At home with Zoe Conway

Just off the motorway heading into Dundalk in County Louth there’s a farm – the family home of the Conway family. It has splendid views over to the Cooley and Mourne Mountains. This, for some time, has been the family home of Zoe Conway, although she’ll be moving out of here soon.

About to set off on some gigs and a round of promotional activities to support her new solo album, she explains her forthcoming move. “I got married very recently and we’re just waiting for our new house in Omeath to be renovated and we might be into it by Christmas.”
Not that Conway is in a hurry to get away. “The house isn’t huge. It’s a solid two-storey building that my brother did a lot of work on. We’ve lived here for 15 years since I was seven. The family moved from an estate in Dundalk and it was a great novelty, all the fields, the apple trees, the space and no houses around us. I love it here, especially the views.”
Being a farm, you might expect to find a few animals – and you’d be right. “We have some cattle but they’re not for milk or breeding but for show," she says. "We don’t grow crops either, but I recently planted a lot of trees. I love trees.”
Apart from the cattle, which Conway describes as “more like pets”, there seems to only one animal, a dog called Gnasher, named after the mutt in the Beano comic, and who looks like a variation on a Jack Russell terrier with added bits from unspecified sources.
The apples are useful for the apple tarts Conway likes to bake, and you can usually smell the fruits of her labours about the house. But the kitchen has other uses too. “I did most of the writing and preparation for my new album in the kitchen," she says. "I recorded the album not far away in Omeath and it kind of worked out organically. I tend to work best in a cosy place I’m used to rather than any kind of special workroom.”
But other than that, it’s not a house full of music. “Sometimes I like silence. I prefer to sit down and listen to music or not listen at all. If I was making the dinner, for instance, I wouldn’t have music on. I don’t really play music just to have something on in the background. But I listen to a lot of music in the car, especially when I’m on the road. I tend not to play music in the house that much either.”
The house is generally tidy, and the worst example of untidiness might be a suitcase lying around the place. “I like to think I’m a tidy person, but I hate unpacking after being on the road, so there’s often a suitcase staring at me for weeks before I get around to it.”
But one thing you won’t miss is a very large Robert Ballagh painting. “It’s about eight feet high and features a little girl," she says. "I love it.”
Another painting in the house relates more closely to Conway’s own career.
“It’s by JB Valelly and it’s typical of the kind of paintings he does of traditional musicians. We got it years ago and it has pride of place in the house.”
Dundalk is only ten minutes away and that’s where she gets her regular music fix.
“The Spirit Store is a great venue and I go there a lot when I’m not on the road," she says. "One of the most memorable gigs I saw there was with Martin Hayes and Denis Cahill. It was brilliant.”
Anything else she requires is generally available in the town and she has many personal friends there too, so despite living on a farm she’s in no way caught in a life of isolation.
She also fancies a good curl-up on the sofa to watch television. “I tend to watch a few documentaries and comedy programmes like Father Ted or Friends. But having said that, there’s probably a few episodes of Father Ted I haven’t yet seen. But I love radio.“
Apart from when she’s on tour, she doesn’t get much time for reading, although there’s a sprinkling of books about the house.
“I read a lot on tour. McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy was a great book to take on the road when I was overseas because it reminded me so much of home. But I also like reading thought-provoking books like The Road Less Travelled by Scott M Peck. And I’m also about to start The Inner Game Of Music. So I like a mixture of light reading and the heavier stuff.”
Despite her wizardry on the fiddle, you might look around in vain for sight of a musical instrument.
“I used to have three fiddles hanging from hooks on the wall until I told my music teacher and she was horrified in case they got damaged. So now I keep them safely locked in their cases.”
Apart from her violins and the Valelly painting, her most precious possession is her diary. “I have a small leather book and I try to use it to keep a diary of where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the places and the gigs I’ve done, so it’s great to have something to trigger the memories. I don’t write it up every day, but I try to update it as often as I can and I also keep photos with it.”
But in the end, you can’t help suspecting that for all her travels, Conway is a real home bird. “Yes, I suppose that’s true, actually," she admits. "While I love playing music and seeing different parts of the world, in the end the farm here is a kind of place to retreat to and I love nothing better than to come home and cook the dinner.”