Author: peadar

TG4 is an Irish television station of which I am very fond and proud of as it broadcasts mainly in the Irish language and we all took part, for many years, in a campaign to get it founded and off the ground. It has a form of “Oscars” for the Irish traditional music scene as part of its yearly schedule. In 2008 I was presented with the award as composer of the year. I was really surprised at my reaction to the award and was delighted. I think that, in spite of always denying that I lived under my fathers shadow but, rather lived under his ‘sunshine’, I probably felt that other people did not agree with me. This award was a flag risen to my independence in this instance. I put two tunes together for the occasion as I always try to have something new for any major outing. By calling this the TG4 reel I hoped to repay their kindness in a small way. The second tune had no name so I called it…..’n’fheadar’ (‘I don’t know’)

I recorded the tune with Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the Triúr album.  

Price: €15.00

Download PDF  Reel TG4 here

I play music with Connie O’Connell and Eibhlín de Paor every Thursday evening in a local pub - The Mills. Connie is a great fiddle player with a knowledge of many tunes. I have learnt any amount of tunes from him as we play. I can thank him for a well-developed ability to pick up a tune on the fly. There is not much musical quarter or mercy given in our sessions except to visitors. This rigor I find very pleasing, as one is constantly stretched. For that I am grateful even though it can be frustrating at times. Connie also composes tunes. I think I would go mad if we did not have those
weekly sessions. When playing like that one enters a different reality and grows younger for a while. It was whilst waiting for Connie to arrive that I started that tuned and I jotted it down on an empty packet of cigarettes to remember it. I never told Connie about it until it arrived out of the woodwork lately. Eibhlín is a great girl and our ‘grámhar’ proprietor Don(al) has great interest in the music and picks the banjo with us as well.

I recorded the tune with Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the Triúr album.  

Price: €15.00

Download the pdf here.

This is named after the month, as I could not think of a name for the tune. It arrived as I was tinkering with notes and wondering what to play for the aforementioned TG4 event in 2008, that is if I were to be asked to play! I had a small problem in that I would be identified with the men’s choir, and their music, or the women’s choir, and their very different music, or would I play the piano or even, would I have a bash at the concertina. Any solo playing involved a hefty dose of my inferiority complex. But the danger of making a ‘bags’ of it also had it’s appeal. I ended up with concertina and some new tunes and the men - Cór Cúil Aodha. I forgot about Feabhra until reminded about it by
Caoimhín who had heard it at the time of its birth.

I recorded the tune with Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the Triúr album.  

Price: €15.00

Download the pdf here.

I had this idea to assemble 4 cd recordings or collections of music that I would publish and that each one would represent a stage in a boy’s growing into manhood. I also had the idea of associating them with one of the four elements. So the first collection was published under the title “Amidst these Hills” and I recorded it in Tadhg Ó Céilleachair’s “Sulán Studios” locally. I spent three very pleasurable days doing so and during that time found myself babysitting my sisters young boys and their cousins. Things went very well and I soon ran out of materiel. Tadhg was behind the glass and buttons and asked, “that fine, what’s next?” I could not admit not having anything else, with the studio meter ticking so I said, “Leave the tape running” and the tune Spórt came to me. I began to teach the first part to the kids as I waited for the second and third parts to ‘hatch’. The result was a jig called “Spórt” which has done the rounds quite a bit since. When it came to the second album I wanted to include a similar jig that would represent the boys as older kids or young teenagers. At that age I used to spend a lot of time with my friends roaming the mountains with mongrel dogs hunting rabbits and hares. We were never very successful but did a lot of running about and grew to know our mountains and valleys and like all other natives, grew to love our ‘savage shores’. The second tune was
born thus thinking of Spórt and thinking of the same boys but now instead of being five to eight or nine years of age, they were now ten to fourteen and I was looking down at them as they roamed free on the mountain tops. Fiach is the Irish for “Hunt”. I have the third collection ready for a few years but can’t seem to find the time to publish it. It is the Fire album and will represent the “blianta na buille” or “years of the rage” - the mid teens and the jig in that collection is called “Esmeralda” for reasons which will be apparent on hearing it. I am grateful to all those people who have thought enough of “Spórt” to record it on their own albums and who have acknowledged its source.

I recorded these tunes with Martin Hayes and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the Triúr album.  

Price: €15.00

Download the pdf of Spórt here.

Download the pdf of Fiach here.