Art O’Keeffe (born sometime around 1903), sometimes called “Aut”, was a neighbor and family friend of the Weaver Murphys of Lisheen. As a fellow musician, he would have shared many a tune with that storied clan. It’s probable he was at least a sometime pupil of Tom Billy’s, though he could have got his music from any number of less exalted sources. He is known today as having been a whistle player, though he also could play the fiddle and was a respected singer as well. He was a member of the Lisheen Fife and Drum Band captained by Bill “The Weaver” Murphy, and long after the band was defunct he could still play the tunes and arrangements with composed passages from the old days. In 1952, when Billy Clifford was sent from his home in London to stay with his widowed grandmother, Art O’Keeffe befriended him and no doubt shared with him the music Billy’s family had played in the generations before him. In 1974 he played a tune at the funeral of Denis Murphy, but after that I have no records of his doings, and I have not been able to determine the date of his death. He was recorded singing two songs for the BBC in 1947, and also provided a number of tunes to Breandán Breathnach’s collection, but in general he was not as celebrated a personage as his neighbors, the Murphys. However, a number tunes in the common repertoire still bear his name, so in that way, at least, he left his mark on the tradition.
Mick Buckley (~1925-1950) was a student of Pádraig O’Keeffe from Knocknageeha, just north of Gneeveguilla. He was known to be a gifted musician, and could be found Sunday nights playing at the dance hall at Lackagh Cross with Pádraig, Denis Murphy, and John Clifford. Johnny O’Leary played a few polkas which he reckoned he got from Buckley. Whether he would have turned out to be as acclaimed a musician as his neighbors, we will never know, for he died of tuberculosis at a young age.
Scartaglin (affectionately shortened to “Scart”, and deriving from Scairteach an Ghlinne, meaning valley of scrub, hedge, or underbrush) is a small rural village which serves as one of the focal points of Sliabh Luachra music and culture. Situated on a small hill half way between Castleisland and Ballydesmond, it has always been a destination for music and events. Two pubs which stand abreast on the main square, Fleming’s and Lyons’, provide a welcoming space for musicians from all around. Pádraig O’Keeffe would often end up at Lyons’ after his day’s travels, and was something of a fixture there. For many years the town hosted a very popular Féile Cheoil, and not long ago the Scartaglin Heritage Centre was built to house collections of local cultural significance and to host events and gatherings. In recent years, the Handed Down series of concerts and presentations have been a big source of local pride, and the annual World Fiddle Day celebration there is quickly becoming an event not to be missed. In the center of town an impressive bust of Pádraig O’Keeffe by the late local sculptor Mike Kenny stands to remind all visitors of the major role Scartaglin plays in the musical history of Sliabh Luachra.
The Padraig O’Keeffe monument in Scart
A poster of some of the notable fiddlers that have lived in or near Scartaglin
Fiddlers at the popular World Fiddle Day celebration
Lyons’ Bar, site of many a storied evening
Julia Clifford poses in front of Lyons’ with the fiddle that was kept there for Padraig O’Keeffe
Dan O’Connell (1921-2009) was from Tureenclassaugh (usually called Tureen), just outside of Knocknagree village, Cork. He spent his youth immersed in athletics, but when it came time to retire from sport in 1957, and unable to work as a farmer due to an injury, he set his sights on the life of a publican. He took over O’Herlihy’s pub in Knocknagree, then one of 14 pubs in the village, and rechristened it with his own name. Knocknagree, just over the county line from Gneeveguilla, was the site of a popular cattle fair and therefore a natural rendezvous for the local population. Nonetheless, the new pub was not instantly a rousing economic success, and Dan had to supplement his income selling milking machines and farming equipment. One night inspiration hit on a visit to Cahill’s Bar in Rathmore, where Johnny O’Leary and Denis Murphy provided the music for a rousing evening of set dancing. Dan came away determined to bring that energy to his own place. He built an extension onto his bar with space enough for a large number of sets, and on St. Stephen’s Night, 1965, the set dancing began at Dan Connell’s, and never stopped for 40 years. Dan poached Denis and Johnny away from his competitor, and they soon began a regular occupancy playing for the weekend set dancing. (Johnny’s LPs “Music for the Set” and “Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border” were both recorded there, as well as “In Knocknagree” by Tony MacMahon and Noel Hill.) When, a decade later, Denis Murphy died of a heart attack in 1974, he was replaced by fiddler Mickey Duggan. Mike and Johnny continued playing there until Christmas 2002, when Johnny had to retire due to illness. The following May, Dan hosted a blow-out of a party for O’Leary’s 80th birthday (which was sadly to be his last.) It was a raucous night of music and set dancing, with an incredible 35 musicians from Cork, Kerry, Clare and Limerick in attendance.
