CASTLEISLAND PREPARES FOR MUSIC FESTIVAL 2006

Held over the October Bank Holiday weekend, since it was established in 1993 in Castleisland, the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival has attracted some of the biggest names on the traditional music scene in this country and the 2006 line-up looks no different.

Running from Friday, October 27 to Monday 30 this year’s menu is peppered with top class music, poetry, singing, set dancing and socialising with the many friends from all corners of the world who make the annual pilgrimage down this way.

Friday night is the traditional opening of the festival and the organisers are delighted to welcome old friends, Máire Begley O'Shea and Mary Conroy Knipper on their Radio Kerry / Kingdom Ceili come-back to launch the festival.

They will broadcast live in their old 8pm to 10pm slot on opening night, Friday, October 27.  Then it’s on to the pub trail where organised sessions may be seen and heard in any of the participating pubs throughout the town.

Cormac O’Mahony, as festival chairman, has brought the fiddle right the core of the weekend. He has invited some of the finest and most respected exponents of the Sliabh Luachra style of playing the instrument to pass on their gift to those willing to learn. Classes have been organised with local and well known teachers, Nicky McAuliffe, Paddy Jones and Emma O’Leary invited to take part.

The presence of many fine, local musicians like: Denis McMahon, Jack and Celia Regan, Paddy Jones, Ned O’Connor, Nicky and Anne McAuliffe and Sliabh Luachra legends, Maurice O’Keeffe and the late Johnny O’Leary have been hugely supportive of the festival down through the years.

For the Saturday afternoon singing session alone people like:  Sean Keane, Tim Dennehy, Dessie O’Halloran, Andrew Murray, Johnny  Moynihan and many more have joined locals at Tom McCarthy’s, Fagin’s, Brennan’s,  The Poet’s Inn and Kearney’s bars for the Saturday afternoon sessions. This year the singing session moves back up town when it will be staged at Fagin’s on the Limerick Road Corner from 3pm.

This has proved one of the most popular aspects of the festival to date and it draws the bulk of positive reaction towards the event from visitors and natives. Tim Dennehy and guests, which will include: Dessie O’Halloran and Niamh Parsons will be joined by many locals for what should prove to be another memorable afternoon.

Poetry lovers are also being catered for up the road at Castleisland Rugby Club on Sunday afternoon. At 2pm Tralee poet Tommy Frank O’Connor will launch his latest collection of work. Then, Moyvane native, poet and writer, Gabriel Fitzmaurice will read from some of his own work as well as inviting guest to do likewise. This will be followed by an open mic session where people who feel like performing their favourite pieces will be encouraged to do so.

Sunday will also see the revival of the tour of Sliabh Luachra. In a merger of the festival committee with the recently formed Castleisland and District Cultural and Historical Society a bus journey around area will include musicians and guide with a few well-planned stops along the way for music and refreshments.

The tour leaves Castleisland at 1pm and organiser, Mike Kenny advises that booking is essential on: 087 2409026.

On Sunday night during the show-piece concert, Mikey Duggan of Scartaglin is to receive the 2006 Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Award.

The award is presented every year to someone who has served the music of the Sliabh Luachra area over a lifetime. Mr. Duggan will join the flame keepers’ gallery with the likes of: Paddy Cronin, Peter Browne, Dan O’Connell, Ciaran Mac Mathuna and the late Johnny O’Leary and Jerry McCarthy who have all been honoured over festivals past. Mikey will be presented with his award during the Sunday night concert.  Though not yet complete, the line-up of musicians looks like an exciting one if all the calls come home to roost.

An outstanding feature of Monday’s programme of events is the presentation by Nicky McAuliffe of a lecture on the music of the area. This is punctuated by little interludes of live and recorded music from Nicky’s repertoire and library. He is joined by Donal O’Connor and guests for this informative and relaxing afternoon from 3 pm At The Crown Hotel.

From its inception in 1993 the festival has adopted a nurturing approach to the Sliabh Luachra style of music and playing; a style which Patrick O’Keeffe is widely credited with harbouring and imparting through the bad years - years before it became all the go.

There has been greater emphasis, in more recent times, on the educational aspects of the festival with classes on the traditional instruments of the Sliabh Luachra area being brought increasingly into focus each year.  

It was after he had done the groundwork on the life and times of the legendary fiddle player and teacher in 1992 and ‘93 that Peter Browne first mooted his idea for a festival in Castleisland to pay tribute to Patrick O’Keeffe and his contribution to the musical heritage of the area.

The result of his deliberations around the countryside locally were broadcast in a four-part RTE Radio 1 documentary in November 1993.

There is the usual involvement of a dozen or so of the local bars and the close proximity of these to each other is another of the blessings which Castleisland can count on. There, sessions can break out at any time of the day or night. In fact the scene in Castleisland has been described as ‘one long session of a weekend.’

Patrons can pick up a detailed pub trail programme for the weekend and this will be available in bars throughout the town as the weekend dawns. However, the organisers advise that these programmes are, by nature, provisional guides and subject to change.

Even so, they have been a little more than reasonably accurate over the past events.  Seasoned festival goers will understand that it is always a good idea to keep an ear to the ground for the best, impromptu sessions. These unscheduled outbreaks have been a delightful feature of many of the previous festivals and the spontaneity which ignites them lives on in the memory long after the final, mercurial notes have fallen on appreciative ears.

MIKEY DUGGAN TO BE HONOURED AT FESTIVAL 2006

Mikey Duggan of Scartaglin is to receive the 2006 Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Award. The award is presented every year to someone who has served the music of the Sliabh Luachra area well over a lifetime. Mr. Duggan will join the flame keepers’ gallery with the likes of: Paddy Cronin, Peter Browne, Dan O’Connell, Ciaran Mac Mathuna and the late Johnny O’Leary and Jerry McCarthy who have all been honoured over festivals past. Mikey will be presented with his award at the Saturday night concert.  Though not yet complete, the line-up of musicians looks like an exciting one if all the calls come home to roost. Local and visiting musicians combine to make this one of the most highly regarded, weekend traditional music festivals in Ireland. Details will be relayed here and in all local media as the programme hardens up and the time approaches.