Entertainment

Trad/roots: Maid of the Mill festival celebrates McCusker Brothers Céilí Band

The village of Keady in Co Armagh will be hopping next weekend as the Maid of the Mill festival celebrates the contribution to Irish music and dance of crowd-pullers of yesteryear The McCusker Brothers Céilí Band

The popularity of the McCusker Brothers Céilí Band meant they were asked to play at the biggest shows, in the biggest halls
The popularity of the McCusker Brothers Céilí Band meant they were asked to play at the biggest shows, in the biggest halls The popularity of the McCusker Brothers Céilí Band meant they were asked to play at the biggest shows, in the biggest halls

ON THE weekend of April 26-28 all roads lead to the Co Armagh town of Keady for the Maid of the Mill, a festival of Irish music and language in recognition of the contribution made by the famous McCusker Brothers to Irish music and dance over the decades.

The festival is being organised by the Co Armagh Board of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

The McCuskers, from Kilcreevy in the county, were quite a phenomenon going back as far as the late 1930s.

Nine brothers in all – Bernard, Tommy, Brendan, Vincent, John, Benignus, Kevin, Malachy and Francis – there were also two sisters, all raised in a musical family where the father played the piccolo while the mother played the accordion.

In a wonderful interview with Brian Lawler on the Irish Traditional Music Archive site, Benignus describes the family’s musical world growing up.

“All during my young life, nothing else really mattered much except music,” he tells Lawler. “It was the big thing in your life, you know, and our house would have been full every night with people playing music, listening to music and even dancing. The chairs would have been cleared back and I can remember as a wee fella, sitting under the table and watching what was going on.”

There can hardly be a better description of the excitement of a céilí house in full swing, with people dancing sets, than that. No wonder that each of the 11 McCusker children took up a musical instrument. (Another member of the early band, not one of the bothers, played the clarinet, not an instrument you would normally associate with a céili band but the McCuskers also featured the piccolo which further gave them an unmistakable sound.)

With various line-ups over the years, the boys would have played at the Feis in Mullaghbawn in the 1930s and right though the 1950s. Céilí dancing was always very popular and the McCuskers went from strength to strength and travelled farther and farther from Armagh in their nine-seat transporter.

Many of the shows they did were in what Benignus describes as "small country halls” where people would come from all around for visiting céilí bands. It was here that romances started, memories were created and friendships were immortalised.

The members of the band who provided this invaluable social service got paid 10 shillings (50p) each, for maybe playing for five hours at a time. After a long while, the nightly fee went up to the dizzying heights of £1.

The popularity of the McCusker Brothers Céilí Band meant they were asked to play at the biggest shows of the year, in the biggest halls in the country.

In the same interview, Benignus recalls playing in the St Patrick’s Day céilí in the Mansion House in Dublin. It was one of those great occasions when musicians and dancers became one body.

“You’d think the whole thing was pre-arranged,” Benignus told Brian Lawler. “There was no time lost at all in getting sets up on to the floor. They [the dancers] got a great kick out of it.

“If you’re playing music and watching the people getting a kick out of what they’re doing, their dancing, you become part of it. We get the same kick out of playing the music.”

Their music took them to America once and to Irish clubs in Britain, but more people would have heard them on Raidió Éireann or on the BBC. The first thing they did for television was a céilí from the Plaza in central Belfast, a venue more known for pop and rock n roll. Benignus believes it was the first céilí to be shown on northern television.

The band also made four or five LPs and a single but by the end of the 1960s there was a falling off in the number of céilís; some of the brothers stopped playing after some 30 years on the road and that was the end of the McCusker Brothers Céilí Band.

Their music still lives on, however, in later generations and a concert featuring several generations of the McCusker Family will lead off the festival on Friday April 26 at 7pm in the Tommy Makem Centre when flute-player Martin Meehan will do the introductions as Fear a’ Tí.

Saturday April 27, 10.30 am – 4.00 pm is dedicated to master classes in singing (Niall Hanna), concertina (Ciarán Hanna), flute (Brendan Mulholland), button accordion (Daithí Gormley), fiddle (Dónal O’Connor / Bríd Harper), tin whistle (James McCaffrey), pipes (Tiarnan Ó Duinnchinn), banjo (George McAdam), harp (Eilis Lavelle), and sean nós singing (John Fennell).

Advance bookings for the masterclasses can be made by emailing keadywhyte@live.co.uk or by calling 0774 7808 075.

Back in the Tommy Makem Centre on the Saturday night (April 27), Bríd Harper (fiddle) and Brendan Mulholland (flute), alongside an array of local artists, will head up an exciting concert which will be a memorable conclusion to the main festival.

On the Sunday eveningthere should be no difficulty in finding a lively session in any of the usual enjoyable Keady venues. Pre-booking is advisable for all events and activities as places are beginning to fill up rapidly.

Chairman of the Armagh County Board of CCÉ Sean Lenagh said the festival was a tremendous acknowledgement of the contribution made by the McCusker Brothers to Irish traditional music during the céilí band era and beyond.

“The McCusker family played a pivotal role in preserving our native music and dance in this area and farther afield,” he said. “It is timely that their contribution be acknowledged during the festival weekend in ways which will make other generations aware of those who went before them and who kept the tradition alive for the future.”

A feature of this year’s Maid of the Mill festival will be the intensive Irish language course (also from 10.30am-4.30pm, Saturday April 27) aimed at adult beginners with a large emphasis on the spoken language. So whether you have already begun, are starting from scratch, or returning after a break there is a place for you on the Cúrsa Gaeilge.

Advance bookings for the Irish course can be made by email at mile.failte15@icloud.com or by phone on 07884070306.

The admission for the masterclasses is £20 and the same fee applies to the Cúrsa Gaeilge. Tea and coffee will be available free of charge and attendees are advised to take a packed lunch with them. Both the masterclasses and the Cúrsa Gaeilge will be held in St Patrick’s High School, Keady.

You can listen to the whole Benignus McCusker interview at bit.ly/2UIM9Di