembers that he could transcribe tunes fromthe records which he and Denis were so taken with. Quitewhich factors produced which characteristics in Padraig'splaying we shall probably never know, but the recordedevidence suggests that he perfected a style whichincorporated all these elements, and would play tunesemanating from all these sources. In doing so heintroduced a wider range of expression into fiddle-playing than had previously been common in the area. Heseems to have been quite unique. No other player exceptpossibly Denis Murphy could be confused with him, and hehad his own systems for bowing and use of ornamentationand an overall interpretation of his tunes, which wereconsistent within his own playing but owed little toprecedent. (For a fuller discussion see appendix A.)

Once his pupils had gained some basic proficiency hislessons became pretty informal, and sometimes he wouldstop to write out a new tune, play it over a couple oftimes, and move on:

JULIA CLIFFORD: He was always in a hurry. He used tojust write the tune for me in his own code and I 'dlearn it.

This 'code1 was a system of what we would now calltablature which illustrated graphically how a tune wasto be played on the fiddle (see p. 22 for an exampleand explanation). All the pupils I have met say thesystem was a good quick method of learning tunes whichwas easier to understand than written music. Padraigappears not to have taught conventional staff notationto any of his pupils, a source of regret to some wholater had to deal with written music in bands, orsimply wished to learn tunes from O'Neil l . JuliaClifford learned to read music after she left SliabhLuachra, and as a personal aide memo ire writes asuccession of letters to represent the sequence ofnotes, which was a more normal method of recordingtunes used by many fiddle teachers. When no musicmanuscript paper was available Padraig wouldimprovise by drawing the lines for the tablatureusing his bow as a ruler. On one famous occasion hemet Denis Murphy who was cutting turf. Denis wantedto learn a particuler tune and so Padraig drew lineson the turk and marked out the notes. Denis named thetune The Bank of Turf in consequence (but there isconfusion over which of two tunes it was. Some sourcese.g. Treoir vol.5 no. 5 relate the story to a j igwhich is performed by Denis and Julia on SAG as Padraig0 'Keefe 's. More normally it is linked with a three-parthornpipe, a version of which, learned from Denis, isplayed by Sean Keane on Gusty's Frolics, Claddagh CC17-)Padraig's resourcefulness is also shown by his abilityto make a temporary string for the fiddle by twistingsewing cotton, and our picture on the front covershows how he repaired his bow with a bottle-cork.

Padraig's teaching varied wi th the abilit ies of hispupils. In general he insisted on taking the tuneslowly to begin with, concentrating on tone production,

TOP: The remains of Padraig 0 ' K e e f e ' s family house,Glountane. BOTTOM: Glountane School. Both July 1976.and with some he would dictate every detail of thebowing, the only fully described aspect of theperformance in his tablature.But with others, presumablythe more g i f ted , he was content to pass on the tune andrely on the pupils' own abilities for the details. Thisposition was rapidly achieved with Julia Cl i f ford whobecame Padraig's favourite pupil. She could already play,of course, but was barely out of childhood when Padraigbegan to teach her and so came to maturity completelyunder his influence. Her brother Denis, on the otherhand, had been playing that much longer , and althoughhe too became a pupil of Padraig's, the e f fec t wasarguably less profound (see appendix A). Padraig soongot to know the Waivers socially and his visits becameless and less formal. Questions such as the precise wayin which a tune should be bowed soon receded into thebackground and today Julia is confused about thePadraig's bowing instructions (again see appendix A ) .

Padraig had hundreds of pupils all over Sliabh Luachrain his time - some in quite remote places around Brosnaand Mountcollins which are quite a distance fromGlountane. Some of those I have met are good players anddeserve more attention than they have received (perhapsthis may be remedied as the Music from Sliabh Luachraseries progresses), but I think all would agree thatDenis Murphy and Julia Cl i f ford were Padraig's mostg i f ted pupils, to whom many would add the name PaddyCronin and possibly that of his brother Johnny, whosefamily lived about 1i miles from the Waivers. Paddy wascertainly a great pupil. He was recorded for IrishRadio in 1948 playing The Munster Jig and Tell her I am,and a copy of this has found its way into the BBCarchives and can be heard at Cecil Sharp House ( re f .832/21830).

11

It is a brilliant performance exhibiting a clear, sweettone, perfect rhythm and complete command of theinstrument.Paddy subsequently moved to Boston and heand Johnny have become prominent in Irish music inAmerica; but under the influence of Sligo-stylemusicians they both now play in a style quite unlikethat of the 1948 performance and unrelated to O ' K e e f e ' steaching. Ironically their brother Mick, who lives inGneevgullia, still plays the flute in a fine oldcountry style which owes little to modern recordedmusic and is fast disappearing.

Even in the early days of his acquaintance with Juliaand Denis, Padraig's daily routine was well established:a round of visits to pupils aimed at earning enoughmoney to support the evening's relaxation. Most nightshe would be playing at some pub around the district andat this period he played regularly in Lacka Hall onSunday nights wi th John Cl i f ford , Denis Murphy (see p.9)and another gifted fiddle player who died young, MickBuckley. If stranded some distance from home he wouldknock at a friendly door, as often as not the Waivers':

JULIA CLIFFORD: He used to knock at everybody's house,anybody that knew'm anyway, and there was music mostplaces, and any hour of the night they'd leave'm in. . .he'd play all night. . .He used to come in to meat night when the pubs closed and I was only a childand I 'd be in bed. I was really mad on music. . .1used to love to see'm coming. . . I 'd be in bed anywaybut I 'd always get up. I 'd get up out of bed and comedown, and he 'd say to me "Julia, I'll write this onefor you now". And he used to play it so well and itjust appealed so much to me that he'd play it a coupleof times over, and I ' d play it af ter 'm - without everwriting it down. The ear was that quick.JOHN CLIFFORD: And he'd be. . .maybe coming in fromKnocknagree Races say about three o'clock in themorning. Y o u ' d let him stay inside you know. Mostpeople then were stuck for extra bedrooms. He wouldn'tgo anywhere. H e ' d put his two elbows on the table andrest awhile like that until morning. And I don' tthink he'd have a breakfast would he? And he might geta coupla bob from Denis and he'd go away as far asGneevgullia and he might collect I suppose two orthree bob more you know - give'em a few tunes, andthat's the way he lived all the whole time.

In later years Padraig became the resident "character"at Jack Lyons's, Scartaglen. He played the f iddle,discussed politics and other "intellectual" matters,and told amusing stories of which the followingexample, remembered by Seamus Ennis, will sufficesince the impact of this type of gentle humour ismostly lost in print:

"I was in the front bar" Padraig says "and in camethese people: two men and a woman. And they said'Padraig, will you play a tune and she'll dance toi t 1 . And I got the fiddle and started in with, a reel- Bonny Kate. And then suddenly there was a raid. Itwas af ter hours. The Cards in. And I was playing awayengrossed with Bonny Kate and the girl dancing, andI wasn't watching out. I played away with my backsideto the counter. 'What's your name' - the Cards. Andshe had gone, the dancer, all scattered, all gone likethat. And there was I with my backside to the counter,flogging Bonny Kate. 7/6d Bonny Kate cost mei"

By the late 1930s people from outside had heard aboutPadraig and realised, or perhaps invented, his statusas "the last of the travelling fiddle-masters". Seanand Denis Cronin of Ballyvourney were probably the first:Sean was a journalist who used his office dictaphone to12

record in the field, Denis a teacher in Dublin whobecame a professor of Gaelic. They had two carswhen few people had one, and used to drive over toSliabh Luachra loaded up with instruments in searchof people to play them. Through Denis Cronin SeamusEnnis heard about Padraig and got to know him after theWar. He learned many of Padraig's tunes (especially theairs) and talked, wrote about and recorded him - we oweall the music on KF to his enterprise. Others such asthe American Diane Hamilton (on her 1955 f ie ld tripwith the Clancy Brothers) and, on several occasions,representatives of Radio Eireann, also made recordingsand in the 1940s and 50s Jack Lyons was benef i t t ing froma healthy tourist trade attracted by Padraig during theseason.

Despite his prodigeous consumption of drink Padraigretained the respect of his friends in Sliabh Luachraand he is still the single most talked about musicalpersonality in this highly musical district. Hissituation may seem curious to outsiders. On the onehand he was a great musician with a keen sense ofhumour and kindly manner, very highly educated by thestandards of the area and still looked upon as a fountof wisdom and a "gentleman" decades after he ceased tobe a schoolmaster. On the other, his few assetsgradually dwindled to bare subsistence level - hecouldn't be trusted with a bicycle or a fiddle of hisown as he would sell them to buy drink. People paid himfor his lessons at least partly out of charity. "Anytime I ever met'm I always gave'm a few bob" says Julia.

JOHN CLIFFORD: He came from Scartaglen, from Lyons'swhere he was always coming from, my gosh 'tis a longwalk, not to him because he walked all his l ife. Hewas a fit man although he did booze like. . .It waslike an accident the way he died because he couldn'topen the gate. He fell over the dry wall and couldn'tget up and he was nearly frozen to death when theyfound him in the morning. He died of pneumonia inSt. Catherine's Hospital in Tralee.

BELOW: Julia Cl i f fo rd holds the remains of the fiddlekept at Jack Lyons's for Padraig to play. It is nowdamaged and the fingerboard is missing. (July 1976)

X L YD

3. MIGRATIONA. The Cliffords in

London and LimerickIn about 1933 Julia the Waiver went to live with herauntie, a schoolteacher in Falkirk, Scotland, andbegan training as a nurse at the local hospital. Butat her age the break from home and music was toodrastic and she returned to Sliabh Luachra a f te r ashort while. She seems to have assumed that she wouldhave to leave the area eventually and by 1935 she wasin London, working as a maid in a hotel. None of herfamily were in London at the time.

JULIA CLIFFORD: When I came to London I came tonobody, I came to a job. I answered an advert in thepaper and came to a job. I used to go (back home)very often. I 'd get a f i t , a notion. I 'd save up,I ' d get the ship and I ' d stick over for three monthsthen I 'd get fed up wi th home and I 'd come backagain! I used to play on the top of buses cominghome from the dances, and I 'd hear a new tune someplace, you know, and I was really so keen, and incase I forgot the tune - we used to go into thehotel at night - I 'd go into the coal cupboard andget the fiddle and play the tune inside the coalcupboard. And the old manageress was very fond ofme you know - Mrs. Roper - and she 'd hear me. . ."Julia" she says "I just love to hear you play thefiddle" - and she was an Englishwoman!

What did I do when I came to London? I wasworking in hotels, and in my spare time I used togo around and play in the dances - played for. . .Tommy Nolan. He had a dancehall in Caledonian Road.

Julia used also to visi t Johnny Muldoon's largedancehall, The Pride of Erin in Tottenham Court Road( fo r more on Muldoon and London dancehalls seeTraditional Music no. 2).

JULIA CLIFFORD: The re was a girl wi th me in therewhen we were not supposed to be really - we had tobe in at a set t ime. And we stood outside the doorlistening to the music. And do you think I could goaway - I was listening to the music inside the room. . .So with that two fellers came out and they said"We're going home, would you like our tickets?" -see. We took the two tickets and went in. We weresupposed to be in by half past ten, and do you knowwhat time we walked in in the morning? - 5 orsomething! - an all-night dance - stayed there till5 o'clock in the morning and enjoyed ourselvesimmensely. Then we were afraid of our l i fe going upto the porter. And we were trying to coax him tolet us in and not tell us o f f . So we goes into thelocal all-night cafe and buys apple tarts for him!

Meanwhile John Cl i f fo rd was still plugging away atTaidy Wil l ie ' s etc. but he too had decided by 1938that he would follow his elder sisters to London. Hehad worked briefly as a tailor before leaving, andgot a job in a Jewish tailor's shop in Shored!tch.Next he contacted Julia and f ixed up a job as a hotelporter through her. During this period they bothworked in several hotels round the Bloomsbury -Euston area.

JOHN CLIFFORD: I was so fascinated with London andthe sights. . .1 used to love window shopping inthe evening, myself and another mate of mine Ipicked up on the way. Them years a half of wallop- 2id - maybe two of them you 'd be nappy. We "livedin and slept out" as we used to say like. • . I

ABOVE: Ted ?, Julia Clifford, Johnny Costello in thedancehall above Burton's, Cricklewood, c. 19^9. The bandalso had a pianist and drummer at this time.

used to get £l.?.6d a week and there were two of usin the room - 5/- each.

John used to go home frequently and on one extendedvisit round about the beginning of the War he decidedto achieve a mark of status by appearing on radio. Heremembers the details wi th extraordinary clarity.

