In the latest installment of the rolling Handed Down series of concerts and lectures at the Sliabh Luachra Heritage Centre in Scartaglen, the connection between the culture and traditions of Sliabh Luachra and Cork City will be put under the scope.
On Saturday, January 28th. in a lecture by the highly respected musician Dr. Mat Cranitch, he will explore the significant interaction between Sliabh Luachra and his native Cork City from the 1970s onwards.
Personal Involvement
Under the title ‘A Picture Paints a Thousand Words’ Matt will draw on his personal involvement and recollections in looking at the links in both music and dance traditions between the two areas.
He will recall various events and occasions as well as many of the people involved.
Central among the them were Séamus Creagh and Jackie Daly whose seminal recording was issued in 1977.
Peter Browne’s Sleeve Notes
On the sleeve notes, which accompanied the recording Peter Browne, broadcaster and piper, couldn’t and didn’t try to hide his admiration for the music and the musicians of this area as he wrote the following:
“One of the greatest musical traditions in Ireland is that which belongs to the 200 square miles in East Kerry and North East Cork – situated roughly between the four towns of Kanturk, Castleisland, Killarney and Millstreet and known as Sliabh Luachra – the home of some of the finest traditional music we are ever likely to hear.
Lovely Warm Style
The music of Sliabh Luachra has a number of unique features: its lively rhythm and the lovely warm style in which it is played; the dance tunes known as slides and polkas, which are found in no other part of the country and the many good musicians who played them down the years.
One of the most famous of these was the late Pádraig O’Keeffe – The last of the fiddle masters – a school teacher from Glountane, Cordal near Castleisland, who died on February 22nd 1963 and whose legendary playing was a very strong influence on his fellow musicians and on the music of the region where he lived.”
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