teachers

Paddy Jones (1947-2020) was the youngest of Pádraig O’Keeffe’s students. He was born in Knightsmountain, north of Castleisland, and he showed an interest in the music from a young age. Being from a musical family, this interest was encouraged, and he was sent to lessons with the fiddle master which were to have a long-lasting effect. Though he discontinued the lessons after three years out of frustration with his master’s peripatetic lifestyle, he nonetheless maintained a fondness for Pádraig, and helped look after him in his last days. He later continued his musical education with Pat and Willie O’Connell in nearby Cordal, and learned to read staff notation while in school which enabled him to expand his repertoire and scholarship considerably. As he developed in his music, he was able to play with a number of the older generation, including Jack O’Connell of The Lighthouse who mentored him and encouraged him to study of the music and heritage of Sliabh Luachra, but also to appreciate good music no matter where it came from. Like O’Keeffe, Paddy was a great exponent and master of the subtle art of the slow air. He didn’t limit himself to air melodies traditionally played in Sliabh Luachra, but found tunes from far and wide and adapted them the the local style to great effect. His great curiosity led him to explore the world, both geographically and intellectually, but he always maintained a particular love and interest in his native music. It was perhaps only natural that he himself would become a teacher and lecturer, and he developed a great number of the younger generation into excellent and thoughtful members of the Sliabh Luachra tradition. He was honored for his lifelong commitment to the culture of Sliabh Luachra at the 2016 Patrick O’Keeffe festival in Castleisland.

Learned from: Pádraig O’Keeffe, Pat and Willie O’Connell, Jack O’Connell

The Great Paddy Jones – Photo © John Reidy/Maine Valley Post

Paddy Jones at the 2015 Castleisland festival

Paddy Jones and Timmy O’Connor at Glountane Cross

An interesting lecture by Paddy on the music of Sliabh Luachra. You can read the transcript here.

A series of conversations with Eoin Stan O’Sullivan on a wide range of topics; a window into Paddy Jones’ mind:

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.

Learned from: Pádraig O’Keeffe, Tom Billy Murphy
Taught: Dan Herlihy

John Linehan (sometimes spelled Lenihan) (1860-1932) was a fiddle teacher of the generation before Pádraig O’Keeffe and Tom Billy Murphy. He was himself a pupil of Corney Drew, although it’s difficult to find any commonality between what little we know of either of their repertoires. He lived in Glounreigh (also spelled Glenreagh or Glounreagh), Co. Cork and is buried in Kiskeam cemetery. His students included fiddlers Sean B. O’Leary and Johnny O’Leary of Kiskeam as well as Maurice O’Keeffe. He would teach out of his home as well as traveling to students’ homes. Sean B. O’Leary described him as “a dignified, serious music teacher, who took pride in his tuition and musical performance.” Whereas Tom Billy and Pádraig had reputations as easygoing and mellow-tempered teachers, Linehan seems to have taken a disciplinarian approach. If a student played out of tune or diverged from the written music, Linehan would berate him, “Where are your ears, you demon? I’ll skin you!”

Maurice O’Keeffe said that he was the last pupil of John Lenihan, who was about 75 years old when Maurice was ten. He lived within easy walking distance. Maurice was “taught the music with scales, lines and spaces at eight pence a tune”. Lenihan could not play himself at that time because his fingers had gone stiff, but though he was near the end of his days, he seems to have lost none of his strictness. O’Keeffe recalled, “As a music master he was very strict and would not accept any sloppy work or half measures. On one particular occasion when I was supposed to visit him I was so afraid that I decided to ‘mitch’. I hid in the glen and when my mother enquired if I had a new tune I told her that I did not because I had not the previous one learnt ‘by heart’. By some chance my secret leaked and Mr. Linehan informed my mother. His message to her read ‘Tell that “barrow fellow” attend me tomorrow!’ My mother escorted me and I never missed another session.”

Dan Herlihy’s book Sliabh Luachra Music Masters contains 42 of his manuscript tunes which date from around 1910. Looking through these tunes gives an interesting glimpse of the music that was played in Sliabh Luachra at that time. There are some polkas and slides, but also a number of tunes that seem to be direct from the Scottish tradition. It also contains around eight nationalistic song airs, perhaps reflecting their popularity in a revolutionary period, and supporting the contention that such songs were beginning to supplant traditional airs. His polkas are interesting in their stage of folk processing. They are two part dance tunes but lack the characteristic house dance ‘swing’ found in the Din Tarrant settings. However, these were teaching manuscripts for his students and do not necessarily represent the way the man himself would have chosen to play them.

Examples of Linehan’s manuscripts:

Daniel “Saucepan” Hartnett was a fiddle player and teacher from Knockanaer, Tournafulla. He was regarded as the best musician of his generation in his locality and taught a number of musicians from the Rockchapel and Tournafulla area.

