Speech at the opening of the Kilfenora Céilí Band Parlour
The Burren Centre, Kilfenora, Co Clare, 20th March 2015
A chairde,
Tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo libh ar fad i gCill Fhionnúrach, agus and deis seo a ghlacadh leis an Kilfenora Céilí Band a mholadh as ucht an méid atá déanta acu ar son ceol tradisiúnta na hÉireann le breis is céad bliain anuas.
I am very pleased to be here with you all in Kilfenora, in this captivating part of the country, the Burren. May I thank John Keane for his kind introduction, as well as Frances Connole and Marie Kearns, for inviting me to officially open The Kilfenora Céilí Band Parlour at The Burren Centre. As President of Ireland, I am delighted to have this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution that this iconic céilidh band has made, for over a century, to the musical traditions of county Clare, of Ireland as a whole, and even beyond.
Of course I also thank very warmly the members of the current Kilfenora Céilí Band for their performance earlier, and for coming here this afternoon. I know that this is an especially busy week for you, with the release of your new album, “Now is the Hour”, and I wish you the very best with the tour you have undertaken just a few days ago.
The Burren, with its peculiar geology, is a very special place. Also known as Boirinn – the “place of stone” in Irish – it can, at first, strike one as a landscape of bare appearance, often described as a “moonscape” because of its scarcity of soil and exposed limestone.
Yet, for those who know how and where to look, the Burren is a place of abundant wildlife and rich human history. As the local community here in Kilfenora know very well, the Burren’s unique ecosystem has been shaped, not just by geological and climatic conditions, but by many generations of farmers who, to this day, have taken their livestock to graze over the rocky hills.
Indeed the Burren is also known as “the fertile rock,” and among those who referred to it as such was my dear friend John O’Donohue. Even that grim Cromwellian officer, Ludlow, whose infamous comments on the Burren are so often quoted – even he, had to admit that, despite the soil being “so scarce that the inhabitants steal it from one another”, “their cattle are very fat.” In fact it has long been recognised that the warmth of the limestone, combined with a diet of calcium-rich water and grass, produce beef and lamb of superior quality.
The ancient and sustainable grazing practices prevalent in this area, which were at risk, are now recognised through the EU-funded Burren Farming for Conservation Programme. The far-sighted farmers and ecologists who devised the programme have created a new template in Ireland for how farmers, and by extension their communities, can be supported and rewarded for farming in harmony with nature.
This interplay between farming and nature has created the perfect environment for gentians, orchids and all those other flowers and plants for which the Burren is famous. It is this unique and precious landscape that The Burren Centre has been presenting and interpreting for visitors and locals alike since 1975. Is mian liom an uile duine a bhfuil baint acu le hIonad na Boirne agus le Chomhar Conradh na Boirne Teo, an comharchumann tuaithe a bhfuil i mbun bainistíochta, a mholadh as ucht oidhreacht nádúrtha agus stairiúil Thuaisceart an Chláir a chur chun cinn agus a chaomhnú.
[May I congratulate all those involved with the Centre, and with Comhar Conradh na Boirne Teo, the rural cooperative that runs it, for thus fostering knowledge of the natural and historical heritage of North Clare.]
Forty years ago, when it was opened by one of my predecessors, Cearbhall Ó Dalaigh, this Centre was called a “display centre”, as the term “interpretative” was then scarcely used. Indeed the promotion of an appreciation of and respect for the surrounding landscape, its uniqueness and fragility – what is now known as “eco-tourism” – was little developed in the Ireland of the mid-1970s. That they saw the need for such an educational resource is testament to the foresight and wisdom of the Centre’s founders.
With the opening of the Kilfenora Céilí Band Parlour, you are adding an important new dimension to this Centre, focusing attention on what is one of the gems of county Clare’s cultural life, namely its rich traditions of Irish dance and music. Indeed, although group playing is relatively new in the history of Irish music, the sound of céilidh bands has come to typify “Irish traditional music” for many people inside and outside of Ireland.
This exhibition will undoubtedly further public awareness of the contributions of the great Kilfenora Céilí Band to Irish music, tracing its beginnings as a fife and drum band at village parties in the early 1900s, passing through its performance in so many dance halls around the county, its jousts with their East Clare rivals, the Tulla Céilí Band, at the famous fleadhs of the 1950s and 1960s, right up to the broad repertoire and international profile of today’s band.
The history of céilidh bands is far from being a local one only: we know how much céilidh music owes to emigrants who took their tunes and steps with them overseas, and to the back and forth movements of people and recordings between Ireland, America and Britain throughout the 20th century.
The history of “The Kilfenora” is also one that is intergenerational in kind, and the band would not be what it is without the Lynch family, the Byrt family, or those three women – Molly Conole, Phil McMahon and Kitty Linnane – who kept the flame alive during times that were sometimes difficult.
The journey continues: the current ensemble, led by John Lynch, is widely acknowledged as one of Ireland’s leading céilidh bands. Two years ago, our guests at the Saint Patrick’s Day Reception at Áras an Uachtaráin had the pleasure of hearing the Kilfenora Céilí Band perform, and I saw at first hand, then, the manner in which the band’s great rythmic vitality, the mix of unrestrained energy and sensitivity that distinguishes them, and the bold innovations they incorporate into their core repertoire of céilidh music, have the ability to lift audiences.
With such history, such a record of excellence, and such ability to draw on a rich tradition while constantly remaining creative, it is no exaggeration to say that “The Kilfenora” is one of Ireland’s most treasured cultural institutions.
May I then, once again, commend The Burren Centre for creating this exhibition around the Kilfenora Céilí Band, and may I wish the band members well on their new tour.
Gura fada buan sibh i mbun cheoil bhinn na hÉireann. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.