JOHN CLIFFORD: They advertised in the paper that theauditions would be held in Cork on so-and-so dates,so I went for it like. . .Denis came with me like butone of those things Denis d i d n ' t pass that lot - I didfirst kick-off. Of the two of us o'course Denis wasthe best but there you are. . .There were two of themthere Dr. Vincent O 'Br i en and Dr. Kiernan - DeliaMurphy's husband. They were doctors no.t of medicinebut of music. He was a highly intelligent man thatKiernan - he was Br i t i sh ambassador in Rome during theWar and also in Australia after the War.

The f i rs t broadcast I made, you know, I got thecountdown a f t e r a couple- of weeks - "You will beglad hear that you were audi t ioned successfully, andwe'll let you know and so on" and my Cod I wasdelighted and I did practise hard. . .1 practised likethe blazes altogether till I was called for abroadcast. . .and I was supposed to get. . .elevenminutes in a 50 minutes programme. And I got the listdown and a form to fi l l in. . . ' twas the contract form. . .that they could make a gramophone record of theperformance. . . for broadcasting purposes only fromRadio Eireann. But there were four wi th me. . .therewas Molly Brennan, she was a contralto singer, EdwardDucKridge, traditional f iddle , and William Boyd, tenor- that 's r ight, there were four of us altogether. Theywere from Belfast , I was from Kerry. I was playingfrom the Cork studio and they were playing from thaDublin studio. . .The programme was called "Intro-ductions by Joseph 0 'Nei 11" - he was a well-knowntenor on the radio.So he introduced us and d'you knowthey rigged up a speaker for Denis. . .in one of thewai t ing rooms;and they were allowed the first of theprogramme from Dublin. . .1 could hear it comingthrough a speaker in the studio. I ' d two lights - twobulbs sticking out of the wall. . .one was red and theother green. . .1 think when one was on you could doas you liked, listen away; and there was no-one to

13

tell you when to start - you had to listen until theyfinished. But I could hear him announcing: "Allnewcomers to the wireless tonight. We got talent fromone end of Ireland to the other. . ." He read out thenames and what we were able to do and the instrumentsas well. . .1 did rehearse well for that and I waswa i t i ng , wa i t ing . . .and watching. Denis was listeningoutside. And I could hear them saying, y 'Know "Andnow, John Cl i f fo rd" . That 's all I wanted and out shotone of the lights: I was to start and off I shot. . .and I was playing like blazes, I played the Flax inBloom - the two reels, then I was going into anotherreel when Denis came in and he says: "You're cut out"- y'know - they overstepped their t ime - I only gotseven minutes out of the eleven. But he said to me"I never heard better in my l i f e" .

John went on to make three further broadcasts wi th in ashort space of t ime. For one of them he and Deniscycled to Cork from Lisheen (a distance of over 50mi le s ) . They'd arranged a date w i th two girls a f te r thebroadcast. Again Denis was only "along for the ride"and d idn ' t part icipate, but he could not be persuaded tostay in Cork overnight - so the two cycled all the wayback again.

JOHN CLIFFORD: Denis always had an old made-up bikeand 'twas as tall as himself. . .he used to wear anold blue mac. And none o ' the two of us knew anythingabout cycling in towns y'know. And we never knewanything about signals. . .and there was this big(policeman) there and he ( imi t a t e s policeman's handsignals) and all this lot, and Denis shot round himlike that wi th his big bike. . .and he did give ajump at the size of Denis up on the tall bike and mebehind him and my God he made a roar a f te r him, andhe said "Why d idn ' t ye give a signal where you weregoing wi th your violin under your arm!" says he.Chat's the last I heard o f ' m because we just flew -his voice died away. . . in the distance.

Subsequently the Cronins of Ballyvourney exerted someinfluence and Denis wi th Julia (home on holiday) madethe f i rs t of a long succession of broadcasts soonafterwards.

Julia was already playing regularly in some of thesmaller London dancehalls by the beginning of the War.

JOHN CLIFFORD: You know I went wi th them one n ight ,and I bought a new chromatic accordeon on the never-

never, you know. Francis, Day and Hunters, 19 guineas- my God it was a fortune then you know - great bigone, powerful. . .When I went out playing with themthere was a piano accordion player, Julia on thef iddle , another chap drums, and piano. I was lost. . .d i f ferent pitch. That's how I f i rs t started on thepiano accordion, and that's why.

London I r ish dancehall music was complex and attractiveto John Cl i f fo rd . The majori ty of musicians were notwhat would nowadays be called "traditional" althoughmost bands managed to recruit a few genuine countrymusicians who played mostly by ear. Many of the "f iddleplayers" were in fact small-time pit orchestra violinistswith no Irish background, and bands also normallycarried one or more saxophones, double bass, drums,piano and possibly trumpet - the sax players oftendoubled on piccolo (rarely f lu te) to make the dancetunes sound more authentic. Music for the standardtraditional dances, largely read from the music inO 'Ne i l l , would be intersperoed with sentimental poptunes and accompaniments for the resident singers, andso musicians needed to be able to play fullychromatically in a number of keys. For this reason thepiano accordion gained great favour as a "ceilidh band"instrument. Irish immigrants were used to the sound ofthe squeezebox back home, but this larger varietycould also be played easily in several keys and wassuitable for song-accompaniment etc. Even if JohnClifford had not made the mistake of buying a wronglypitched button accordeon, it is therefore likely thathe would have switched to piano accordion as a matterof necessity. The complex fully chromatic buttonaccordeons which Scottish dance bands were beginningto use at this time do not seem to have caught on withthe Irish. Julia adapted quickly to the new requirementsand is still able to accompany singers in a variety ofkeys not normally encountered in dance music.

in 1940, largely by coincidence, John and Julia bothtook jobs in the West Country. Julia worked in a doctor'shouse in Bristol and John began to see her moreBELOW:The All-Ireland Social Club Band c. 1952 afterfrank Lee took over as leader. Back row, 1. to r.: ?,Doug Whi te , Frank Lee, Audrey Nagle. Front row: John .andJulia Clifford,?Barney Harrington, Mick Nash,?JohnnyHarrington, ?. For an earlier lineup see back of SMTsleeve. Details of personnel p.26 below.

regularly than at any previous t ime, despite the factthat they had lived within minutes of each other mostof their lives. They decided to get married and did soat the pro-Cathedral, Cl i f ton , in 1941. Returning toLondon, John got a job in the Handley-Page factory inCricklewood making Halifax bombers, and i t was inCricklewood that they were to remain for the nexttwelve years. They had two sons in the years immediatelyafter their marriage: John junior and Billy.

The local Irish community was served by a dancehallabove Burton's at Cricklewood Broadway run by MickO ' D e e . He heard about John and Julia and soon had themplaying in the resident band, which was to occupy themfor the next five years. After the War John moved tojo in the band at the All Ireland Social Club at theStadium in Oaklands Road, Cricklewood, run by MauriceLeane, who, by a remarkable coincidence, was a SliabhLuachra man who came into the London dancehall worldbecause he could play the fiddle - he was taught byTom Billy Murphy. For most of the period the band wasled by a sax/piccolo player, Mick Nash, but in the early50s for a period the legendary Frank Lee took over.(see pictures, pp. 1i+ and 27 and on back of 31T sleeve)Julia remained "over Burtons" for a further two or threeyears and then joined John at the Stadium (seepicture, p. 13). Dancing at the Stadium during thisperiod was accompanied by two bands: at one end of thehall was the "ceilidh" band (hence many older bandmusicians use "ceilidh" to mean what has come to becalled "traditional" more recently) and at the othera popular dancebanc: consisting of former members ofIvy Benson's all-female band,under the leadership ofBetty Jackson. The bands alternated wi th 20-minutestints throughout the night - each had its ownvocalist(s) and announcer.

By 1953 the Cl i f fords were well-settled in Cricklewoodand bought a house in nearby Willesden; but in thissame year they decided to move back to Ireland, more orless on impulse, it seems. Their links with Lisheenwere unbroken as Julia in particular had made regularvisits, and in 1950 or 51 she left her son Billy overthere to - l ive wi th her mother. He attended GneevgulliaSchool and was taught to play tunes on the whistle byhis grandmother - the first was a jig: Hetty 0 'Hady.When the rest of the family came over they had a hardtime re-adjusting to country l i fe . John in particularenjoyed the pace of the city and set about organisingas many dances as he could as soon as he reachedLisheen - he even formed a small band. But work wasscarce and so he felt compelled to to move on to a town.He chose Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, which wasw i t h i n easy striking distance of Sliabh Luachra, and thefamily lived there for the next f i ve years while Johnworked as an interior decorator - by then hisestablished "daytime" job. Mrs. Bernie Egan who wastheir neighbour in Newcastle (and is now a successfulshowband musician in London wi th her husband John)remembers that John C l i f f o r d decorated a room in herhouse which became a showpiece - people were impressedand employed John on the strength of it. But generallytimes were quite hard and it was not only the C l i f fo rdswho occasionally found it d i f f i cu l t to make ends meet .

For a time at least, music provided some consolation.John often dreamt of running his own band and had eventhought of a name which appealed to him, "The Star ofMunster" . Now he was able to realise his ambition andfor about two years the Star of Munster Ceilidh Bandwas one of the most highly rated in Ireland. It wasbased on an alliance between two musical families:

the Cl i f fo rds and the Moloneys of Templeglantine nearNewcastle West (see Treolr vol.4 no.5 p.23 for detailsof the Moloneys; Paddy Moloney of Devon Road nearNewcastle, who played button accordeon wi th theCl i f fords at the Cricklewood Stadium but does notappear in any of the band photographs reproduced, wasrelated to this family) . The basic regular lineup wasJohn Cl i f fo rd (piano accordion, leader), Julia C l i f f o r d( f idd le ) , Pat Moloney (button accordeon/f iddle) , LiamMoloney (ban jo ) , Biddy Boloney (piano) , Paddy Murphy(percussion). Bernie Egan (see above) acted as cashierand sometimes played the piano. The band played fordances all over Clare, Galway, Limerick and Kerry;they had a regular engagement at the Queens Hotel,Ennis, Co. Clare for a time and as their abi l i t iesbecame known were offered more prestigeous bookings!they made two Radio Eireann broadcasts from Dublin.For these big occasions Noreen Conr.ell, the well-knownpianist of Abbeyfeale near Newcastle West, and DenisMurphy came in. Billy C l i f f o r d of ten played whistle withthe band but could not broadcast as he was too young.

John acted as agent and used to tour an area, bookingthe dancehalls in advance; but he had no permanentresources and had to hire transport to convey the bandto outlying places. In the end expentidure began toexceed income and it appeared that no amount of e f fo r tcould reverse the trend; so the band was wound up. Ithad been a ful f i l l ing experience while it lasted andits name lived on with the Cliffords after theyreturned to London in 1958.

Another period of stability lasting ten or elevenyears ensued. John continued to work as a decoratorand handyman while his sons, who had attended collegein Limerick, both became television repair engineers.John,Julia and Billy (who took up the flute) all playedin the Cricklewood dancehalls which were still operating,but John soon became aware of a decline in the popularityof these places and af ter he was involved in a roadaccident which put him out of action for a t ime, hedecided not to return and has not played in a majorLondon dancehall since.

ABOVE: Julia C l i f fo rd , Eileen Beverly (John C l i f f o r d ' sneice) and Denis Murphy wi th Julia's mother's dog Jess,John C l i f f o r d jnr. (centre) and Billy C l i f fo rd .Lisheen, c. 1952.

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Instead, the Cliffords concentrated on the large numberof Irish pubs which vented music over the weekends. Thiswas the heyday of Irish music in London when greatplayers like Michael Gorman, Willie Clancy and SeamusEnnis could be heard in the pubs. Under their generalinfluence a brilliant second generation grew up: Hart in

BELOW, TOP: The Star of Munster Trio at a concert atCecil Sharp House, London, c. 1.965.BOTTOM: Billy Koran (Denis Murphy's nephew), JuliaMary Murphy, Denis Murphy. New York, c.

Byrnes, Bobby Casey, Jimmy Power,Andy 0'Boyle, Raymond Roland, Sean 0 'Shea, Roger Sherlock, the Gormanbrothers and so on. Ex-dancehallmusicians like Paddy Taylor and theCl i f fo rds , who had "come up by adi f ferent route" entered this arena ata late stage and took some time tobecome integrated into it. TheCl i f fords had no trouble f inding pubsto play in but seem to have moved fromjob to job more frequently than most -they rarely stayed in one place morethan a year. Sometimes all three offhem played as "The Star of MunsterTrio", but John was more committed toi t than the other two, and oftenJulia and Billy preferred to sit athome playing away round the kitchentable - they learned or reminded them-selves of quite a few tunes directfrom O'Nei l l ' s 1001 Gems, and theirremarkable abilities as duet players(see SMT) developed during thisperiod. Julia 's solo playing was asfar removed from Sliabh Luachra asit ever became - she had littleopportunity to play polkas and slidesbut could match the best with reelsand jigs at sessions in London. Herplaying was strong but sweet, andimpressed the judges enough at the

Mullingar All Ireland Fleadh (1963)for her to win first prize in thesenior fiddle competition. The Trioalso achieved several competitionsuccesses and Billy later went onto win the All Britain and the All-Ireland at Listowel in 1970.

