Paddy Glackin, fiddle, playing 5 tunes collected by Séamus Ennis in Donegal from Niallaí Ó Baoill and Hughie Bonar

Hughie Bonar

Fál Chorb, An Machaire, Donegal was born in 1874. His parents were Mary and Charles and Hugh was the eldest in the family. He had three sisters. He and his wife, Nellie had four sons and a daughter. Their son, Hugh, was killed in the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Hugh was a farmer and it proved difficult for the family to live off the land. His sons, Charlie, John and Patrick and daughter Alice emigrated to England and Scotland. Hugh was a short, plump man but he was healthy. He always wore a cap. He was a hard worker and performed his tasks neatly. Every morning he walked with his donkey and two baskets to Machaire Maoláin to bring home his supply of turf. He had a racing bicycle, which was quite unusual at the time, as other people rode the type of bicycle known as a ‘High Nelly’. He was a fiddle player and  also a dancer and lilter. He made his first fiddle. His fiddle always hung on the wall. Hugh often played with another fiddle player, Micí Neidí Bhán Ó Dónaill, from Tearmann, An Machaire. Hugh was nicknamed ‘Bonar’. He died in the early 1950s. 

Ennis visited Hughie and wrote tunes from him in March 1944.  Ennis wrote: ‘we spent a very pleasant night at his house.’  Later that year, in September, Ennis visited him again and wrote: ‘Went to Hughie Bonar in the afternoon, in Falchorrib [Fál Chorb] – southwest of An Clochán Liath. I met his wife [Nellie] and daughter [Alice] on Thursday in An Clochán Liath and they made me promise to visit them on a particular day. I spent the evening with them. Hughie and I played the fiddle. He had no music for me to write down, although I wrote up to ten tunes on my previous visit.’ 

Niallaí Ó Baoill

(Niallaí Pháidí Néillí) Cró na Sealg, An Clochán Liath (1889–1961). He was born in Pennsylvania but he and his family came home when he was ten years old. He acquired much of his music and songs from his mother, Neansa Nic Suibhne, who was originally from Cruit. Her father was a poet. Niallaí had heard many fiddle players in the USA. Ennis was acquainted with Niallaí before the collector visited and they were good friends. They would go outside the house in Cró na Sealg to play music. They played a great deal in harmony. There was a spink, or point, of a jutting rock outside which would resound the music. They were constantly comparing each other’s version of tunes and competed with one another. Ennis played the pipes but not the fiddle at Niallaí’s house. The house was an old thatched house with a high roof and the acoustics created a wonderful sound. They also sang and exchanged songs. They used to go to Dún Lúiche to listen to the birds at daybreak, as Niallaí thought the sound was an awesome one. Ennis did not have a car and probably came by taxi or walked from An Clochán Liath. Niallaí’s wife made her own butter, which Ennis would cut and eat as if it were a piece of cheese, and he also drank buttermilk. Caoimhín Ó Danachair and Ennis recorded Niallaí in 1945 and in 1946.

Most of Séamus Ennis collecting work with Niallaí was in 1944. Following a visit to Niallaí Ennis wrote in his diary in March: ‘I wrote nothing from him this evening but I heard as much as would fill a book of unpublished material, both airs and dance tunes. The most interesting thing about Niallaí’s material is that he got it all from the lilting of his mother [Neansa Nic Suibhne], who died c. ten years ago. We left him at midnight and his music sang in my ears all the way home (five miles). I can see him before me now with his back to the fire, swinging to and fro to his own music. He is a small white-haired man with a squint and spectacles.’  Ennis visited Niallaí on a number of occasions in March and April of 1944 and returned in September that year and also in June 1946.