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The Tiller of America's Green Fields


Published Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 4:15 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 6:08 PM

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A the Green Fields of America Ensemble finished the Banquet entertainment program at the recent Ireland in Dixie Weekend in Atlanta, the capacity crowd rose to their feet with spontaneous joy at the marvelous music they had just witnessed.

It was a highlight of the Comhaltas annual gathering in North America, whose mission statement proscribes the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music.

There can be no contesting CCE importance in Ireland itself since 1951. But when it comes to preserving and promoting the music over here, the tiller of America's green fields is in the hands of one man, Dr. Mick Moloney, who arrived on these shores in 1973. Nothing has been the same since then as he elevated the profile of Irish music and those who make it.

Even with a lifetime of achievements surrounding him, watching him at work (play) over one week was truly astounding and ample evidence of why he was selected a National Heritage Award winner in 1999 as a genuine folk hero in America.

The weekend excursion to Atlanta with a 2007 version of the Green Fields of America touring group he has brought on the road since 1978 brought home to many in attendance the early role that this Limerick firebrand played in bringing Irish traditional music onto different stages.

A folk musician in Dublin with contemporaries like Paul Brady, Donal Lunny, James Keane, Christy Moore and others, academia lured him to the U.S. and Philadelphia, in particular, in 1973 to embark on graduate studies with his mentor, Dr. Kenneth Goldstein.

His studies led him to discover the vast array of older traditional musicians around America who kept the old tunes alive in ghetto-like sessions in their kitchens or small clubs more for their own amusement than for any cultural reason, though he recognized that there were children who were taking it up as well.

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