Aoife Clancy: Interview at Catskill Irish Arts Week

Aoife Clancy, the outstanding Irish singer, honored me with an interview early Saturday morning near the end of the Catskill Irish Arts Week, just after a long singing session at the Wayside Inn.

She lives in Fairhaven Massachusetts, near New Bedford, but was brought up in Ireland.

Her father, Bobby Clancy, was in the Clancy Brothers, the famous group that brought Irish folk music to America in much of the 1960s. Consequently she was brought up listening to and playing music at an early age.

Her father insisted his children all have their daily dose of Irish music.

She was playing the banjo at 7 or 8 years old, which she didn't really like. She progressed to the guitar when she was about 11 or 12.

Her mother came from an Irish speaking area, a Gaeilteach, in Ring (An Rinn, in Irish), County Waterford, Ireland.

As a result, she was exposed to a bit of both worlds of Irish music. She heard the ballads from her father, and then she'd go down to Ring and hear the sean nos songs in the Irish language and style. She stuck mostly to her father's style of songs, but she was influenced by the sean nos (“Sean nos” means “old style” and is the style of singing where a solo performer sings unaccompanied, usually in Irish, and often in free meter).

In fact, her mom often reminded Aoife of how she, Aoife, didn't get her Irish music heritage just from her father - her mom's traditions helped form her style as well.

Aoife started performing in her teenage years. She remembers at the age of 13 and 14, her father took her out to country pubs in the middle of nowhere. He'd say, “Come on, we've got an afternoon gig.” And she'd go, “What!?” shocked at the lack of adequate warning. Still, he'd take her to these beautiful little pubs. Some of them didn't even have electricity in them. The pubs sold only large bottles of beer, no drafts. Patrons bought large bottles or nothing. Such experiences were her early exposure to public music, watching her father and observing him perform in a small little intimate setting. The people in these places were very supportive. She was extremely shy and he would encourage her to sing. But many times he would tease her by introducing her as “kind of shy” and she'd think, “Why did you say that?”

Over the years, she got more confident singing in front of a crowd. She thanks her father, because of his attitude toward performing. He was very much about “enjoy yourself and sing from the heart”. He told her don't make it so much about performing for people and how they are all looking at you, as much as about how you are enjoying the song yourself and how you are bringing it across. She learned a lot from performing from that perspective.

Aoife was a solo performer when she came to the United States. She brought a CD with her titled “It's About Time” and was published by Rego (Irish Music) Records in 1991. Aoife did a tour with Patty Noonan who ran the Rego label. Joanie Madden heard the CD, Cathie Ryan was leaving, and Joanie and Aoife met on an Irish cruise Aoife's father and uncles had put on in the Caribbean. The Cherish the Ladies group was on the cruise and Joanie had a substitute singer to cover for Cathie. Joanie didn't say anything to Aoife at that time, she just kind of observed Aoife singing at the session. A few months later Joanie called Aoife and said, “Doll, we're looking for a singer. Would you like to join the group?”

Aoife had often looked at the group with admiration as they have so much variety, the dancers, the tunes, the instruments, the songs. Of course, Aoife jumped at the chance and the next thing she knew she was appearing with Cherish the Ladies.

She sang with Cherish the Ladies for about five years.

When she left, she was in bands of various configurations with her own band, the Clancy band, and Matt and Shannon Heaton. Fling played with her for awhile. She played with other musicians including Owen Marshall.

Now she's in the Clancy Legacy with her cousins Robin O'Connel and Donal Clancy. They just brought a CD out in March titled “The Clancy Legacy” (btw, they first performed together at a workshop called "The Clancy Legacy" during the Irish Arts week in East Durham, NY in July 2006).

Aoife came to be at the 2010 Catskill Irish Arts Week because she was there a number of years ago. Myron Bretholz, the bodhrán player, encouraged her. There was one year when he was in charge of the bookings for the event, like Paul Keating was in 2010 (and before). She met Myron at a festival in Philly and he was the MC. They started chatting. Myron asked her, “Do you ever teach?” and soon asked her to come teach in the Catskills.

She did it and loved it. She had a fantastic bunch of people. She just had to talk about her father and her uncles, and then led the group in the songs that had been passed on to her. She found a whole slew of songs that over the years she'd forgotten about until she started looking back on them.

She couldn't believe the number of people who wanted to learn the songs passed on to her by her father.

Then she started getting into it. She started teaching the songs at other workshop events too.

For the last three or four years she hasn't been to the Catskills Irish Arts Week because of a competing festival, but she was invited this year and she decided it was time to return to the Catskill Irish Arts Week.

She said the 2010 week was a great week, and everyone worked her hard. There is so much going on, so many people she knows, she wishes it could be spread over two weeks. The evening sessions at the pubs alone are a dilemma – if you are at one, you cannot go to another.

The students were exposed to such wonderful music that week.

Aoife said the standard of musicians and teachers here for the week doesn't get any better. You don't get any better than the Kane sisters, Edel Fox, Joanie Madden, Cherish the Ladies, or Liz Carroll. They are the crème de la crème of Irish musicians. Anybody would be so lucky to have these people as teachers. They've been playing since they were small and now they are passing on the music to their students. That's what keeps the music alive.

On a personal note, Aoife loves when she sits at a session and somebody comes in and sings a song that she taught them.

Aoife said the Andy McGann Festival on the last Saturday of the Catskill Irish Arts Week would be great because even more performers come in. Bua is playing. The performers represent the standard of the musicians the place attracts.

