Paper presented to the Sean O Riada International Conference 1998. © S. C. Hamilton 1998.

The very fact that this conference has discussed the topic of music and song from two particular areas, and that there is a perception abroad among those interested in this sort of music that indeed the music and song found in these areas is somehow more worthy of notice than that of the surroundings, brings me directly to the subject that I wish to address in this paper:
Why do certain areas of the country have a reputation as being musical places to such an extent that they are distinguished as such from their surroundings?

This might include such questions as:
What is reputation in this sense? How does it develop? Among whom? and perhaps more importantly, and related to the ‘place’ of the title, why is it often the case that where we have several very similar places, why does one of them develop a reputation to the exclusion of the others?

Let us look at the idea of reputation first.
The COD says – the state of being well thought off, and this brings us to the first question…..among whom, and leads to the conclusion that for a reputation to develop, the attributes of a particular place must be known in another place, or in other words the idea of reputation implies an insider/outsider dynamic.
Given the social history of the country, I would argue that as a general principle we could say that reputation as attached to place only develops as communications allow the musical activities attached to a location to become known to the outside. In Irish terms this means that reputation as we discuss it here is essentially a 20th century phenomenon, and we could more accurately use the term ‘local reputation’. Whatever commentary we have from the 19th and early twentieth centuries, and admittedly that is scarce, also tends to confirm this, and O’Neill for example does not tend to single out areas as worthy of more attention than others. ( this fact is related to the notion which I will develop later on of the relationship between reputation and survival ).
So what is it that establishes reputation? I would propose that it can be related to such factors as the level of musical activity in an area, the perceived standard of such activity, and the participation of individuals who themselves are perceived as having ‘reputation’. Secondly, and relating back to the insider/outsider dynamic, there must be someone, apart from the performers themselves who ‘grants’ a reputation, i.e. who perceive that there is something above the ordinary about a particular place…. they think well of it.
Having looked so far at reputation, what about place? Is there any decipherable logic behind the location of the places which have a reputation as being musical?
This rather rough map will help us to visualise some of the main areas of reputation as one would hear discussed among performers and afficionados of traditional music today.

Donegal……fiddle tradition
Sligo…………general, fiddle and flute
Galway…..conamara for sean-nós singing, east galway general
Leitrim/Roscommon………flute playing, general
West Clare……….general
East Clare………fiddle
Cork/Kerry…..fiddle/accordion.

What have these areas in common if anything? Is there any feature that might help us identify what might potentially make an ‘area of reputation’ to coin a term useful for my purposes here.

Physical Features/Geography
In the sense that such features of the landscape as altitude, soil types, and other physical aspects affecting access to or isolation of the areas.
It might be imagined that a typical AOR might be situated in an area which would be remote from ‘modern’ influences, perhaps in an upland region with few roads, and poor economic conditions. And in fact some AORs are in areas like this. Conamara is a good example, as is west Donegal, and indeed, the county bounds themselves, and one could quote other examples. So perhaps geographical factors are of overriding importance?
This, however, does not explain such areas as East Galway, and parts of Clare and Sligo. It also leaves us with the problem of explaining why large areas which are possibly more geographically remote than those we have already referred to, have no reputation as AORs. The peninsulas of the South-West, and the large expanse of west Mayo come to mind here. If isolation was a prerequisite then one would expect such places as Rathlin Island to be hotbeds of the tradition. I hasten to add that it is not that these areas are devoid of music and song, simply that they are not noted as AORs, and this touches on something that I want to look at in more detail later on, the perception of reputation, as opposed to the reality of reputation which might be based on the factors outlined above…levels of activity, standards of performance, or individual reputation.
A point of interest to note here is the relationship between language and music as twin parameters of culture. The concept of the musical AOR is in some ways the equivalent of the linguistic gaeltacht, although unsupported by Government policy and therefore possibly more realistic. In fact some AORs and Gaeltacht areas overlap, and the maps which have been widely published in many books showing the progressive decline of Irish since the late 17th century, could in a very broad way almost be used to map the decline of traditional music and song, although with a different timescale.