B. Denis Murphy inKerry and New YorkI have been unable to gather muchdetailed information about DenisMurphy's career in time forpublication. As the only son stillleft at home, he seems to have takenover as manager of his mother'sproperty in Lisheen while Bridgie andher husband lived in the Lower Lisheenhouse. He married Julia Mary Sheehanduring the war; they had no children.At the end of the War they emigratedto New York in search of betterliving standards. Denis did a varietyof odd jobs and at one time worked onthe staff of the N.Y. BotanicalGardens as a thatcher. "And if youdon't mind hadn't I someone tendingme]" he told Julia later, delighted athaving been allotted his own labourer.Julia Mary worked as a waitress.

Denis played for dances in NewYork and recorded at least one sessionwith other musicians (see p.30) It isd i f f icu l t to hear details of his play-ing in these recordings but it seemslikely that he came to full maturity

I

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Fduring this period. Home again inKerry by 1952, he was obviously ingreat form when the recordings on KFwere made, and from then on hisreputation as a great fiddle playerand Kerry stylist grew and grew,outstripping even those of his teacherand sister.

During the 50s he invested in abungalow wi th all mod. cons, on thesite of his mother's house, whichJohn Cl i f ford decorated; he continuedto farm the family land. Musically heformed a close association withSeamus Ennis, with whom he touredIreland, and he encouraged his nephewBilly's development as a musician. Hemust have been especially pleased whenJulia came to live in Ireland again.In about 1959 he returned to New York,but came back to Lisheen for good afterthree or four years. The Cl i f fordsthink that he was never really happy inthe States, although he certainlyenjoyed greater affluence as a result:he ran one of the few cars in thedistrict in the 60s and wi th his heavy-rimmed spectacles and broad-checkedjacket could almost be mistaken for aprosperous yank.

None of this had any effect on hispopularity at home. Especially a f t e rPadraig O ' K e e f e died in 1963 he hadno rival among Sliabh Luachra musicians,but he was equally esteemed as a big-hearted generous man who could keepthe company amused all night with hisconversation and tales: he knew all theyarns attached to the tunes he played.He could even be persuaded to perform a

comic song or recitation, the best rememberedbeing Down our Street. And having had wideexperience of the world at large, he had no greatambition to become a "figure of national importance".Others saw to that for him: first of all the Croninsand Seamus Ennis, then Ciaron Mac Mathuna and othersat Radio Eireann. In the early 60s Sean 0 'Riadamoved to West Cork and his interest in traditionaldance music was further stimulated by Denis, whom hecame to regard as the archetypal Irish musician. Hearranged several of his tunes for Ceoltoiri Cualannand even prepared a film about him: The Musician.The Chief ta ins , successors of Ceoltoiri Cualann,still play slides and polkas learned originally fromDenis, and have recorded several of them. CladdaghRecords, also part of this same nexus of culturalrevivalists, issued The Star above the Garter LPfeaturing Denis and Julia and involved Denis asaccompanist for Dolly McMahon (Ciaron's w i f e ) onCladdagh CC3. Even the Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann,which never had much following in Sliabh Luachra,paid considerable attention to Denis, partly becausemany of the tunes and articles in Treoir werecontributed by Seamus Mac Mathuna who lived in Corkand was a frequent visitor to Lisheen.

LEFT: The opening sequence of Sean O 'R iada ' s f i lmThe Musician, much enlargedABOVE LEFT: TOP: Sean 0 'RiadaBOTTOM: A page from one of O 'Riada ' s books ofmanuscript arrangements for performances byCeoltoiri Cualann, much reduced. The sequence in whichthe musicians play the various parts of the tune isindicated.ABOVE RIGHT: A rare picture of the united family.L. to r. Paddy Moloney (of Devon Road, see text ) ,Billy Cl i f ford , Denis Murphy, Julia Cl i f ford , JohnCli f ford , John's sister Eileen, at John Cl i f fo rdjunior's wedding, 1967-

C. Recent timesIn the last few years the fortunes of the Waivers andCliffords have been subject to dramatic changes. BothDenis and Julia were always highly strung but they bothkept their nerves superbly under control when playingin public - sometimes when telling a story Denis wouldlose control and burst out in f i t s of uncontrollablehigh-pitched laughter. Julia began to have more serioustrouble with her nerves in 1968 however, and returned toIreland for what was to be a stay of several yearsduring which she underwent some medical treatment. Johnand Billy continued to play at the Sugawm Kitchen,Dalston, an Irish social and folk music club where theyhad started traditional music sessions shortly before.

Billy then got a job in Tipperary Town and moved toIreland where he met his wife Catherine, a seasonedceilidh band drummer, through the local Comhaltas. Theywere married soon afterwards and had a son, Denis, in1974. Julia had been living in Lisheen but moved over toTipperary to be near Billy, and the two played togetherwith Catherine and other musicians in various localpubs and clubs. But in 1973 news came that John hadcollapsed w i t h a serious attack of bronchitis whileplaying with Bobby Casey at the Sugawm Kitchen, andjulia hurried back to London to look af ter him, eventhough she was by no means fully fit herself. John cameas near to death as is possible and spent about a yearin hospital during which Julia visited him every day.

No sooner had John and Julia begun to pick up thethreads in their new flat in Stamford Hill than theyheard what must have been almost the last straw -Denis had died. For the previous eight years or there-abouts he had played regularly for the sets at DanConnell's bar, Knocknagree on Fridays and Sundaysalong with Johnny Leary (accordeon) and other localmusicians like Mick Duggan (one of Padraig's pupils fromthe old days) and Maurice O ' K e e f e . On Sunday 7 April 1974Art 0 'Keefe came down for a few tunes - he and Denisplayed over some of the old Lisheen fife-and-drum bandmarches. Dan Cornell gave Denis the usual l i f t home andall seemed well; but half-an-hour later he collapsed.People felt the same as when Wil l ie Clancy died: theepitome of everything good in the music of the areawas gone, and could never be replaced.

LEFT, TOP: Catherine, Denis and Billy C l i f f o r d ,Tipperary Town, July 1976. BOTTOM: Johnny Leary, DanConnell, Mick Duggan, Knocknagree, July 1976.BELOW, LEFT: John C l i f fo rd arguing with someone at theLondon Irish Centre, March 1976. R I G H T ; Julia Cl i f fordplaying at Dan Connell's, Knocknagree, July 1976

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APPENDIX A: Repertoire, style & techniqueA. THE SLIABH LUACHRA REPERTOIREIt seems that very little new music is coming intoSliabh Luachra at present and that the active musiciansare playing much the same material as those of the lastthirty years or so. Most of it is dance music, butincreasingly, as dancing becomes less popular, it isplayed simply " for listening to" or "for the crack",though of course there is nothing new about playingdance music in isolation from dancers. But there isstill a lot of music to be heard in the pubs anddancing is still much more popular than in otherdistricts.

A small proportion of the current repertoire has neverbeen associated wi th dancing and most musicians knowone or two song airs at least. The fashion for playingthese airs, now given prominence in the "slow air"sections of all the big competit ions, is a relativelyrecent one among dance musicians having developedaccording to existing evidence only in this century;and in Sliabh Luachra there is reason to think thatPadraig O ' K e e f e was partly resonsible for any popularitythe playing of airs may have. Padraig's repertoire ofairs was much wider than is common in Sliabh Luachraor anywhere else, and in addition to those played byhim, John Coakley recorded the following from SliabhLuachra players in July and August 1976: 'S e fath moChuatha ("The Reason for my Sorrow", Pat M c A u l i f f e ,Boherboy), Bins in Luachra ("The little Bank of Rushes",Pat M c A u l i f f e ) , Cath Cheim an Fhia ("The Battle of C. . " ,Pat M c A u l i f f e ) , Casadh an Tsugain ("The Twist ing of theRope", Pat M c A u l i f f e ) , The dark slender Boy (Joe Conway,Knocknagullane, Rathmore), Sweet Inniscarra, my Home bythe Lee (John Dennehy, Kilee, Farranfore), The greenmossy Banks of the Lee (John Dennehy), The Dawning ofthe Day (Mrs. 0'Riordan, Ballydesmond), The boldTrainor 0 (Mrs. 0 'Riordan, see also HL) with a furtherrendering of Klngwilllamstown. In some cases theperformers stated that they learned the tunes from thesinging of others -(usually parents). Other forms oflistening music are also encountered such as Padraig'sJohnny Cope and Tom Billy's The drunken Piper whichMaurice O ' K e e f e plays, but such pieces are rare onthe whole.

The dance music of the region has developed to suitthe type of social dancing which has been popularsince the mid-19th century: the sets. Along w i t hvirtually every other country in Europe the dancing ofsets of quadi-illes became very popular in Ireland about120 years ago, and country versions are still danced inmany counties, particularly in Munster. But it is inSliabh Luachra that the most active dancing is stillfound both informally in (a decreasing number of)housesand pub back-rooms, and more formally in pubs and clubswhere a conscious e f fo r t has been made to keep the setsgoing, such as Peggy 0 'Riordan :s (cullen), The Two-MileInn outside Killarney, and Dan Connell's, Knocknagree.Dan Connell in particular has worked hard to keep upinterest in dancing and the scenes of enthusiasm andenjoyment in his bar on Fridays and Sundays belie thefact that interest was certainly flagging until a fewyears back. Dan remembers that in pre-war days severald i f f e ren t sets were danced such as the Set of Erin andthe Ginny Ling (no doubt a corruption of Jenny Lind; thetune known as the Jenny Lind Polka in the south ofEngland is also common in Sliabh Luachra, though notunder this name), in addi t ion to the basic Polka Setwhich people would learn f i rs t before progressing to

the more d i f f i c u l t sets. Today the polka set is commonbut the rest have all but disappeared, except,presumably,in competition. (It is interesting thatin Sliabh Luachra the main " inst i tu t ional is ing" forcehas been the dance compet i t ion sponsors ratherthan the CCE who until recently were not much involvedin social dancing in the area.) I have no furtherinformation at present about the the evolution of thesecountry sets and their descent in form (if not execution)from the Victor ian ballroom quadrilles and Lancers. Ihope to have more for inclusion w i t h the later recordin this series to be devoted to Johnny Leary. A polkaset is danced by four couples in a square formation andconsists of a variety of movements by the couples roundthe set or across it from one side to the other. The menstamp rhythmically to the music at various points (andusually when they reach a certain spot on the f loor) ,but in the ordinary way any rules there may be aboutthe precise t iming of this "battering" are disregarded.For confined spaces a "half-set" can be danced by twocouples. The set has six figures: the f irs t four dancedto polkas (one of these is of ten replaced by a j i g ) ,the f i f t h called the"slide" danced to a fast singlejig (these tunes are hence always called "slides") andthe sixth to a hornpipe or reel. The whole dance isexecuted at a furious pace except perhaps for thehornpipe, which serves as a respite af ter the long andespecially fast slide.

The present-day incidence of the various types ofdance tunes in the district is directly related to theiruse in the polka set and hence polkas predominate withjigs and slides a long way behind in second and thirdplace, hornpipes fourth, and reels, the dominant rhythmelsewhere in Ireland, a poor f i f t h . Most musicians onlyknow a few reels and these are usually very common likeThe Mountain Road, Miss Macleod's or My Love she 's inAmerica. I suspect that the repertoire of reels waseven smaller before gramophones and Padraig O ' K e e f ewidened the horizon; even simple but more homespun reelslike Anything for John Joe (see SAG) don ' t seem to beall that common. More distinctively local are many ofthe slides and jigs as the selections played by JuliaC l i f f o r d on HL demonstrate. Many have no names and areBELOW: A battered picture of Denis Murphy wi th JimmyDoyle of Kilcummin near Killarney. "The long and theshort of Ir ish music"said Denis when he saw it.

