The man who did more for the culture and music of Sliabh Luachra through the gentle force of his personality is to be featured in a repeat of a Sé Mo Laoch programme on TG4 tonight at 9pm. And my thanks to Joe Martin for the reminder.
Johnny O’Leary once said of the richness of the countryside he’d been born into in June 1924:
“I’d really want a whole book to myself to do full justice to music in Sliabh Luachra. Music was always a big thing in my life and I really can’t remember when I started to play. I was twelve and a half when I played for the first time in Thady Willie’s (O’Connor’s) hall in Gneeveguilla – and that’s not today or yesterday,” he said in one of the many interviews he gave in the course of the long life.
“One man I’ll never forget is the late Denis Murphy, Lisheen. We played together for 38 years, sometimes three or four nights a week, and there was never a hard word between us. Whatever one of us would say ‘twas O.K. with the other,”
“Back in the 1930’s and 40’s we hardly missed a wedding or a house dance. We’d often spend a couple of days in a house and they’d be dancing sets day and night. There was hardly any money that time – only plenty of porter.”
The Sé Mo Laoch programme is on tonight on TG4 at 9pm.
