Music At Maddens Podcast

Music At Maddens Podcast #016 - Slides, Smiles, And Sleeves with Greta Curtin

• Maddens Bar • Season 1 • Episode 16

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Welcome to a new episode of Music At Maddens Podcast with me, Lynette Fay.


This week we welcome Greta Curtin to the podcast.


This week in the snug, Lynette welcomes concertina player Greta Curtin for a lively tour of Slíabh Luachra style and the stories that shaped her music.


Growing up in Brosna on the Kerry–Limerick–Cork border, Greta went from a TV fiddle that became a concertina to big mixed classes, sessions, and festivals that turned shyness into voice and community.


She talks polkas and slides, how a tune like “Maggie in the Woods” can turn into “Mary in the Woods” a half hour up the road, choosing gigs over kitchen shifts, teaching in a music school, and watching her students become the next wave. 


In her work as a special needs assistant, music is a bridge: sometimes a hallway guitar, sometimes just the right pause, always a way to help a child feel seen.


We also dive into the Patrick O’Keeffe Festival in Castleisland: a session trail from morning into morning, album launches, archives, and a youth award that invites players from Donegal to Dublin to learn a Slíabh Luachra set with care.


With a nod to Brosna football pride, quiet All-Ireland wins, and the occasional bout of imposter syndrome, this is a warm, witty portrait of tradition that’s brilliantly alive.


Enjoy!


New episodes every Monday.


Maddens Bar

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Hatch Belfast

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Avalon Guitars

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Website: https://www.avalonguitars.com/


Smithwicks Irish Ale

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Website: https://www.smithwicksexperience.com/

SPEAKER_01:

Well hello again from the snug upstairs here in Madden's Bar in Belfast. This is another episode of Music at Madden's the podcast. I'm Lynette Fay and I have to say thanks to everybody who has listened so far. The response to the idea and the conversations has been just brilliant. So thank you for listening. Thanks to all the guests as well who sit down in the snug Eatwick and share their stories with us. Just um having a chat that could really go anywhere because that's what it's all about. That's just how comfy it is up here. Um so do subscribe, give us a rating, please, and leave a comment. And all that feedback really, really matters. And all proceeds from this podcast, I should tell you, as well, go into a scholarship pot. So Music at Maddens will fund and already has funded scholarships for teenagers to attend master classes and summer schools for Irish traditional music and the Irish language. And we really want to help young people find their connection with the music, the language, and find their voice. That's what we're all about. That and obviously giving a platform to brilliant people, members of the traditional music family at home, right across Ireland and internationally. So, who is with me in the snug this week? Oh well, it's a woman from Brosna, County Kerry, concertina player who also works with children with special educational needs. A real character who, since she was a teenager, has been an ambassador for the Patrick O'Keefe Festival. Greta Carton, you are very welcome to Music at Madden's. Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Do you know? I feel like full disclosure, we have to tell everybody, you know, because you know, these these episodes are going out wake on wake, and we've recorded them a wee while ago. Um, we were both at the John O'Neill Festival in Tyrone last night. You've travelled up from Tyrone this morning. Um, it was a late one, fair to say.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a late one. And the first thought when I woke up this morning, I was like, I know I told Lynette a few stories at Sunstage, and what did I tell it?

SPEAKER_01:

You did?

SPEAKER_00:

I did.

SPEAKER_01:

And I am just hoping for the sake of our listeners and our viewers on YouTube that you will you'll maybe tell those stories again, Craig.

SPEAKER_00:

I did warn you you'd be getting a much quieter version of me today.

SPEAKER_01:

I said, No, I I think that's the the challenge I have today, is maybe to warm you up a week.

SPEAKER_00:

Just get me going for more tunes this evening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh stop. So what's it like whenever you come up here and come up to the north, up to somewhere like Tyrone, like you were in the sticks, you're staying in in Donochmore. Last night the big gig was out in Galblake Community Centre. Like, and if you didn't know this place existed, you wouldn't know it was there. The crowd was massive, it was huge.

SPEAKER_00:

Massive, like, and I had two pains in my face by the end of last night from smiley. I was like, this is just the highlight of my year. It's been the highlight of the last two years, like three of my favourite bands with Matt Malloy just thrown in for good measure. Like it is just it got better and better.

SPEAKER_01:

We should explain for context. There was a big night last night celebrating the genius that is Cajal Hayden, and uh with the Martin O'Connor band and Bo Brothers, and then Four Men and a Dog, and then Matt Malloy up on stage with Cajal and Marching and Shamey and Jimmy Higgins, like it was special.

SPEAKER_00:

It was just class, like there's you'd be speechless about it.

SPEAKER_01:

And the youngsters too. There was Wii Skulltrod um Torrent where they're starting things off, which I thought was a lovely touch because Cajal Hayden still teaches we once, and then so do you.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, you're like you're even for those kids, some of them are pr probably don't realise who they were supporting, yeah, that kind of a way. Yeah. So they're like, Oh, there's this big concert on Kyle from down the road, it has a few bands, like do you know, and it'll be in a few more years, and they're a bit older, they'll be like, Oh my goodness, I shared a stage with these amazing musicians, but it was a class night.

