Magical mystery tour

The award for longest and maddest launch party ever surely must go to singer/guitarist Dave Donohoe, who set his debut album Milestone loose upon the world on Sunday 2 February. Taking part in the marathon mobile session were a host of musicians and singers, including Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (who wrote the liner notes for the CD) and Dermot Byrne of Altan, Seán and Breda Smyth, piper Cillian Vallely of Lúnasa, Solas accordion player Mick McAuley, Oisín MacAuley of Danú, and mandolin and fiddle player Paul Kelly of Malgamú Records fame.

The merry contingent boarded the bus known as the Cube, Ireland’s Only Moving Venue (kindly provided by Mark French) at noon and headed off to their first destination – the pub owned by Gráinne Lunny (sister of Donal) and John Coffey in Clough, Co. Kilkenny. Later that evening, the party moved on to Clancy’s Bar in Athy, Co. Kildare, where they played on until 1 a.m. Back on the bus, a small diehard contingent headed up by Byrne, Vallely and Seán Smyth (Dave himself having lost his voice some hours earlier), kept the session going all the way home. “If the Harcourt had still been open when we got back, I’d say somebody would have been hospitalised,” says Dave.

Four of Dave’s loyal supporters weren’t able to make it along to the launch, but only because they were understandably occupied with other matters: warm congratulations to accordionist Josephine Marsh and harmonica wizard Mick Kinsella on the arrival of their baby Jack, born Thursday 23 January, and to Altan’s Ciarán Tourish and his wife Siobhán, who gave birth to Richie (8 lbs 12 oz) on Friday the 24th. Cigars all round, then!

On 29 January, the Music Board of Ireland (MBI) unveiled two publications – The Economic Significance of the Irish Music Industry and Shaping The Future: A Strategic Plan for the Future of the Irish Music Industry. On hand for the announcement in the Millennium Wing of the National Gallery were the above-mentioned Dermot and Mairéad of Altan and their manager Tom Sherlock, as well as Nicholas Carolan of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, Mike Hanrahan, Shane McDonnell of Clannad, Rossa and Colm Ó Snodaigh of Kíla, Pat Collins and Michael Flynn of the Café Orchestra, and Shane Mitchell, Cathy Jordan, Liam Kelly and Tom Morrow of Dervish – not to mention our own esteemed Editor. Members of the MBI include several representatives of the folk/trad sector, notably Stockton’s Wing founding member Kieran Hanrahan, composer and fiddler Charlie Lennon, and Nuala O’Connor, author of Bringing It All Back Home and Director of Hummingbird Productions.

I managed to catch up with Nuala during the launch and heard news of several intriguing new projects. Having just finished documentaries about Mary Black and Sinéad O’Connor, she’s working at the moment on a “performance-led documentary” about Thomas Moore, author of the famous Moore’s Irish Melodies – the source of such classic ‘parlour ballads’ as ‘Oft In The Stilly Night’ and ‘The Last Rose Of Summer’.

“We’re trying to get musicians, artists, singers not associated in the public mind with that kind of material to do it,” she explains, “because it’s usually viewed as sort of antiquated Irish tenor repertoire, if anything. He’s a forgotten figure, really.”

The following evening saw the inaugural meeting of the new Musicians’ Union of Ireland, which came about as a result of two independent initiatives by groups of musicians. The first group, led by Greg Boland (formerly of Scullion) and also including such well-known artists as Des Moore, Philip Myatt and Michael Buckley, had been attempting to set up a body that would have the legal right to negotiate rates of pay and conditions for freelance professional musicians. “People are being paid the same exact amounts now as they were paid fifteen years ago,” says Boland, “and I’d like to point out that the economy has changed slightly since then! It’s becoming a non-viable profession. The year before last, I played in the National Concert Hall with the National Concert Orchestra, Ronnie Drew, Sinéad O’Connor and various others, on New Year’s Eve, broadcast live on radio. I was paid just under a hundred quid, and it was taxed. You say to yourself, is this it?”

In the midst of attempting to register a claim for the new organisation with the Register of Friendly Societies, Boland et al heard from Donal Lunny and singer Melanie O’Reilly, who had recently had a meeting with Des Geraghty, President of SIPTU – a traditional musician himself, and co-founder of the Clé Club, the weekly Monday night folk club at Liberty Hall.

“SIPTU was offering to provide infrastructure, experience and expertise at the negotiating table and an umbrella under which any dispute had the credible backup of a major trade union,” Greg explains. Once the project had been approved, a larger meeting took place at Liberty Hall, attended by members of both groups as well as other interested parties, including Steve Cooney of FACÉ (Filí, Amhránaithe & Ceoltóirí na h-Éireann) and Paddy Glackin; this in turn led to the meeting at the National Concert Hall on Thursday 30 January, attended by 50-odd musicians and singers, at which the new union was officially formed, with Boland as its President.

On Friday 31 January, Open House presented a celebration of Céilí House, the longest-running music programme in the history of RTÉ. Kieran Hanrahan, the show’s presenter, welcomed a plethora of guests: the young Waterford-based band Danú, singer Sean Ó Sé (who performed on the first Céilí House programme way back in 1959), fiddling sisters Liz and Yvonne Kane, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (who now gets the award for the most mentions in one instalment of this column), and Donal O’Connor, John Connolly and Louise Mulcahy from the Brosna Céilí Band, among others. By all accounts, it was quite an event.

Paul Lee, promoter of the much-loved and sadly missed Cobblestone concerts, is still on the lookout for a new long-term venue, as the Cobblestone itself appears to be no longer an option following its closure on fire safety grounds. For the moment, concerts are taking place at a variety of sites including Mother Redcap’s (check www.musiclee.ie for full listings) – but if anyone knows of a pub with a quiet upstairs room that would be suitable as a listening venue for folk and acoustic music, let me know and I’ll pass it on to Paul!