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basic, simple tunes, o f t e n employing gapped scales ;theyare presumably of some antiquity. But most musiciansalso play a number of double and single j igs which arevery common, like The Butcher's March, O f f she goes andMerr i ly kiss the Quaker (otherwise The Quaker's W i f eetc.) The hornpipes used for the set are played fastand tend to be well-known ones of simple structure likeOff to Cal i forn ia and The Home Brew ( th i s is very commonin a stripped-down version which renders it hardlyrecognisable as the bouncy, schottische-like hornpipeplayed by the Cl i f fo rds on H L ) . As wi th Englishhornpipes played for stepdancing, these tunes are hardlydistinguishable in rhythm from bouncy reels: the arche-type in Knocknagree is The Mil l iner ' s Daughter (DenisMurphy called it Pete Sullivan's)which some call ahornpipe and others a reel.

The polkas come in three main types: 1. Tunes whichseem to be exclusive to Sliabh Luachra (like those onKF, SMT, SAG and HL side 2) which make up the majori ty .2. Perhaps 10 or 15 per cent which are common elsewhere(though not necessarily in Ireland). Examples: salmonTails down the River , The Rose Tree, Over the Hills toGlory, Fish and Taters, All the Ways to Galway, LeatherAway the Wattle-0 etc. 3. Perhaps 10 per cent learnedbefore World War II from gramophone records. Anyonerecording a polka was sure of a ready sale in SliabhLuachra, w i t h John McKenna ( f l u t e ) of Lei t r im, recordedin America, perhaps the most successful - his couplingof Farewell to Whiskey (which he called My Love is buta Lassie) and The Dark Gir l dressed in blue ( w i t hJames Morrison of Sligo, Columbia 33296F) caught onin Sliabh Luachra (not least wi th the Waivers, see SAG)like Coleman's Bonny Kate/Jenny's Chickens did every-where else. No particular tunes are associated wi th thepolka sets and the musicians normally play away untilthe dancers f i n i sh the f igure and disperse; hence two-and three-part tunes are equally useful. Severalolder musicians recorded by John Coakley played one ortwo "quadrille polkas" for him, which tended to berather more elaborate tunes played a li t t le moreslowly. These presumably hark back to the days whenthere was greater variety in the sets performed -Coakley was unable to el ici t any further informat ionat the time but the performers' own idea of theorigin and use of these "special" tunes would repayinvestigation.

Dan Connell 's and the other dance venues interspersethe sets w i th a few songs, and wi th "old-time" ( i . e .fast) waltzes, and musicians therefore need a fairstock of the latter which they make up entirely of"popular favouri tes of yesteryear" ranging from standardIr ish like The Rocks of Bawn to fairly modern inter-national like My Resistance is low. These tunes areregarded as largely functional and no-one thought ofplaying one for us to listen to or record. Barn-tiances,f l ings , mazurkas etc. (bo th the dances and the tunes)appear to be as rare in Sliabh Luachra as elsewhere.A few marches have survived from before the War (seechapter 1 ) .

I t is worth mentioning here that there is an uncannysimilarity in the "sound" and structure of many of thesimpler, more old-fashioned fiddle-tunes of V i rg in i a andNorth Carolina in the U.S., of the Shetlands, and ofSliabh Luachra. This would seem to result from paralleldevelopment from similar roots rather than cross-fer t i l i sa t ion at a later time . Equally puzzling at thisstage is the presence of many actual Scottish orScottish-sounding tunes in the area. Did they come fromimmigrants or visitors, from printed sources viateachers or what?20

B. THE REPERTOIRE OF PADRAIG O'KEEFE, DENIS MURPHY ANDTHE CLIFFORDS

Padraig, as mentioned previously, was much moreconcerned wi th the content and presentation of hismusic than the typical Sliabh Luachra musician and hespent much more time than most playing just for peopleto listen to. All his tunes were therefore worked upinto something worthy of an audience. He obviously wentout of his way to accumulate more intricate reels thanthe average dance player would need, and on slower tunes( l ike all the hornpipes on KF) his "arrangements"abandoned strict rhythm and were played slowly to allowfor the runs of extra notes he inserted. In particularhe specialised in song airs and the following (wi thmany others no doubt) were in his repertoire:0 'Donnell 's Lament, 0 'Rahilly 's Grave, Kingwill iamstown,An Raibh tu ag an gCarraig ("Have you been at Carrick/the Rock") 0 'Keill 's Lament, The Blackbird. Talmse im'chodladh( "I am asleep and don't wake m e " ) , The red-haired Boy, The wounded Hussar and The old Man rockingthe Cradle. He learned many of them originally from hisgrandmother and the first three are known only in thisarea ( the "0'Rahilly" is the celebrated Kerry poet Aogan0'Rahilly; Klngwilliamstown is an exile song attributedto Joe Dineen of Rathmore). The Cliffords andothers who learned tunes from O ' K e e f e think of many ofthem simply as "Padraig's", which is a fa i r indicationof the amount of new material he brought into thedistrict; and he may well have composed a few tunes.

As far as I can tell, nearly all Denis Murphy'stunes came from Padraig, with, no doubt, a fewaddit ions gathered in the States, and some verylocalised, tunes like "Danny Ab's" slides. He guardedthem all as treasure, and was perhaps guilty ofattaching a spurious local longevity to some tuneswhich were only recent importations. The range ofSliabh Luachra tunes which Julia Clifford can stillplay is somewhat diminished, although her recentreturn to the district for a few years reminded herof much she had forgotten, and when I f i rs t met hershe was carrying round a sheet of tunes written outin "ABC" form so that she wouldn't forget them again.On the other hand she has played much more "generalIrish" dance music than Denis in the halls and pubs ofLondon, and her passive store of tunes is enormous. Onecan rely on her to know (though not perhaps perfectlyf i r s t t ime through) all the common reels and j igs, a fewspecial tunes like Grandfather 's Thought and ThePalatine's Daughter which have appealed to her over theyears, and the airs to the common Ir ish pop songs of theperiod up to about 1965- Ironically though, a f t e rspending a l i fe t ime wi th this sort of music, she o f t e nnow states a preference for the more distinctive Kerrytunes (egged on by people like me) and is most frequentlyasked to play the airs which she learned from PadraigO ' K e e f e . Billy C l i f f o r d ' s repertoire, under theinfluence of Denis, Julia and London dancehalls, coversmuch the same ground as his mother 's although he doesnot specialise in airs and only played them for thecompetit ions which he has now given up.

John Cl i f ford made a more complete break with SliabhLuachra than Julia because he d idn ' t need to re-learnthe polkas and slides on the piano-accordion and becausefor a period at any rate he regarded that type of musicas old hat. Now he plays reels, jigs and hornpipes (heis something of a specialist in the latter) in aboutequal proportions, though it is surprising how many ofthese he originally learned from Padraig. He also enjoysplaying old-time waltzes and a few specials like his"Scotch selection" of well-known tunes from north of

the border which ends wi th Cock of the North orrather Chase me Charlie.

C. STYLE AND TECHNIQUE IN SLIABH LUACHRA

There are many pitfalls awaiting those who wouldgeneralise about the styles in which Irish traditionalmusicians play. To mention two in particular: there isthe problem of the individual character of each music-ian's playing which so often contradicts the standardideas of "regional style" as to render them meaning-less; and there is the problem of setting and context:a musician may sound rough one day and sweet the next,loud and brassy on one instrument but d i f f i d e n t onanother, confident with his friends but shy in frontof the microphone, etc. ^he remarks which follow aretherefore put forward tentatively and, I hope, wi thfull awareness that they are based only on a fairlysmall sample of musicians encountered over a fairlyshort period.

Sliabh Luachra, and Kerry in general, have areputation for rough music compared wi th , say, Clareor Sligo, but there is no real basis for this; thereare rough musicians everywhere. As a general state-ment i t is true that styles are less technicallycomplex than in some other areas, but this may onlybe because the simpler players of other regions donot get much publicity, or no longer exist in anynumber because the acceptable standard sound of atradit ional tune these days is complex and so thesimpler player, whatever his merits , has no audienceor function. There is probably also some truth inthe idea that some aspects of the music of SliabhLuachra are at an earlier stage of development thanelsewhere: there are quite a few "melodeon" playersstill in action and very few B/C accordeonists in theJoe BurKe mould; padraig O ' K e e f e was a much moresophisticated stylist than his predecessors, but if welook for the equivalents of O ' K e e f e in other regionswe f ind them several generations ago; gramophonerecords made an impact on a few musicians who wereready for them, but even today the current fashionson records do not penetrate the region to a greatextent; proportionately the f iddle is still ascommon in Sliabh Luachra as it was in the rest ofIreland in the last century. One could cite furtherexamples, all of which suggest that what we hear inSliabh Luachra is a style which is only peculiar tothis region because it has survived longer and ingreater quantity; for distinctive "regionalcharacteristics" we should concentrate on therepertoire rather than the style. We can certainlyabandon any rule that the presence of teachers willlead to greater complexity: most of the fiddle playerswe met were "taught" by a mere or less professionalteacher, in some cases a very strict one, but whatthey learned was the standard range of local dance-music which would be of practical use.

As we might expect the predominant fiddle style isrhythmic and direct. The full length of the bowtends to be used in long strokes to bring out plentyof volume, but the practice of playing one stroke toone note is very rare except in very simple polkas.There is some tendency to adopt the fairly common andef fec t ive technique of changing direction with the bowon the off-beat in 2.1k tunes to give it addedemphasis. A general "Irish" quality is imparted by theuse of occasional grace-notes and by the generaltendency to play flat which produces a mournfulquality, especially to tunes already constructed on

gapped scales. One really old-fashioned feature, whichis very rare in modern Irish fiddle music,is the use ofopen strings as drones even where this is harmonically"incorrect" (e .g . E on the D string with open G; C onthe A string with open D, both when playing in the keyof D). On the other hand deliberate chords using thestring above that carrying the melody (e.g. D on theA string with F sharp on the E string) are virtuallyunknown, except, that is, with players who have copiedthese features direct from such sources as MichaelColeman's records; such players are also the only oneswho make any use of "trebling" with the bow or whoinsert extra individually-bowed notes which expand oralter the line of the basic tune. Both the latterdevices are the very lifeblood of the majority ofmodern young fiddlers; but you won't hear much of themin Sliabh Luachra.

Julia C l i f fo rd ' s playing on HL displays many of themore home-grown characteristics of the district, but sheis a more delicate and sensitive player than average andher left-hand technique is generally more sophisticated.Good typical players who seem pretty unaffected byPadraig O ' K e e f e or outside influences would be Dan Leary(Kilcummin near Killarney)or Maurice O ' K e e f e (Kishkeam).

Anyone interested in hearing how style and techniqueon the Ir ish button-accordeon have changed over theyears will f ind "living examples" of most stages inSliabh Luachra. At the "early" end of the scale areplayers like Tom Conway and Johnny Sullivan ( i n Culler,on Tuesdays) who play in a very earthy and simplesingle-row style with the sweat pouring off them.playerslike Tom's brother Joe and Denis O ' K e e f e of Rathmorerepresent in their di f ferent ways a refinement of this -both play basically on one row but have a lighter,bounder touch and introduce some grace-notes; Joe playsa two-row box and occasionally uses the "other" row foreffects. John Clifford provided an example of the nextstage (see chapter 1) but now he has abandoned it thereseems to be no-one with a comparable early two-rowstyle; but there is a good B/C player in Jimmy Doyle whoplays quite a lot of general Irish reels etc. round theKillarney area and also sounds like a Sliabh Luachra manon the polkas and slides. Johnny 0'Leary of Gullaun, whoplays in Knocknagree over the weekend is perhaps themost prominent recent player; but he is rather a lawunto himself. He plays a modern, loud Soprani accordeonbut concentrates almost entirely on the d is t inct iveSliabh Luachra repertoire outlined above. A great danceplayer, he can introduce either energetic drive orstaccato refinement into his tunes depending on require-ments, and his range of decorative effects is complexand mostly non-standard. Of the 50 or so highly-ratedmodern accordeonists I have heard in London and IrelandJohnny 0'Leary is the most original and effective.

There are qui te a few whistle players around who don'tseem especially dis t inct ive stylistically; and the best-known of the few resident flute players, Mick Cronin ofGneevgullia, is very much of the old school: his playingis breathy and jaunty and he tends to overblow all thenotes below bottom G so that overall he actually coversno more than an octave or so. other instruments are rareat present.