We have so far discussed the concept of the AOR as if these areas were in a sense as real as the Gaeltachts. But the Gaeltacht is a concept created by the government, and supported by a large economic and social superstructure. But who establishes the existence of AORs, who gives them their reputation. I think I can say without contradiction that the idea of the AOR is widely accepted by musicians, singers, and their listeners, but what are the factors behind this acceptance? Those who live and perform within such an area, can, of course, from observation of their own environment, and comparison with others, estimate its role as an AOR, but I would argue that although nowadays many people involved in the world of traditional music have travelled widely within the country, OUR KNOWLEDGE OF AORS HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AND MAINTAINED BY THE MEDIA, in particular the recording and broadcast media. This process is intimately tied up with individual reputation, which has already been proposed as part of the overall structure of AORs. In many ways the whole concept of reputation is intimately tied up with the broadcast and recording media, because they are not documentary in their approach, and their overall aim is to record and broadcast the best material they can find. Hence they seek performers with reputation, and conversely reputation is conferred on those selected.
This whole process of mediation is not simply a process of reflecting the musical activity of any particular tradition, area, or individual. The way in which the media interacts with music can be expressed in the form of two related questions. Who gets recorded? and almost more importantly; who decides who gets recorded?
An example of this process in operation which is relevant here is the way in which the early recording industry in America helped to establish the reputation of Sligo, and particularly its fiddle tradition as not only typical of Sligo, but also as central to the whole Irish tradition. The recordings that Coleman, Morrison and Killoran made in the 20s and 30s not only established their personal reputations but by extension laid the foundations of Sligo as one of the most important AORs. Closer to our own time, the preponderance of Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon fluteplayers in the flute recordings of the early to mid-revival period went a long way to establish that area as the perceived centre of the flute playing tradition in Ireland.
The point here is not that AORs are purely the creation of mediators, but that certain areas seem to have been ‘promoted’ over others which have been largely ignored. It could be argued of course, that the areas which received media attention were the only ones that warranted it but the example of Donegal strongly negates this argument.
Now considered to be one of the great repositories of the tradition, in terms of recordings Donegal is almost completely absent from 78s, and has only recently ( with the notable exception of Johnny Doherty and a very few others) featured in revival recordings. (explain this term) We all know that the Donegal fiddle tradition is not something that has developed since the1980s, but a survey of recordings would lead us to believe this. As a final example of forgotten or excluded reputation we might consider the hegemony of the Connemara style of sean-nós singing as revealed in both the comparative number of recordings made, and the results of Oireachtas competitions.

Having examined the idea of reputation, and how this applies to place in a general sense, let’s turn to our chosen AOR… The County Bounds, and see if these considerations can help us to understand more about it.

The first thing that I want to emphasise is that although, throughout the whole weekend we have been treating Sliabh Luachra and West Múscraí as two different places, two different traditions almost, I firmly believe and my experience as a musician and as a musicologist confirms my belief, that we are actually dealing with one stylistic area here, but that our vision of it as such has been distorted by the differing persistence of certain aspects of the tradition. Thus although it might be obvious to those on the ground that the music tradition of Sliabh Luachra is the surviving remanent of what was a much more widespread tradition, it might not be quite as obvious, but nonetheless I believe it to be true, that the singing tradition which we now identify mainly with West Múscraí is also the remanent of just as widespread a tradition. This returns to a point that I touched on earlier which suggested that one way, perhaps the most useful way, to view areas of reputation, is not as places where the music and song is noticeably of a higher quality, or if you like is more reputable than that of the surroundings, but simply as places where music and song survive to any real extent at all! There is no doubt that before the advent of media driven music, which is essentially a 20th century phenomenon, rural Ireland was essentially one large AOR. We must therefore look at the reasons for the decline of music in some areas as much as the reasons for its survival in others. How does this apply to the County Bounds?

Let us look first in more detail at the area itself and at what might be some of the factors which affected the survival of the music and song tradition.

