DISTINCT regional styles of traditional music, such as the spirited Sliabh Luachra style that’s found along the Kerry/Cork border area, are under serious threat, Jack Roche, President of the European Leader Group, has warned.
He said pressure to conform with what’s required in national competitions was one of the reasons for a cosmopolitan-style Irish music taking over.
“Thirty years ago, if you went to a music session you’d know exactly where an individual musician taking part came from. That’s no longer the case, however. Many young musicians realise that in order to impress adjudicators in competitions, they must drop regional styles in favour of a cosmopolitan style,” said Mr Roche, from Rockchapel.
Launching the 12th issue of the Sliabh Luachra Journal, in Gneeveguilla, he referred to the late Johnny O’Leary, one of the iconic traditional musicians in the area in the 20th century.
“Unfortunately, Johnny is not being replaced by enough people playing the same style of traditional music as he did. I’m greatly afraid we’re falling down very badly in this,” Mr Roche said.
He described the music, song and dance of Sliabh Luachra as a national treasure that could be compared to the Rock of Cashel, or the Book of Kells, but it was far more fragile because it was not as visible as other treasures.
Johnny O’Leary is featured in the journal, which also includes articles about other personalities and the history and folklore of the area.
In an article on the decline of the Irish language in the area, Padraig ” Duinnin charts a rapidly changing scene from the Great Famine to the end of the 19th century and says Irish was largely gone by 1900.
“It (Irish) was gradually seen as inferior as a vehicle for personal advantage in the milieu of life that constituted the mid-nineteenth century,” he writes.
“As well as that, it was associated with a slavish, backbreaking and largely unrewarding way of life that it was a valid desire to emigrate from. Emigration, whether to the US, Canada, England, Australia, or New Zealand, represented the English speaking world.”
Extracts from a diary kept by an American visitor while he was staying with relatives in Rathmore for over three months, in 1930, give fascinating insights into rural life in Ireland between the two wars.
Joseph Warren McCarthy, a lawyer, was aged 35 when he came to stay with the O’Leary family, who had one of the biggest shops in the area. He went to Mass regularly, visited farms and pubs, observed the business dealings of his hosts and had the following to say of the girls:
“I do declare that all the girls of Kerry are the most beautiful of any I have yet seen. No powder, no paint, no marvelling, or waving of the hair, no silk stockings, no high heels but only plain shawls. And they are very refined, no flirting.’’
Well-known Killarney publican and sean nós singer Jimmy O’Brien tells of his life and times and how he inherited a strong musical tradition while growing up in Sliabh Luachra.
“The house I was born in was a house of music and singing...There were some great singers about the place. You’d hear them on a night of the stations. I took a great interest in the songs. It was part of our life, I suppose,” he recalls.
The journal is published by the local history society, Cumann Luachra, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