Sliabh Luachra players concentrate on the melody: thefiddlers don ' t use real chords, the accordeonists hardlyever use the bass buttons, anc there is little demandfor accompanists on piano, guitar or banjo. I can'treally explain why this should be so when the rest ofIreland is becoming so sophisticated; but I shallattempt to f i nd out and report any new information in

21

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ABOVE: A sheet of tunes written out by Padraig O 'Keefein his tablature system, from a large collection ofmanuscripts belonging to Paddy Connell of Cordal. Foranother example from Denis Murphy see Treolr vol.2no.3. To translate the "code": spaces between lines =strings of the fiddle ( top space = E string); o = openstring; 1 = apply first finger; 2 = apply secondinger etc.; tick above note(s) = up bow; no tick

above note(s) = down bow; curved line over severalnotes = all bowed in same direction; R = repeat.22

This system is not as comprehensive as, say some ofthe guitar tuition tablature systems available today

d would only have been used in conjunction with aistration; thus no attempt is made to indicate

rhythmic emphasis or to differentiate between thealternative G or C sharp which could be played oy thesecond finger on the A string, depending on whether thetune is in D or G. O ' K e e f e 's writ ing is remarkablymodern-looking, and he was able to write out tunesfrom memory in this form in a matter of minutes.

the notes accompanying later records in this series.

D. PADRAIG O ' K E E F E , DENIS MURPHY AND THE CLIFFORDS:STYLE AND TECHNIQUE

Overall it seems reasonable to view 0 ' K e e f e ' s style andtechnique as basically those typical of Sliabh Luachra,with extra features .added. Thus we find the use of the"long bow", hardly any trebling as a general decorativedevice, some use of open-string drones and (probably)only one chord in regular use. His wide range ofdecorative techniques wi th the left hand seem entirelyin character with the repertoire, and he passed onother other ideas to his pupils such as playing inoctaves (normally possible only in G; there are numerousexamples on KF and SAG), retuning the fiddle forcertain tunes (see instructions for Pipe Reel opposite;this is a fascinating rarity in Ireland and I wonderwhere he got the idea from) and tuning the f iddle low togive a' more responsive tone(KF and SAG are both quiteflat on concert pitch throughout) all of which extendedthe music in established directions. He was a championof careful, precise and well-pitched playing, and theconsistency on tone and pitch in his own performances issurprising considering the condition of his usualfiddles and bows. It is difficult to tell how objectivehe was about his music and I don' t know whether hedeliberately set out to preserve a d is t inct ive localquality in his and his pupils ' playing; but as ithappens much of what can be heard on KF gives prominenceto features which are unusual for Sliabh Luachra anddistinctively personal, such as the studied elaborationof the hornpipes and the extended ornamentation of theairs. Here he seems to be applying his more generalknowledge of music - "he knew the theory of music insideout" says Seamus Ennis - and at times the results remindone of a trained but rather second-rate violinist.0 ' K e e f e certainly makes much use of varying tiymmics,and although I think it is nonsence to say, as someexperts do, that the use of variation in volume for"expression" is foreign to Irish music, neverthelessPadraig 's crescendos and diminuendos do sometimes seemoverdone and out-of-character with the music of thedistrict. Still, at least he didn't attempt to play inthe higher posit ions and compared wi th the slushyvulgarity of much recently recorded air playing,0 ' K e e f e ' s settings sound authentic and original.

Several sources agree 'that Padraig liked to instructhis pupils in bowing technique, and this is the onlyaspect of performance which is described in detail inhis tablature system. Seamus Ennis remembers that herecommended f inishing all dance tunes on the up-bow togive added l i f t . But the fact remains that JuliaCl i f ford and Denis Murphy did not develop identicalbowing by any means, and Julia 's memory of the subjectis now completely confused:

JULIA CLIFFORD: He used to teach me the bowing. . .once upon a time. I d idn ' t keep it up, but Denis usedto. Denis didn ' t keep the bowing - I was the only onethat had it, but I sort of did it my own way. . .Hedid teach me a couple of tunes on the bow like, youknow,(but he normally) just played them the same aswe did.

All we can assume is that a system v\as available forthose who needed it, but the Waivers were suf f ic ien t lytalented as to render such "rote" methods super-fluous.

Both Julia and Denis possess(ed) great technicalabi l i t ies and we could say that Julia seems to havepicked up the refinement and sweetness in 0 ' K e e f e ' s

style while Denis developed the rhythmic and dynamicqualities. Looking a little more closely, though, we f indthat Denis ' s playing is really very much closer toPadraig's in style and repertoire, and I think the reasonis that Julia was actually taught by Padraig from qui tean early age while Denis came to it rather later andbecame more of an imitator. The contrasts in their bowingtend to support this theory: there is some evidence that,despite what she says, Julia still plays very much asPadraig taught her. She tends to play more notes per bow-stroke than almost anyone else I have seen and alwaysseems to end on the up-bow. Recently I saw her and anotherof 0 ' K e e f e ' s pupils, John Spillane (now of Harrow) playingtogether, and their bowing of 0 ' K e e f e-derived tunes wasalmost identical (a rarity indeed among Irish f iddlers) .What Denis did, however, was to use his own bowing toachieve as close a sound to O'Keefe 's as he could, and indoing so he actually introduced more bow-strokes (and thus,incidentally, his superb mastery of rhythm). Denis playedthe hornpipes and airs, in particular, in very closeimitation of Padraig (compare Fjsherjs Hornpip£ and0 'Donnell's Lament on KF and SAG, for instance) to theextent that they could be mistaken for each other; butJulia plays"Padraig's settings" rather than imita t ingevery nuance of his performance, and her own morerestrained (and to my mind more tasteful) interpretationsare the result. In any case, of course, Denis had closercontact wi th Padraig over a longer period. For a while inthe 60s Julia moved quite a distance from the SliabhLuachra base and, for instance, we hear some treblingand relatively little open-string drone on 3MT. Butmore recently, a f te r her stay in Ireland, the trebling hasgone and the drone is back in continuous use. Her playingbecame a little plainer recently: not qu i te so muchornamentation and sometimes no vibrato on long notes;The Bold Trainor 0 on HL displays Julia 's re-adoption ofthis plainer, more old-fashioned style.

John Cl i f fo rd at his height must have been one of themost driving piano accordion players of all time. Not forhim the lightweight ornamental style which is currentlyin vogue on the instrument under the influence of such asKevin Taylor. Modern players would also do well to notehow he is able to achieve considerable separation betweenthe notes and thus qui te a buoyant rhythm; neither is atall easy to achieve on this instrument with its softsprings and heavy single-action bellows. John has alsodeveloped a fair knowledge of the conventional baseharmonies used on the accordion and is a genuine two-handplayer; he tends to keep his fingers on the bass buttonsover several beats, however, in rather the same way as apipes player might depress the regulators.

There will be more about Billy C l i f f o r d ' s playing on theforthcoming record to be devoted to him. He is a very"modern" sounding player in that his tone is clear andnot especially breathy, and he employs a great deal ofornamentation. Recently he has become a much more rhythmicplayer than he used to be, but although he says his UncleDenis was the chief influence on his development, he stilldoesn't strike one particularly as a Sliabh Luachrastylist. But then, flute players are rare in the districtnow and we don ' t really know what Bill the Waiver soundedlike. Billy plays a Radcliffe keyed simple-system flute andhis fingering is thus very accurate and clean cut - notthe f i rs t Sliabh Luachra characteristic which spring tomind. But in any case Billy is a superbly co-ordinatedand controlled player, very little a f f e c t e d by nerves;even tunes which came directly from Denis take on anunaccustomed smoothness.

APPENDIX B: Notes on the recordsThe purpose of these notes is to giveinformation about the circumstancesin which the recordings were made andabout the tunes recorded. Some detailsfrom the sleeve notes are repeated herebut readers are advised to refer to thesleeves for such matters as the exactdates of the recordings and the variouspeople who made them. Some of theinformation given below is incompletebecause this was the situation at thetime of publication; but as mentionedin the introduction, my main aim hasbeen to look at the music from theperformers' point of view, and so thesenotes concentrate on the recordings andprinted versions of the tunes which arelikely to have influenced the particularperformances we hear on the records.This means, of course, that informationon the currency of tunes in SliabhLuachra is given in some detail, whiletheir origin and popularity nationallyare only covered in general terms.

KERRY FIDDLESPadraig 0 'Keefe, Denis Murphy, JuliaC l i f f o r dTopic 12T309The recordings here were originally madeby Seamus Ennis while employed by theBBC. The session took place in CharlieHoran's Bar, Castleisland, on 9September 1952. The party adjourned toPadraig's house after the pub closed.The three had not been together overany length of time for several years:Denis was only recently back from theUS and Julia was on a holiday visit.The photograph on the front of thesleeve shows Padraig in the early 1950s,and a shot of Denis 's grave in Gneev-gullia churchyard is on the back. Thispicture was taken looking south and the'Two Paps' can be seen in the distance.The word 'octaves' appears below whenone of two or three fiddles can be2k

heard playing an octave lower thanthe conventional range of the tune.Julia says she normally took the lowpart although they "could all do i t" .SIDE ONE1. Polkas: The Top of Maol/The Humours

of Ballydesmond (Trio; octaves)These polkas are still very common inSliabh Luachra. The first is very simplein structure and is presumably of someantiquity. Maol Mountain and Maol Bogare north of Lisheen. The Humours ofBallydesmond was also performed by Denisand Julia on SAG as the first of two"Knocknabower" polkas (this seems to beas mis-spelling of Knocknaboul). Deniscalled it The little green Cottage whenBreandan Breathnach noted it from hie(see Ceol vol. 2 no. k, p. 100) but thiscould be the result of some confusion asArt 0 ' K e e f e attaches this name to aslide. The first two of its three partsbear a strong resemblance to the well-known Maggie in the Wood, which is alsofound in its familiar two-part form inthe district - Maurice 0 'Keefe calls itKi t ty wants a soldier.

2. Hornpipes: The Fisherman's/Byrne's(Padraig)

The first is a fine example of O'Keefe 'smore studied style "for listening to"and it is interesting to hear how hemanipulates this very common tune. I havefound nothing so far on Byrne's Hornpipe.Denis plays a reproduction of the f irston SAG and of the second on The Lark inthe Morning (Tradit ion TR1004).

3. Reels:Muckross Abbey/Mulvihill 's(Denis and Julia)

These are played in unison and in veryf ine style. The f irst is named af ter thewell-known local "ancient monument" nearKillarney but is quite common elsewhereunder other titles. Mulvihill 's appearsto be less generally known.

14. Hornpipes: Cronin 's /The Stack ofBarley (Denis and Julia; octaves)

The f i rs t i.s usually associated withEdward Cronin of Tipperary via O'Neil l ,although the tune does not appear inO'Neill 's well-known compilations. Asimilar version (in octaves) calledDenis Murphy's by Sean 0 'Shea and BobbyCasey appears on Paddy in the Smoke(Topic 12T176).

The ( l i t t le) Stack of Barley iscommon and Denis and Julia give it asimilar though slower rendition on SAG.

5. Air: O'Donnell 's Lament (Padraig)This song and its air have somecurrency in Kerry but apparently notelsewhere. Padraig probably learnedit from the singing of his grandmotherMrs. Callaghan. Reproductions ofPadraig's highly ornate version byDenis are on SAG and Folkways FW8781.The name in Irish is Caoineadh UiDhomhnai11 which Denis usuallyrendered as "The Caoin (pronouncedqueen) of 0'Donne11". Hence Denis 'sversion on the Folkways disc is called,perhaps a little inexcusably, "TheQueen of O'Donnell", and this mistakepersisted viien the performance wastranscribed for Sing Out ' s otherwisetotally uninformative obituary ofDenis (vol.23, no.4, p.23, 1974)

6. Slides: Danny A b ' s (Denis andJulia; octaves)

JULIA CLIFFORD: Myself and Denis werevery young you know, mad for music. OneSunday afternoon we were si t t ing indoorsand up through our old-fashioned yardthrough the fields came Danny Ab. And hecame in. . .my father knew'm anyway. Heloved tea - he was mad for tea. So hestarted whistling these slides y'know.So we made tea for'm anyway and the morehe was whistling the slides the more wewere making tea. And the two of us satthere and learned the two slides whilehe was drinking the tea.

Danny Ab was from Tureen Cahill, northof Lisheen, and his real name may havebeen 0 ' K e e f e as the slides are namedDan 0 'Kee fe 's on SAG where Denis andJulia also perform them. The second one,from Art 0 ' K e e f e , is no. 86 in CRE2.

7. Jigs: The Frieze Brltches/Paudeen0 'Raf ferty (Julia)

Both these are well-known, ^he f irst isplayed perhaps a little less frequentlynow than earlier in the century. Thefive- part version is standard (O 'Ne i l l1 no.260). Tom Ennis (Chicago) made thebest known early recordings of it onthe pipes: very early on (Perfect 11162)and in 1921 (Okey 4383). Julia's versiond i f fe r s sufficiently in detail fromthat in O'Neill to suggest that she gotit direct from a Sliabh Luachra source- she can't remember now. She and Johnstill play it regularly but in asetting closer to O'Nei l l ' s , presumablypicked up in the dancehalls.

