Eigse Mrs Crotty 2003
Kilrush, Co. Clare, 13-17 August, 2003

For those who didn't get to read my piece on last year's eigse, the following bears repeating:
"First a linguistic note "Eigse" is Gaelic for a festival held in celebration of a person or event. Kilrush is an ideal location as it is in the heartland of traditional Irish concertina playing and the home of one of its most famous exponents, Mrs Elizabeth Crotty. Mrs Crotty died in 1960 but was recorded by Irish radio and interested enthusiasts so there is a living testimony of her playing. This also lives on in the playing styles of the older West Clare players, notably, Tom Carey, Gerard Haugh, Michael Tubridy and Gerdie Commane. For more information on Mrs Crotty readers can access the web site www.eigsemrscrotty.com. For an example of the style of playing there are a number of recordings: 'Clare Concertinas', 'Tommy McMahon and Bernard Sullivan', 'Kitty Hayes', Michael Tubridy's 'Eagles Whistle' and of course the CD of Mrs Crotty herself."

Another great weekend in Kilrush has passed where we spent many's the hour playing in honour of the great Mrs Crotty. As this is an informal report I cannot give you the detail of the official events as it was difficult to be in two places at the one time and to be honest I went there to play and that is what I did. But by all accounts the official events, classes, workshops and concerts were excellent.

As usual the hosts of Crotty's pub Rebecca and Kevin gave us a very warm welcome as did the owners of Buggles and the Turk pubs where I also had a good few tunes. There were many other sessions which I did not get to, so there was plenty of choice for everybody.

Arriving on Friday night I watched the Fourt Courts Ceili band playing in the square for set dancing. Chris Droney the very well known concertina player from Bellharbour in North Clare is a member of the band as is a friend of mine, fiddle player Joe Rynne from Ennistymon. I had a word with Joe and we arranged to meet up after the ceili. The great surprise was that Joe brought Chris with him and we adjourned to the aforementioned Turk where we had some great music from Chris, Joe and Seamus Hynes a flute player with the Four Courts. Chris is a young man in his seventies and plays with the same vigour as can be heard on his records but is even more impressive when you hear him live. He's still playing the forty key Wheatstone Linota he bought in London in 1960 from Wheatstones and it's in great condition (a bit like himself). Unfortunately the trio had to leave early (about midnight) as they had along journey ahead of them to north Clare.

On Saturday I attended the talk by Michael Tubridy on Mrs Crotty's life and music, held as usual in Crotty's pub. As last year Michael gave an excellent talk which was detailed but informal at the same time and was interspersed with plenty of Mrs Crotty's tunes. Michael has Mrs Crotty's Lachenal which is a rosewood ended 30 key and played the Gabhairin Bui (the Little Yellow Goat) on it. It has a great warm tone and surprisingly good volume and even though the bellows looks the worse for wear its still fairly airtight. He then asked the company did they want to play a tune on it and passed it first to Jacqueline Mc Carthy, then next to me. I started off on the reel Sporting Nell only to be stopped half way through by a pad falling off. Here is a concertina which has been played regularly for fifty years or so and it takes me to stop it in its tracks. I was stunned and feared the worst! I would be banished instantly or worse my fingers would be superglued together and I would be forced to sit through hours of playing. It was very embarrassing but Michael, ever the gentleman, was very gracious about it and said he would fix it, which saved my blushes.

He used the incident to mention the ingenuity of the old-timers in repairing their instruments which they would be loath to send away for repair because of the difficulty of travel, the time involved and probably the cost. If a spring broke, for instance, the old-timers would get a goose or turkey quill and trim off the feathered bit. It would then be bent in two, the ends pared down and placed under the lever. I saw this on a concertina in Clare a few years back and it worked quite well. This gives the expression "no spring chicken" a whole different meaning.

Back to business. The music was interspersed with chat and questions on which I did not take notes but here are some details. The concertina was probably introduced in Ireland in the late 18th century. Kilrush being a coastal town would have had a good numbers of visitors from abroad some of whom would have had concertinas and no doubt would have joined in the local music as Clare has always had a strong musical scene. German concertinas in particular would have been popular as they were relatively cheap and easier to come by than the more expensive London made concertinas. Many houses had a concertina beside the fire which in those days was a great big open affair which took up the end wall of the kitchen and would have had shelves and nooks which would hold a concertina and keep it dry. The legacy of the old two row German models lives on in some of the tunes. For instance those like Sporting Nell in the key of C which is played straight on the C row. It also lead to the West Clare style of playing a lot on the G row on the left hand for tunes in G and D.