SPEAKER_01:

It sounds to me like you're saying that from experience because that has happened to you in the past where you've had opportunities like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, like growing up, I'm from a little village called Brussel, and there's a festival there, the Concurtain Festival, and we were always called in to know you get the local kids in to open the concert, and you wouldn't realise. Say Donald Murphy would be the prime example. He used to be there, it could be Schleeve Notes or any band, but to us that was just Donald from down the road, like oh, he plays a bit of music, he has some bands. I think he goes on tour now and again. And then as as you get older, you're like, Oh my god, that's who I was sitting next to growing up that like encouraged us to play our music, always got you to play your tune. That you know, you'd be sitting in the session, you might know ten tunes out of fifty, and you they it was always donal, and those people that were like, Go on, you start your set of tunes now, or they knew that the concertina was always in the boot of the cards, yeah, yeah, and always encouraging, yeah. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, well that's the best thing. The big thing about it. So you're from you mentioned they're from Brosna, which is in Kerry, and Donal, very proudly, is from Abbey Field in County Limerick. So it's a part of the world where there's a border between Limerick and Kerry and Cork is very close behind too. That's right.

SPEAKER_00:

It's the three counties meet there.

SPEAKER_01:

Like so, how how aware are you of that when you're growing up? Musically.

SPEAKER_00:

Very, very um like so. I'm in Brosna, which is Kerry, but I went to secondary school in Abbeyfield, which is Limerick. And like, even now, because I would play so much music in Abbeyfield, you'd go places and they're like a Greta Curtain from Abbey Field. I'm like, no, Brosna, it's Kerry, it's but some of Abbeyfield is actually in the county of Kerry as well, the football pitch is in Kerry. But that's a touchy subject with some of the locals.

SPEAKER_01:

It's pretty there's there's that everywhere, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. It's everywhere you go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but I I think it ignites something though and brings a it brings a sense of uh pride because it intensifies the pride that you have in where you're actually from, though.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And it is like it's just you know where you're from, you know who your neighbours are, but you're always so proud to be who you are too. So do you know I am Kerry. I'm not from Limerick, I'm not from Core. And that's just kind of the pride everyone has, I suppose, in their parish or their village or town.

SPEAKER_01:

I do for sure. So music then, your path into music, you're from a big enough family, but you'd you'd know music at home or anything like that. You just your parents wanted you to have this.

SPEAKER_00:

Um so I am the second youngest of seven kids, and my auntie actually started uh music classes in the village, and I just think that the Curtin family were probably roped into a lot of these things because you had seven taking part. Um so I went along with my tin whistle and I sat there. I was four, I think, when I started the tin whistle, and after a year or two I wanted this thing. I had seen a fiddle on the telly. There was no fiddle in my house, I'd seen it on the television. I was like, I want this. Can you remember who was playing it? I haven't a clue. Right. And I just wanted, and but my mom was like, I don't play music, I have seven children, I'm not bringing a tunable instrument into the house. She goes, I need something that will just do what it's told. And I was too small for an accordion, so I got a concertina. But mommy knows best. And the rest I love it since the rest the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's it. Like, and then where concertina's concerned, then who would you have looked up to or who would have been?

SPEAKER_00:

We were very lucky. It was a big accordion fiddle country, so Willie Larkin was the teacher in the branch and accordion player, and then he stopped teaching in Brussels, and he recommended that we would go to Tournathola, which is West Limerick, because Timmy Collins was the teacher there. And Timmy had a concertina class, so I'd say there was maybe 30 concertina players just sitting staring at Timmy, waiting to absorb all the information that he'd give you. Do you know? Like we were chatting about it lately, growing like you see now, loads of kids will if they play concertina, they go to a concertina teacher. If they play fiddle, they go to a fiddle teacher. Whereas when we were younger, it was kind of the look of the draw. You went to the teacher in the local cultist rent, and if they played the same instrument as you, brilliant. And like you the you know, the private lessons aspect wasn't as big, I don't think, when we were kids compared to now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think anybody could afford it.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd like coming up to a competition, you might get an old one-on-one to be like, what are you doing there?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that's probably if someone identified that you had a specific talent that was worth really investing in at that point.