This is the earliest solo recordingof Julia so far available and displaysa mature composure. Some Sliabh Luachraelements like the continuous use of theopen G and D strings as drones are moremarked than in 1960s recordings of Julia.

KERRY FIDDLES continued.SIDE TWO1. Slides: Chase me Charlie/Tom Billy's

Favourite (Trio; octaves)The first is very common as Cock of theNorth. The Sliabh Luachra name is thetitle of one of several songs (somerather rude) sung to the tune. The ti t leTom Billy's Favourite was no doubt madeup for the occasion and at that time itwas probably quite rare outside SliabhLuachra. Sean 0'Riada subsequently cameacross a three-part version in WestKerry and incorporated this in his scorefor the film of The Playboy ofthe Western World (Gael -linn CEF012).It acquired the name Dingle Regatta andhas since become one of the commonestjigs in the traditional dancerepertoire of the British Isles.

The settings of both tunes are loadedwith extra notes in between the basicoutline, a sure sign that they hadbecome often-performed favourites.

2. Reels: Kennedy's Favourite/The Womanof the House

Kennedy's Favourite was perhaps namedafter Kennedy, a travelling fiddler fromwhom Bill the Waiver got some tunes.Denis performs it in similar style onGael-Linn CE 11 (78 rpm, now de le ted) .The Woman of the House is common(O 'Nei l l ! no.565)- John McKenna (Lei t r im,flute) recorded it in 1924(Gennet 5549)but the really influential recording wasColeman's on Victor (reissued on IRC3327)Denis 's version is probably based onthis, since the basic treatment isthe same. Denis, or maybe Padraig beforehim, abstracted the more robust of thedecorations, and retained some of theoriginal bowing (e .g . in the second barof the second part) where it suited thishighly rhythmic style of playing. Themore flowery and intrusive grace-noteshave been scrapped. The performance isinteresting to compare with the moreintrospective rendi t ion by BobbyCasey on Paddy in the Smoke (Topic12T176) which also seems to be basedon Coleman 's.

On the recorded evidence, Denis playedreels in this superbly controlled 'fullsteam ahead' style during the period inKerry between his two trips to America,and this performance must be one of thevery finest in the whole range ofrecorded Irish f iddle music. Anotherreel on The Lark in the Korning (side 1track 8), recorded in 1955, is hardlyless impressive.

3. Jigs: Apples In Winter /The Maid onthe Green/The Thrush in the Straw(Tr io ; octaves)

All these are quite common. Apples inWinter bears only a very generalresemblance to the tune of that name in0 'Nei lH (no - 300). It is more normally

called The Geese in the Bog but thetune of that name in O'Neil l! isdifferent again. Our tune appearedon well-known 78s under such names asPaddy in London (Ennis and Morrison,Vocalion 14354, 1922), and Ginger 'sFavourite (Cashin and Doyle, HMVB3271, 1928). The Maid on the Greenfollows closely the setting in .O'Nei l l !(no. 114). The Thrush in the Strawresembles closely the recording byThe Lough Gill Quartet (HMV. IM949,early 1930s) under the name Mist onthe Meadow.

4. Air: The Old Man rocking theCradle (Padraig)

Seanius Ennis has made something of astudy of this tune in its variousforms (see Treoir vol.5 no.4 p.2for a summary). A basic versionappears in O r N e i l l 2 (no.547) and afairly plain set t ing by the Limerickflute player Paddy Taylor is onCladdagh CC8. Padraig's version is,however, almost unrecognisable underthe bur don of ornamentation andvariation. It is a showpiecefeaturing the use of a large door-keywhich Padraig held between his teeth,using it to mute the f iddle bridgeintermittently and thus imitate thebaby's cry "mama". The performance,of dubious taste to my ears anyway, isrounded o f f with a snatch of the well-known slip-jig The Foxhunter.

5- Reels: The Humours of Galtymore/Callaghan's/The new-mown MeadowsDenis and Julia; octaves)

The first two are also performed, indifferent combinations, on SAG whereThe Humours of Galtymore is calledThe Galtee Rangers under which name itis no. 201 in CRE2. The interestingthing is that here the tunes are in G,making it possible for the complete'bass' part to be played an octavedown, whereas on SAG (and in CRE2) thetunes are in D and played in unison.

The melodies are much the same ineach case, but the ornamentationvaries to suit the key and the Gversion of Callaghan's is rathersimpler all round than the highlydeveloped D version, and alters theline of the tune in the fourth barof the second part, sacrificing oneof the distinctive features of theD version. Both the G and Dperformances are polished but it ismost likely that D was standard andG was only for octave playing, perhapson Padraig's suggestion.

Callaghan's is one of three reelsclosely associated with Cal Callaghanof Doon. I t is also known as The Do onReel (the name used in CRE2, no.270,from Denis's playing), but this namemay only date from the time when PaddyCronin used it for his recording onthe Copley label, when he coupled itwith "The Doon Reel no.2", another ofthe three. The latter appears asGleann Eoghaln in CRE2 (no.154, fromDenis) but it is better known as TheCelebrated Opera which was the nameused by Padraig. It can also be hearedplayed by Julia with Con Curtin andDenis McMahon (both originally fromBrosna) on Paddy in the Smoke underthe name The Chorus Reel. Curtin andMcMahon can also be heard on Paddy inthe Smoke playing the third ofCallaghan's reels which appears tohave attracted no other name thanCallaghan's (as in CRE2 no. 131, fromDenis Murphy).

The new-mown Meadows is betterknown as The Silver Spear or Spireand is common in many areas. It isstill one of Julia's favourites whichshe plays regularly as a solo.

6. Hornpipes: Callaghan's/The Rightsof Man (Padraig)

The first came from Cal Callaghan(see above and p.7) and appears inCRE2 (no.308) from Denis ' s playing.The second is more generallyfamiliar (O'Nei l l ! no.811) and Deniscan be heared playing Padraig'ssett ing on The Lark in the Morning( s i d e 2 track 9) .

7. Reels: Johnny when you die/TheSwallow's Tail/Miss MacLeod's(Trio; octaves)

Johnny when you die is the firstphrase of a song sung to this tune,and is also played by Denis and Juliaon SAG with another song-tune Anythingfor John-Joe. Paddy Killoran and hisPride of Erin Orchestra recorded avery similar tune, The Green Meadowsin 1932 (Varsity 7008) and Padraig etal. may have got it from this source,though it seems more likely that ithad been in the district much longerthan this - in fact the process may

25

KERRY FIDDLES continued.have been the reverse since Dan Murphy,elder brother of Denis and Julia,played wi th Paddy Killoran in New Yorkand may have introduced the tune tothe Pride of Erin Orchestra. TheSwallow's Tall in this setting iscommon (see O'Neil l! no.536). Thissetting of Miss MacLeod's Reel soundslike an ironed-out version of MichaelColeman's recording (us Decca 12085,1936)reissued on Irish Jigs and Reels(Ace of Hearts AH56), but a similarsetting also appears in O'Neill!(no. 655).

THE STAR OF MUNSTER TRIOJohn Cl i f ford , Julia Cl i f fo rd , BillyCliffordTopic 12TS310The recordings on side one were made byReg Hall at E ric and Lucy Farr's housein Ladywell, south London on 16 August .1964- (Lucy is a fladle playeroriginally from Galway who has been awell-known figure on the London scenefor many years. She has always admiredJul ia 's playing and has learned manyof her tunes.) The recordings were madewith one judiciously placed microphoneand the general sound of the trio whichcomes across is quite a good reflectionof reality - the accordion tends todrown the fiddle but the flute remainsaudible ( i t is too prominent on tracktwo). The Cl i f fords were playingregularly as a trio at the time andwere at the height of their powers -the photograph on the front of thesleeve shows them in action at TheFavourite in Ho Horny during thisperiod.

Side two is made up mainly ofrecordings made by Hugh Miller and meat the home of Billy's parents-in-lawat Camus Cross near Cashel, Co.Tipperary on July 11, 1976, supplementedby a couple of items recorded by meat John and Julia's flat in StamfordHill, London (see sleeve for fulldetails). Duets by Julia and Billypredominate but the final selection of

reels by the trio indicates that,despite a lengthy absence from eachother, the old co-ordination and muchof the drive was still there. John'sabsence from most of the tracks is duemainly to circumstances: it turned outthat very few trio recordings weremade at Camus, and the duets were sogood that it seemed pointless not tomake them available. As a general ruleI have tr ied to include here musicwhich the Cl i f fords particularlyassociate with their "middle period"in the Star of Munster Ceilidh Bandand the Star of Munster Trio.

The photograph on theback of the record sleeve showsthe All Ireland Social Club Band inabout 1950. Back row, 1. to r.: BobThorpe (drums), Johnny Macauley (vocals)Charlie Rose (piano). Front row: 3111Hornsby (sax/piccolo), Mick Kash(sax/piccolo), Julia C l i f f o r d , John Clifford.SIDE ONE1. Reels: The Dublin Porter/The Mountain

Lark (Tr io)John Cl i f ford says the f i rs t of tr.esecame from Padraig 0 'Keefe and the secondfrom "around Li sheen". The Dublin p:r:erwas printed in F.Roche, ColleAirs, Marches and Dance Tunes, vol.1(1911), no.188.

2. J ig: The Lark In the Bog ( T r i o )John says he learned this one beforecoming to England from a record by theconcertina player William J. Mullaly,but I have been unable to trace thisrecording so far.

3. Reels: The Mountain Road/PaddyCronln's (Julia and Billy)

The Mountain Road is one of the fewreels to be entrenched in the SliabhLuachra repertoire and was frequentlyperformed by Denis Murphy (e.g. onFolkways FW8782). This is curious sincethe tune can be reliably attributed toMichael Gorman of Sligo who composed itaround 1925, and its general popularitydates from his performance of it inLondon and on fairly recent recordings(e.g. Topic EP TOP 89 (now deleted).

The Cl i f fords say Paddy Cronln 's wasoriginally one of Padraig's and had ad i f f e ren t name(??Jackson's) but theyremember it from Cronin 's performance,possibly on a record.

14. Polkas: Knocknaboul/Ballydesmond(Julia)

These names appear in the reverse orderon the record sleeve and label which isthe result of a mistake by me which wasnot spotted until a late stage. Juliahad and has no names for these tunesbut the f irst was played by her andDenis on SAG as the second of two"Knocknabower" polkas, by which, it is

assumed, Knocknaboul is meant, andthe second on SAG as the f i rs t ofthree "Ballydesmond" polkas. Bothare still common in Sliabh Luachra.The second part of the BallydesmondPolka is played in several differentsettings, sometimes, as here and onSAG, with the two 8-bar sectionsjoined and adapted to form acontinuous 16-bar strain, sometimeswi th the second 8 bars exactlyrepeating the f i r s t (as in a recentrather uninspiring performance byPaddy Cronin on The Rakish Paddy(on US Fiddler label).

This lovely playing by Juliademonstrates the sweet, clean butnevertheless strongly rhythmicstyle she had developed in the late1950s and 60s, and makes aninteresting comparison with theperformances on SAG where Denisdominates.

5. Reels: Boil the Breakfast early/Bunker Hill (John and Julia)

fhe C l i f fo rds got the first of thesefTOi Padraig. It is no. 789 in

_11 and a well-known recordingwas made by Leo Rowsome in 1937

' _ , reissued on Topic12T259). Bunker Hill (O 'Ne i l l ! no.787) was learned in London. It becamepopular following its appearance onthe influential LP by Paddy Canny,P.J.Hayes and Peter 0 'Loughlin(of the Tulla Ceilidh Band) in thelate 1950s. (This is still availableas All Ireland Champions- Viol in ,Shamrock/Harp 10.)

6. Air: The red-haired Boy (Julia)This is a unique recording. It isthe earliest available and in manyways the best recording of Juliaplaying an air. Apart from theslightly shaky beginning she is infull command with accurate intonationand subtle and controlled vibrato.The sett ing came from Padraig butthe interpretation is more restrainedthan Padraig's and Denis 's robustand dynamic performances - not thatwe can make a direct comparison asI know of no other recorded versionsof this air from Sliabh Luachra.

It is possible that the name is amistake as the air is much morecommonly attached to the song Thedark slender Boy (An Buachaill Caolpubh) though several other songshave been attached to i t ; see Petr ie ,Ancient Music of Ireland pp. 19-23-Julia only played it through onceat the session, unfortunately.

7. Reels: Lucy's Reel/The Clare Reel(Julia and Billy)

The Cl i f fords are unsure of the

26

THE STAR OF MUNSTER TRIO continued.provenance of these tunes and had noname for the f i rs t one until Lucy Farrcame home from work to find the sessionin full swing. The Clare Reel seems tohave come from Padraig as Denis playeda version (see CRE2 no. \J>Q) which isthe same in the f i rs t part but di f ferentin the second. The second part playedby Julia and Billy is, however, only thef irs t part played an octave higher sowe can perhaps assume that they made itup to convert a remembered fragmentinto a full tune.

