® A Music, Song and Dance Summer School  June 16-22, 2002

Special Guests and Lecturers

Prionias Ó Maonaigh

Irish Fiddle

 

An honored guest of Gaelic Roots 2002, Prionsias Ó Maonaigh (Francis Mooney) of Coisclaidigh, Gweedore, County Donegal, is one of the main reasons why fiddling in the northwest area of his home county was preserved and revitalized over the past half century. He started playing the fiddle at age 14 and learned highlands, mazurkas, and other old dance tunes from his melodeon-playing mother. The first céilí Francis ever played was with legendary Ardara-born fiddler John Doherty, and both Francis and Joe Jack Ó Cuireann, another local musician, also enjoyed performing at céilís. Later on, Francis formed Ceoltóirí Altan, an ensemble that would plant the seed for the Irish traditional band Altan. A revered music teacher, he has instructed two generations of young fiddlers in the Gortahork, Gweedore, and Dungloe region. Among his many gifted pupils were his daughter Mairéad, a founding member of Altan, and Brendan Galway, featured in Riverdance. Another side of Francis Mooney's musical talent is translating, composing, and adding new verses to songs, and his "Gleanntáin Ghlas As Ghaoth Dobhair" ("The Green Fields of Gweedore") has been recorded by Clannad, Altan, and many other performers. He still teaches music today and can be found on most Monday nights playing the fiddle in a session at Teach Huidi Beag's in Gweedore, something heís been doing for the last 10 years. Gaelic Roots 2002 is privileged to have this master fiddler and instructor visit for the first time.

Martin Mulhaire

Accordion B/C

Another honored guest of Gaelic Roots 2002, Eyrecourt, County Galway-born Martin Mulhaire has composed some 20 reels, including such classics as "The Golden Keyboard," "Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire," and "Grandpa Tommyís Céilí Band." Over 60 albums feature one or more Martin Mulhaire compositions, recorded by the likes of Matt Molloy and Seán Keane, Noel Hill and Tony Linnane, Séamus and Manus McGuire, Andy McGann and Paddy Reynolds, Seán Maguire, and Dermot Byrne. Nurtured by a musical family (his father, Tommy, played accordion, fiddle, and flute and led a céilí band), Martin joined Galwayís Aughrim Slopes Céilí Band at age 14, and in 1955 he won the All-Ireland button accordion title in the 14-18 age group. In March 1958, he toured America with the Tulla Céilí Band, fresh off their 1957 All-Ireland victory, and recorded with them Echoes of Erin, one of the greatest céilí band records ever made. Martin decided to stay on in America and eventually made his home in Queens, New York. Since then, heís appeared on a number of albums, including 1986ís Fathers and Daughters, which also features his daughters Laura and Sheila, and 1993's Warming Up, made with fiddler Séamus Connolly, flutist Jack Coen, and pianist Felix Dolan. In 1997 at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia, Martin was invited by the Tulla Céilí Band to join them on stage for a historic performance, celebrating over half a century of music, that was captured on both compact disk and videocassette.

Mairéad Ní Mhaoniagh

Irish Fiddle, Singing

Since early childhood, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh has been surrounded by music. Born and raised in the Donegal Gaeltacht of Gweedore, she got her start on the fiddle from her father, Proinsias, a superb teacher with a wealth of unusual local tunes. Mairéad also received instruction from Shandrum fiddler Dinny McLaughlin, a frequent visitor to her family's home. Other influences on her fiddling include Danny O'Donnell, John Doherty, and Tommy Peoples. A gifted singer as well, Mairéad formed Ceoltúirí Altan with her father and some other local Donegal musicians, and later she recorded with the all-women's ensemble Macalla. In 1983, she and flutist Frankie Kennedy released Ceol Aduaidh, an album of Donegal and other Ulster music that had an enormous impact on Irish traditional music in general, and in 1987 she and Frankie Kennedy formed Altan, one of the finest and most popular traditional bands ever to emerge from Ireland. Mairéad has been a guest on recordings by the Chieftains, Mary Black, Dolly Parton, and Tim O'Brien, among others, and she has also hosted traditional music programs on Irish radio and television, such as "The Long Note" and "The Pure Drop."

