The annual Frankie Kennedy Winter School in Co Donegal features the best and brightest of native talent mixed with exciting trad musicians from around the world. Mary Phelan reports
It has been that time of year, the end of one and the beginning of another; a time of festivities, sociability and celebration, but also a time of reflection and resolve. The passing from one year into another is special, and most of us try to spend it with those people, and doing those things, that we love the most. For many lovers of traditional music, this means the Frankie Kennedy Winter School, in Gweedore, Co Donegal, after Christmas.
Set up nine years ago in honour of Frankie Kennedy, the charismatic Belfast-born flute player who lost his battle with cancer in 1993, the event has now become the mid-winter nexus of the traditional world. Frankie Kennedy founded the group Altan with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, to whom he was married, and the band has gone on to phenomenal success.
More closely resembling an extended musical house party than anything else, with all three generations of the Mooney clan as genial, welcoming hosts, the festival traditionally straddles the New Year. There is a winter school, with classes in various instruments: fiddle, flute, pipes, whistle, box, bodhran and guitar/bouzouki. Then there is a series of recitals and concerts during the afternoons and evenings, which feature the best and the brightest from the world of traditional music, with, of course, a strong Donegal flavour.
This is unsurprising, given that this remote part of the north-west has had such a strong role in Irish traditional music, with seminal groups such as The Bothy Band, Clannad and Altan all having their roots in the immediate vicinity, and luminaries such as Donal Lunny having strong family connections with the area.
Classes and concerts are held in the intimate surroundings of Ionad Cois Locha in Dunlewy, at the foot of Mount Errigal and overlooking the lake. The afternoon recitals happen a few miles down the road in Ostán Ghaoth Dobhair, where the views from the picture windows are equally spectacular. In deference to nocturnal proclivities, classes begin at the civilized hour of noon, and are taught by the cream of Irish traditional talent, for whom the event has become a musical Mecca and annual shindig.
There are the regulars: the Altan crew, close friends and colleagues of Kennedy whose memory they celebrate, and their families; a host of musicians from Belfast, including Dermie Diamond, Tara Bingham and Marcus Ó Murchú; as well as flute player Connor Byrne, and fiddlers Paul O' Shaughnessy, Dermot Mc Laughlin and Liz Doherty. This year's event was opened by the irrepressible Dinny Mc Loughlan, mentor to many of the current crop of Donegal fiddlers. Actors Sean Mc Ginley and Marie Mullen are normally about, en famille like so many others. The event is extremely child-friendly, and children are a natural and accepted part of the proceedings. The roles of teacher, performer and party-goer seem to fuse seamlessly.
Performances gravitate between the familiar - mainly Donegal musicians and regular attenders - and the novel. Altan's two concerts on January 1st and 2nd are a regular feature. Despite their regularity, these are always booked out - as the attraction of seeing a world-class group in a 200-seater venue on their home turf if one that many people find irresistible.
Paddy Glackin and Micheal O'Domhnaill, were the treat on the opening night. Veterans with a musical pedigree that stretches back to The Bothy Band, their playing showed the ease and grace that comes from having such a long, shared musical history.
A feature of the programme is that there are always interesting performers from abroad, ace musicians whom Altan have become friendly with while touring, and often people who are less well- known in Ireland, or who rarely play here. Three years ago, it was American Tim O'Brien, then relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic, who has since toured Ireland a number of times.
This year, it was Chicago-born virtuoso fiddle player Liz Carroll. Although twice all-Ireland fiddle champion in the early 1970s, and extremely well-known and respected among connoisseurs, she hasn't toured in Ireland for years. Her friendship with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh - both members of the international all-female fiddle ensemble, String Sisters - led to her presence this year, where she proved one of the star attractions.
As well as being a riveting player, with her deep mellow tone and strong emphatic rhythm, with strong echoes from American old-time music, Carroll is also a prolific composer and most of her set on Monday was of original material. Confessing to being "slightly unnerved" at the prospect of an audience full of musicians, she proved the consummate performer with her casual, humorous, easy chat and total command of the instrument. She was very ably accompanied by guitarist John Doyle, who also provided a number of songs, including a marvellous version of Crooked Jack.
Musicians from the diaspora have become an increasing, and very welcome, feature of the school. Manchester-born Dezi Donnelly, who first appeared a couple of years ago, is becoming a regular. An exciting, energetic young musician, his technically superb fiddle playing has, just like his stage banter, a huge sense of humour and irreverence - Stephane Grapelli meets Sean Maguire, with a touch of Chico Marx for good measure.
His dedication of particular sets to those doing the donkey work to keep the venue going - "this one is for the person who puts the cloves in the lemons" or "for the person who sweeps up the cigarette buts" - was a reminder that not everyone is there "for the craic" and added a human touch.
Altan were in stupendous form for the first of their two gigs on Wednesday. Described as Ireland's best live band, they certainly lived up to their reputation. Peppered by hilarious repartee, they raced through a very punchy and tight set. Highlights included a new version of the song He's Young but he's Daily Growing, and Mo Londubh Buí.
People come from far and wide - the US, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Japan. Many are regulars. Gregor and Meike Ostermann from Frankfurt have been coming for the past seven years. Musicians, they enjoy both the musical and the social dimension of the event. "We wouldn't miss it. It's fantastic musically. Plus at this stage we know a lot of people who come, and it's a great way to meet up with old friends."
Megan Kirk, from Los Angeles, on her first visit, thought nothing of flying in from Los Angeles with her mother and brother for the few days. "I've had a great time," she says. "I have been attending classes, playing at sessions and will definitely be back."
Exciting though the main programme of events may be, many of the highlights actually happen as a result of "extra curricular" activities. And there certainly were plenty of magic moments. One of these was the 4 a.m. rendition of The Factory Girl, all 14 verses, sung in unison by Mairead and Ana Ní Mhaonaigh in a plaintive, unembellished style reminiscent of the Kane sisters. Another was witnessing Bella, a young Bulgarian living in the US, hold a whole roomful of fiddles, boxes and bodhráns silent and rapt as she played a haunting Balkan air.
Yet another was John Tunney's singing of The Mountain Streams where the Moorcocks Grow, a song "owned" by his father, the late Paddy Tunney, a colossus in Irish music and a great lover of life, who died just before Christmas.
And yet another was the sight of young Ciarán Mooney, another fantastic fiddle player and the next generation of the Mooney clan, drag his rather reluctant dad out to dance to the pulsing strains of Seamus Begley's box as the New Year dawned. What's more, Begley was playing a Kerry slide.
