Eimear’s case in point for making sweet music

FOR many musicians their instrument may be considered one of their most precious possessions. But for Kilfenora’s Eimear Howley, her fiddle isn’t just a means to showcase her musical talents, it is also a link to her family’s past and musical heritage.

Eimear, who plays with Quentin Cooper and Eoin O’Neill on the new album The Fiddle Case, doesn’t go anywhere without her fiddle, which once belonged to her great-grandfather, Paddy Slattery.
The instrument has been lovingly restored after being recovered from an old shed, where it lay dormant for many years wrapped in an old bag for storing oats. When Eimear plays, she feels an immediate connection with her great-grandfather, even though they never met.
Speaking about the instrument, and its previous owner, her voice crackles with emotion. “Nobody has played this fiddle since him apart from me and it’s very special, the most special thing I own. I never met him but I do feel like I know him. I know it might sound strange but I really do feel a connection. And he’s buried quite near Doolin, where I play a lot, so I feel a sort of connection there that’s very special to me.”
Eimear has managed to uncover some information about her relation. “I know he used to write music and so do I. I’m trying to source some recordings of him at the moment and Quentin says he might be able to record me playing the fiddle and put them together so we would be playing together. That would be very, very special. My dad knows some people who have those recordings so we’re in the process of looking into that. We went to one person’s house recently and he had a recording but it was of my great-grandfather playing the concertina. It turns out he didn’t have any fiddle strings that day and the shop was closed,” she said.
The 20-year-old musician has been playing the fiddle for 10 years. “One of my first influences was the Kilfenora Céilí Band, unsurprising I suppose, being from Kilfenora. I remember seeing them on stage when I was about five and thinking ‘wow’. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.” She now sometimes performs with the band and was lucky enough to travel with them to the Milwaukee Irish Fest this year.
Another key influence on Eimear’s choice to take up the fiddle was Tommy Peoples. “He was living in Kilfenora for a while and my dad absolutely loved him. Although my dad didn’t want me to play the fiddle, anything but,” she laughed.
“I suppose he loved Tommy’s playing and he didn’t want me screeching and scratching and ruining it for him. I think he’s happy now though.” She is also a big fan of Martin Hayes and has a picture of him in her fiddle case.
Considering that Eimear is never without her fiddle case, it’s not surprising that the name of her, Quentin and Eoin’s album is The Fiddle Case. However, that wasn’t the musicians’ decision, with callers to Clare FM asked to come up with a title.
Along with performing with many different musicians, Eimear often plays with the pair in Doolin.
She first came across Quentin when he sold her her first microphone for the fiddle. She says she was delighted to be given the opportunity to work with them on the new album.
“They’ve been playing together for years and then I started playing in Doolin.We had a gig together and it all really started from there. With this album they already had a few tracks done before I came along. We just took it from there and The Fiddle Case emerged.”
So was the young musician in any way worried about working with a duo who have not only played together for years but who have worked with some well-known names in traditional music.
“Not at all. It was a new experience for me and I really liked it. I think that the generation gap means there really is something for everybody on the album. And it’s great for me as a musician to learn from different influences. I think it’s great that I’m able to play with lots of different musicians.
“Recording the album was great. It wasn’t my first time in a recording studio but it was my first time recording in the way they do, with everything recorded live. Any time I have recorded before, you’re put in your own little box and play your bit. But with this we all sat in a circle and played together. I won’t say it was informal but it was very light-hearted and fun. It was like being in a session in Doolin.”
The album also features a tune written by Eimear herself, called Donal’s Brigade. “I wrote it for Maire O’Keeffe, she was my fiddle teacher and another big influence on me. It was written for her son, Donal. He was always coming into the room with a little fire truck because he wanted to be a fireman. Of course, the following week he wanted to be something else,” she laughed.
While Eimear began learning the fiddle when she was 10, it was in her teens that she really immersed herself in traditional music. “I realised when I was about 16 or 17 that this is definitely what I want to do. There is just something about traditional music that you don’t get in other genres.”
And she doesn’t just play the fiddle. “I play five instruments competently and another four I can knock a tune out with.”
Eimear believes that the standards of young traditional musicians in Clare are particularly high. “There are lots of young people involved in traditional music here. There is a real change happening, an entire scene out there. In Clare there are an awful lot of really good musicians.
At the Fleadh this year, the standard in the U-9 fiddle was unreal. Most counties wouldn’t even have an U-9 but in Clare we have 15 or 20 little fiddle players.
“Every year there is a prizewinners’ concert at the Fleadh and some counties might get the one person winning but it’s hard to fit in everybody who wins in Clare,” she smiled.