Once the dancing at Knocknagree caught on, Dan became an enthusiastic admirer, and then a tireless supporter, of the music and dance of Sliabh Luachra. In a 2004 issue of the publication Set Dancing News, Dan was quoted as follows:
“Culture is far different here in Sliabh Luachra. A lot of people thinks now that culture is only music and dance and singing and things like that. Culture was a complete way of life which the people had to develop and grow within ’em to meet the hardships and the trials of living here in Sliabh Luachra. We suffered more than any part of Ireland from evictions, executions, emigration. Something must have kept our spirits alive. A culture was a way of life which the people had perfected. We’re not a culture from a small area, from one village or town. It was a culture that came in from part of Leinster and all Munster into Sliabh Luachra as a haven because ’twas the only place they had a refuge from British rule. Here they developed a way of living. The way they handled death, the way they handled starvation, the way they handled their problems, the way they treated their neighbours, the whole combined with music and with song and with dancing.”
Dan O’Connell received the Friends of the Culture Tradition of Sliabh Luachra Award in 2005. In July 2007 the O’Connell family decided to close the public house, thus ending an era. Some feel that there has never been such a strong focus for the music and dance of Sliabh Luachra as when O’Connell’s was in its prime.
John Clifford (1916-1981) grew up as a neighbor of the Weavers of Lisheen. Like the Weavers, his own family was deeply imbued in the music: his parents and siblings all played or danced or sang, so it was inevitable he would pick up the music from an early age. He played whistle in Bill Murphy’s fife-and-drum band, but he soon gravitated to the button accordion. His first tutelage came from his older brother Tim, but as he progressed, he was sent to learn from Pádraig O’Keeffe.
As a young man he was Denis Murphy‘s first musical partner. In John’s words: “Denis was working over in Co. Cork or something for a while you know, and he came on holidays or something… I don’t know whether he heard the music out in the road or not and he came in and he had the fiddle… he couldn’t get over it. I played the reel called The Broom… God he was delighted, he thought ‘Now I got a companion now and I got a mate who can play.’ And then we started. Every week one of us’d go down to Killarney. We’d get into D.F.O’Sullivan’s or Hilliard’s and get one record. We made up a collection of’m. We’d every one that Coleman made… Morrison, Killoran, Paddy Sweeney…” Around 1933 the pair began playing in local dance halls where they soon earned the admiration of the dancers and other local musicians.
It’s unclear what sort of training he received from Pádraig, but at least as far as technique on the two-row box, he seems to have been largely self-taught. He was playing on an instrument tuned D/D# and played from the inside row. This gave him the options for ornamentation and phrasing available to the modern C#/D player, but had the somewhat unfortunate result that what he played came out a half-step sharp from concert pitch. Denis would be forced to tune the fiddle up to play with him, often resulting in broken strings to Denis’ consternation. Despite this drawback, John became regarded by many as the best box player in Sliabh Luachra at this time. He was invited to perform on a number of occasions on the radio, and Johnny O’Leary, when he began on the box, came to John for lessons. In later days, and long after John’s death, Johnny would extol the virtues of John Clifford to any visiting box player who would listen. The story goes that Johnny would bend the ear of the great Joe Burke about him any chance he got. One day Joe asked Johnny ”but, was he really that good?” And Johnny was said to reply: ”You’re lucky he’s dead from you, Joe!”
As with so many others, the economy of the day forced John to emigrate to London in 1938 in search of work. Upon his arrival, he looked up his former neighbor and friend, Julia Murphy, who had moved to London not long before. She was able to find him work as a porter in the hotel where she cleaned for her own living. She had already begun playing music at some of the smaller London dance halls in various groups and combos. John, who had apparently sold or otherwise lost his old instrument in one way or another along the way, bought a new button accordion and joined Julia at one of these early dance hall gigs. To his surprise and dismay, this new box was tuned to a different system and his usual fingering made it impossible to join in with the other musicians. He also soon realized that these dance hall bands were sometimes called upon to play other types of music in a variety of keys, and that the free-reed instrument of choice amongst the local squeezers was the piano accordion. He took the ambitious and fated step of purchasing and learning this new instrument, which on the one hand made it possible for him to enter the dance hall scene, but also would change the sound of his music for good.
