September1 Irish Music & 2013 Meán Fómhair Dance Association 31th Year, Issue No. 9 The mission of the Irish Music and Dance Association is to support, coordinate, encourage and promote high quality activities and programs in Irish music, dance, and other cultural traditions within the community and to insure the continuation of those traditions. Mike Wallace Receives Irish Fair’s Inside this issue: 2013 Curtin-Conway Award Tune of the Month 2 Gaelic Corner 3 The Curtin-Conway Award honors Leah Curtin and Roger Conway, two of the IMDA Grant Winner 4 original organizers of the festival. The honor is presented annually to someone who September Calendar 8-9 has a long history of service or support to the Irish cultural community in the Twin Cities and/or Minnesota. The award includes a $1,000 donation by the Irish Fair to Northwoods Songs 10 the Irish cultural charity of the recipient's choice and the name of the honoree is Ceili Corner 14 placed on a plaque that is on public display at Irish On Grand. Smidirini 15 This year the Irish Fair surprised Mike Wallace before his performance on the Main Stage, and presented him with the 2013 Curtin-Conway award. In fact, he was so busy getting ready to play that he didn’t hear the announcement. Mike, a native of County Limerick, moved to Saint Paul in the mid 70’s after his band, The Irish Brigade, was invited to play a show by the Irish community. The show was a success, and after being invited back again, Mike decided to make this area his permanent home. In the mid 80’s he teamed up with two other local musicians to create The Old Triangle. Mike reformed the Irish Brigade in 1988, and has been playing alongside musician Joe Smith since 2007. Throughout the years, Mike has played a very key role in the growth of Irish music not only in the Twin Cities area, but across America. He has been instrumental in introducing many new Irish performers to his American audiences. Save the date: November 16th Join us in celebrating the lifelong community contributions of local musician and song-man Tom Dahill www.IMDAwww.IMDA----MN.orgMN.org Irish Music & 2 Dance Association The IMDA Board is : Tune of the Month by Amy Shaw President: Lisa Conway Vice President: Jan Casey The first wave of Irish immigration to America happened well before the Treasurer: Mark Malone Famine years. At least 200,000 Irish were here by the time of the American Secretary: Juli Acton Revolution. Among the first to arrive were Scots-Irish fleeing high rents Board Members: John Concannon Paul McCluskey and religious discrimination in Ulster. Many of them settled in the Joan Portel Appalachians, where their music eventually evolved into Appalachian old- Kathie Luby time music. Old-time music has in turn influenced Irish traditional music, Editor: John Burns with a few old-time tunes creeping into some recent recordings by Sliabh IMDA Board Meetings are open to the membership. Notes, Green Fields of America, the Brock McGuire Band, uilleann piper The Board meets regularly on the First Tuesday of each Jerry O’Sullivan, and others. month at 6:30 pm at the Dubliner Pub in St. Paul. Members are encouraged to verify the time and location shortly before, as meet- This month’s tune comes from the old-time music of eastern Kentucky. ing times and locations can change. Charlie Heymann has been playing it lately at the Keegan’s sessions, and he kindly shared the tune and the remarkable story behind it. As the story goes, Contact Information in 1847 in Adair County, Kentucky, a fiddler named Joe Coleman was Write to: Irish Music and Dance Association convicted of murdering his wife. Although he maintained his innocence, he 236 Norfolk Ave NW was sentenced to death by hanging. He rode to the gallows in an ox cart, Elk River, MN 55330 sitting on his coffin, meanwhile playing a mournful tune on his fiddle that Call: 612-990-3122 came to be known as Coleman’s March. One scholar suggests the march E-mail: [email protected] was a reworking of an older tune called The Irish Jaunting Car; others see no connection with that tune. However, at the beginning of the Civil War, a Newsletter Submissions We welcome our readers to submit articles of interest, jiggy version of Coleman’s March was set to lyrics and became the popular news, and notices of events to be published in the newsletter. The deadline is the Confederate song, “The Bonnie Blue Flag.” 20th of the preceding month. Send to: But you can’t keep a good fiddler down. According to the