Kelly's Eye
By Steve McGrail of 'the Irish Post'
No culture - Irish, Nigerian, Turkish, whatever it is - survives or develops without its tradition bearers, those who pass the culture on to the next generation.
Lacking such people, heritage is lost or simply swamped by more powerful forces. Now perhaps, with the onset of globalisation, tradition bearers matter more than ever. Ireland, fortunately, has been blessed: spreading across the world, Irish emigrants have left their link with home thanks to story and song.
One of them is Owen Kelly. From Ederney in North Fermanagh, he’s lived in Glasgow for 53 years where he’s been a mainstay of the city’s Irish life. He left home in 1947 when he was just 17. The family farm, he says, was a wee bit crowded, with his eight brothers and sisters on it; besides, there were no jobs at home so he thought he’d try Scotland. He did, and found a job in the building trade, working in it until 1996.
It could have been lonely enough for a youngster at first. But Glasgow had a thriving Irish scene then, with three céilí halls. He quickly got absorbed and made his mark. Quickly is rather an understatement: being a keen hurler and footballer, he and some others had established the city’s first GAA side within a year (The Tyrconnel Harps still play at Pearse Park near Rutherglen, and he now minds the ground). He also soon discovered that people wanted to hear the songs he sang.
‘I’d never sung much at home,’ he recalls. `We weren’t especially musical, but I knew some local songs - traditional ones, not parlour ballads. One, The White Hare, I’ve made a bit famous, I suppose, and it’s still my favourite.’
In 1957, he the piper Pat McNulty and the late Jimmy McHugh, a fiddler, set up Glasgow’s Comhaltas branch.
‘It was the first one ever outside Ireland, London’s came three months later. The Irish Minstrels still meets regularly; we’ve actually got 100 children attending.’
With all of this, plus playing in a band, teaching céilí dancing (‘I still do’) and raising a family, it’s a wonder he ever had time to work! Now retired, he’s out five nights a week. He goes to Ireland several times a year, singing and collecting new songs. More and more, he teaches youngsters to sing.
Each year, his pupils compete at Feis Ghlaschu. His life’s work has been crowned this year, because his protégé, Laura Molloy, won the All-Britain Under-12s at Birmingham.
‘Her dad’s from Gweedore and her mam’s Glasgow. I taught her Sweet Inishcarra from Cork and My Father’s Cabin, that’s Donegal. She’s a lovely wee singer, she’ll go on to Enniscorthy in August and she’ll do well. I’m proud of her surely. It makes you feel good when you’ve achieved something like that’. He makes up special tapes for the children, with traditional singers performing the songs. `I tell them to sing the song exactly as they hear it. I’ve got half a dozen wee ones on this now. They’ll be singing fine by next year. Once the winter is out of them they’ll be in great shape. Singing ballads is a very special thing, you know. The children have to have the real tradition behind them - and it’s my job to see that they do.’
