Some relations from my father's side in County Clare

Photo of my Grandmother, Ellen Spellacy Keane, her daughter, my Aunt "Baby" and her daughters Margaret and Anita. My Grandmother was a Spellacy from Kilmaley, Co. Clare (Cill Mháille, Co.an Chláir). Her daughter Baby was a fine concertina player and notice her little daughter Anita who would later marry John Garry, also from Lavalla, Ballynacally (Baile na Caillí) and from a very musical family. They have a grown-up daughter Sheila Garry who is a well known fiddle player with beautiful CDs to her credit and is a past member of "The Kilfenora Céilí Band". The other two brothers of the Garry's are my dear friends Mike and Jimmy who live here in New York and are also related through their Mother's side to Sharon Shannon.

Mulhaire & Miltown Malbay 1957

The year was 1957 and the very first Co. Clare Fleadh Cheoil had begun in Miltown Malbay just on the heels of the greatest All Ireland Fleadh that had been held the previous year down the road in Ennis.

By this time, my brother Seán was 11 years old and playing great, and I was making my own way, trying to figure out the box. The tiredness was beginning to have its toll on us from all the walking around town and navigating our way through the crowds. I remember Dad buying us comic books and we found ourselves a seat on the sidewalk under a street light outside the door of Friel's Bar. Angela Crehan Crotty has since mentioned to me many years later, that her father Junior remarked at the time about "how well the two Keane lads behaved as they read their comics." As usual there was music being played in Friel's kitchen and Dad managed to maneuver us right into the middle of it.

There was a large crowd gathered in the kitchen around the musicians who were some members of the Tulla Céilí Band--Paddy Canny and Martin Mulhaire. It was a significant moment, as it was shortly before the band was to leave for an American tour and recording session.

Besides the gentleman we all know Martin to be, we also know him for his great box playing and his composition of tunes such as "Land of Sunshine," "Mulhaires #9" and "Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire." The latter tune he wrote for Carmel Mahoney and I am sure that this great piece of music surely helped win her heart.

We seldom meet but when we do, it's always a great and worthwhile reunion and it brings me back to Miltown Malbay 1957.

Thinking of My Father

My Father was a very unassuming, quiet man who loved nothing better than to play the fiddle and bring my Mother, Seán and myself to sessions and Fleadhs all over Ireland. I was actually present as a five year old toddler at the the Fleadh in Athlone in 1953, and every Fleadh after that until 1966 because of my Dad's efforts. His yearly vacation always fell on the first two weeks of August, the timing was perfect, and after the All Ireland in Ennis in 1956, we never missed a Co. Clare fleadh either.

I brought my Father to America for a visit in 1971 and arranged to borrow a fiddle for him to use during his stay. My partner Michael "Jesse" Owens and myself had a nice gig playing at Candlewood Lake in Connecticut and I rented a fine house way back in the woods. Some mornings as Theresa prepared breakfast we would take the fiddle and box and head to a favorite rock we had found and play for the raccoons and birds until we got the shout from Theresa to come for the food. At night, I would invite my father on-stage and he enjoyed playing a few tunes with us.

Theresa and I arranged to be on the flight with him to Ireland when he returned home and that gave me another month in his company. Having had a great visit it was time for me to return to New York and we had a very emotional parting as I could not oblige him when he asked me not to return to the states. It was very hard to return to my life abroad.

As was the tradition, Mother and Father headed to Longford after Christmas, for the Wren Dance held each year at the original homestead of my Mother's people, the Hanlys of Curroole, Newtowncashel Co. Longford. Besides some great local musicians such as James Hanly, Dan Kelly and Peter Carburry--to name but a few--we would also have musicians visiting from such far away places as east Galway and Co. Westmeath, that had included Joe Cooley, John Joe Gannon and Willie Reynolds.

It was December 29th, the day was advancing and my Father made several requests of my Aunt Brigie about bringing the cows down from the fields for evening milking. It was much too early but in the end she agreed to get it done, and so my Father, Brigie and her son James headed for the fields. The process was one of the daily rituals on the farm, and Brigie requested that Dad and young James stand guard at a gap at the end of the field by the road, to stop the cattle from going through it as she herded them down that way. As she headed off into the distance to round the herd, Dad spotted a baby lamb with it's wool caught in the briars. The animal was bleating and struggling to get free, and my Father leaned over with his tobacco knife to free the lamb, and as soon as he did, he just fell over on the green grass and died.

The shocking news got to me in New York that morning and I was devastated, having only said my goodbyes to him after our long time together in America and Ireland a few months before. It was my misfortune to encounter bureaucracy as I tried to return home, and it was impossible for me to fly back again to Ireland for the funeral.

Playing music during 1972 was nothing but pain for me, because no matter what tunes I played, I was reminded of my father. I tried to avoid playing tunes that reminded me of him, and it was impossible, and there were disastrous nights when I would be on-stage and the music would remind me of him and I would shed tears in the club as I continued to work at the music.

I had my legal situation resolved six months later and returned to Dublin for his first anniversary. I talked with him at his grave, and always play music that reminds me of him.