8. Hornpipes: Bill Black's/0'Donovan's(Trio)

John learned the f i r s t of these, whichis no. 886 in 0 'NeilH, around Lisheen,and it later became a speciality of theStar of Munster Ceilidh Band.0'Donovan's is exactly as it appears in0 'Nei lH (no.893). John sometimes refersto it as Byrne's and the tune whichappears under that name i n O ' N e i l l l(no.865) could easily be mistaken forit, though few of the sequences of notesare actually identical.

SIDE TWO1. Jigs: John Mahinney's No. 1/No Name

(Julia and Billy)Julia learned the first and probablythe second of these from her father'sfr iend John Mahinney Barnard (see p .6 ) ,and I have no further information onthem. Johnny Leary's Gullaun Jig (CRE2no.18) is obviously closely related toJohn Mahinney's No. 1.

2. Hornpipes: Grandfather's Thought/Madam if you please (Julia and Billy)

These, like Jim Mac's below, are thesort of complicated, composed-soundinghornpipes which appealed to theCliffords in the 50s and 60s. They werelearned from Paddy Moloney of DevonRoad w i t h whom they played in Crickle-wood, and the second is no.99/4 in0 'Neil l l .

J. r.esl: No Name (Julia and Billy)". :^"-. :;er. unable to f ind out anythingabout Oils r^sl so far, and Juliasan't r;z5r:^r where she got it. Itbears ~:^^ r;£e.iilance to the universalScotch Mary.

U. Set oar.;;: ;:a;:l;:.-.'s Retreat (Julia)This is one of the few set dance tunesstill heard occasionally round London.11 appears as ;:.-.a.;ar:; 's .-.etreat in0 'Nei l l l (no . 980) and this version isperformed by jimmy Power (fiddle) onIrish Dances (Bounty BY60 ijO). Julia'ssetting is rather d i f fe ren t and camefrom "around Lisheen" - the style, withits frequent slides up to the notes andgeneral mournfulness may have beencharacteristic of older Lisheen and

Gneevgullia players as we hear itagain in Pol Ha' penny (HC side 2 track2) and in the slides, on HC side 2track 5, all of which also came fromLisheen. For this recording Juliawas using a fiddle tuned over a tonebelow concert pitch.

5- Jigs: Connie the Soldier/TheHumours of Glen (Julia and Billy)

The Cliffords regard both these as"real Lisheen" but the first at leastis pretty common elsewhere. It wasrecorded by John McKenna and MichaelGaffney in 1934 (Decca W4233) and isno.67 in 0 'Nei l l l . John Coakleyrecorded it in July 1976 from SonnyRiordan of Gneevgullia who called itThe Slopes of Sllabh Luaehra but thiscould be a mistake as Denis Murphy etal. consistently used this name foranother jig (see Treoir Vol.5 no.3).John Clifford originally had no namefor the second jig and has called itThe Humours of Glen since it wasident i f ied as such by a f r iend in the1950s. This was probably a mistake asthis is not the tune which appearsunder the name in 0'Neilll or thewell-known piece from Willie Clancydiscussed in Ceol vol.4,no.1, p.22.Denis Murphy used to play the tune asThe Cull en J ig ( Port Cull l in uiChapimh, see Treoir vol.6, no.3)

6. Air : The palatine's Daughter(John and Julia)

This is quite a well-known song inMunster. John and Julia first heardit from their schoolmaster inGneevgullia, Dfarmuid Cronin, whosang a macaronic version. Years laterin London they could only rememberparts of it so obtained the music fromWalton's music shop in Dublin andre-learned it. They used to play thetune in a medley with other songs suchas Will you come to the Bower? For atext, background information on the

song, and who the Palatines weresee D.O'Sullivan, Songs of the Irish(1960) pp.68-70.

7. Hornpipe: Jim Mac 's (Billy)John and Julia got to know JimMclnerney of Castlemahon when theylived in Newcastle West. He was atrained musician and learned tunes(not only dance music) from books.This hornpipe sounds very Victorian-bookish, but Julia says Jim Mac toldher he got it from a travellingfiddler from Kerry. She passed it onto Billy who is the only one of thethree who now remembers it in full,

8. J ig : Cherish the Ladies (Juliaand Billy)

This was common round Lisheen, thoughpossibly only since the recordings byPaddy Killoran and his Pride of ErinOrchestra (Varsity 7008, 1932) andMichael Coleman ( I r ish Decca WLfllft,1935) became available. I t is no.29in 0 'Neill l .

9. Hornpipe: The Harlequin (Juliaand Billy)

This came from Padraig and I havefound no other references to it.

10. Reels: The old Bush/Within aMile of Dublin (Tr io)

The Cl i f fords learned the f irst ofthese in London, no doubt directly orindirectly from the Canny/Hayes/0'Loughlin LP mentioned above. It hadpreviously been recorded by GerryMoloney and Tommy Whyte of theBallinakill Band in 1930 (ParlophoneE3722). Within a Mile of Dublin waslearned at an earlier stage and isno. 730 in 0'Neilll. It was recorded,though not under this name, by theScots accordeonists Peter Kyper (RegalC69&4, c.1906) and James Brown(Zonophone 1150, 1912) and by GeorgeHalpin ( f iddle) on Columbia 33216F(20s)LEFT: The Cl i f fords with Mick Nash andCharlie Rose. R I G H T : John Cl i f fo rd , Bet tyJackson, Mick Nash. Both at AISC c. 1950.

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*•-*-.«*.**--—

THE HUMOURS OF LISHEENJohn and Julia CliffordTopic 12TS311Side One ves recorded at Reg Hall'shouse, Croydon, on 17 January 1976with Reg on piano.Unlike most otherpresent-day musicians the Cliffordshave tended not to rely much onaccompanists ( I encountered no pianistsnor, mercifully, guitarists in SliabhLuachra) so the piano is perhaps alittle foreign to their music. But itis interesting to contrast theseperformances with their unaccompaniedtunes and with other recordings madeunder exactly similar conditionswith Reg Hall on piano (e.g. MartinByrnes, Leader LEA 2004 or SeamusTansey, Leader LEA 2005). The pianohere is certainly expertly unobtrusiveand adds bounce to the Cl i f fords 'rather fluid playing - the experiencereminded them of London dancenall days.A Revox tape recorder and Calrecmicrophones produced rich, full-sounding recordings which are, as ithappens, a little less true to l i fethan the f ield recordings by me usingUher/AKG equipment which make up sidetwo (see sleeve for full details).Again the preponderance of solos byJulia is largely accidental - she wasavailable to record more often andproduced such a wealth of unusualand interesting tunes (frequentlyprompted by John's good memory) thata record devoted to the music theylearned in Sliabh Luachra suggesteditself.SIDE ONE (Reg Hall plays piano on alltracks except no. 5)1. Jigs: The Humours of Lisheen/Art

0 ' K e e f e ' s (Julia)Julia learned these as a girl and theyboth appear to be local Lisheen tunes.She imagines she must be one of the onlypeople to play the second one - it wasone of Tom Billy's which Art 0 'Keefepicked up and then gave to Julia, butDenis and the rest didn' t bother tolearn i t .

2. Polkas: The blue Riband/MerryGirl (John and Julia)

These are two of the few polkas whichJohn has remembered over the years.He learned the first from Dan Leary,one of Tom Billy's pupils who nowplays regularly with one of the best-known "modern" Sliabh Luachraaccordeonists, Jimmy Doyle. Dan got itfrom the recording by Mike Hanafin(of Callanafersy nr. Killorglin,Co .Kerry)and Danny Moroney on Columbia 3320F-Merry Girl almost certainly came fromthe recording by John McKenna andMichael Gaffney ( I r ish Decca W4188,1934)- The title Up and away appearson the record sleeve and label butthis is a deliberate mistake toconfuse discographers of the future 1McKenna and Gaffney recorded Up andAway on the 1934 disc wi th Merry Girland Tony Engle and I had becomefamiliar with the medley throughits re-issue on Folkways FW8821. Wegot the titles mixed and only noticedthis at the last minute.

3. Hornpipe: The Frisco (John andJulia)

Like The Harlequin on SMT this camefrom Padraig and I have found no otherinformation about it. Denis Murphy andJohnny Leary were also still playingit recently.

4. J ig: Biddy Crowley's Ball (Jul ia)Julia learned this from her father andhad no name for it. Our name comesfrom the flute player Mick Cronin ofGneevgullia (Paddy Cronin's brother)who played it for John Coakley inAugust 1976. The tune is generallyquite similar to the Scottish countrydance tune I lost my love and I carenot which the McCusker Brothers(Armagh) recorded on HMV BD1325( 1954) •

5. Air: The bold Tralnor 0/Slide:No Name (Julia)

Julia learned this air from the singingof her mother and does not associate itwith Padraig. O 'Ne i l l gives a versionin Wai f s and Strays of Irish Melody(1922) p. 41 and D..J.O'Sullivan, TheBunting Collection of Irish Folk Musicand Songs pt.4 (Journal of the IrishFolksong Society, vol.26 (1932), p.5)also prints it in association with thesong Ullleagan Dubh 0 and gives lengthynotes. The air is perhaps most commonlyfound attached to the Napoleonic balladThe Green Linnet. Julia's performance,as one might expect, follows the tunerather more closely than some ofPadraig's more complex arrangements.

A transcript of this slide appears inTreoir vol.3 no.1 p.12 ( top ) and it is•one of Julia's favourites.

6. Reels: Tap the Barrel/Jennytie the Bonnet (John and Julia)

The Cl i f fo rds say they got Tap theBarrel from the Moloneys ofTemple giantine and it is the onlyone of Julia's tunes to appear inCRE2 (no.226). This version isvery similar to Rolling in the Barrelon the Canny/Hayes/0'Loughlin LP.Jenny tie the Bonnet or morenormally Tie the Bonnet was recordedby The Four Provinces Orchestra(0'Byrne de W i t t 39034 c.1924) andanother version appears as O'Neil l!no.606.

7. J ig: Cailin an Ti Mhoir (Julia)This j ig, usually called TheHousekeeper in English, is apparentlya Munster tune with a long history;Breandan Breathnach, who recorded itfrom Denis Murphy, includes it inCRE2 as no.40. It seems likely thatthe Waivers' version came from TomBilly as, for instance, thecharacteristic rapid notes linkingthe end of the second part with there-commenced first part follow thesame pattern as those linking thesecond and third parts of the well-known jig from Tom Billy transcribedas no.48 in CRE2 and played by Denisand Julia on SAG.

8. Polka: No Name (John and Julia)This has perhaps become a little lesscommon than it ves when John used toplay it round Gneevgullia and Bally-desmond. John Coakley recorded itfrom Joe Conway, a great old-styleaccordeon player from Knocknagullanenear Rathmore. He calls it the SpailpinFanach which is also the name of awell-known song.

9. Hornpipes: Freddy Klmmel's/TheHome Brew (John and Julia)

The Cliffords originally learnedboth these from Padraig. The namingof the first one is curious: theysay it must have come from a recordby "Freddy Kimmel", by whom theymust mean John Kimmel (accordeon) ofBrooklyn who recorded prolif icallyin the early years of the century;but Reg Hall possesses or knows ofvirtually his whole output and thishornpipe does not appear in it.Sonny Riordan of Tureen Cahill( f iddle) , another pupil of Padraig's,was recorded by John Coakley playingthis same combination of tunes andhe called the f i rs t Delahaunty's. TheHome Brew is very common in and outof Sliabh Luachra and was firstrecorded by Frank Quinn ( f i d d l e ) onColumbia 33003F in about 1925. Johnand Julia still play it frequently.

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ABOVE: Dan Leary, Julia and JohnCl i f fo rd , Jimmy 0'Bri en in O'Brien 'sBar, Killarney, July 1976THE HUMOURS. OF LISHEEN continued.SIDE TWO1. Polka: Padralg 0 'Keefe 's (Julia)Appropriately recorded at Padraig'sold haunt, Jack Lyons's, Scartaglen,the name of this tune was made up forthis occasion. The extra beat at the endof the first part suggests that itwould not normally have been used forpolka sets, and John Clifford rememberstrying to play it for this purpose withdisastrous results.lt sounds like aVictorian composed piece of the sortwhich caught on in the rural south ofEngland via the old village bands andstring ensembles.