SPEAKER_00:

Um just to bring you on that wee bit more. That's that's it, the little bit. But I think the concertina class in Turnafulla was a massive thing for us, like but now that you know, like any child, there'd be weeks and you wouldn't have opened the case since the week before. But it was very easy to blend in with 20 something other concertinas and let on that you had done your work too, do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, very good, very good. Yeah, you you weren't you weren't ever under the spotlight.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

But then you know, that idea of not having any music in the family and then getting into music, we're seeing more and more of that now, Greta. Um, and kids who are just because they've discovered music online and they've seen it and want to do it, that's what I want to do, that's the instrument I want to play. Parents go and seek it out and don't think about the fact that there's no tradition that's gone down from generation to generation in the family. But that's not the case with you. There was always that wee bit of kind of feeling like an outsider. Couple of Anish O Lucht Ariha and Ford Creelte. Hatch on the Falls Road are proud sponsors of this week's music at Madden's. Hatch is nestled along the charming Falls Road. It's not just a cafe, it's a thriving hub of warmth and community, and most importantly, exceptional food and drink. I know I have tried it many times, and Hatch manages to capture the essence of Ireland while adding this lovely unique twist using locally sourced ingredients that support farmers and producers, and the commitment to quality is what sets them apart and elevates a classic breakfast, lunch, or dinner into a culinary experience. So beyond the delectable food and coffee, Hatch on the Falls Road is also a community space. It's where friends meet, families gather, and good conversations flow as freely as the coffee. And the welcoming atmosphere just invites you to sit back and relax and indulge in a little slice of life. So I encourage you all, if you haven't already, to visit Hatch on the Falls Road. Treat yourself to the best coffee and an unforgettable Irish breakfast experience. The warmth of the staff who are always ready to greet you with a smile and a recommendation. Avalon Guitars are proud to sponsor music at Madden's, still made by hand, still made to matter. And Avalon Guitars began with a simple belief that the soul of an instrument is shaped by the hands that built it. And in the workshop in Newton Ards and County Down, tradition and intuition guide every cut, carve, and tap. There are no production lines, only Luthier's. And every single piece of wood is chosen with care, every guitar voiced individually, every detail considered, not just for for beauty, but for balance and for resonance and for feel. And Avalon guitars are played on stages and in studios across the world, but they're born in the quiet where craftsmanship still matters, built to last, built to inspire, built to become part of your story. Avalonguitars.com for more details.

SPEAKER_00:

There was like absolutely do you know, like listening to other people chatting and they're oh what they were going to festivals with their parents. Like we didn't know what the Willie Clancy Festival was until I was nine or ten, because someone mentioned it to Mum and Dad, and they're like, Okay, that's her. We need to take her next. And in fairness to my parents, when they were given a recommendation to ye should try this festival or you should try this summer school, they went with it. They went with it. Like, and we were farmers, so sometimes it was me and Mom. Dad was at home milking the cows, but they were like, we had no idea what the Willie Clancy was. And Mom was like, Okay, should they say this is great? We'll take her off for a week. And then it was like, Okay, we can't miss that any other year, do you know? And just being really lucky that where I am at home, there's great local festivals. Um, so like any musicians that I admired and look looked up to were musicians that I had actually seen in real life, because the Fly by the Field would be on and um they'd be playing there, and I'd buy the album, and that would be my new favourite band, like so Four Men and a Dog, obviously, as a child did a concert. Whereas like I remember one time, I'd say I was 12 or 13, and somebody mentioned Fluke, and I was like, Who are they? Because I had never seen them in my little corner of the world, so but then like I discovered them, I was like, This is class, yeah. And as a teenager, I was able to kind of chase a bit more myself and find some more music. Yeah, but yeah, I I owe a lot to the effort that my parents put in as a child, like no, but that's great that they were open to that as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, even though they didn't play music, they did like Irish music and they enjoyed it and stuff, but like they were just kind of as lost as I was in the world of where to go. But myself and my dad would have great, great old fun. Like on a Thursday night in Tagneys in Castle Island, there used to always be a session with Con Mine and Dennis O'Connor and a gang more. And so at the time, Mom used to work in a factory now be feel on an evening shift, and she used to go to work with the lady down the road, and we'd be sitting there next to Dad'd be like, Have you done the homework? I have, have you done this? I have. Will we go to Tagneys? Oh, we will on a Thursday, like school the next morning, no bother at all. So you'd have to ring up Costell and you'd be like, Can I can I be put through to my mum on her line? And you'd be like, We're going to Castle Island. So she'd get a lift to Castle Island to pick us up at the end of the night and bring us home. So I uh what age were you?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, let's say eleven or twelve, like my gosh, but you had that appetite for it though.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, amazing. Like just sitting around playing away tunes.

SPEAKER_01:

