IrishMusicInfo
The Sunday Tribune Weekly Traditional Music Column by Fintan Vallely
990207
The bi-lingual 'î BhŽal go BŽal' song and poetry event at Mullaghbane, Co. Armagh this year had its first outing in the fine acoustic of the new T’ Chulainn centre. Rath Cairn sean-n—s singer Eamonn î Donnchœ engaged the Leinster Gaeltacht along with dancers Colm î Meal—id and M‡irt’n Mac Donnchadha. Melodeon player Johnny Connolly from Connamara was the edge on the gathering's rhythm, underlining the almost paradoxical symbiosis of accordion and Irish language. Solo player for her gender was exceptional Gaelic singer Mary Smith from the Scottish Isle of Lewis, her 'Gur trom an eallach an gaol' an outstanding performance from a singer whose attentive interest in playing in Ireland is having a strong influence. Focus of the night was however Belfast writer and flute-player Ciaran Carson for whom it was presented as testimonial to his couple of decades as Traditional Arts referee for the Arts Council of NI. Organiser Padraig’n N’ Uallach‡in acknowledged his role in that body as "cara sa chœirt" for singing festivals in Beleek, Derrygonnelly, Forkhill and Derrytresk. Despite her exhortation to the contrary, never was anyone so profusely thanked for doing a job, eulogy and encomium from Theo Dorgan and Brian Mullins doggerelised the sophisticated, unassuming scribe. Much of this tribute seemed more apposite to his prowess as writer (which continues) than to the logic of his now passŽ civil service. But Carson's career wasn't impressed by the huff and puff of haute culture - he supported the bypassed arts of other ages that lingered, valued, in demesnes overlooked by modernity. North Antrim, West Fermanagh, Scottish Isles, Rhodope mountains of Bulgaria, Cullenstown, Co. Wexford, Miltown Malbay - the common thread linking words, music and life that these and hundreds of other 'small places' shared was recruited in tours such as 'You and Yours' to enrich rural and urban lives in parish halls village pubs, hotels, and schools of various denominations. A critical mediation of grant-aid modestly swelled artistic confidence among people and in places that no proper official would have the perspective or the wellingtons to travel to. This unaffected song and storytelling 'of the people' Carson cited too as muse to his own intellectual standing - which indeed in turn acted as its silent sentry and, likely, vital back-up. His predecessor in official endeavours was also, perhaps significantly, a poet, Michael Longley, whose own labours with Traditional music were signposts that Carson could follow, or might eventually, unexpectedly unearth. Paying tribute to Carson the musician and poet, and acknowledging the unorthodox implications of both his music and literature constituencies, he could remark candidly: "Ciaran's concept of time-keeping was suffused with sublime cosmic ambiguity".
©Fintan Vallely, IrishMusicInfo.com
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