She hopes to be asked to return to the Catskills next year, but she hopes to arrange a night off that week to catch her rest!


Aoife's online calendar is here: http://www.aoifeclancy.com/calendar .
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More Irish Musicians in Shamrock Road blogs:

- Brían Ó hAirt (Brian Hart)
- Bernadette Nic Gabhann
- Aoife Clancy
- Matt and Shannon Heaton

Defining Moments

On Monday our Volunteer In Missions group met at 3 pm with Reverend Harold Good who is a Winner of the World Methodist Peace Prize and was involved in decommissioning of IRA guns.



Reverend Harold Good started with where he comes from, his own journey. He insists his is an ordinary story of a preacher's kid, born in Derry. But, other than the first few year in Derry, he was raised in Belfast and considers it home. His youth was in a suburban part of Belfast, over in the leafy suburbs of East Belfast. His father was Minister first on the Newton Irish Road, and then in the Knock area.

He decided to go into the ministry when he was in his teenage years. He followed the usual route for school and the ministry, all very predictable. His story was different because his father was from County Cork, as far south as you can go, before you head to America and his mother was from County Armagh. His County Cork grandfather was in the RIC (Royal Irish Constabulary) which was the old police force before partition in Ireland. His grandfather left that job at a relatively early age when he had ten children. His grandfather left the police force because he refused to take part in the evictions in the late 19th century. With ten children to support, that wasn't done lightly. The poor people were being evicted because they couldn't afford to pay their rents. He always had a great admiration for his grandfather, although he never met him, because he stood up so firmly on principal. His other grandfather, from County Amagh, was also a man of principal, but his principals took him a different direction. When the Protestants and Unions in Northern Ireland feared they were going to be sold out to some kind of united Ireland, he was one of several thousands of Ulster Protestant people who imported guns who were prepared to go to war in order to stay with Britain. He was part of the gun running of 1912 in reaction what was called “The Home Rule Bill” which was seen as the thin edge of a wedge which would take Ireland into an arrangement in which they would not be comfortable.

He had these two grandfathers with quite different viewpoints which seemed to combine to make Reverend Good a hybrid. Growing up, Reverend Good was not sure where he stood on all the factious issues. His family had come from two different traditions. Some people thought he should be one or the other, but he was thankful to have gotten both viewpoints from the very beginning. One day he might argue from one side and the next he would switch sides in the argument. This education about the different viewpoints has helped him in his mission as a minister because he has little difficulty serving the whole community.

In the late 1950s, he was a young minister in South Armaugh, which was a very tense area, a very republican-nationalist area. There had been bombing and shooting which it was an early manifesting of the tensions. The British had set up a curfew and no one was to be out unless they had a permit or pass. He had one as a young minister so he could accomplish his pastoral duties. He came home one night through the Town of Newry. The Nationalist people resented the curfew because they saw it as directed against them. They sat down in Marvin Square in the center of the Town of Newry in protest against the curfew. He heard a big commotion and being a young person he couldn't resist his curiosity so he parked the motorbike by that area and walk closer to see what he could. He saw a horrendous scene of water cannons hosing human beings across this public area in a way you would attempt to hose vermin out of a space. He didn't have any feelings one way or the other regarding the protest, but once he saw that he couldn't believe what people were willing to do to a fellow human being. Something inside him reacted in revulsion. The next day people were saying well that will cool then down now, but he realized the technique was going to create a backlash like throwing petrol onto flames. That proved to be the case. The next night there were twice as many protesters in the square.

He remembers being a young fellow in the center of Belfast when the Youth for Christ Campaign was present. After the World War II there were “blitz squares” which were open areas left by the Nazi aerial bombs. People would gather in these squares and have meetings, gospel readings, political meetings and all sorts of things. On one side was the Youth for Christ Campaign, which was young American evangelists. They were all attractive, in suits, new hairstyles, and they had guitars. The girls were pretty singing in a choir. Off in the distance he saw a straggling group of people coming through the dusk from the Albert Clock.

This clock and the Crown Bar are two things on the tourist trail in Belfast. He said you go to the Crown Bar and when you come out, you see the Albert Clock and you think its leaning! In case you didn't know, the Albert Memorial Clock was built on wooden piles on an area where miscellaneous fill had been placed over wet organic soil around the River Farset, the top of the tower is famous for leaning four feet off the perpendicular.

So in the group was a great big man and a small band – a few flute players, and a couple of drums. They took a position on the other side of the blitz square. He watched with curiosity. The big figure leading this was the Reverend Ian Paisley, who at that time was just starting to be known. He stood up literally on a wooden box and in front of him was one of those watchman's fires. He had a book which had been written by the principal of the Presbyterian College, Professor Davie, who had been accused by his fellow Presbyterians of being a heretic. Professor Davie had written this book in which he was raising some interesting questions. Such a book today would not raise hackles they way it did then.

He was reading something about the virgin birth, he tore out the page, he shouted out something, he flung the page into the fire, and the people would say, “We have heard a joyful sound, Jesus say it!” And he kept doing this with page after page.

Mr. Paisley was a self-ordained minister. He adopted the name Free Presbyterian Church because he wanted to pull people away from the Presbyterian Church, perhaps to build his own empire.

Reverend Good said to himself, “Lord, if you want me to be a minister, please do not let me be anything like that. Please help me to oppose something like that.”

These were some of the defining moments of Reverend Good's life.
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This talk is continued in a future blog posting entitled "Reverend Harold Good on Similarities Between Sectarian Versus Racial Conflict".