And what what was it, you know, what was it about that uh environment that made you want to be part of it? Was it that you were learning from other people? Was it just being w with these people who'd played the music? What was it? Do you know?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not even too sure. Like I do remember that I went through I f like, believe it or not, I was a very shy child and you would struggle to get a few words out of me. And my mum jokes that I started talking when I was about 18 and I haven't stopped since like um but I do think like I was in group of codes, I did go through a phase where I was like, Oh god, I don't want to do this. Um so my parents you rebelled, like yeah, and I think say I was nine or ten and my friends were maybe twelve or thirteen, and it's not that much, but at that age it was a big age gap. So when you go to festivals, they'd be left to walk down the street. But I wasn't allowed to go because I was a child. Yeah. And I was like, oh no, this is no fun. I can't do anything, I'm stuck. For a while I resented being stuck with the older people, is how I saw it, because I wasn't running around the street with my friends having the crack. But like my parents had just gotten me my c my Sutner concertina, and I was like, just I can't give it up now, they'll kill me. Like, you know But they did that little bit of fear of having to break the news that I was I was that was it, I was sick of it. It just got me through to when I was 13, 14, and then that little bit of freedom to yeah, you can go down the street and you can do this and just have all the cr fun and meeting new friends. That's then you were in school going, Oh yeah, I I have friends now and they're awfully or they're in Cork and I'm going to meet them in two weeks' time for a session, you know. So it was great that kind of way, like yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So but the concertina did stay in its box for a couple of years.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I still I still played, but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I did. I kind of still you'd go to your session, you'd play away, but then I was I s I think everyone maybe goes through that phase growing up where do you know, where you're just kind of going through the emotions in your lessons and learning your tunes, and you're probably getting bored of the types of sessions that you're in. Do you know, just before you hit those teenage years where you make your friends uh at the Willie Clancy or the FLA or whatever the Patrick O'Keefe, whatever festival you go to, and you know, make your little posse that you have we made at this festival and that festival and whatever the next festival is.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's a side of traditional music that people who aren't in it don't understand. You know, they see the tunes and they see the sessions, they see the bands, you know, the the albums, all the rest of it. But the network, the family, the community of traditional music is just off the charts. And it it's it's that idea that you could go literally anywhere in the country and not know one person, and within an hour it feels like you're part of the family. Anywhere in the world.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. If there's Irish music there, you have a friend in that building.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a passport, yeah. And then what did that give you as a teenager? Like, do you think that gave you you said there you didn't really talk when you were younger, you were shy. I was like Did it bring did it but did it did that help bring you out of yourself?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Um and then I started so when all my friends got uh jobs working in pubs or restaurants or anything around the place, I was doing a gig, like and then I got in with Shimsatira, it was the national folk theatre of Ireland, so like I was going off in the summertime doing shows, and it's just like it was like you sounded so cool to your friends, like yeah, I have a summer of shows now in Seemsa. But it was the friends that you make there then as well, like fantastic. Um so I did shows there, I'd say from when I was 16 up until 2020 or that. So for years on a stage, me and that posse of friends was great as well. It was dancers and singers as well. Um, yeah. But fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

But the best days of your life, to be honest. Yeah, and I'm laughing here because we're having a conversation. There's something on outside in the street, I think I think it's kneecap. Not in not in real life, not the actual band. There's a car driving past and kneecap's playing it, blurring out of the window. Um, but sure, that's that's what you get when you're in in the city centre upstairs in Madden's. Um, yeah, the the network and the but the idea of doing gigs when you're a teenager, and here we go, the job is starting. We just like to keep it real. But you you know, you're doing all those gigs or get or getting gigs.

SPEAKER_00:

Like what's that like? Do you think it was like I went for a job interview one time uh in the local hotel, and uh so she was like, You'll be on a Saturday, like I was I think I was about 16, 17. She goes, You'll be on a Saturday evening and you'll be washing the plates and it'll be whatever an hour. And I was like, Oh, but I get a gig sometimes on a Saturday night, you know. So I don't really want to switch. Like she goes, Well, you're going to have to make your decisions, and I just went, Thank you very much for your interview, and just walked out the door.

SPEAKER_01:

You knew that was the one.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, no, I wasn't going to miss my gig. Um, like my dad, oh like driving all around the country to music lessons, festivals, and everything like that. Dad used to always say to me, it was his motto, you will never work a day in your life when you have the music. And he's right, like so. I teach music in a school of music, and I love going in every day and having the crack with the kitties, and you know, half of it is about making friends with them and encouraging them, and do you know, tell it when they hit that little power point where they're going, Oh no, this isn't for me. You're like, just stick with it, give it a few years, and you'll have it the best of times, you know? Yeah, so yeah, it's lovely to see now. I'm in the school music, say I I think maybe about 14 years, and so there is kids that I had at the very beginning that now they cover me if I'm taking a night off. Do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

It's worked out very nice.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was like, uh I thought them so they're teaching what I thought them from the same repertoire. It's like it's basically the same thing. Because sometimes festivals are life, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

I really enjoy the way you've this this well worked out for yourself, Gata.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely accidentally like I'm the most scattered person.

SPEAKER_01:

Mollonica Augushi for your own advantage but it in all seriousness though, the work that you do with kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So you're working with kids who have uh special educational needs, um and music in that environment. Tell me just how important it is as a means of communicating with children who find it difficult to communicate.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, um well I work as a special needs assistant and this is my third year in the job, and I absolutely love it. You can see it. Oh, I do. Like it is the it can be the most draining work day, like you know, there's some days that are tough or whatever, they're very busy. But you come home and you're like we just sat at the table today. Like, you know, sometimes just sitting at the table to do your work is an amazing thing for a child to do, or that they got through the day. But like you feel you're helping the kids, but like we learn so much from them as well, and and just how children in general, how they view the world, it's just amazing to be around. The school I work in is fabulous, it's they have like a really holistic approach to everything. There's a school choir, there's a school band. Um I would not like to be a teacher. I just don't like it, you know. The teachers in the school, like what they do for it, all the kids, um, is just fantastic. But I like being the child of the the the buddy of the children and just helping them on their school.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because the assistance role sometimes is one that is is not fully understood just how important it is. Because you are that kind of bridge between the children and the teacher. It's a it's a very it's a very special role.