Dermot Byrne

Accordion B/C

 

Another native of Donegal, Dermot Byrne guested on two Altan albums, The Red Crow and Island Angel, before joining the band officially in 1993-94. Since then, this Buncrana-born button accordionist has appeared on three more Altan albums, Blackwater, Runaway Sunday, and Another Sky; issued an acclaimed solo debut, Dermot Byrne, in 1995; and released a superb duet album, Two Worlds United, with Ontario fiddler Pierre Schryer in 2000. Much of the music Dermot learned as a child came from his father, Tomás Ó Beirne, and Dermot soaked up tunes in his father's home area of Teelin. By the time he reached his teens, Dermot was a celebrated two- and one-row accordion player throughout Donegal, where he was often inspired by such fiddlers as Con Cassidy, James Byrne, and Tommy Peoples. Much in demand because of his tasteful box playing, Dermot has performed or recorded with Séamus and Manus McGuire, the Chieftains, Frankie Gavin, and Dezi Donnelly, among other prominent Irish musicians.

 

Earle Hitchner

Lecturer and Farewell Concert Emcee

In 1993, Earle Hitchner was an emcee at the first Gaelic Roots festival, and Boston College is delighted to have him back again this year. Born in Philadelphia but a longtime resident of New York, Earle writes on Irish music for The Wall Street Journal, Irish Echo, Irish Music (Dublin), and Sonicnet, MTVís on-line music magazine. His music articles have also appeared in such magazines as Billboard, Readerís Digest, The Oxford American, New Choices, Details, Irish America, Treoir, An Gael, and Rhythm Music. In addition, he has provided liner notes for over 40 albums of Irish music, including the Boston Pops Orchestraís The Celtic Album (RCA Victor), nominated for a Grammy award in 1998. Earle contributed six essays to The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, a book co-published in 1999 by Cork University Press and New York University Press, and he both consulted on and appeared in three Irish music documentaries that were broadcast on public television. In 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2001, he was appointed to the awards nominating committee of the Association for Independent Music (AFIM), and he continues to be in demand as an emcee, presenter, and speaker at Irish music festivals, concerts, workshops, and schools in America and Ireland.

 

Dr. Kevin Kenny

Guest Lecturer

Kevin Kenny is an Associate Professor of History and Irish Studies at Boston College, where he teaches the history of American immigration and labor, with an emphasis on Irish transatlantic migration. He holds both a B.A. and an M.A. in Modern History from Edinburgh University in Scotland (1987) and a Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University in New York City (1994). His published books include Making Sense of the Molly Maguires (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) and The American Irish: A History (London and New York: Longman, 2000). Among the many seminars and colloquia organized by Dr. Kenny at Boston College was "An Irish Diaspora?" last year with Dr. Enda Delaney, a visiting scholar from Queen's University in Belfast. Currently, Dr. Kenny is researching the history of popular protest movements in 18th-century Ireland and America.

 

Lisabeth Buchelt

Guest Lecturer

A member of the Irish Studies Program for six years, Lisabeth Buchelt holds a masterís degree in English with a concentration in Irish Literature and Culture from Boston College and is now a doctoral candidate in the English Department. She specializes in the early medieval literature and culture of Ireland, England, and Wales, and has worked on the creative interplay between visual and literary arts in early Irish and Anglo-Saxon literature. Her current project is a comparative study of the pre-Norman intellectual cultures in the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Christ Church Canterbury and the Irish monastery of Clonmacnoise. Lisabethís lecture at Gaelic Roots will examine what defines early Celtic art as "Celtic," how many of the visual icons and symbols are reflected in Irish mythological and literary figures, and what ways these aesthetics have been translated and transfigured through the centuries.

---

Last updated 10/22/01
Send comments or questions about this site to Katie McCormick