Comhaltas Archive

Che lrish Music
academy of Cleveland
Comhaltas on the shores of Lake Erie
Dermot Somerville
7.
or more than a century,
Cleveland has stood as a
pillar of US industrial strength.
Situated on Lake Erie in northeast
Ohio, the city established itself as a
major port of call for commercial
traffic. Immigrants from many nations
were attracted here by good-paying
jobs in the industrial sector. Irish
immigrants, many from county Mayo,
and Achill in particular, followed their
forbearers, who had laboured digging
the nearby Ohio and Erie canals.
Among the immigrants came the
musicia ns. Men and women such as
Gus Bo land (whistle), Johnny Brown
(flute), Joe Boyle (fiddle), Con Byrne
(fiddle), Tom Byrne (flute), Mike Casey
(uilleann pipes), Johnny Coyne (button
accordion), Phi l Coyne (banjo),
Kathl ee n Croke (ba njo), Owen Davey
(flute), Pete Dever (fiddle), Jimmy
Giblin (fiddle), Brigid Gunn (p iano),
M ike Hughes (button accordion), Mike
Kea ting (fiddle), Johnny Ke ll y (piano
accordion), Mike Ke ll y (flu te), Tommy
Kibane (fiddle), Ernie Lewis (fiddle),
Johnny Masterson (fidd le), Mike
Masterson (fiddle), Anthony Joe & M ike
Joe McCafferty (button accord ions),
Tom McCaffrey (fiddle), Frank & Ton y
M cG inty (fidd les), Tom M cLaughlin
26
The IMAC junior Ceif( Band performs for a monthly ceilr.
(button accordion), Johnny McNea
(button accordi on), Martin O'Donnell
(fiddle), AI O'Lea ry (button accordion),
Paddy O 'Malley (button accordion),
Johnny Patton (fiddle), Bartl ey Reape
(button accordi on), Tom Scott (fiddle),
Martin Wynn e (fiddle) and countless
oth ers entertained the ir fe llow Irishmen
and women for decades at o§ ilithe,
sess ions, parties and public
perform ances. Their numbe rs were
stron g and constantly rep lenished w ith
new blood from the homeland .
Changes in US immigration law in the
ea rl y 1960s severely restri cted Irish
immigrati on. By th e 1970s, Irish-born
trad itional musicians were age ing and
few new musicians were arriving.
Additionally, th ere were very few youth
in volved. And by the '80s, Cleveland
was left with but a handful to mai ntain
the tradition.
COMHALTAS
To try to reverse this decline, Sean
Boland formed a local branch of