SPEAKER_00:

That's it. And sometimes if a child is in a class, there could be 25 kids in the classroom and that teacher is busy trying to educate a whole load of children, and it's like this special needs assistant that will go, Okay, they might need a little break now just to know get that green light black back on, and that's where you go, come on, we'll go for a little walk or a moving break, or go to a sensory room and chill out, and then come back ready for some more work, like and seeing what they need, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And then how does music help them along?

SPEAKER_00:

Some kids love it, some kids hate it. But sure, that's like anything. Um, I do remember we would did um summer provision, and there was just one child in general that there just happened to be a guitar. It's that kind of a school, there was just a guitar in the hallway one day, and she just walked past and she just strummed her hands along the strings and she was fascinated. And that was it. We spent about two weeks just strumming a guitar around the place singing little songs, yeah. But it was that kind of but it provided that connection. Yeah, I suppose the vibrations from the strings and everything, like and even that I was going, it's guitar, you do this, it makes noise. But when you look at how much of it, you're like, There's so much more to this than just being a guitar, do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

And also from the respective, you know, that you said about the bands and the choirs, you understand what it's like as a child to be part of an ensemble like that because you've had that experience and it gave you life, so of course it's going to help other kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Like the school recorded an album with their choir. How amazing is that! There's a few kids in the school that play music. So obviously, since I started working, I'm like, concertina, this is a concertina, like advocating for the concertina always. But you know, you'd see them coming in for the days that they're rehearsing for something coming up, and they are walking in, they're like, Yeah, I have my instrument with me today. Like they're the cool kids the rest of it. Yeah, like they're six foot tall. Yeah, that's a brilliant.

SPEAKER_01:

It's amazing. And you say that you're always advocating for the concertina. Is that how it is? There's there's this there's this thing about concertina players sometimes because the concertina can be much maligned, and then it's like, no, it's the concertina, it's my instrument, and it's the best. So do you feel you constantly have to be that advocate? A couple of focalinesh, oh luck, or shakten you shaw air music at maddens. Uh, some words from our sponsors this week on the podcast, and uh they say there's music in every pint. Smithics has been brewed in Kilkenny since 1710, it carries centuries of craft, a ruby red ale with notes of caramel, roasted malt, poured smooth and rich, and it's the taste that's been part of our sessions for generations, where stories are told and music is made. So whether you're at Madden's or listening from home, raise a glass and let the tradition play on. Smithics is brewed true and shared together, and please drink responsibly for over eighteens only.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, absolutely. If there's ever a child around the pub, I'm like, come here, press the buttons and fall in love with this instrument. You will. Because I did, I think I went through a phase where I was like, Why did you put me playing the concertina? They get no gigs, you know? Because friends of mine were oh, sorry, friends of mine were going off doing tours and stuff, and it was always you'd have the accordion, the ill and pipes, the fiddle, the flute, guitar, piano, baron. And I was like, There's never a concertina player. So then if I ever did get a tour, I used to go with the mindset of I'm just here as a last resort, like, and I'd be I'm going to have the best time ever, do you know? So I had a great time on a few tours.

SPEAKER_01:

Does that bring a bit of imposter syndrome to the party? Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

I spent my whole life, yeah, like even around the John O'Neill Festival this weekend, I was like, What am I doing here? Like, how did I blag this? I hear joking. Yeah, no, absolutely. Like, even coming over here this morning, I was like, What? Like, why am I doing this podcast? Like, I just no, I don't know why, but I'm here.

SPEAKER_01:

Because Grena, I can tell you, you're the crack. You have so many stories to tell. And if you tell me half of the stories now on this podcast that you told me last night, we'll be doing well.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like, yeah, last night you're like, is this the grant that I'm getting tomorrow? I was like, oh no. Well, and that was early in the night that we mentioned.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's talk, let's talk geography. And the one thing you said to me was, right, do not talk to me about football. And I'm sitting here going, Greta, I'm from Tyrone, right? Yeah. Um we were in Tyrone last night, and you know what football means to that county and the people of that county. You're from Kerry, and the rivalry over the last say 20, 22 years just been off the charts, like, but you're from Brazna. So tell me, is there is there much football in Brasna?

