Remembering Johnny O’Leary

By Paul Keating

TWENTY years ago this summer was one of those critical turning points when we know that our lives will be enriched forever more. 

My first visit in 1984 to Willie Week, the marvelous eight-day musical tribute to piper Willie Clancy in his native Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, started a revival in country set dancing. I was there to learn the great Clare Sets that my parents and their friends did so gracefully at house parties and social gatherings down through the years after emigrating from the Banner County. 

What made that first visit so very special were the wonders that awaited me in Hennessey’s Pub on the Lahinch Road in Miltown Malbay. On the personal side, there is Miltown matchmaker Jack Whelan. He is the next Grand Marshall of Long Island’s premier St. Patrick’s Day Parade for his many Irish American accomplishments, not the least of which is getting my then wife-to-be Deirdre Danaher and I together for some great fun at night in the pub. 

It was also my first exposure to the wonderful world of the music of Sliabh Luachra and those marvelous polkas and slides that flew so mellifluously out of the box-playing of the recently departed Johnny O’Leary, spinning dancers round the small house in such tidy but exuberant fashion.

The passing of the master musician from Maulykeavane in his 80th year from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on February 9 perhaps marked the end of an era. He went on to join his heavenly friends, Padraig O’Keefe, Julia and Denis Murphy who are synonymous with the rich and lively style of music from the Sliabh Luachra area.

O’Leary’s funeral was a massive and respectful affair from Killarney to the Gneevegulia Church and Cemetery overlooking the Blackwater Hills in West Cork, which formed this sphere of influence – or state of mind – that we call the music of Sliabh Luachra. 

In attendance were O’Leary’s many musical and dancing cronies from a lifetime of playing, including the Begley, O’Riada and O’Connell family, whose leader and close friend Dan welcomed Johnny “Leary” into his Knocknagree Pub in 1964 to play for dancing. Then he watched it become a mecca for the set dancing pilgrims around the world. Sean O’ Se sonorously sang “Ag Chriost an tSiol” with Peadar O’Riada’s Cor Cuil Aodha at the mass before he was laid to rest near his good friend in life, Dan O’Keeffe, a beautiful dancer whom Johnny propelled so effortlessly on flag and timber floors whenever they could share those good times. 

“The amount of tradition both above ground and below was extraordinary,” observed dance teacher Timmy “the Brit” McCarthy by phone to me on the day of the burial as we discussed Johnny’s place in history.

“When I walked into Dan O’Connell’s Pub 30 years ago and saw the general age of dancers from their 20s to their 80s, it literally changed my life at that point.” McCarthy credited O’Leary as being the last of the traveling musicians who went from house to house to blend the music with the dancing as if they were one.

Appropriately enough, the graveside oration on February 11 was left to another man whose long association with Johnny O’Leary and his own work in the field forever linked the worlds of traditional music and dance without separation. 

Terry Moylan, the archivist for Na Piobairi Uilleann and set dance historian, accepted the honor of capturing the essence of the convivial man whose music and honesty were legendary. Moylan completed, in 1994, the labor of love began by the scholar Breandán Breathnach of the seminal collection entitled Johnny O’Leary of Siabh Luachra: Dance Music From The Cork-Kerry Border (www.iol.ie/~terrym/jol) as both a recording and book of tunes encompassing his music.

He shared that eulogy as well as the wealth of details above after the funeral by e-mail. Moylan concluded his remembrance, “We do not mourn you Johnny. We rejoice in your life. We weep for ourselves for we will miss you sorely…we can never forget you, or undo the change you made to our lives. You have won the crown. Was there ever one who deserved it more?”

Such simple eloquence befits a man who loved his music and taught others to cherish it, share it, and enjoy it and the friendship that goes with it. Those lessons begun in Miltown hold true today and we are glad that Johnny O’Leary was a man who was appreciated while he was above ground.

TULLA MEMORIES: My esteemed colleagues Kathleen Biggins of WFUV (90.7 FM) and Earle Hitchner of the Irish Echo team up this Saturday morning to chat with the two surviving members of that historic 1958 New York visit of the Tulla Ceili Band after winning the 1957 All-Ireland championship. 

Box player Martin Mulhaire and flute player Mike Preston both moved to New York over 40 years ago and are featured on a new “re-release” of Echoes of Erin from Dublin Records (visit www.dublinrecords.com or call 1-800-854-ERIN) that also involve recordings from the Kilfenora Ceili Band of the 1950s and Paddy Canny. 

Both Mulhaire and Preston are soft spoken but highly regarded for their music. Having spent time with both of them over the years celebrating the legacy of the Tulla Ceili Band, I know it will be wonderful interlude of memories and history, so have your tape recorders ready and remember you can hear it live or on archive at www.wfuv.org .

VERY KERRY: Another great Kerry box player, Maire Begley from West Kerry, is visiting Manhattan as the guest of the Ull Mor CCE branch making two appearances this week. On Wednesday, February 25 she will join in their Traditional Singers’ circle in a new locale starting at 8:30 p.m. at Bull McCabe’s at 11 Avenue and 51st Street around the corner from the Irish Arts Center. 

On Sunday, February 29, she and her daughter Neasa O’Shea visit the Blaggard’s weekly session beginning at 5 p.m. on 38th street off 5th Avenue.

Contact at fromthehob@aol.com