Presenting Eoin O’Neill

POPULAR Clare FM radio presenter and musician, Eoin O’Neill, has been steeped in Clare music for many years.

He is a regular contributor to sessions throughout the county, particularly in McDermott’s of Doolin, Kenny’s and Flanagan’s in Lahinch, May Kearney’s and of course, Brogan’s in Ennis.
Every Sunday morning between 8am and 10am, he presents a hugely entertaining radio programme on Clare Fm, where he plays a wide range of music of all styles. Eoin says that he’s lucky to have the chance to play the music he loves on radio every Sunday morning.
“I get immense pleasure of going from box player John King into a track from Neil Young and playing Nirvana after fiddle player Yvonne Casey and going from Monica Morgan into Dolly Parton and showing that these musicians in Clare are every bit as good as their international and more famous counterparts. I once played Mary Frances Keenan whose guitar I tuned when she was a child living in a caravan outside Tesco, and went straight into Maria Callas live in Milan’s Opera House and then maintained on air that Mary Frances just had the edge on Maria,” he recalls.
He is also the sixth presenter of the very popular West Wind traditional programmes on Clare, which are listened to all over the world via the internet.
“The five official presenters are Joan Hanrahan, Claire Keville, Paula Carroll, Ronan Burke and Pat Costelloe, who all have a huge love for the music and their passion and expertise is appreciated by many traditional music lovers. I sit in to present this programme very often and for me to be associated with these presenters and this programme is a huge honour,” he adds.
These six presenters are playing a unique gig in Glór on Friday, November 12 as part of the Ennis Trad Festival. “We’re each bringing on five friends. We’re all very excited about that show. Each of the six of us has a 15-minute slot. It’s going to be a great gig. It’s something I’d love to see happening more regularly,” Eoin says.
He feels that Ennis Trad Festival is a wonderful event. “Hundreds of musicians come to town, and among them are some of the best musicians around. Some of them play the bigger events during the week, while others just want to join in the sessions. There is such an energy about it. People love it,” he saya.
Of his own introduction into music, he claims that as a child, he really wasn’t any good at music.
“I was interested alright. I never learnt formally how to play music. I learned from others around me and from just playing and playing all the time. When I was 17 or 18, I spent some time in Europe learning the trade, busking. There was a load of Irish music in German especially at that time. I thought I was playing guitar but looking back it wasn’t really music at all. I found out what music was really all about when a friend of mine brought me into a small pub in Cologne in 1979. John Faulkner was playing the bouzouki. I hung out with them for a few days and then went home and bought a bouzouki. Since then, it’s really always the bouzouki I’ve played,” Eoin recounts.
When he arrived in Clare he says there were no bouzouki players here.
“I learned how to play sitting in McGann’s in Doolin with Kevin Griffin and Tony Dalton. The pub was my university.
For many years, his music partner has been Quentin Cooper. “Almost everything I do I do with Quentin. He plays every instrument under the sun. Quentin Cooper has been the biggest influence on my music and my ideas on music. I look forward to every night because I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen and that’s the way I love it,” Eoin comments.
In the last year, Eoin and Quentin have made two CDs, one with a fiddle player from Kilfenora, Eimear Howley and another, which they are launching at the Ennis Trad Festival. “The CD we’re launching during the trad festival is myself, Quentin and Kevin Griffin. We did a gig as part of the Riches of Clare series in Kilfenora. Jack Talty recorded it and the Riches of Clare allowed us to bring it out as a CD. It’s simply called Live in Kilfenora. We play together a lot but with different combinations also, like John O’Connell who plays with The Walls. He plays the double bass. When we play together, it starts off traditional and then they get into rock ‘n’ roll, which I can’t do, so I leave them at it. We do all kinds of functions. I’m into rock for sure but I’m just not as good as Quentin and Johno are at it. I’d be bluffing it a little bit. A gig can go anywhere with Johno and Quentin,” he remarks.
He and Quentin work out of the studio in the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon. “We’ve brought in all age groups of brilliant musicians from all over Clare. We’ve been in there for many a late night recording with them. These recordings are available in Custy’s and the irishshop.com. But I also have a lot of private recordings of people who should be on CD by now.
Eoin is still intrigued about the amount of musicians and the standard of music in Clare.
“I think a lot of it has to do with tourism and how it’s tied up with music in Clare. There is a huge business in having music in pubs. Because local musicians play in their local pubs, musicians from other counties and countries come here to hear them play but to join in themselves too. One thing helps the other and it ends up with just loads of music. And many people have followed the music and come here to live so they can have music and places to play music on their doorstep.
