Between the jigs and the reels.

In the early months, debate over the role of the government in regulating traditional music funding made headlines even in the national press, thanks to the proposal in Section 21 of the Arts Bill 2002 to establish a standing committee with funding powers to oversee Arts Council spending on the traditional arts.
On the government side was the powerful dreadnought of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, whose director-general, Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú, sat on the Joint Oireachtas Committee evaluating the Bill. Leading the opposition was a coalition of musicians and industry figures, a number of whom had shown up at the gates of Leinster House in December of 2002 to register their objections to Section 21.
In an encouraging proof of the effectiveness of popular protest, the plan was eventually abandoned, although the revised bill did reserve the right to set up temporary committees to deal with specific areas (such as traditional music) and to make recommendations – but not decisions – as to what elements should be funded, and how.
During the review process leading up to that decision, the proceedings in the Dáil and Seanad made for highly entertaining reading, with Minister for the Arts John O’Donoghue describing the traditional arts as “a gentle flower to be nurtured, which should not be transplanted to any dark part of the garden” and Fianna Fáil’s Cecilia Keaveney contributing interjections to the effect that she could “play the reel, jig or hornpipe as good as anybody”.
On December 4, the Minister announced the establishment of a Special Committee on the Traditional Arts, charged with reviewing the structures, supports and policy for traditional arts nationwide and making recommendations for the future development of the sector to the Arts Council by September 1, 2004. The committee is chaired by Jerome Hynes (deputy chair of the Arts Council); its other members are Katie Verling, director of Glór (about which more below), musician and broadcaster Micheál Ó hEidhin, Brú Ború artistic director Una Ó Murchú, and new Arts Council member Philip King of Scullion and Hummingbird Productions fame.
Another former Scullion member, guitarist Greg Boland, was one of the prime movers behind the establishment by SIPTU of a new Musicians’ Union of Ireland; other interested parties involved in the move were Donal Lunny, Steve Cooney of FACÉ (Filí, Amhránaithe & Ceoltóirí na h-Éireann), Paddy Glackin, and of course Des Geraghty – SIPTU’s president, co-founder of the Clé Club folk music series at Liberty Hall, and a traditional musician himself.
Once the new Union had been officially set up, with Boland as its president, bouzouki player Niall Ó Callanáin spearheaded the effort to form a Traditional Musicians Section of the MUI. In April an interim committee was elected, and regional meetings to get more people outside the Pale involved are still ongoing.

The major scandal of the year erupted in June, when Lúnasa circulated a statement accusing Green Linnet Records of releasing a “bootleg” version of their new album Redwood, using a faulty “copy-of-a-copy” to manufacture the album and producing cover artwork from royalty-free images downloaded from the Internet.
And that was only the tip of an iceberg that lurched into full view as fellow Green Linnet artists Altan, Cherish The Ladies, Eileen Ivers, Joanie Madden and Mick Moloney undertook a joint court action against the company on various financial issues. In October, they held a protest meeting and mini-concert outside Green Linnet headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut that drew a crowd of about 200.
While all this was happening, the label soldiered on with new releases – including a relaunch of the self-titled debut album by Teada, the quintet led by Sligo musician Oisín Mac Diarmada. The court action was just getting under way as this publication went to print, so the story’s not over by a long shot.
The year’s other notable contretemps concerned the new Glór centre in Ennis and its exclusivity policy forbidding artists performing at the centre to do shows elsewhere in Clare. Petr Pandula, the German-based music promoter who’s been running the Best Of The West concerts in Doolin for the last four years, took exception to this and went public with his views; Glór director Katie Verling responded that Glór’s catchment area did in fact include North Clare and Doolin, despite Pandula’s insistence to the contrary, and that exclusivity clauses were a routine feature of performance contracts throughout the country. The happy result of the whole affair was to give both Glór and Best Of The West a much-needed shot of publicity, as the Irish Times and other organs (including this one) reported on the dispute.
Glór went on to do its bit for discussion and debate by celebrating its second birthday with a “talking shop on traditional arts” that it promises will become an annual feature of its programme. It was one of several new events premièred during the year, the others being the inaugural ESB/NCH St Patrick’s Festival at the National Concert Hall in March and the first-ever Masters of Tradition festival at Bantry House in August. Both were great successes, despite an increasingly crowded field.
2003 was a great year for new venues. Des Charleson founded a new folk club called An Cliabhán at Conway’s pub in Parnell Street, Dublin; ex-Loyko manager Des MacCullagh took over the programming of the Thursday night Purty Sessions at Coast over the Purty Kitchen in Dun Laoghaire; and folk clubs also got under way at Creedon’s Hotel in Inchigeela, Co. Cork, and Barry’s Public House in Grange, Co. Sligo, among other places.
It looked like bad news when the Cobblestone was closed on fire safety grounds; but Paul Lee (who’d been promoting concerts at the upstairs venue) went on to start up a new series based in Mother Redcaps, while Cobblestone owner Tom Mulligan took over the organisation of gigs after refurbishments. Mulligan subsequently went into partnership with Kieran Finnerty of the Dublin Brewing Company to start up Sin É in a former solicitor’s office on Ormond Quay, with various traditional artists in residence four nights a week.
Bands went through their share of changes. Kerrywoman Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh took over from Ciarán Ó Gealbhain as lead vocalist with Danú, while guitarist Donal Clancy (formerly with Solas) replaced Noel Ryan in the band. Ironically, Donal had been a founding member of Danú; similarly, Belfast’s Craobh Rua got one of its original founders back when piper Desy McCabe returned to replace Patrick Davey.
The artists formerly known as WhirlyGig went through a change of name as well as lineup. Having learned of the existence of two other bands called ‘Whirligig’, they made an EP under the name Snub, then decided to call themselves The Scobies; they also recruited new members Tony Byrne on guitar, Gerry Fehilly (ex-Hothouse Flowers) on drums, Eoghan Scott on bass and Peter Browne on accordion.
And there were new albums, lots of them, by everybody from the Afro Celts (formerly the Afro Celt Sound System) to Sharon Shannon to Karan Casey to Kila, to name a scant few.
Finally, just as the year came to a close, Irish music fans were set alight by the news that Planxty – in the legendary lineup consisting of Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Liam O’Flynn and Christy Moore – would be reuniting for a series of concerts. With January and February Planxty shows at Glór and Vicar Street already selling out fast, it appears that 2004 will be even more exciting than its predecessor.