MAP

Sliabh Luachra, is a term used to describe an area of varying size and location depending on one’s point of view. In terms of physical boundaries, there are no definitive ones, and most of the suggested solutions to this problem that I have heard, seem to leave out at least one area or aspect that others would consider essential. Thus the description of the upper Blackwater valley is reasonably accurate and takes in most of the area, but it leaves out important areas such as Brosna which lie in the upper Feale valley. And in that area as well, although the County Bounds we are discussing are those between Cork and Kerry, does Sliabh Luachra suddenly come to a stop at the Limerick border across the river? As in many cases of definition, the centre is more easily defined than the edges. Name such as Scartaglin, Ballydesmond, Gneevgullia, Brosna, and Knocknagree can be placed in Sliabh Luachra without fear of contradiction, but I fear we must content ourselves to having a fuzzy PHYSICAL boundary to the region. To give those who are unfamiliar with the village names of the area a better idea of its general location, the area bounded by Killarney on the South-West, Millstreet on the South East, Castleisland on the West, and Abbeyfeale on the North, is again roughly accurate. Though useful, again these boundaries let us down, in that several important musicians, including some who have featured here this weekend, would be excluded by these boundaries strictly applied.

The problem is even worse for our second, or if you accept my proposition, the other part of the area. Firstly, it has no name which is normally applied to it in the same way as Sliabh Luachra is used for the area just discussed. When this conference was in the throes of preparation, the organisers struggled with various terms which could be used in the publicity to put across exactly where was meant. The term Muskerry or Múscraí in the Irish version was mooted. But Múscraí is a barony which stretches from the outskirts of Cork city to Kerry, and even West Múscraí is much to diffuse. Again certain important areas would be left out using this definition, including Ballingeary, in the Barony of Uibh Laoire and the upper Roughty valley which is in Kerry.
Another cultural boundary exists in the region which might be thought to prove useful… that of the Gaeltacht, which would include Baile Atha Ghaoraigh ,[Ballingeary] but again excludes Kerry, but on the other hand this is perhaps the most artificial of any of the boundaries so far discussed. Based on locations within the area, the village of Cúil-Aodha often acts as a central reference point, particularly in this case because some of the best known performers come from there, but again this gives a skewed vision of the extent of the area, and in particular its position straddling the county bounds.

I think I have demonstrated that attempts at physically defining AORs is doomed to failure, and a failure at basic definition tends to undermine further research and conclusions.
In order to circumvent this point:
I WOULD LIKE TO PROPOSE THAT THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT WAY IN WHICH TO LOOK AT THE TOPIC OF REPUTATION AND PLACE IS TO TALK OF COMMUNITIES OF REPUTATION AS OPPOSED TO AREAS OF REPUTATION.
This change in emphasis from place to people, I think will seem even more significant when it is considered that it is people, and more importantly individuals, who make music and who make decisions about how they play it, where they play it and with whom. Working from this point of view perhaps we can begin to look at reasons for the survival of music and song in these areas, and even at why different aspects of the tradition survived/declined, in different areas of what I’m arguing was once an autonomous stylistic region.
For this very reason, for the moment I want to revert to looking at the two areas as separate if only to identify the possible reasons behind the separation.
It has been made fairly clear over the weekend that the perception, at any rate, is that the Sliabh Luachra is associated with instrumental music, and Múscraí with singing, although we know that this in reality is not a hard and fast rule.
The instrumental tradition of Sliabh Luachra is mainly associated with the fiddle and two a lesser extent with the accordion. Other instruments are of course present, flute, pipes, concertina, etc. in fact all the normal range found in the present day Irish tradition. However it via the fiddle and box that Sliabh Luachra music is mostly known, or to be more exact through certain players on these instruments. The central figures in the Sliabh Luachra fiddle tradition are no doubt Padraig O’Keeffe and his pupils, the best known of whom are probably Denis Murphy and his sister Julia Clifford. The sense of the continuity of the tradition implied in this statement is of central importance to the role that Padraig O’Keeffe, and before him, musicians such as Tom Billy Murphy, played, and also points us directly towards what I believe to be one of the main reasons for the survival of traditional music in this area, and hence its reputation. The accordion is the normal foil for the fiddle in the area, and in fact there are and were ( at least in this century) probably rather more box players than fiddlers active in the area. Perhaps reflecting the lower esteem in which the box is/was held there is no equivalent of the ‘Padraig O’Keeffe phenomenon’ with this instrument…..although in fact O’Keeffe taught the box as well as the fiddle. The box has, though a central importance to Sliabh Luachra music, particularly with regard to its role as music for dancing and this is reflected by musicians such as Johnny Leary, and more recently Jackie Daly.
Dancing seems to have been of central importance in the area, and in fact the tunes that tend to characterise the music, slides and polkas appear to have been introduced or developed along with set dances. Unlike the other dance tune types such as jigs, reels or hornpipes, slides and polkas are never used for solo step dancing. The tradition of set dancing itself is of reasonably recent advent. Sets of quadrilles were introduced from the continent and England to Ireland in the teens of the 19th century, and although they became very widespread, they arrived in different areas of the country at different times, as late as 1890 in some places, according to Larry Lynch, but of course this is an exception and they were probably well established almost everywhere by the mid century. O’Neill in one of his few mentions of the subject refers to polkas as ‘modern music’. The role of music as music for dancing has been exceptionally important for its survival, and in certain areas the cessation of dancing as a social activity had disastrous consequences for music. The reasons why traditional dancing ceased to be an important part of rural social life in this century are complex, and I don’t have the time to go into them in detail now. However such factors as opposition from the Church, the 1935 Dance Halls Act, and the increasing popularity of modern dance all made their contribution. The way in which these factors operated meant that whereas there was an almost total cessation of dance and related activity in some areas, others survived almost intact, or at least dancing continued even if less widespread and popular than before. In the Sliabh Luachra area dance survived rather better than it did in surrounding areas, and even though house dancing declined in or around the time of the war, the many dance halls in the area…. there were halls in (probably among other places) Ballydesmond, Gneeveguillia, Newmarket, Mountcollins, Rock Chapel, Scartaglen, Knocknagree, Boherbue and Clon Banin cross, provided new venues for this activity, and all the well-known musicians played for sets in these halls over long periods of time. Although modern dance to some extent eroded the amount of traditional dancing, it never entirely died out as it did in other areas.
Another factor, which personally I believe may be very important indeed in the way in which music and dancing persisted in Sliabh Luachra, is the early date at which music was played in pubs.