SPEAKER_00:

There is, yeah, absolutely. Football. Do you know, like you're on about there, that rivalry? I'm just like, I don't I don't get it. I have to appreciate as well. I'm really happy when Kerry wins and stuff, but I'm like, huh, it wasn't their day if they lose or something. You're gonna get me killed at home, Ireland. Um, but yeah, so Broston has a massive they like football is life in the village, you know. Um, and they won, was it the junior All Ireland? Oh ten years ago now. I went to that match. That's a big deal. I went to the match because my brother came home from Sydney to go to the match because he loves football. I was like, I might as well go to the match and meet William. Like, and he met my niece for the first time in Croke Park the day that Brussels have won the All Ireland. So I like I was at the match just going, Oh the baby! Like, I had no interest in what was going on in the field at all. Oh yeah, but yeah, go go carry your game.

SPEAKER_01:

Go go carry. I thought there was a get there was a get-together there, uh like a celebration of that uh that went ten years ago recently, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_00:

There was, yeah, but you're on about the homecoming the night that they won the game. So there was bonfires, they nearly burnt down the guards barracks in Broston by accident. Right. It was by accident, it was just maybe not the best strategically placed bonfire, and a bit of I'd say if a gust of wind came, we'd have lost half the square. But um, I was just saying last night that so Broston is such a football place. Now it loves its music too, and uh so there was a gang of us, and probably I was probably in the same form as I was telling you the story last night, you know. And uh they were like, it's been years since there's an all-arel in Broston, and I was like, we brought two last August. There was um a few of us in the village that were in a group of cole that had won the senior All Ireland, but like like each thing's to be appreciated in their own mind.

SPEAKER_01:

Like it's not all about football. That was the point you were making, Greta. Music is here too, exactly. And you just won all Ireland's music. Celebrate those as well. Where's my bonfire?

SPEAKER_00:

No, but they did make us bonfires over the years as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Message to the people of Brussels that Greta wants a bonfire, please. Can we just do the when she's going home now next time?

SPEAKER_00:

Bonfaire. Um I'm actually going to be there tomorrow evening and I'll get to then around six o'clock with send out an old message. I'd say it'd be more burning me at the steak and after this. That is all I warned you this morning. I was like, I know you want to bring up that story and don't do that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sorry, it was too good. It was too good. Um, because I I know that feeling of, you know, you're winning all Ireland's um for music, and but it didn't matter because it wasn't football. And it does matter, it's so important because the pride that you have in that moment where you've won something for your town, for your county, it's it's massive.

SPEAKER_00:

And now don't get me wrong, the people of Rosna are very proud of their musicians as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but it's just that that love of football that is it supersedes everything. It seems to supersede everything in in certain parts of the country for sure. Um, but you know, where you're from, so you know, we're talking about the Kerry and Limerick border and Cork close by as well. So that area known as Schlieve Lucre and the richness and I suppose the heritage of music that you have to tap into there. It's something that you hear about a lot, Greta. You know, oh that's they're a sleeve lucre musician, oh they're sleeves. But sometimes people mightn't understand what exactly that means. So what does what does sleevlucre and that and that heritage, what does it mean to you?

SPEAKER_00:

It is like sometimes people in the middle of Slieve Lucre don't know what it means, but they know it's sleevre, do you know? Yeah, um, it's like growing up, I didn't realise Schlieve Lucre was even a thing. Like again, we're just playing in the sessions, but like looking back as an adult, you're like, I was sitting there with Nikki and Ann McAuliffe, do you know? And I just thought they live out the road, like um Dennis McMahon, like sitting around playing with all these amazing. Amazing musicians. And like I think I was saying to you when we were chatting last night, I got to kind of my teenage years, and I was like, so boring. Like I was just not, I was done with it. And I went off up. I was going to festivals in Claire, and I was like, yeah, this is great. I kept going further and further over the country. And I was like, I need to fit way more notes into my tunes. You know, I think everybody goes through that phase where they like all the mad hornpipes that are just going round in circles, you know. But like I'd say in the last 10 years, I've really come back to Schlieve Lucre, and I was like, this was right in front of me all that time that I was running all around the place trying to find what type of Irish music that I loved, and I was like, it was here all the time. Um but Schlieve Lucre, it's just it's just there, it's ever present.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, but that's what happens. I think I think that you you there's something inside you when you're younger that you just take for granted because it's there, it's there, absolutely, and that you go seeking out something else, but then you're like a homin pigeon, you're brought right back to where you should be.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's like and it's amazing to see in the locality now at home, there is an up-and-coming gang of kids and teenagers, and Slieve Lukra is life. Polkas and Slides, I think, are cool at the moment, do you know what I mean? And they wear it with a badge, like it's a badge of honour to be like, Oh, I'm from Schlieve Lucre. Do you know? We're playing Polkas, we're playing slides, they're class. Like there is jigs, reels, and hornpipes in Schlieve Lukra music as well. But I think probably Polkas and Slides is that notoriety for the goes room, do you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Well that that would be the notoriety that has travelled and what makes it significantly Schlieve Lukra music. But what I've always loved about it is though that you have that association, it's an area, but that area encompasses three counties, and then that's where it starts to get a little bit complicated, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

