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By Rónán Galvin
Cathal McConnell, renowned musician and singer donated 700+ cassette tapes to ITMA in 2023, a vast collection that spans more than four decades from the late 1960s to the early 2010s.
The non-commercial audio material was recorded both in Ireland and abroad in a range of settings including field recordings in houses, informal sessions, concerts, outtake studio recordings, music classes and workshops. Cathal cast his musical net far and wide and listeners can enjoy an informal gathering in a kitchen in rural Fermanagh before being transported to stages from New York to Melbourne. This reflects Cathal’s life as a performing musician who maintained a steadfast link to his native tradition.
This is the first of six playlists that will explore a treasure of traditional music and song. Cathal features prominently in the collection and the playlist will include his solo and duet playing and singing, as is evident in this first airing.
The first two recordings are from a concert held in the Irish Arts Centre, New York in April 2000 where Cathal performed with fiddle player, Patrick Ourceau. Songs from Cathal bookend this playlist and here we start with ‘There’s the day’, an English translation of a more popular Irish song and this is followed by a duet with Patrick.
The next three tracks, recorded in the home of Cyril and Mary Maguire at de Burgh Terrace, Derry city in 1998 feature Sharon Creasey, a foremost exponent of the boehm flute. In her own words ”I first met Cathal in 1978 at pipe-maker Alan Ginsberg’s workshop in the East End of London. I got flutes and old billiard balls from junk shops in Bournemouth and sold them to Alan to pay for my weekends in London! Cathal found out that I played Boehm system and he had just got Paddy Carty’s LP. We went to the house to listen to it – all the way through, twice. We have been friends since then.”
Cathal’s personable character and natural interaction with fellow musicians often encourages a lively exchange and this is the case in the final segment. In the 1970s Cathal, in the company of his sister, Maura and Monaghan uilleann piper and whistle player, Eamonn Curran, visited Micho Russell at his home in Doonagore, Co. Clare where the tunes and banter flow before Cathal ends the playlist with the song ‘Bonnie Killaloe’.
This project is possible thanks to funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