There are also so many music festivals in Clare that people can come at almost any time of the year and know that they’ll always find great music here. It’s very simple why there’s such a demand for all of these festivals – people just love live music. There is great passion about music in Clare. Even people who can’t play know their music. I think it comes down to tapping your foot or not tapping your foot. People here feel the music. A lot of people, like myself, spend their lives just playing music. It’s very boring to some people but to me, it’s such an honour to play music and to always have been able to make a living out of music. What’s so good about Clare music is that people really have rhythm. There are different rhythms in different parts of Clare but there’s a nyah in both that always manages to get toes tapping. The other thing that Clare music has is passion. The same goes for hurling and that’s what makes it great.
I can’t really define exactly what I love about Clare music but I just know that everything I love about music is here in Clare,” Eoin explains.
He is also hugely interested in the characters in Clare music, “not necessarily the best-known musicians but the real characters”.
“I’m very interested in musicians who are unheard of but have a raw talent. I love the community side of music and the fact that people can sit in a pub and not know where a session is going to go. I’m only interested in natural musicians. I don’t like rehearsed music. I love the spontaneity that comes with live music and not knowing what’s coming next. Spontaneity is everything in music. This new CD and all the CDs I’ve ever made were like that. They are always pretty much unrehearsed and recorded live or as live. I love music that’s live and raw.”
He has had many varied music experiences over the years but one particular occasion that stands out for him was when he and Quentin Cooper were performing in Japan on a tour a few years ago.
“We were amazed at the concentration of the audience and how every note was taken in – the way they absorbed the music and seemed to understand it and became quite emotional with it. There were people in the audience crying. That was the one place I had ever seen that happening,” Eoin adds.
He says that he has many wonderful experiences and encounters over the years in his life of music. But one person who made a lasting impression and put a big smile on his face was the superb concertina player, Kitty Hayes.
“My greatest experience was working with Kitty Hayes. She was a concertina player but hadn’t played for 50 years. I met her in Custy’s Shop and ended up playing music with her. To cut a long story short, she made three CDs after that before she died. She had stopped playing to bring up her family and just didn’t have the time. I got her to pick up the concertina again. I sat beside her for hours and hours listening to her play and playing with her. She turned out to be someone who ended up leaving a legacy in terms of concertina music. I’m very proud of that but it was also great fun,” he recalls.
One important aspect of music for Eoin is recording people playing live. “Myself and Quentin have recorded lots of people. Recently Quentin invested in a video camera, so we’ve started going around the county recording people. Basically it’s about getting people on film playing music. We’ll probably put these recordings out there through the web. We just started recently. We’re going to be going to loads of places all over Clare. We don’t need a television station or a production company to get Clare music out there, because of the internet. It’s also about capturing the Clare accent. There are so many people now with beautiful Clare accents but I fear that these accents will be lost, so I want to record them for all time. Accents all over the place are becoming much more neutral. People are picking up other accents from television because the world is much smaller now but I’d love if people would hold on to their own accent. I believe that it’s really important to record people. I first started recording people playing music back in 1985 on tapes in those days. I’m just so glad I did because these people have been captured forever,” he comments.
He is somewhat concerned about the effect falling tourism will have on music in the county.
“Issues at Shannon Airport and falling tourist numbers in general are big problems for musicians now. Two years ago when I was asked to do a gig, I’d have four musicians playing. Now I’d only have two mainly. There isn’t enough tourists coming anymore. Pubs are finding it hard to fund full gigs anymore. It’s a huge problem for tourism and it has to be dealt with head on. In lieu of foreigners coming to the extent they did in the past, everyone has to focus more on domestic tourists and make sure they come to local sessions.”
However, he feels that traditional musicians are more fortunate than classical, jazz or rock musicians because they can play in bars. “For others, they really don’t have anywhere to play. There really is only Brandon’s for bands trying to get to play. I know the youth centre is doing a lot for young bands but it would be great if there was a place where they could play for an audience they don’t know. It’s very healthy for young people to play rock music, drums, and electric guitars. It should be encouraged more. The same goes for jazz musicians. There’s just no venue here for them to play. Kenny’s in Lahinch does all kind of music and it’s great for musicians there,” Eoin says.
He would love to see a venue or different locations around Ennis and the county in general where musicians could perform for the public.
“I’d love if there was access to the foyer of Glór for people to play music. While people are sitting having a coffee, they could listen to someone or a group of people playing music. Café society is where it’s at now. The same could go for other café and restaurants. I can see musicians when they’re finished their classes in Maoin Cheoil, or wherever they’re learning music, going over to play in Glór, for example. I’d love to see that happening. It’s no good learning classical music if someone can’t get to perform. Classical music needs to be more accessible so that more people can hear it being played live. It was something that should have been encouraged during pedestrianisation of Ennis streets too and have music being played in the café quarter.”
He is anxious to have this idea explored and see what can happen. “For me, the most important thing is to have musicians playing live in informal settings, making music as accessible to people as possible. I can play a whole range of music on the radio but at the end of the day, nothing beats hearing music played live. That’s what it’s all about after all.”