And it does, like if you go from one side of it to the other, so some people would say that Brussels is the edge of it, and more would say it's Abbey Feel. And depending who you talk to or what musicians they're trying to fit in or leave out, or whatever it is, the sleeves moves, you know. But if you go from one side of it to the other, even the way they play polkas, there might be a 35-minute drive, and Maggie in the Woods is Mary in the Woods, and where it's played, like just how they play their tunes can change so much in a half an hour of a drive away. Like it is yeah, there's there's all these different takes in it, but it's the same at the same time. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Does that make it really exciting for you?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Short answer. Yeah, it is like I just I love it. There's sessions that we go to and you'd sit and you're playing the whole night with your eyes closed, and you're just loving the tunes, and you're feeling every swing in the slide and every hop in the polka, and then then there's sessions that we go to and we're playing more polkas than slides, but we're like standing on our seats and roaring around the place, and they're like both completely different, but both amazing to be part of as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So then what's it like then when you come up north? Well, it's it's different music altogether, except when Donald Murphy's about but it it's different music altogether then, and you but you're still playing the session. Is that challenging for you? Do you you know how do you approach that?

SPEAKER_00:

I think there's a great relationship from with people up around here and that Kerry Limerick Cork contingent as well. So, like, I suppose because of Donald's involvement with the dogs, I grew up listening to a lot of music from up here and then there's exposure there, yeah. And then there's like even now with the Patrick O'Keefe Festival, there's loads of musicians that come down to the Patrick O'Keefe. So like there's always that relationship there that you're playing tunes together the whole time, so you don't notice as much that you're picking from two different pots of tunes to say, like um, but I do know say last year when I came up to the John O'Neill and I went into the session, and it was actually my first time at Haydn's. Like, I was like a child. I was like, I'm so happy I'm here. Um, but like, but then I kind of just sat there and I was like, what am I doing here? Like, and I was like, they were like, play tune. I was like, no, I'm fine. I just joined in for the day. And in the end, Stephen Hayden was like, Will you just play slides? I was like, okay, but I was like, I j I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01:

You just got this I've got this image of Stephen Hayden just play slides.

SPEAKER_00:

Basically it, woman, what do you have? Play slides. And but it was just I didn't know where I fit in. Do you know? I was like, they're all local-ish, and I'm here from Kerry. So I'm just gonna join in. And I just sat there and they're like, play tune, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I will soon. And I kept kind of leaving it go.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, but I think what I think possibly what people from other places don't understand is that the appetite for that music that is different is huge, you know, and the respect as well. It's like we want to hear your music, we want you to share it, want you to, you know, that to keep that friendship up, that that exchange of of knowledge, because it's just so important.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it is pretty amazing. Like, yeah, we played our few sets of slides and sometimes once I start going they can't stop me.

SPEAKER_01:

So they have been one.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like that when I start to when I started talking, I never again stopped. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well you mentioned the Patrick O'Keefe Festival O'Keefe Festival. Tell me about it. Um for anybody who hasn't heard of the Patrick O'Keefe Festival, like why is it one that you have been like you've been championing this festival since you were very young.

SPEAKER_00:

I'd say I could probably count on one hand the amount that I've missed. Um, because we were all sent for music lessons, so my older brother played the accordion for a few years. And so when Mum and Dad were taking him, I was good just going along for because it's the October Bank holiday weekend. My memories of the Patrick O'Keefe as a child were you'd be given a couple of pounds and you'd run up to the shop up the road and you'd be buying your bits and pieces for your Halloween costumes. It was a very successful Patrick O'Keefe if you came home with you know the vampire teeth and the witch fingers to go to go out your black bag while you went trick or treating for real. That's my earliest memory memories of the Patrick O'Keefe was buying my Halloween costume. But just like I was saying earlier growing up, and I was so lucky that there was the Concurtain Festival in Bross and the Fla by the Field and Abbey Field and the Patrick O'Keefe in Castle Island, and it's like the musicians, the Patrick O'Keefe, the musicians that come to the I was actually, do you know, during the week I was looking through and I was trying to count how many sessions were at it last year. I got to 70, and I was like, should there's two days left. Do you know it's I'm it's the biggest session trail in the country, and like it's top class musicians playing sessions. So like you could go into one pub and you'd have Derek Hickey and his gang, and you'd go into the next pub and you could have Donald Murphy and the Haydens just sitting playing tunes, and it is going from eleven o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock the next morning. I think it was Seamus Begley one time he said to Patrick O'Keefe, the only festival where you can play tunes 25 hours a day because the clocks go back. That's a real begleyism. Yeah. Um, but it's just fantastic. Like we were saying there, the love for Schlieve Lucre music and how popular it's getting. So there's an award, the Young Musician Award, and you um like musicians from all over the country send in their auditions, but you play a Schlieve Lucre set. So Meghan McGinley, Simon Crean, these are all musicians that have won it over the last few years and are doing amazing things in their own music careers at the minute. But that like that they'd go down and they'd get um to perform in the concert and they pick like a mentor to go through a few pieces and play in the concert with them. So um yeah, like there's so much happening at the Patrick Oak. I'm in my head.