Johnny Leary.

In other areas it seems that music became ‘homeless’ after venues such as the house dance, and the hall either changed or ceased to exist, and pubs did not welcome music in many areas until as late as the mid 1970s.
The role of recordings is a significant factor in the maintenance of the tradition in the area. The first commercial recording to appear was the seminal The Star above the Garter which featured Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, and was released by Claddagh in 1968. This was followed by other recordings mostly in the series Music from Sliabh Luachra, released by Topic from the mid 1970s on, and including recordings by Padraig O’Keeffe, others by Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, Billy Clifford, Johnny Leary, and Jackie Daly. Paddy Cronin had recorded a series of 78s for the Copley company in Boston in the 1950s, but although Cronin was a pupil of O’Keeffe, his style is far enough removed from that of his contemporaries not to have influence the transmission of the tradition.
A final factor which I might mention is the set dance revival which is generally agreed to have begun in 1970 and which came to a head in the 1980s. This movement gave a huge boost to music in the area, and brought many visitors to the area who ‘spread the word’ about the tunes, the musicians, the dances, and the style of music in the area.

The west Múscraí/west Cork Gaetacht/ whatever you want to call it could be seen as consisting of the villages of Baile Mhuirne and Cúil-Aodha, Baile atha an Ghaoraigh,and Kilnamartyra, lying west and south of Macroom, and the surrounding regions extending towards Millstreet on the one hand, and towards Kilgarvan on the other, taking in the upper Roughty valley in Co. Kerry.
Here the focus of the tradition is perceived to be traditional song, and this is largely true, although there is and was an instrumental tradition stylistically identical, I would claim, to Sliabh Luachra. Similarly to Sliabh Luachra as well, the set dancing tradition avoided the pit falls of the 30s 40s and 50s and survived to be met by the revival.
The singing tradition has two threads, which are basically aligned with language, but superimposed on this, and transcending the language barrier, is the notion of older material existing side by side with newly composed material.