2. Hornpipe: Pol Ha'penny (John andJulia)

A version of this appears as a set dancetune i n O ' N e i i n (no.983) but theCliffords, who learned it in Lisheen,play it as a regular hornpipe, often inconjunction with other tunes. A ratherdifferent version under the name MollyMcAlpine was recorded by the FourProvinces Orchestra in 192ii (Vocalion1493D-

3. Jigs: John Mahlnney's No.2/The Ducksand the Oats (Julia)

The first of these is one of the manyvariants of Brian 0'Lynn but issufficiently di f ferent from printed andrecorded versions to convince one thati t does not derive from them- The secondseems to be quite a well-known tune too,but I have not so far traced an obvioussource or more usual name. This name wasinvented by Johnny Darby, Bill theWaiver's neighbour in Lisheen. JohnCoakley recorded it from Jack Cornellof Ballydesmond who calls it The Maidof the Mountains.

14, Polka: I looked east and I lookedwest (Julia)

Julia learned this in Lisheen and hadno name for it. Maurice 0 'Keefe gave itthis name when he played it for JohnCoakley in July 1976.

5 . Slides: No Name/The worn tornPetticoat (Julia)

Julia says Padraig took the second of

what are called the "Ballydesmond"Polkas on SAG and "made a slide ofit", producing the first of thesetwo tunes - she is certainly rightabout the similarity between thepolka (which Art 0'Keefe callsMaurice Manley's, see CRE2 no. 117)and this slide. The worn tornPetticoat is said to be a variant ofthe reel The old torn Petticoatand is one of the most common slidesheard in Sliabh Luachra today.

6. Air: Talmse i m'chodladh (is MaDuisigh M e ) ( J u l i a )

Julia plays Padraig's version here. Thetitle means "I am asleep and don'twaken me" and in the words of the song,the singer requests not to be wakenedas he is dreaming in symbolic terms ofthe liberation of Ireland from Englishdomination. Various texts are availablein print e.g. S. a n d M . O'Baoill,Ceolta Gael (1975) P«91» and it seems tobe quite a common song, this being themost common of the airs to which it issung.

*

7. Slide: No Name (Julia)This delicate-sounding tune is stillplayed in Knocknagree though JohnnyLeary's treatment is rather more beefy.The CCE in Dublin have a tapedperformance of this by Denis which isalmost identical to Julia's here.

8. Polkas: Julia Cl i f ford ' s /Bi l l theWaiver's (Julia)

Both these came from Julia's fatheroriginally and the names were made upto go on the record. Denis usedhabitually to play "Bill the Waiver's"af ter a different polka, recorded fromhim by Breadan Breathnach and printedin Ceol vol.2 no.ii p. 100 as "A polkareel", and his version had quite a fewminor differences from Julia's, perhapsunder the influence of Johnny Leary. Ihave not heard or heard of anyone otherthan Julia playing "Julia Clifford 's"which seems to be quite a rarity now.She displays some very delicate andprecise finger-work in this performance.

9. Jig:No Name (Julia)I can say no more about this than thatJulia says she got it from Padraig andthat it is "typical Lisheen".

10. Hornpipe: Johnny Cope (Julia)This is referred to as a hornpipefor convenience though if Julia'sperformance is anything, to go byit would have been more for listeningthan dancing to. Julia is playing afiddle tuned down more than a toneand on every occasion I have heardher play the piece she has startedvery slowly and gradually gatheredspeed as she does here.

Johnny Cope was originally a Scotsreel which was later used as thetune for a Jacobite song and isstill a favourite marching-bandstandby. This slowed-down six-partarrangement, made up of imaginativevariations on the original, isattributed to Padraig and I havefound no evidence to suggestotherwise. I f ind the melody of thesecond part and the device ofchanging key for the f i f t h andsixth parts particularly striking.Of those we visited the only otherlocal musician with a version wasJoe Conway who played the standardmarch as a "quadrille polka" andalso the last two parts of Padraig'sversion as a barn dance which henamed The Doon Roses. Several ofPadraig's pupils had not heard ofit when we asked them, and in factJulia may be the only one stillplaying it regularly.

Seamus Ennis learned it fromPadraig and Liam O'Flynn, formerly ofthe group Planxty, now makes agreat job of it on the pipes havingpicked it up via this route.Comhaltas stalwarts Ann Sheehy andNicky McAuliffe also have versionslearned indirectly, and a trans-cript from Julia's playing wasprinted in Treoir vol.7 no.3.

11. Polka: John Cl i f fo rd ' s / J ig :Behind the Bush in the Garden/Slide: Going for Water

These were recorded when John andJulia played for a set at DanCornell's during our visit in July1976. John Cl i f ford ' s is stillknown as such by local musicianswho remember him playing it in theold days. The other two are localstandards. All three tunes have beensomewhat edited for inclusion here.

29

APPENDIX C: Other records featuringPadraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy & the CliffordsTHE BALLINAMORE CEILIDH BANDC. Higgins, J. Forde, D, MurphyCeltic CI 1047 (78 rpm recorded andissued in New York c. 1948)Farewell to Whiskey/The Dark Girldressed in Blue; Bag of Potatoes/Rakish Paddy

I know nothing about Denis 's fellowmusicians at this session; f iddle ,flute, piano and drums are audible.The presence of the ever-popularMCKenna/Morrison polkas may indicatesome connection with Sliabh Luachra,but Denis 's playing can't be hearddistinctly and the band as a wholedoes not remind one of Sliabh Luachraensembles, if only because of thepiano and drums. A further selectionrecorded by the same band, probablyat the same time, appeared on FiestaFLPS1475 (an LP issued in US) IrishSet Dance: Kerry by the "Frank FallenOrchestra". Most of the tracks are nodoubt by the Fallen band but one isclearly the "Ballinamore CeilidhBand" wi th a lot of reverb added.They play the j i g Lonigan's Ball andi t ' s possible that this and/or othermaterial had also previously beenissued by Celtic. (This nice detectivework is by Reg Hall.)

THE LARK IN THE MORNINGTradition TLP 1004 (LP, recorded atvarious "field" locations in Irelandby Diane Hamilton, 1955)Padraig 0 'Keefe : J i g ; Denis Murphy;Hornpipe and Hornpipe + 19 furthertracks by other performers

This was the f i rs t and only recordingof O ' K e e f e to be available until KF.Hi s " j ig" is in fact the slide whichhas become known as Denis Murphy's,butPadraig's version is rather d i f fe ren tin its second part from that whichhas become popular.

On side 1 track 8 Denis contributesnot a hornpipe biia reel, the name ofwhich I don' t know - it is a greatperformance in his best 1950s manner.On side 2 track 9 the "hornpipe" isin fact two hornpipes, Byrnes andThe Rights of Man both of which camefrom Padraig (see KF) whose settings,as usual, are closely followed thoughat a quick pace and wi th regularbouncy rhythm.

This record is still available andmust have been a pioneer when it f irstappeared.Recording quality anddocumentation fall short of recentstandards, however.30

TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF IRELAND Vol. 1:The older Traditions of Connemaraand ClareFolkways FW8781 (LP recorded atvarious locations in Ireland bySam Charters, 1960. Denis Murphyrecorded at Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry,Oct. 1960)Denis Murphy:The Queen of 0'Donne 11+ 9 tracks by other performers

This record and its companion volume(see below)contain good music but theaccompanying notes are superficiallyresearched with many authoritative-sounding half-truths. Denis 'sperformance is strong and dramatic,and follows closely Padraig's settingof the lament as on KF. The mistakeover its t i t le is covered in the KFnotes (above,p.24). Quite how Denisfound his way into the traditions ofConnemara and Clare remains a mystery.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF IRELAND Vol. 2:Songs and Dances from Down, Kerry andClareFolkways FW8782 (recording data asabove)Denis Murphy: O 'Re i l ly ' s Grave (slowai r ) ; The Mountain Road (reel) + 14tracks by other performers

This performance of 0 'Rahilly'sGrave is strong and dynamic, againclosely following Padraig's setting

and style, i t is I think the onlyexample of a tune which both Denisand Julia can be heard playing soloon record; Julia's version is onSAG. It really is interesting tocompare the two and see how thepupils interpret their caster'soriginal work.

DENIS MURPHY and SEAN as HORAGael-Linn CE11 (7& r;r. recorded?c. 1960, Dubl in)Denis Murphy:Cra Croi An Phiobaire/Ri l An Chinneidigh -s:r.g :y de Hora

DENIS MURPHY and JOE HEANEYGael-Linn CE4 (as above)Denis Murphy:Rogha Chiarrai/AnCoirneal Frazer/An Bad Gaile+ song by Heaney

More great reels from Denis!

PADDY IN THE SMOKETopic 12T176 (LP recorded by BillLeader over a period in 1967 atThe Favourite, a prominent LondonIrish music pub.)Julia Clifford with Con Curtin andDenis McMahon (fiddles): Tne chorusReel + 15 tracks by other performers

BELOW: Denis Murphy with NealyVaughan, postmaster and whistle-player of Ballydesmond, c. 1965

I

I

This is Cal Callaghan's Thecelebrated Opera (see p.25 col.3) butJulia can't be heard individuallyagainst the other two and the perform-ance has more of Con Cur t in ' s fast andfurious sound to i t .

THE STAR ABOVE THE GARTERDenis Murphy and Julia C l i f f o r dCladdagh CC5 (If _ recorded by GeneMartin at Peter Hunt Studios, Dublin71968.)

Jigs: Rathawaun (should be Rathduane)/The Hare in the Corn; Hornpipes:0'Mahony's/The Stack of Barley;+Reels:The Morning Star/Rolling in the Rye-grass; Polkas: Farewell to Whiskey/The Dark Girl (dressed in Blue); Jigs:Tom Billy's; Slides: Dan 0 ' K e e f e ' s ;++Air: O'Rahil ly 's Grave; Reels:Seanbhean na gCartai/Tom Billy's;Polkas: The Ballydesmond Polkas;+Air:The Blackbird; Reels: The Lady on theIsland/Callaghan's;+Jigs: The MunsterJig/Munster Buttermilk; Polkas: TheKnocknabower (ie Knocknaboul) Polkas;Reels: Johnny when you die/Anythingfor John-Joe ;++Air: An Raibh tu ag angCarraig; Jigs: Padraig 0 'Keefe 's/TheScartaglen Jig;+Horppipe: The Fisher-man's ; Reels:The Galtee Rangers/TheGlentaun (Glauntane) Reel;+Air:CaoineUi Dhonaill; Slides: The Star abovethe Garter/The Li sheen Slide

(words in brackets=c0rr9ctions by me;+ =solo by Denis,++ =solo by Julia)

Claddagh had a hard job persuadingDenis to make these recordings, butthe e f f o r t was well worth-while: thisLP will remain one of the all-timeclassic records of traditional Irishfiddle music. Superficially it ismarred by an arty pseudo-primitivepicture on the sleeve which I knowputs a lot of people o f f , and bypoor pressing quality. The notes bySean Mac Reamoinn give outlineinformation, coloured by ratherfanciful references to the culturalinheritance of Sliabh Luachra. Themusic is however uniformly f irstclass, a magnificent achievementresulting from a one-day session ina studio.Overall there is a rathermournful character to the tuneswhich isn't so marked on KF whichemanated from more informal surround-ings and perhaps more carefree times.All the airs and hornpipes are takendirectly from Padraig's settings, andthe expected characteristics - playingin octaves, strongly accented rhythmetc. - are all here in abundance. Allthe items included were old favouriteswi th the performers and the recordis thus a very adequate memento ofa great partnership. AS in real l i fe ,Denis tends to dominate in the duets

ABOVE: The Star of Munster Trio with Lucy Farr (second from l e f t ) at theFavourite, Holloway, c. 1965.

and Julia plays the "bass" whereverit is featured except in The LlsheenSlide. Denis also gets a largershare of the solos - the ratherrougher sound of his reels comparedwith 50s tapes is evident - butJulia's two airs are both well-exec-uted in her restrained manner.

FLEADH CHEOIL Na hEIREANN, LIOSTUATHAIL, 1970Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann CL3(LP recorded at the ListowelFleadh, 1970)Denis Murphy, Johnny 0 'Leary(accordeon), M i c k Duggan ( f i d d l e ) :A Kerry Slide (only a snatch);Billy C l i f f o r d : Tom Billy's j ig ;Reel: Sliabh Maol + c. 8 furthertracks wi th numerous otherperformers.

Billy won the "senior f lute" onthis occasion but these performancesare a bit lifeless.

DOLLYDolly MacMahon accompanied by DenisMurphy, Paddy Moloney and MichaelTubridyCladdagh CC3 (LP recorded as CC5,on ?date, issued 1972)

Denis as session musician. He playsquite a prominent part in somesongs and his contribution is aarguably the best thing on thisotherwise rather indifferent record.

31