TRE - Comhaltas Archive

TREOIRFiddler of O riel in Monaghan, antOireachtas and an tOireachtas CoirnCrotty (fo r previous winners of antO ireachtas). This abundance ofwinnings shows how much Tony'smusicianship and style had developedin the previous years due to theinfluence of those he played with.Those musicians that he played within Dublin and London also had a greatinfluence on Ant6in's repertoire. Hisrepertoire is built from Dublin, Clare,the North and London, and spans thefiddle tunes of the North and the 'bigtunes' to the rhythmic Clare settunes. He spent lots of time playingwith Tyrone and Fermanagh fiddlerssuch as John Loughran and others inthe Pomeroy/Ballygawley/Cappaghareas of Co Tyrone and the Nugents,Gallaghers, Mick Hoy, Francie Quinn,and John McManus in Co Fermanagh.He also had a friendship with theAntrim and Derry Fiddler's Association,adjudicating at their competitionsthroughout the '70s and building afriendship with many of the musicians.His Clare connections come from hiswife Bernie, a native of the county.Through her he kept company with theKilfenora and Tulla Ceili Bands.Mullahoran ConcertIn 1969, Ant6in was in his final year ofstudy in UCD.At that time, therewere six priests from Tony's nativeparish, Mullahoran, who worked onthe missions, especially in Africa. Oneof those was Fr. Tommy Smith,Ant6in's brother, working in Kenya.Apostolic workers formed to supportthe natives of the parish working inAfrica. Ant6in offered to hold aconcert in Mullahoran to help. Herounded up all his musician friends inDublin. Along with a crowd ofsupporters, they hired a bus and wentup to Mullahoran. The concert wasmeant to be a once off, but thirty-sixyears later, it 's still going strong. Tonysays, " It just continued". Paddy Fallonwas the Fear an T f at the firstconcert, even though at that time hewas not very well known. Tony knewhim from the Clontarf Comhaltassession and asked him to be MC forthe concert, which he was every yearuntil the time of his death, thirtythreeconcerts later.The concert has always been a goodshow of traditional music, singing,dancing and storytelling with nomodern set-ups, an approach thatTony is obviously very partial to.Singers are always unaccompanied,and all is in ordinary traditionalperformance style. Many of Ireland'sgood traditional performers havetaken part in the concert over theyears, including Joe Ryan, TommyPeoples, Jimmy McGreevy, John Regan,Michael Tubridy, The Harper family,Frank Kelly, Pauline Sweeney, NoraButler, Vincent Broderick, Paddy Ban6 Broin and hundreds more. PatsyHanley, Clann O'Raghallaigh and someothers have played there almost everyyear. Some supporters who come onthe bus from Dublin, like set-dancerPaddy King and Brid Brody have beenthere almost every year and may haveonly missed one or two concerts inthe thirty-six years.The concerts were originally held ona Sunday night in March. Traditionally,concerts were held during Lentbecause there would have been nodances being held. As the years wenton and work became more importantin people's lives, supporters wantedto be home earlier for work onMonday morning, so the concert wasswitched to Saturday night. A fewyears ago, however, a Sunday eveningmass was held to commemoratePaddy Fallon. The concert was heldafterwards, and the whole thing wasso successful that they changed theconcert to Sunday evening. TheSaturday night concerts would startby 9pm and sometimes run untilI :45am, and now the Sunday eveningconcert begins at 6pm and finishessoon after I Opm. This timing ispopular and the hall is always full.The concert is long because there areso many performers willing to play.Each participant plays only once, andonly plays two selections of tunes. Somany musicians come that it hasbecome a meeting place for them toget together and have a tune. Over theyears there was always a good sessionhappening underneath the stage at thesame time as the concert. It is only amatter for Tony to go down under thestage and bring up each performer. Hecontinually ensures a good mix ofmusic, singing and dancing and humourthrough the concert.The Apostolic workers always give akind welcome to everyone at theconcert. All those who journey therewill always be given tea andsandwiches on arrival, and again after13