diagram

One of the major questions raised here is the whole relationship between music and song. Song tends to be a more intimate performance, and certainly was never initially performed in the same sort of public venues as music and dance.
In terms of commercial recording, Irish traditional song ( in both languages) has in general fared badly. Thus traditional singing in Irish had to wait until the revival period and specifically the 1960s before it was commercially recorded, and since then recordings of traditional singing have formed a small minority of the overall body of commercial records. The ballad style of song and performance, typified by the Dubliners or the Wolfe Tones, or the style of accompanied singing associated with the commercial groups who play dance music, seems to satisfy the public demand for ‘Irish’ song. The types of song that are typical of the area under consideration are in general not attractive to a wide public, for reasons of language, performance style, and even where language forms no barrier, the very local nature of the content, while forming a strong identity marker for locals , tends to exclude outsiders.
However, in fact the same could be said about traditional song in many if not most other areas. Why did it persist in Múscraí.
I believe there are several factors which might be significant . The first is in relation to the Irish language. The inclusion of a lot of the area in the West Cork Gaeltacht means that this serves as a second, or even first, identity for some people, who take a pride in the language and by extension, songs and poetry in it. This effect can overflow to a general interest in songs even if in English….for the Gaeltacht here has in essence been bi-lingual for a long time. The State recognition of the language since 1922 has provided some important outlets or venues for traditional song performance ( sean-nós ) mainly in the form of the yearly Oireachtas competitions, and many of the newly composed material in Irish was composed with this in mind.
Secondly there is the very high level of locally/newly composed song in the repertoire. I would hazard a guess that this is much higher than in the vast majority of similar areas, and it again helps to both maintain an interest among local people, and to make the songs less attractive nationally.
Thirdly we must consider the effect that the late Sean Ó Riada had on the tradition in the area, and I would propose that this in general was a very positive one, his attention to the music giving local people a renewed pride in their own culture at a time when nationally it was held in very low esteem.
In terms of commercial recording music and song from this area have both fared very badly. It is difficult to account for the difference in the fortunes of instrumental music between the two areas, but I feel it may be related to the availability of Sliabh Luachra music on record from the late 60s.
The type of song which typifies the county bounds ( mention song in SL) does not lend itself easily to mediaization ( explain this term) and I think I’m right in saying that the first songs from the area to be recorded were those recorded by Sean O Sé in the 60s, An Puc ar Buile being the best known example….. but these were not sung in the local style. In fact we have had to wait until the posthumous release of ‘Ar Bruach na Carrige Bána’ featuring the singing of Diarmuid Ó Súilleabhéan in 1993? for a recording of traditional singing in the local style.
Since the demise of the house dance and the decline of the custom of ‘scoríochting’, the social context of singing has moved largely to the pub, in connection with sessions of instrumental music, but also in the form of sessions of singing alone. House parties, which might occur after a session in a pub, and weddings would also be major occasions for performance.

In conclusion:
The county bounds are in many way typical of the various areas throughout the country where music and song survive…..reiterating the point that what we were treating as AORs might be better thought of as AOSs! [areas of survival]
The role of the media in at the least reinforcing, and at the most creating such areas has been mooted, and it is proposed that this accounts to some extent for the difference in the two areas we have talked about.
I would propose that the action of individuals can be very important in the dynamic of survival and decline. This can be within a community of musicians where they can act in a positive way, directly as in transmitting their music to others, or indirectly by promoting it in some other way ( O Riada) Or it can be from the outside for example in terms of decision makers within the recording industry.
Other aspects are much harder to explain. Múscraí had just as vibrant a tradition of instrumental music at least up until the 1950s, and yet today the situation is as I have outlined ( new hope)
Singing and Sliabh Luachra are not spoken about in the same breath and yet it is safe to conclude that it was once much more important there than it now is.
Perhaps if we knew more about these unknown factors which affect decline and survival we might be in a better position to guard what survival there are. A healthy level of transmission may be among the more important of these. As it stands it seems that the SL tradition is being guarded by a new generation of musicians, and a strong presence in the media. The singing tradition appears to me to be in a much more delicate state of health. Transmission is weak. There is a definite dearth of younger singers, and among the few that are there, English language songs are beginning to predominate. What action, if any, that can be taken to counteract this I am not sure, but we must be very careful that in the future we do not see a further contraction of the county bounds to include only Sliabh Luachra!