Council of war

Happy New Year, all. It’s been an eventful time in the world of traditional music, thanks in large part to the controversial move in Section 21 of the proposed Arts Bill (still at committee stage) to establish a standing committee with funding powers to oversee Arts Council spending on the traditional arts – effectively creating a separate Arts Council for traditional music. Since my last report on the subject, the debate has been raging in the Dáil, on the radio and, perhaps most entertainingly, in the letters page of the Irish Times, where accusations flew back and forth in swift succession.

Leading the charge in favour of Section 21 was Brian Prior of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann – the organisation that has throughout the process been the chief advocate of the proposed traditional arts committee, and whose director-general, Labhrás Ó Murchú, is a Senator and member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee evaluating the Bill. Prior’s allegation of “undemocratic elitism” on the part of the Arts Council was followed by a stiff retort from the Council’s Dermot McLoughlin, who pointed to its “provision for awards to traditional artists for training and master classes, for resource organisations like Na Píobairí Uilleann, for archives, a network of summer schools, support for recordings and publications, for collaborative works with Údaras na Gaeltachta, and for concert promotion”.

Later in the fray, musician Colm McAnthony accused the Arts Council of having “looked down on traditional music as ‘inferior’ or ‘culchie music’”; this drew a reply from no less a personage than Arts Council Director Patricia Quinn herself, saying that “the most casual perusal of our published Arts Plan will demonstrate that our commitment to the traditional arts is not in question, and his imputation of exclusionary policies on our part is nonsense.”

Finally, on December 5, a delegation of Irish musicians, including Christy Moore, Paddy Moloney, Paul Brady, Liam O’Flynn, and Maighread and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, showed up at the gates of Leinster House to register their protest against Section 21. To the astonishment and delight of many in the traditional music community, the protest evidently had the desired effect: One week later, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O’Donoghue, made a public statement that “It is not right to ring-fence traditional Irish arts, as it will stagnate and ghettoise them… I’m not happy with the legislation as it stands. In my opinion it should be changed.”

That would seem to have been an end to the matter, except that according to the transcription on the Oireachtas website of a debate that took place in Seanad Éireann on December 18, Senator Ó Murchú voiced his support for a debate on the Bill, going on to say: “I have nothing against the Chieftains or Paul Brady and I am pleased they have made millions” (and no doubt the Chieftains and Paul Brady were pleased that the Senator was pleased). The Cathaoirleach assured Ó Murchú that there would indeed be such a debate, and indicated that further comment on the matter should be reserved for when the time came… So the story ain’t over yet. Stay tuned.

The final months of 2002 saw the passing of two vital figures in the world of traditional music. On 27 November, uilleann piper Seán Seery died at age 76. A member in the 1940s and ’50s of the Leo Rowsome Quartet, along with Willie Clancy, Séamus Ennis and Jack Wade, he also was the leader of the Kincora Céilí Band, and went on to become a fixture of the legendary Sunday morning sessions at Slattery’s in Capel Street, as well as a noted teacher of the pipes and mainstay of Na Píobairí Uilleann. His death was followed on December 6 by that of Paddy Tunney, the great traditional singer, collector, composer and author of the seminal books The Stone Fiddle and Where Songs Do Thunder. Both men will be remembered and missed.

On a more personal note, heartfelt sympathy to Dervish and all those associated with the band on the tragic loss of their longtime sound engineer and dear friend Finn Corrigan, who suffered a freak accident at home on Monday, December 23, and passed away on Christmas morning. “Any success Dervish have achieved owes so much to Finn,” members of the band wrote in a joint statement. “He shaped the sound we made.” A book of condolences has been opened on the group’s website at www.dervish.ie.

The husband-and-wife team of Maria and Simon O’Dwyer, working under the collective name Prehistoric Music Ireland, have released a CD on which they play musical instruments from Ireland’s Bronze Age, Iron Age and Early Medieval eras. Entitled Old To New, the album was launched at the National Museum of Ireland and features such instruments as the adharc, dord ard and dord íseal (all Bronze Age horns) and ‘Mayophone’ – an Early Medieval free reed horn found in County Mayo. For more information on the project, check out www.prehistoricmusic.com.

The special guests were out in force for the Woods Band gig at Vicar Street on December 21. Joining Terry Woods and his cohorts onstage were Phil Chevron and Spider Stacey of the Pogues, as well as Ronnie Drew, who gave a characteristically gravel-voiced rendition of ‘The Dublin Jack Of All Trades’ and ‘The Irish Rover’. Nonetheless, some audience members may have been disappointed, as Shane MacGowan had been hotly tipped to turn up but failed to show on the night.

The success of Kíla’s Christmas Show at Vicar St. was marred by an unfortunate incident at the end of the night in which Rossa Ó Snódaigh’s Greek bouzouki went missing from the stage. The instrument has been used on all the group’s recordings over the years. “This is the first time in Kíla’s history something like this has happened,” said the band. We would dearly love to get the bouzouki back, and if anyone knows anything, please, please contact us in confidence.” Further information on the missing bouzouki, as well as a photo and confidential contact details, are on www.kila.ie.

I’ve recently come across an extremely handy Web site devoted to traditional music and musicians: www.tradmusic.com. The site contains databases of artists, groups and instrument makers, a global ‘Gig Guide’, a traditional music ‘Discussion Group’, and trad links as well as original articles, an archived ‘News’ section bringing together traditional music news and reviews from all the major press, and a ‘Shop’ selling CDs and various other products. I’m well impressed – check it out yourself.