Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

1

9 1 26 20130207 26 ‘The Gold Ring’ that received absolute silence for 7 minutes and brought the house down with the applause afterwards. Although I started learning plenty of tunes on the whistle from that time on, it was almost 2 years later that I acquired my first bag, bellows and chanter, found out about the NPU classes in Parnell square, met Breandán Breathnach and Dan O’Dowd, and attended my first Tionól in Terminfeckin in early summer 1974. On the Sat- urday evening we were treated to a wonderful recital by Séamus Ennis, who, as always, when surrounded by friends and admirers in a relaxed atsmophere, gave a tremendous performance and kept the audience spellbound for an hour. Apart from his wonderful playing, I was very impressed by how friendly and interesting he was, answering any questions that other pipers in the room might ask, and how ‘generous’ he was with his music explaining how he ‘did things’ with the chanter that us beginners hadn’t even realised were happening. Another piper recorded (for the archives) after Seamus had fin- ished was a young Dublin lad named Gay McK- eon. Not bad for a teenager I thought to myself, we’ll probably be hearing a lot more of him over the years. When I look back over 40 years involvement in traditional music, I could probably fill a book with memoirs of wonderful concerts, sessions, festival, summer schools, workshops and classes, superb radio and television programs, books and other publications, fleadhanna cheoil, holidays, great friendships, and the wonderful sense of love and camaraderie that can come about from involvement with traditional music of all varieties, both at home and abroad. How- ever, I can also look back on numerous little ‘magical moments’ that occurred when least ex- pected and touched me in such a way that I’ll never forget the feeling of peace and satisfaction that I experienced, when time stood still and nothing else mattered for maybe only a couple of minutes. One example that comes to mind occurred a good number of years ago on a lovely warm Sunday evening just after I arrived in west Clare for the Willie Clancy Summer School. I set up camp at the caravan park in Spanish Point, had a bite to eat, met a few old friends, took a stroll along the beach and headed up to The Crosses of Annagh for a few tunes. As I got out of the car, I could see a beautiful cloudless sky to the west with a golden sun getting ready to set in the vast Atlantic Ocean and the black silhouette of Mutton Island between the horizon and the shore. In the perfectly still air I could detect two differing scents, the delightful smell of freshly mown hay and the pleasant whiff of turf smoke gently blown in my direction from a nearby cot- tage chimney. And from the ‘Crosses’ came the exciting sound of a session in full flight. As I ap- proached the pub I could hear a concertina, fid- dle, flute, bazouki, guitar and bodhrán and pipes playing in a lovely balanced rhythm from the lit- tle room inside the front door. And the reel they were playing – the ‘Providence’. I just stopped outside the door for a minute or two to savour the moment. Yes, I thought to myself, this is what I drove 150 miles for today, and why I love com- ing here, and why people come back year after year to enjoy that special sense of peace and friendliness and pleasure that seems to descend on the area for the next week. A minute or two later I was supping my first pint of the evening – what more could you want, another great start to another great week. Now let’s move about a thousand miles south across the sea to the start of another great holiday I spent in Galicia on the north-western tip of Spain a few years ago. I remember stepping off the plane in Santiago de Campostella to a blast of hot air about 5 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon in early September . We picked up our car, found our hotel, unpacked the bags, had a swim in the pool and headed in to the casco vieco (old part) of the town, for our evening meal. We parked out- side the old town (pedestrian only) and proceeded on foot towards the magnificent square in front

9

26

[Periodical]

2013-02-06T00:00:00

anonymous,guest,friend,member