story, after [email protected] the hanging Joe Coleman was secretly carried off by some of his kinfolk, who managed to revive him. After recovering, he headed west on a steamboat, and that’s the last we know of him. It seems maybe he really was innocent, since there is an account of a woman confessing to the murder on her deathbed many years later. Coleman’s March is still played in old-time circles, one of the rare dirge-like tunes in their repertoire. Usual disclaimers: Any transcription errors are my own. The notation here is not meant to be a substitute for listening. It is simply an aid to learning the tune. www.IMDAwww.IMDA----MN.orgMN.org Irish Music & 3 Dance Association The Gaelic Corner By Will Kenny In these northern climes, we certainly notice the As the days continue to shorten and cool, we'll not only shortening of the days by this time of year. Even as early drift into Deireadh Fómhair (October), the end of autumn. as mid-August, when we all assemble for the Irish Fair, We'll come to the end of the Celtic year. October 31 is the you can see the change. And as the Celtic countries are to eve of Samhain, or Oíche Shamhna in Irish -- known as a large extent even farther north than we are, the Celtic Halloween here. The next day, calendar picks up the shift into November 1, is the first day of the new autumn a little earlier than you year. might be used to. That's the beginning of winter. But we Fómhar is the Irish word for usually aren't completely done with "autumn" or "fall." But warm weather. Sometime after we've September, when we think of autumn as beginning here, had some frost, we will see those glorious warm days we is known as Meán Fómhair in Irish, that is, "mid- call Indian summer. In Irish, that return of warm weather autumn." And October, the heart of autumn in these parts, is known as samhradh beag na ngéanna, "the little is Deireadh Fómhair , "the end of autumn," in Irish. summer of the geese." It refers to a time after the growing season, when geese were let into the fields to feed upon At one time the word Meitheamh could have replaced the stubble that was left. that Meán to produce Meitheamh an Fhómhair for "September." Meitheamh refers to the middle month of a And as it turns out, another phrase for "harvest moon" is season. But it has come to be used fairly exclusively to gealach na gcoinleach, "the moon of the stubble." mean "June," the middle month of Celtic Summer (Meitheamh an tSamhraidh ). People can have their Indian summer, too. When that "little summer of the geese" is applied to a person -- Tá Celtic autumn begins on August 1, in fact, a day that is samhradh beag na ngéanna aici -- we might mean that she associated with the god Lugh. Thus the name for that first is doing well and enjoying herself in her older years. month of autumn, Lúnasa. As you would expect, autumn is the harvest season, so our "autumn" word, fómhar , is We appreciate all the work our hearty volunteers did at the also used for "harvest." The gealach an fhómair is the Irish Fair to answer questions, explain phrases, and to "harvest moon," as we call it. But "harvest" can be used hand out hundreds and hundreds of name tags to kids in a broader sense, for example, fómhair na farraige, "the young and old. Now we're gearing up for our autumn class harvest of the sea," or the fishing catch. schedule, when we hope to harvest some of the results of hard study. For more about what Gaeltacht Minnesota Harvest is a prosperous time, of course. When we say to does, visit our web site at www.gaelminn.org . someone, Is é do lá fómhair é, we're saying, "It is your day of harvest," that is, "This is your lucky day." Ní hiad na fir mhóra a bhainneann an fómhar It is not the big men who reap the harvest, or Harvest is also a very busy time. So when the fómhar is Strength isn't everything "on" you -- Tá an fómhar ort -- it means you are rushing -- around like crazy trying to get all your work done. Will At any rate, by now the Irish would be plenty ready to say, Téann na laethanta i ngiorracht, "the days go into shortness," literally. Add to that the stretch of cool weather we had for a while, and you could say Tá na céadchosúlachtái an fhómhair ann, "the first appearances of autumn are there." www.IMDAwww.IMDA----MN.orgMN.org Irish Music & 4 Dance Association Willie Clancy Festival Intrigues Aspiring Fiddler By Jan Casey Fiddler Ingrid Jans received an IMDA Educational Grant to help her attend the Willie Clancy Festival in Milltown Malbay, Co.