The lead-up to the Fleadh in Athlone back in 1953
Athlone Miscellay with Gearoid O'Brien
The first in a two-part series on the hosting of the 1953 Fleadh in Athlone
Recently it was announced that Athlone was to have a Fleadh Day in August in conjunction with the All-Ireland Fleadh which is being held in Mullingar this year. This will hopefully give the people of Athlone, who are no strangers to traditional music, a chance to hear the cream of Irish traditional talent.
Athlone has a rich heritage when it comes to music. In the 19th century a love of music was fostered through the military bands of the British army then garrisoned in the local army barracks. One of the more important local figures was Patrick Keating (1796-1875) who was the bandmaster of the 28th Regiment. He trained in the Royal College in Naples and apart from being a bandmaster he was a noted composer. He also trained and conducted the Athlone Band which was one of eight bands to play at Daniel O’Connell’s monster meeting in Summerhill in 1843. However, perhaps his greatest call to fame was that he taught music to a young man from Ballygar, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (1829-1892), when he was employed by a local publican in Athlone. Gilmore went on to become the leading U.S. bandmaster of the 19th century. He was the Andre Rieu of his day. He toured Europe with the Representative Military Band of the U.S.A., consisting of sixty-five instrumentalists. He composed 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' and set 'John Browne’s Body' to music.
There is still a lot of research need on the history of traditional music in Athlone. One of the early figures mentioned was a blind-piper called John Williams, who earned himself a rather strange entry in Captain Francis O’Neill’s famous book ‘Irish Minstrel’s and Musicians’ which was published in the United States in 1913. It read: “The maxim that temperance or sobriety tends to prolong life, finds no endorsement in the case of John Williams, a blind piper from Athlone, on the banks of the River Shannon. Being a fine performer on the Irish pipes, he was a great favourite with the soldiers in the barracks.
After coming to America, he told Mr Burke that he played for fourteen years in the ‘canteen’ and during that time he never went to bed a night sober. Many and many a night he had been picked up, bag and baggage, pipes and all and taken home, helplessly intoxicated. He was past middle age when he emigrated to this county [America] with his wife and daughter, but he had two sons in America and years ahead of him. He died at the beginning of this century, a very old man.”
The founding of Conradh na Gaeilge in 1901 gave a big boost to all things Irish, including traditional music and dance. By 1909 a Piper’s Club was formed in Athlone which thrived until the late 1920s and nurtured some great pipers. During the 1930s ceilidhes were part and parcel of the entertainment scene in Athlone and these were held under the auspices of the Gaelic League. Such major figures as the piper, Willie Reynolds of Walderstown and the renowned fiddler, Charlie O’Brien (1905-1972) of Baylough emerged from these heady days of the Gaelic League. Both became nationally known through being regularly heard in the early days of Irish radio.
Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann was founded over 70 years ago as an Irish organisation dedicated to the promotion of Irish traditional music, song, dance and language. It was founded in Mullingar in 1951 by a group of traditional pipers who felt that Irish traditional music was in decline. Originally it was known as Cumann Ceoltoiri Eireann but in January 1952 it adopted its present name. A meeting which was held in the Piper’s Club in Thomas Street, Dublin elected a standing committee, Willie Reynolds of Walderstown, Athlone was elected vice-chairman.
The standing committee arranged an inaugural meeting which was held on the 4th of February 1951 in the Midland Hotel, Mullingar when Cumann Ceoltoiri Eireann was formed. The founding fathers included Leo and Tom Rowsome, Arthur Connick, Paddy McElvanney, Jim Seery, Ned Gorman, Cait Bean Uí Mhuineacháin and Eamonn Ó Muineacháin and they arranged for the holding of Feis Lár na hÉireann in Mullingar on the Whit Sunday weekend of 1951, and this proved such a success that it was retrospectively declared to have been the first Fleadh Cheoil. The aims of the Fleadh were to restore to its rightful place the traditional music of Ireland and to bring the cream of traditional musicians from the four corners of Ireland to the midland town of Mullingar.
Soon after the foundation of Comhaltas in Mullingar the Athlone Branch was formed. The founder members were Josh Broderick, Eamon Furey, Kieran Kelly, Willie Reynolds, Peter Feeney, Frank Dolphin, Seamus McDonagh, Johnny Malynn, T. Lennon, Miss Mary Somers, Miss Carmel Somers, Miss Eileen Lennon, M. Nolan and Sean Temple.
One of the principal activities associated with Comhaltas is the organisation of Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann an annual Irish music festival/competition which is usually held in the month of August each year. Comhaltas also has a structured system of exams (in 12 parts) which deal with both music performance and music theory they also offer a diploma course for those who wish to teach traditional music. From very tentative beginnings in Mullingar, Comhaltas today has 30,000 members affiliated to 400 branches worldwide.
The first Fleadh Cheoil was held in Mullingar in 1951, the second was in Monaghan and the third in Athlone. The Fleadh Cheoil returned to Mullingar in 1963. Over the years the range of categories has expanded and the level of competition has increased dramatically. In Ireland there are now both county and provincial fleadhs leading to qualification for Fleadh Cheoil na hEirinn (or the All-Ireland Fleadh). There are four age categories: under 12; 12-15, 15-18, and Senior (or over 18). Apart from Irish competitions there are also ‘fleadhs’ held in Britain and the U.S.
In the more recent Fleadhs there were solo competitions for fiddle; two-row accordion; concert flute; whistle; piano accordion; concertina; uilleann pipes; harp; mouth organ; banjo; mandolin (excluding banjo-mandolin); piano; old-style melodeon; bodhrán; war pipes. There was also a miscellaneous section for instruments such as three and five row button-accordion, piccolo, [chromatic] harmonica and other stringed instruments. There were competitions for céilí band drums; accompaniment – confined to piano, harp, guitar and bouzouki-type instruments; solo traditional singing in Irish and English; whistling; lilting; newly composed ballads and newly composed songs in Irish. There were also individual solo competitions for slow airs played on the fiddle; concert flute; whistle and uilleann pipes as well as competitions for the following ensembles: duet, trio, ceili band, instrumental groups, accordion bands, pipe bands, and miscellaneous ensembles.
The second piece in the series can be read here