J - Comhaltas Archive

Joe O'Dowd, Sligo Fiddler
Dr. Edward O. Henry, San Diego State University CA 92182
Driving into Sligo from Manorhamilton, the rolling hills gave way to a valley
with forested slopes and farmed bottom, its roughly rectangular green and gold
patches separated by tree-lined lanes. A stream widened into the shimmering
Glencar Lake and the slopes grew into low mountains that opened to the sea, the
pregnant silhouette of Benbulben to the right and across from it, the towering
green Killogyboy, dotted with distant sheep. Then the town's narrow streets
and a brick bridge with cloth-capped old men, a swan serene on the stream with
a cathedral spire behind. A hand-lettered poster on a telephone pole in the busy
town centre announced an Irish music session at the Sligo United Trades Club on
Castle Street that night. That's where we met fiddler Joe O'Dowd.
Joe O'Dowd was born into a musical,
family in 1914 at Knocknaska, Gurteen,
about twenty miles from Sligo city in
County Sligo. His older brother, who
died a few years ago in New York,
helped him start with the fiddle, when
he was twelve or thirteen. Joe's uncle,
John O'Dowd (who died in the early
years of this century) had been a widely
recognised fiddler and had two
well-known reels called after him :
"O'Dowd's Favourite," recorded by
Michael Coleman in the 1920s and the
other "O'Dowd's Number Nine," later
recorded by Hugh Gillespie.
When J oe began to play, only a
limited number of people admired the
music and would travel to hear it;
people are more interested in hearing
and learning the music today. The
music was played chiefly at social gatherings
in country homes and the
musicians were not compensated. ("If
you got a cup of tea you were lucky.")
J oe looked forward to such occasions in
part because he could learn a few things
by watching the musicians. Later, he
was a fan of Michael Colemans, and, as
J oe always played by ear, and could
pick up a tune quickly, he learned a
good deal of his music by listening to
Coleman's records. Coleman and Joe
came from the same part of County
Sligo.
As a young man Joe had no job,
except helping out on his father's small
farm . So when he was asked by a promoter
to perform at the Garryowen
Club in Hammersmith, London, he decided
to have a go at it. It was to be his
first job as a professional musician.
The band in which he played there
from about 1935 to 1940 included
Martin Wynne on fiddle; Paddy Taylor
(of Limerick) on flute; a man who
12
played tenor saxophone (for waltzes) as
well as flute and piccolo; one who
played alto saxophone as well as fiddle ;
a piano player ; and a drummer.
Referred to as a ceili and old time band,
they played to crowds of several
hundred dancers on Wednesday nights
and up to six hundred on Saturday and
Sunday nights- usually more women
than men, with quite a number of Irish
nurses, Joe recalls. The band also did
some radio broadcasting. Most of the
tunes they played are those currently
played in the Sligo Comhaltas sessions
(see below).
With the onset of the war J oe returned
to Ireland. In 1942 he began working
for Irish Life Assurance Company in
Ballymote, some miles south of Sligo
city. He · was transferred to S'ligo in
1948, but didn't play much in public
until 1954, when he started the Owenmore
Ceil{ Band. (Owenmore is the
name of a river in County Sligo). In
that band besides J oe were Henry
Dwyer and Paddy McDonagh (fiddle);
Thomas Collis (flute); Jerry Fallon and
Thomas O'Dowd (accordian); Michael
Feeney (piano); and John ScanIon
(drums). The band travelled aorund the
country a good bit, playing eight-hand
and four-hand dances as well as the old
time waltzes to crowds of several hundred
in the parochial halls. (A band
which includes two of the original members,
Henry Dwyre and Thomas Collis,
may be heard on the LP recorrlcalled
The Owenmore Ceili Band, Harp
Records HPE 662, distributed by Pickwick
Records Ltd. of Dublin).
Joe continued working as a life
insurance salesman through this period­
"Music was a good side line," With the
waning of the ceili band era the band
stopped playing in 1965. The Irish
JOEO'DOWD
music scene shifted to the pubs- prior
to that there hadn't been much music
played in pubs or cabarets.
J oe plays today for dancing contests
as he has for some twenty years . He
also judges at music contests in England
and Ireland and is a central figure in the
Sligo branch of Comhaltas Ceolt6irl
Eireann. Comhaltas is a nation-wide organisation
dedicated to the support of
traditional Irish music, with branches in
many other countries.
The Sligo branch of Comhaltas
started around 1958. Joe tells how at
first there was much emphasis on
organisation and procedures; it subsequently
lapsed for a few years. But
with the leadership and labour of J oe
and another musician; Ms. Carmel
Gunning., it restarted in 1973. One of
Comhaltas institutions is a nationwide
system of contests. J oe notes that contest
judges anywhere tend not to be universally
admired for their decisionsthere
may be a tendency to favour
popular styles and to award previous
winners. But whether the talk is bad or
good, the talk itself is a sign of interest
and activity.
The Sligo branch of Comhaltas meets
each Tuesday at the Sligo United Trades
Club on Castle street, and in the
summer of 1984 was also playing one