Tracing the steps of West Clare dance music

COORACLARE resident Barry Taylor is working on his second book on traditional music. The book will be about traditional dance music in West Clare and it’s hoped that it will be out later this year.
It follows his first book, which was about the Willie Clancy Summer School. “The first one was called Touchstone for the Tradition. I think it was 2005 that it came out. It was kind of a joint project between myself and a photographer called Tony Curtins. We detailed the history of the Willie Clancy school and interwoven with that, there was a diary of events to give people an idea of what the experience of being at the school was like,” he said.
The book he is currently working on will have a few dimensions to it. “I’m as interested in the social history side of it as in the who plays what and how but I go into that as well. I’m trying to illustrate how the tradition of dance music developed in West Clare, where it came from, when it came, how it developed in several areas and how it kind of related to the dance tradition. What I’ve done is take eight or 10 musicians and gone into their lives in some detail, using their own words as much as possible.”
He said he was involved in research on music for many years, before he started working on the book. “Flippantly, I could say I began working on it 35 years ago because when I first came here, I started recording people and musicians talking about music. I was gathering information over the years and about two years ago, I thought it was all sitting on the shelves and I should do something with it. So I applied to the Arts Council for a grant and they very generously gave me one to work on the book and to publish it. I’ve been physically working on the book now for 18 months.”
Although he has been coming to Clare since the ’70s, it wasn’t until the early part of the last decade that he set up home in the county.
“I’m living here now for just under 11 years but I came first in 1975 for the Willie Clancy school. That was my first introduction to West Clare. I came to try and learn to play the fiddle. I used to come on holidays for increasing periods of time and eventually we bought a house in Danganelly in Cooraclare.”
Most of the work has been done on the book’s first draft but he is still interested in talking to people and getting photographs.
“I’ve got a lot of material but I’m looking for as much as possible. I’m particularly looking for photographs of musicians, if people have them. One thing I’m really looking for is a photograph of a country house dance. It’s a strange thing because it was such a common event but no one really seems to have photographed it. It was such an ordinary thing in people’s lives that they didn’t photograph them. If people have pictures of those dances or of people dancing outside or crossroads dancing or anything of that nature, I’d be interested. I’m always happy to go and talk to people, who have particular memories of music or dancing.”
To contact Barry, call 065 9059981 or email barryriley@eircom.net.