May 3, 2023
If they had to choose their absolute favourite, the cows would probably opt for the Kilfenora Céilí Band. Certainly when Tomás played the Kilfenora’s reels to his cattle, they stood easy and the milk flowed pure and simple. But when he threw on a rock n’ roll record,...
Apr 10, 2023
See also: Notes on Tobinstown ***** It was during the Big Freeze of 2010-2011 that I first really became acquainted with Paddy Delaney. I had known his silhouette since childhood, watching him scythe his small meadow and tend to his garden as our...
Apr 9, 2023
‘I’m the only John Cooney on the island. The other man was a second cousin of mine and he was buried a fortnight ago.’ John Cooney is also the oldest man on Achill Island. From 1939 to 1958, he was postman for Achill Sound, the first village on the island after...
Apr 9, 2023
‘I started playing when I was eight. I’m seventy-three years playing music now … I saw this concertina one, and it was top of the range. They wanted £64. I said feck it, it’s only once in a lifetime and I’ll have it. It’s done me ever since and it’ll do...
Apr 9, 2023
Michael holds out his miner’s hands, still etched with pallid blue stains from where coal dust got into the inevitable cuts. ‘You hear a lot of talk these days about child labour in Asia and Africa,’ he says quietly, ‘but it wasn’t so long ago they had it here in...
