This year of 2023 holds a store of special anniversaries in the life and times of Patrick O’Keeffe – the last of the Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Masters.
A group from the Castleisland based festival in his name and honour visited the family grave in Kilmurry led by festival Chairman Cormac O’Mahony earlier this year on the 60th anniversary of his death on February 22nd 1963.
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of the monument to the Glountane musical genius which took place in Scartaglen on Friday July 29th 1983.
This Time Thirty Years Ago
It’s also the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music in Castleisland. At around this time of the year in 1993 word was quietly spreading of the possibility of an event of some sort to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Patrick O’Keeffe in St. Catherine’s Hospital in Tralee in 1963.
Hints were dropped by Peter Browne of RTÉ – who had just finished work on a radio documentary on O’Keeffe’s life and legacy – that it would be the right thing to do and that the anniversary should be marked. He also said that any local initiative would be backed up by the issue of a CD of O’Keeffe’s playing by the national broadcaster.
CD Launch in The Crown
It all came to pass in October 1993 and the CD titled The Last of the Great Fiddle Masters was launched by Ciarán Mac Mathúna at a packed Crown Hotel during the first festival in October 1993.
Plans to erect a monument to the memory of the late, great Sliabh Luachra fiddle master came to fruition on the Friday night of July 29th 1983 on the village green in Scartaglen.
The occasion also marked the opening of that year’s féile cheoil and the honour fell to organising Chairman Cllr. Tom Fleming, snr.
The bronze bust of the widely recognised Glountane musician is the work of Castleisland artist and sculptor, the late Mike Kenny (1956 – 2011).
College of Art and Design in Dublin
Mr. Kenny undertook the work and completed the project while still a student at the College of Art and Design in Dublin.
Between the completion of the Scart commission and its unveiling he also graduated from the college with flying colours.
The unveiling of the work also marked the culmination of a remarkable fundraising drive which began with concerts and dances in Scart, Castleisland and Ballydesmond.
The monumental drive also spanned the Irish Sea to London with Ted Kenny at the helm there and over the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago where Terry ‘Cuz’ Teahan passed the hat around and all available funds found a great welcome in Scartaglen.
Hand and Bow at Rest
As the work progressed, Mike liaised closely with Francie Davy O’Connor in aspects of O’Keeffe’s facial expressions, the fall and folds of clothing and ways of holding and playing the fiddle.
Even how it appeared when it and its player’s hands were at rest between tunes was modelled and noted.
The latter is expertly portrayed by Kenny in the sculpture which will mark its 40th anniversary on the green in Scartaglen this weekend to the day on this Friday, to the date tomorrow July 29th.
Five Day Festival Worked
Back to the future: At this time almost every year, a cry goes out in Castleisland to people of the locality who may be willing to rent rooms or houses for the duration of the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival.
The festival has outgrown its habitual four-day event status it held since 1993. Now, on its 30th anniversary it’s about to enter its second, five-day run.
Accommodation on Website
Last year’s five-day experiment went so well that it’s being kept on over the coming October bank holiday weekend from and including: Thursday, 26th to Monday 30th.
The town’s annual November 1st horse fair will follow on Wednesday for those with the health of a badger to be able to follow it all.
Anyone looking for accommodation for the festival should keep an eye on the festival website accommodation section at: https://patrickokeeffefestival.com/accommodation/
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