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Traditional Irish music's bright future

By
PAUL KEATING
,
Irish Voice Columnist
Published Thursday, July 9, 2009, 2:43 PM
Updated Thursday, July 23, 2009, 5:48 PM
Read more: Frank Harte, Culture and Lifestyle, Irish Culture, Ireland, Rita Keane, Sarah Keane, Catskill Mountains, Gaelic Football, Gaelic Sports, Sports


Rita Keane
Rita Keane

“All songs are living Ghosts

And long for a living voice”

-- Brendan Kennelly

I thought of the verse above when recalling the fourth anniversary of the Dublin song collector Frank Harte’s passing on June 27, 2005 after putting the finishing touches on his last recording “There’s Gangs of Them Digging,” a collection of Irish working songs released by Hummingbird Records in 2007. 

On Monday, June 29, Rita Keane of Caherlistrane, County Galway passed away at age 86 in a Galway hospital.

Before leaving this earth, however, the pair left a rich legacy for others to emulate and to keep the songs of Ireland inhabited by generations of singers who they touched with their own authentic voices and styles.

Harte was the more well-known and traveled singer and song collector said to have compiled over 15,000 songs in a database for his own and eventually an historical archive accessible for others to delve into and keep those songs alive.

The quality of his voice, while distinctive, was not what drove people to seek him out in teaching workshops, festivals, concerts or any of his six recordings over the years. 

Harte grasped the essence of a song and the historical context which gave it greater resonance no matter whether it was political, swashbuckling, romantic, humorous or tragic, and he felt that was more important to convey than a catchy melody or air which could detract from the overall message contained in the words.

He preferred to sing without accompaniment, save for the last part of his life when his last four CD’s were produced and deftly accompanied by Donal Lunny for Hummingbird Records. 

His impact on many of the major Irish singers today like Paul Brady, Mary Black, Niamh Parsons, Karan Casey and the Goilin Singing Club can still be very much recognized in their music with or without accompaniment or acknowledgment.

Rita Keane was a sister of Sarah Keane from Galway in the Conamara region near Headford. The Keane family has been one of Ireland’s foremost families in Irish traditional music, going back over six decades first with a ceili band and then as one of the leading forces in traditional singing. 

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