Colin Randall writes: 24 hours earlier, Altan were playing to a pleasantly rowdy crowd in Blacksod, a remote corner of Co Mayo. Hopping on a flight from Knock, they joined the bustling throng of London, returning in triumph to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Salut! Folk attended in force – me on Saturday, deputy editor Andrew Curry on Sunday. We chose well ….
It takes something special to drag me away from the second half with Sunderland defending a one-goal lead. Altan were something special.
A vindictive double Tube line closure – Piccadilly and District – made getting there a challenge. Irish music goes best for me with a couple of pints of Guinness so driving was not an attractive option. The replacement bus service entailed a tortuous route to cover all the Tube stops affected by the closures but got us to Hammersmith in the nick of time.
Before a note was played, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh welcomed the packed audience to the band’s celebration of 40 years in the road. She added that she believed I was present; “Colin was with us at the beginning.”
That reminder of advancing years delivered, this supremely accomplished quintet produced a memorable concert of pulsating reels, enchanting slows airs and exquisite songs, mostly in Gaelic.
The highlights were Ní Mhaonaigh’s fiddling duels and vocal duets with Clare Friel, a new face for me. But never underestimate the importance of the other three musicians – Martin Tourish on accordion, Mark Kelly on guitar and Ciarán Curran on bouzouki.
There was warmth and wit in Ní Mhaonaigh’s introductions, and the interjections of Kelly and Tourish. She did nobly apologise to my French wife Joëlle afterwards for having said, when describing a song about the 1798 uprising, that the modestly armed rebels were helped little by their ‘“pretty useless” French allies in battling against British military might.
Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh was right. I’ve been watching Altan with admiration throughout those 40 years, all the way back to when her husband, the flautist and tin whistle player Frankie Kennedy, was adding virtuosity and charisma to each performance.
A Belfast lad, he had learned to play after meeting the 15-year-old Ní Mhaonaigh during a stay in Donegal to improve his Gaelic. Music, he was assured, was the way to her heart. Frankie Kennedy died from cancer at the wretchedly young age of 38.
Each Altan concert does his memory proud. Next stop France.
Si vous habitez à Carhaix-Plouguer en Bretagne (3 Octobre) ou Aubervilliers, banliueue Parisenne (4 Octobre) allez-y.
Oh, and Sunderland managed to cling on to beat Nottingham Forest 1-0.
More like this: see our St Patrick’s Day playlist from 2024
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