By Rónán Galvin

The year 1967 witnessed yet another exodus of emigrants from Ireland. It was in August of that year that Larry Masterson, at the age of sixteen, left behind his native Ballymanus, Co. Westmeath and boarded a cattle boat in North Wall, Dublin, bound for Liverpool. There he was met by an older sister, Mary and the next day, both Larry and his brother, Bill started a job on the motorway outside Birmingham. Sensing adventure further south, two weeks later Larry landed in London. Through a network of family and friends he quickly got a ‘start’ as a tea boy on a site for £10 per week and a flat at 2 Bassingham Road, Wandsorth where he was to stay for the next two years.

Passing the White Hart pub on Fulham Broadway one evening, Larry heard the best of music filtering on to the street, and inside found Liam Farrell, banjo and Raymond Roland, accordion in full swing. Across the road in the King’s Head on the same night was John Bowe, accordion and the fiddle player, Seán O’Shea. He knew he had landed in the right town.

Employed with McAlpine in early 1968, Larry acquired a Grundig reel-to-reel recorder from a workmate for the hire purchase sum of £5 per week, and for the next four years he hauled the machine around to folk clubs, bed sits, pubs and houses, recording both household names in the tradition and lesser-known players as represented in this playlist.

To highlight the collection, we have various tracks recorded in the Sugawn Kitchen club in the Duke of Wellington Pub, Balls Pond Road in July 1969. We can hear the landlord, Jerry O’Neill from Limerick calling order for Máirtín Byrnes as the latter launches into ‘The broken pledge’. The same night Seán Dunne (aka Green Brooms), a Dublin native gives a fine rendition of ‘The rocks of bawn’ while the Sligo fiddler, Edmund Murphy, who had arrived in London towards the end of World War 2 plays a set of reels. Seán Farrelly was a close neighbour of Larry back home in Westmeath. He spent a decade working in London from 1958 up to the late 60s where he played frequently with Bobby Casey, the fiddler Andy Boyle and Maurice Halloran on flute, among others. Also featured here are various ‘one-offs’, such as Bobby Casey recorded in the Irish Centre, Camden Town in 1970, and a song from Joe Palmer, a Dublin man who ran the Peeler’s Folk Cub in a pub on Widegate Street.

Representing established singers and musicians passing through London on tour, Larry recorded Al O’Donnell at the Peeler’s Folk Club in September 69. In the same month he visited a popular haunt frequented by The Dubliners when on tour – Mooney’s on the Strand where he captured Barney McKenna in full flow, and his rendition of the song ‘Willie the Ploughboy’. Finally, away from the bustling pubs and clubs are two of Larry’s favourite musicians – Gerry Conroy, tin whistle and flute player of Woodford, Co. Galway and tin whistle and fiddle player Michael Dwyer of Ardgroom, west Cork. Both were recorded in Mick O’Connor’s bedroom in Kilburn. Mick, a lifelong friend, is present throughout the playlist on guitar and banjo and was one of the first musicians that Larry met after his arrival in London, along with others including fiddle player, Mary Bowe (née Flaherty).

Larry Masterson’s collection, now almost 60 years old represents a snapshot in time of the Irish music tradition in London. To highlight the ‘revolving doors’ aspect behind the collection, Máirtín Byrnes emigrated to London in the same year that Larry was born, and he was recorded here shortly before his return to Ireland. On the other hand, Michael Dwyer and Gerry Conroy were, like Larry himself, new arrivals while others such as Bobby Casey and Edmund Murphy had made London their permanent home. What is remarkable is that Larry recorded most of the material in this playlist before reaching 20 years of age, after finding his feet as a teenager on the streets of London, learning and listening on the ground in a vibrant scene. He can still recall these events with crystal clarity, and he can transport one back to the very night, shenanigans and devilment that formed the backdrop to each gathering.

Larry has spent a lifetime dedicated to Irish cultural life as an avid listener and collector of music, be it in London, Dublin where he lives or his native Westmeath where he works tirelessly and is president of his local GAA club, Ballycomoyle. ITMA is truly grateful for this significant collection and are delighted to have the opportunity to recognise Larry’s contribution to our cultural heritage.