I just took my son to one of his classes in the Teach Cheoil in Ennistymon, there I was told of a bit of news that will sadden those of you who love the music of the old Kilfenora Ceili band.
One of the stalwarts of the band, and indeed of north Clare music: whistle and flute player Paddy Mullins has died on Monday night aged 91.
I remember one night during a Willie Clancy week during the mid 80s, this was long before I even dreamt of ever living in Clare. The woman of the guesthouse where I used to stay always pressurised the musicians staying in the house into playing at least one night in the bar of her establishment.
That year I managed to get out of the gig as I had gone out of playing the concert pitch pipes by then (and my playing the whistle in public is a development of very recent years). Anyway, on my return to the B&B I had a chat in the bar with Chris Langan who had been playing his whistle in the bar all night. Chris told me how an old man was sitting next to him all night, asking him to play this tune and that. By the end of the night Chris figured your man knew his music and asked him did he play at all. ‘Ah sure I used to play the flute in the Kilfenora’. When Chris told me this he was in total awe, ‘had I known it I wouldn’t have dared play a note.’ The man was Paddy Mullins. Only then I fully realised this was for Chris an experience that would compare to my generation to sitting next to someone in a session all night and then after a while being told ‘Well, I used to play the flute in the Bothy Band’.
These men are gone now, remember them and their music.