Taught: Denis O’Callaghan, Tom Carroll

Tadgh Ó Buachalla (anglicized as Timothy Buckley) aka Tadhgín an Asail (little Tadgh of the donkey) aka Tadeen the Fiddler aka Tadeen the Cobbler was a travelling music master from Park, Knocknagree active in the latter half of the 19th century. He also lived at various times in Kiskeam and Scartaglin. It’s likely he got his music from Corney Drew, and he passed that tradition to his pupils, including Din Tarrant and Tom Billy Murphy. He made his living travelling the countryside on the back of a donkey (a noteworthy mode of transport even at that time) and mending shoes when he wasn’t teaching music. His pupil Tom Billy would later adapt the ABC notation he used (as well as the knack for donkey-riding) when he became a renowned teacher himself.

At least one slide is still commonly called Tadhgín an Asail’s, and the polka known as The Cobbler may refer to him as well.

Learned from: Corney Drew
Taught: Din Tarrant, Tom Billy

William Fitzgerald lived in the mid-19th century in the area around Ballydesmond–possibly Glenreagh or Lacka, but information on him is spotty. It seems he was a student of Corney Drew and became a travelling fiddle teacher himself. In 1866 he produced a manuscript of his repertoire which survives to this day. It was printed, in part, in Dan Herlihy’s Sliabh Luachra Music Masters, Vol. 2 (though misattributed to Corney Drew.) The Fitzgerald manuscript represents the repertoire and style of Sliabh Luachra before the craze for polkas and slides as we know them really took hold. It contains a great many waltzes, jigs, and reels, a few English tunes, and a number of polkas in a more “continental” style than what we would now identify as a Sliabh Luachra polka.

It has been said that Pádraig O’Keeffe “studied the music of Fitzgerald,” and by this we might take it to mean that he owned a copy of this manuscript and drew some tunes and settings from it.

Not long after the creation of the manuscript, it seems that Fitzgerald emigrated to America  (perhaps coincidentally, around the same time that Corney Drew himself emigrated) and what happened to him after that is not known.

The standard known as Fitzgerald’s Hornpipe (collected by Breandán Breathnach for the second volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann from Molly Myers Murphy in 1967) is probably named after him.

Learned from: Corney Drew

Cornelius Drew (1832 – ?) was an influential figure two generations before Tom Billy Murphy and Pádraig O’Keeffe. Most of what we know about him comes from second-hand memories of musicians who are now only memories themselves. As a young man he lived through the period of the Great Famine. It seems he was a tenant farmer in either Kiskeam or Dromulton–perhaps both, at different times in his life. He may or may not have been blind, or partially blind. He may have learned his music from the travelling fiddle and dance master known as Graddy. What we do know is that Drew was a highly respected music teacher and among his many pupils were such greats as the Callaghans of Doon, William Fitzgerald, John Linehan, and Tadgh Buckley. Considering the influence these pupils then had on their own pupils, a case can be made that Corney Drew was , to some degree, the progenitor of the Sliabh Luachra tradition as we know it.

The Drew family apparently emigrated to America sometime between 1885 and 1890, though whether this was before or after Corney’s death we do not know.

Learned from: Graddy

Taught: John Linehan, Tadhgín an Asail, William Fitzgerald, Din Tarrant, Cal and Margaret Callaghan

Pádraig O’Keeffe (Irish: Pádraig Ó Caoimh) (1887 – 1963) was born and lived in Glountane Cross near Castleisland, Kerry. He is regarded by many as the towering figure of Sliabh Luachra music, as he was one of the only area musicians of his generation to have been recorded, and throughout his life as a travelling music teacher had countless pupils, many of whom became renowned in their own right. He therefore defines the Sliabh Luachra style to a large degree. Peter Browne has written an extensive biography of O’Keeffe which you can read here.

Pádraig in good company with Denis Murphy and Willy Clancy

An example of Pádraig’s unique musical notation

The commemorative plaque at Glountane Cross

O’Keeffe monument in Castleisland

Fifth from the left, back row St. Joseph’s School Feis 1945

Recently unearthed photo from 1957 at Lyon’s Bar

Recently unearthed photo from 1957 at Lyon’s Bar

O’Keeffe household 1901 census

Padraig’s house today at Glountane Cross

Plaque below Padraig’s bust in Scartaglin

Funeral card

Learned from: Cal O’Callaghan, Margaret (Callaghan) O’Keeffe, William Fitzgerald, Corney Drew

Taught: Denis Murphy, Julia (Murphy) Clifford, Bridgie (Murphy) Kelliher, Johnny O’Leary, Jack “The Lighthouse” O’Connell, John Clifford, Mick Buckley, Paddy Cronin, Johnny Cronin, Jerry McCarthy, Andrew “Sonny” Riordan, Mike Duggan, Paddy Jones, Jim O’Keeffe, Terence “Cuz” Teahan, John Spillane, Annie Twiss, Maida Sugrue, Brian O’Connor, Pats Connell, Dan O’Connor, Sean B. O’Leary, John Collins, Willy O’Connell

Recordings:

More resources:

Hear snippets of field recordings of Pádraig

A collection of his manuscripts