The piano accordion, being a unisonoric instrument (playing one note per key regardless of the bellows direction) does not lend itself to the bubbling staccato quality of Irish dance music, and even less the particular drive of Sliabh Luachra polkas and slides. Perhaps there is a kinship of sorts between the rapidly changing direction of the fiddle bow and the similarly rhythmic press and draw of the button box played along the row? In any case, the piano accordion player must exert extra energy and skill to counteract the inertia of the larger, more massive instrument. It seems John Clifford was unaware, unable, or simply unwilling. In any case, upon switching instruments, his playing became more versatile and louder no doubt, but comparatively lethargic, dragging, and muffled.
Despite these qualities, John was able to find work as a musician with his new musical partner Julia. They hit it off musically and personally, and in 1941 they were married. They soon had two sons, John Jr. and Billy, and the young family settled in the Cricklewood area of London.
In their early days in London they both worked at a variety of day jobs,and played in a variety of bands and combos at night, playing a mix of traditional tunes and other popular dance music as the tastes of the day demanded. In 1953 homesickness seems to have got the best of them and they moved back to Ireland, first to Lisheen, and then to Newcastle West in Limerick in search of better opportunities and perhaps a return to the faster pace of life they left behind in London. It was here they formed the Star of Munster Ceili Band with the Moloneys of nearby Templeglantine: Pat Moloney on button accordion and fiddle, Liam Moloney on banjo, and Biddy Moloney on the piano, with percussionist Paddy Murphy. Julia’s brother Denis would sometimes sit in, as did young Billy who was developing his skill on the whistle. For a while they were one of the highest rated and most sought-after ceili bands in the southwest of Ireland, playing dances throughout Limerick, Kerry, Clare, and Galway. They also made two radio broadcasts from Dublin. Despite the band’s popularity, it was a source of stress for John, as he assumed the roles of both bandleader and agent, traveling the countryside to book engagements, arrange for transportation and lodging, and all the other minutia that goes into professional performance. In addition, he was never able to make the economics of the enterprise work out, and expenses outstripped income more often than not. After two years the ceili band called it quits.
In 1958 the peripatetic Cliffords returned to London. At first they went back to playing in the dancehalls, now with Billy on concert flute as a full-fledged member of the group, but it was just as the popularity of the dancehalls was beginning to wane, and John quickly realized they’d need to find new venues for their music. With the decline of the dancehall scene came the rise of the Irish pubs in London, where nightly performances and sessions of traditional music were coming into vogue. The scene was different than what they were used to, and though John immersed himself in it with gusto, Julia and Billy often as not stayed home to play together in the kitchen. (It was during this period that they began to develop the tightly knit duet playing which would eventually be heard on their album Ceol as Sliabh Luachra.) At times, though, the three of them would secure gigs as the Star of Munster Trio. The London scene now had its own burgeoning local style and repertoire, and the Cliffords found little call for Kerry slides and polkas. Their old music was to some extent abandoned and forgotten (if only for a time) and they soon proved they could play the popular jigs and reels of the session scene as well as any of their illustrious contemporaries.
In in 1964 and again in 1976 the Cliffords committed some of their music to tape, and in 1977, London-based label Topic published two albums: The Star of Munster Trio and The Humours of Lisheen. John lived only a few more years, but his legacy lives on in these recordings and the memories of his family, friends, and those who danced to his music.
Donal O’Connor (b.1935) was born in Carrigeen, Brosna and can trace his musical lineage back to the travelling fiddle master Graddy through his father Paddy Jerry O’Connor who learned from his mother, Ellen Guiney, from Knockawinna, Brosna, who in turn had been Graddy’s pupil. Donal and his three older brothers were all taught fiddle from an early age and soon were playing with their father in dance-halls, house parties, and weddings in the Brosna area.
In the early 60s Donal and his late brother Patrick founded the popular and prize-winning Brosna Ceili Band. The original lineup of the Brosna Céilí Band included Patrick and Donal on fiddle, Neilus O’Connor, Aeneas O’Connell, ‘Big Pat’ Moriarty on mouthorgan, Nicky McAuliffe; Mick Mulcahy, and Micheal O hEidhin on piano, with vocals from Mary McQuinn (aka Maida Sugrue) and Séan Ahern. They won the All-Ireland in 1972.