SPEAKER_01:

Even that competition gives uh a deep respect to the music, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00:

So I think um is it two sets of tunes, but one of them has to be a Schlieve Lucre set, like and then to hear your auditions coming in from Donegal, from Dublin, and they're playing their Schlieve Lucre repertoire set and they're playing it fabulously, and it's lovely to see like like I said, Schlieve Lucre moves, they can go anywhere. Like Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh are there musicians in the locality that you're kind of keeping an eye on up and up and coming young musicians?

SPEAKER_00:

There is a host now there's loads of great musicians up and coming, but there's a group of box players at the moment coming up along, and there's do you know I'm not even gonna name names because I'll probably leave one of the match. But oh my goodness, give it like give it five years. You had the the next big things are coming up there, and they're only 16, 17, 18 at the minute, and they're wearing that Schlev Lucre badge with pride, like do you know? They're not getting lost like I did all over the world learning all these mad crazy tunes. They're Schlev Lucre true and true, and it is amazing to see it. Like, and for those kids growing up, like they're going to the Patrick O'Keefe and they're going to so like this year, there's three music concerts, two singing concerts, workshops, there's talks. Peter Brown is giving a talk on Kieran McMahuna and his recordings of Schlieve Lukra music. Like, and I know that these teenage kids will be going to that seeking out the information. Whereas when I was a teenager, I was like, oh, do you know? There's music all day, every day. Like it used to be a three-day festival, and now it's stretched to five, depending. Some people arrive on the Wednesday, you could nearly say six. But like the session trail starts on the Thursday.

SPEAKER_01:

So when does trailing start for this five-day marathon for you?

SPEAKER_00:

And it's it's just when we get our midterm break, so we actually have the week after to recover.

SPEAKER_01:

Happy days.

SPEAKER_00:

And we got an extra date at the election, everyone got the day off school on the Friday of it this year too.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you very much. Uh trying, made up with us.

SPEAKER_00:

And Broston is not too far away to put in the vote either, so it's great. But yeah, it's just it's just you get there Thursday, stay till Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01:

I I think it's fair to say that you have sold uh Patrick O'Keefe to anyone who's listening to the the podcast this week. And is there a particular venue you go to, Fortunes, or where where do you set up camp for the events? You go somewhere different every day.

SPEAKER_00:

You go somewhere different every couple of hours. Yeah. So like the session trail, if you want to hear a session in a pub, there's loads of them. They have the session trail in cafes in the museum in the middle of town. There's like it's for everybody. Um there's album launches, or else there's just everything. So you could spend all day playing tunes, then you go off in the evening.

SPEAKER_01:

So like um and how have you seen it develop? Because whenever you started going to that festival, you were very young, um, and you've been such an advocate from an early age, it's clearly grown.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes though, whenever there's a festival, you know, you don't want it to grow because you want it to remain your wee kind of hidden gem.

SPEAKER_00:

Stop bringing more people.

SPEAKER_01:

Although you although you love it so much, you know, you want to tell people, you want to advocate for it, but you don't want a big, massive crowd growing.

SPEAKER_00:

My favourite thing to do with the Patrick O'Keefe the last couple of years is to go into the hotel in the middle of town, the River Island. It's kind of just the hub, loads of musicians stay there, and just sit at the top of the stairs. And you it's just you spend hours going, hi, like you know, you're getting to meet everyone. Years ago, like I used to love the Patrick O'Keefe when I was younger because the festival season was a lot shorter. Whereas you know, now there's festivals all year round. Whereas when I was growing up, it would kick off in May, then you'd have the All-Ireland Fly, which was later in the summer then, and then you were just saying bye to your friend, like, okay, see you next summer. And then there was just this little nugget a couple of months later, like the Patrick O'Keefe, and it was great. Um, but yeah, like just sitting, you sit there for hours, everyone that comes in, and you'd hear people meeting each other, and all you can hear is hi, and you can hear the hugs nearly as they're happening.

SPEAKER_01:

You can hear the hugs, that's lovely. So, friends, uh, you will know where to find Greta. The October bank holiday weekend, go to the top of the stairs. She'll be at the top of the stairs in the hotel, I guess like just smiling.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll have that pain in the cheek I had last night at the concert as well. Because the dogs are playing there this year too.

SPEAKER_01:

So fantastic, fantastic. Oh my goodness. Well, come here, it's been class to talk to you today. Thank you very much. I know you are heading up the road again now to play some of those brilliant tunes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and you won't have to be asked, I'm sure you're I'll I'll try to get the slides in before Stephen asks me today.

SPEAKER_01:

Before Stephen Hayden asks for them. It's been great to talk to you today, Greta. Thank you so much. Greta Curtin on the Music at Maddens podcast this week. Thank you for my getting.