Concertina in County Clare

“Well the concertina was a great instrument in our country. All the women used to play it, and twas a ladies instrument. The men used to play it too but… My mother used to play this tune. Some say ’tis the Cliffs of Moher….that didn’t…Some interpretation of the Cliffs of Moher. Whether twas the original of the Cliffs of Moher, well better I put it on record now, because I might never think of it again.”

“Tim Griffin lived a few doors away from Patsy but he was a native. He learned the fiddle late in life and he came on pretty good at it too. He was a good man to play for a set and all that. But he was a great concertina player. He was a s fine a concertina player as you’d wish to hear. He died there about twelve years ago (ca. 1967) quite’a young man, about 60.

Mary Holohan then was a concertina player in Kilballyowen. And she was … You couldn’t say enough. She was better than most of the players that are goin’ today. And she had, as Sonny (Brogan?) called it “the diatonic style” in and out playin’. And she knew a lot about music and she used to sing and play together and she had a beautiful voice. She was a hardy, black, goodlookin’ little woman, and she used to dance. She married Mike Mochter. But I have some of her tunes and I learned a few tunes on the concertina from her. It.was like goin’ to High School when I graduated from home and from Uncle Tom’s. She gave me good instruction. She used to play out in the evenings, outside her house, and the music used to waft with the breeze down to Rehy a mile away. I was often passin’ her door. But she died away. Then we had Marty Brennan, he was (a) pretty good man on the concertina. (There was) quite a number of concertina players there then. Henry Blake even played the concertina – from Kilbaha – He started when he was nearly forty years or more, he used to play a few tunes then.”