A lot of time the woman of the house would be the concertina player and it was regarded as a woman's instrument. The only opportunity to play would be for a dance held in the house as the woman tended not to play in public. Michael said that in the old days the house would have mud floors so if there was dancing the door would be taken down and danced on. Someone pointed out that the entrance to the back of Crotty's has no door and now we know why.

Mrs Crotty on the other hand was in the public eye as she was in the pub and it being a music pub would be visited often by other musicians. She was always delighted to receive visitors and share tunes and gradually her reputation spread. She became a national figure as a result of recordings made by Ciaran MacMathuna and others. Ciaran was present at the talk and recalled the wonderful sessions which he recorded using a mobile studio parked outside with the cable for the mike running in through the window. Well the session went on and the tunes flowed and took over from the chat but special thanks again to Michael for his enlightening words (and his excusing of my heavy handedness).

A quick trip to the Turk to see Tom Carey, always a pleasure as he's such a great player and always has the warmest welcome for players of all abilities. That's where I saw a wonderful metal ended Aeola. Such a beautiful instrument. If I didn't play the anglo that would be the instrument of choice. The workmanship is superb and the sound is so pure, maybe I should take up the English after all. After a food stop it was back to Crotty's for a few lovely quiet tunes before things got busy again. We were lucky that Gerald Haugh dropped in for a warm up before the concert that was on later. I played with him last year and I wouldn't mind spending more time to trawl the depths of his tunes.

The usual range of Jeffries and Wheatstones and a number of Lachenals were on display at the various sessions along with a high number of Suttner concertinas. I've mentioned the quality of this latter make in last years piece and there is no reason to think that they are not getting better. My friend Mark Davies from England as usual had two interesting tinas. One a Colin Dipper 40 key Wheatstone copy which he got about 20 years ago with a very nice sound and exquisitely made. Mark also had a H Crabb B flat 39 key which was made in 1926 and was in excellent condition. It had gold tooling like the Jeffries design and the fretwork was exactly the same as a Jeffries. I have seen in the past what look like unstamped Jeffries but this Crabb lends credence to the Crabb claim that Jeffries copied their design. I also saw a very nice Marcus deluxe model which had a good tone and response. Jacqueline McCarthy had her trusty miniature Wheatstone giving out a great sound, as usual. There were a few English systems, all Wheatstones. One ebony Aeola, one silver ended Aeola, referred to above and a rosewood hex played by Geoff Wouff who as readers might know is a pipe maker of note in nearby Miltown Malbay and not a bad concertina player either. There was also a Jones metal ended in fantastic original condition in the key of G/D.

I mentioned last year that Roger and Claire from Devon were at the eigse with their friend Gordon. They were there again but had travelled this year with Rob and Jason who play 5 string banjo and piano accordian respectively. I met the latter in Crottys on Sunday at lunchtime where we had arranged a few tunes. Arranging is perhaps the wrong word as it was a case of meeting people on the street and drifting towards Crottys and then others looking in the door and joining in. Anyway there were a good number of concertina players; the aforementioned Mark Davies, Kevin Rickard from Howth, Co. Dublin on Suttner a fellow from east Clare on the Marcus, Tom Driscoll from Ennistymon with a Jeffries and Lisa Shields from Dublin on Wheatstone and yours truly on Jeffries.. Some young female players joined in later as did a hammer dulcimer player from the US who also played a Suttner and made a very good job of a slow air and some hornpipes.

I'm not a great fan of piano accordions but Rob and Jason played excellent English country dance music joined by Mark Davies a lot of the time. Two of the tunes were the well known Woodland Flowers and Ripple on the Teign (?) Rob Murch is a bit of a virtuoso on the five string and played some fantastic stuff. He has recently issued a CD of his music. Between the jigs and reels, scottisches, barndances marches and hornpipes we had a marvellous few hours. Mark, Tom Driscoll and myself even managed to give the B flats an airing. It's a pity there are not more B flats in evidence as it's a lovely pitch to play in.

I'm afraid the weather did not allow for an outdoor session which was a pity as it had been brilliant up to Sunday. Sadly the time flew by and it was time to hit the road. With tunes still ringing in my ears I departed Kilrush for another year. But as the noted terminator player from Austria said "I'll be back"!

Shay Fogarty
19 August 2003