The Linenhall Arts Centre new Stór Ceoil Mhaigh Eo project, which commences online on January 21st, explores Ireland's song, music and storytelling traditions by engaging Mayo’s finest musicians to discuss their influences, the changing world of Irish music and its legacy, along with how County Mayo has shaped their work -
Below, musician David Munnelly introduces the project...
The Stór Ceoil Mhaigh Eó journey was embarked on by myself, having returned to live in Co. Mayo after being based in the Netherlands for a decade. Welcomed home by the pandemic, my livelihood was altered immeasurably like so many others. I wanted to continue working in the arts and music world, so it was time to get more persuasive and creative than ever before.
Watch: The Butterfly Sessions presents David Munnelly
I contacted a few different arts organisations and looked at grant applications for some ideas I had throughout the years. After talking to Creative Ireland and the Linenhall Arts Centre, at the top of my wishlist was to collect and archive some of the many characters and musicians in my home county. As a musician and a lover of folklore, I noticed that Mayo was always somewhat the poorer second cousin in Irish music. Never getting the acknowledgement and recognition it so clearly deserved.
Over the past 150 years, it has exported its fair share of traditional music legends and was a source of musical repertoire and encouragement to some of the more famous names of the tradition. Growing up, I was well aware of the depth of history and was amazed when researching, that it was rarely mentioned in the archives. This was the initial push to interview some of the distinguished contributors to the diverse musical language of County Mayo.
Every single person I interviewed was extremely proud to be from Mayo, and the music associated with it. I can wholeheartedly relate to that.
A large number of our population emigrated to many different parts of the world, most famously the USA, where some were involved firsthand in the recording and archiving of Irish traditional melodies. Two names that spring to mind are John McFadden, a well know go-to musician when tunes were needed, from a town land near Newport who aided Francis O Neill in his documentation of 1001 tunes. Another man, John McGrath, I am proud to say hailed from Rossport in the barony of Erris. A very good friend to the great James Morrison, from south County Sligo, who to this day is regarded as one of the greatest Irish fiddle players of the early twentieth century. James and John lived together for a while during some tough times and exchanged melodies and compositions which in time were recorded by renowned Sligo players.
The project is broken up into two sections, firstly the audio archiving of over 16 hours of interviews into eleven one-hour interviews. Secondly, a documentary by Westport based photographer and filmmaker Michael McLaughlin, which will showcase the characters in a wide geographical spread of the county, flying the flag for its musicians and giving a taste of the musical dialect of County Mayo.
What common ground or influences did I unearth from the interviews? The musicians were inspired by listening to the older generations and from listening to the radio. Flute player, Joe Byrne from Aughamore and Joe Carey, an accordion, vocals and guitar specialist from Geesala both have fond memories of listening to Ciarán Mac Mathúna's Irish music programme on RTE Radio 1 and learning tunes from it.
Others travelled to music festivals around the country, to meet up with players from different parts of Ireland, to share and collaborate. The overwhelmingly common trait that I noticed was a pride of place. Every single person I interviewed was extremely proud to be from Mayo, and the music associated with it. I can wholeheartedly relate to that.
View the Stór Ceoil Mhaigh Eó series of interviews, starting January 21st, 2021 on their YouTube channel.