Soon after the All-Ireland, Donal tried his hand as a publican at the Sliabh Luachra Bar in the heart of Listowel. For a while it was a popular spot for musicians from all over Kerry to meet and play. Today Donal lives in Limerick City and is a fixture of the music scene there.
Learned from: Paddy Jerry O’Connor Played with: Nicky McAuliffe; Mick Mulcahy, Denis Doody
Molly Myers (1916-2002) was a fiddle player originally from Killeagh between Farranfore and Cullane who learned her music predominantly from Tom Billy Murphy. She began lessons with Tom Billy at the age of 10 and soon became something of a star pupil of his. The recordings she left behind indicate that she seems to have retained the style and repertoire of Tom Billy, and it is through her music and that of a few other pupils that we can get the best sense of what the playing of Tom Billy might have been like. She married Tom’s nephew Willy Murphy and went to live with him in Glencollins, Ballydesmond. Over the years she transcribed a great number of Tom Billy’s tunes. She provided many of these to Breandán Breathnach for Ceol Rince na hÉireann, and the collection is said to reside in the Traditional Music Archive in Dublin.
(I have one source, unconfirmed as of this date, that she was also a student of Pádraig O’Keeffe, at least for a time. This source claims that she had a large collection of O’Keeffe manuscripts which were donated to the ITMA. I could see how the source may have confused O’Keeffe with Tom Billy in this assertion. Certainly she was known to express personal disdain for O’Keeffe on moral grounds later in life, but that in itself doesn’t preclude the possibility that she may have had lessons from him at some point. Further research is merited!)
Johnny Mickey Barry (?-1981) was a concertina player from Toureendarby, northeast of Newmarket. He played in a “two-handed” style–that is, he played the upper and lower octaves simultaneously which gave a richer and louder sound. He had a great store of tunes from his teacher Tom Billy Murphy. Toureendarby box player Timmy O’Connor considered himself Barry’s pupil, and Jackie Daly gave credit to him as an influence on his first LP.
Learned from: Tom Billy Murphy Taught: Timmy O’Connor Played with: DD Cronin, Jim Keeffe, Jackie Daly
Jack Connell (1906-1994) took his nickname from his home in Meendurragh, just north of Ballydesmond, known locally as “The Lighthouse”. The village sits at a high point along the Cork/Tralee road, and in days gone by a lantern was indeed kept lit to direct carriages travelling by night. Jack was a celebrated fiddler, teacher, and tune-maker, taught by both Pádraig O’Keeffe and Tom Billy Murphy, as well as a certain “Mrs. Cronin” of Rathmore. His sister Nonie played the melodeon.
Apparently, Pádraig O’Keeffe once told him one should practice daily for 15 minutes, and Jack took it to heart; for nearly his whole life he played, whether at a dance or session or on his own at home. In the 30s and 40s he played for dances in the nearby Clamper dancehall. In later years he took on students and had a lasting influence on the local music community. Dan Herlihy was a pupil, and remembers Jack using O’Keeffe’s accordion tablature with which to teach him. O’Connell provided tunes to Breandán Breathnach who treasured his large and rare repertoire. Along with the usual dance tunes, he was known for his large store of waltzes. Interestingly, though he played and taught the Sliabh Luachra music of O’Keeffe and Murphy, his ideal musician was the legendary East Clare fiddler Paddy Canny. Anytime Canny was heard on the radio conversation with Jack would stop until the tune ran out. “The Lighthouse” is remembered as a good-humored, easy-going man and a patient and thoughtful teacher.
Tim “Thadelo” O’Sullivan (1904-1978) was a neighbor, musical mentor, and friend of Johnny O’Leary’s in Annaghbeg, Gneeveguilla. He was probably a pupil of Tom Billy Murphy. Thadelo played the concertina and one-row melodeon, as well as the flute and whistle. In Johnny’s memory he was a very popular musician for dancers. He taught Johnny a great number of tunes which seem to have unique to his repertoire, apparently not played by Tom Billy’s other students. Thadelo’s tunes tend have a signature feel to them: hornpipey polkas, barndancey hornpipes—very squared-off, old-fashioned-sounding tunes.
The Music of Sliabh Luachra 