Discord in Traditional circles

Considerable unease has been growing in traditional music circles at the publication of the first ever Oireachtas report on traditional Irish music, from the Joint Committee on Heritage and the Irish Language. Such reports, when endorsed by the Joint Committee's 14 TDs and five Senators (who are appointed by party whips based on numbers in the Dail), are intended to provide direction for legislation.

By any standards, this report is an extraordinarily partisan document, which shows scant signs of research. Instead, it gives a romanticised and rather out-dated picture, which concentrates on the virtues of only one organisation: Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. It was written by Fianna Fail Senator and long-time Director General of Comhaltas, Labhras O Murchu.

The report does mention organisations independent of Comhaltas, but there are some staggering omissions. While acknowledging the existence of the Irish Traditional Musical Archive (ITMA), there is no mention of the Department of Folklore at UCD, the successor to the old Folklore Commission. Neither, under its section on education, is there any mention of Micheal O Suilleabhain's World Music Centre in UCL - or indeed the longstanding traditional Irish music unit at UCC.

Liz Doherty, lecturer in traditional Irish Music in UCC (and fiddler with The Bumblebees) comments: "It may seem that I have a gripe because we aren't included, but really, the document doesn't reflect the vast amount of activity out there, or so many live issues, such as copyright or the effect of technology on the music. It just completely focuses on Comhaltas. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Comhaltas - I came up through the Comhaltas system myself, and I'm grateful for that - but this approach is all wrong."

Other gaps include the lack of any discussion of the burgeoning commercial sector, or even the role of broadcasting. Aine Hensey, a spokesperson for Radio na Gaeltachta - which the report does not mention - says: "We were very disappointed that after 27 years of recording, broadcasting and archiving, that our activity was not even recognised by the Committee."

Nicholas Carolan, director of the ITMA, is also "disappointed that the Joint Committee hadn't commissioned a professional report, with proper guidelines, terms of reference, and a rigorous examination of topics. Also, there are no links between the body of the text and the recommendations."

There is also widespread anger at O Murchu's lack of consultation. As Folklore Department collector, Tom Munnelly put it, asking Labhras O Murchu to compile a report about traditional Irish music was like "asking Margaret Heffernan to recommend a supermarket". As it happens, there was little or no consultation even within Comhaltas itself. Nevertheless, O Murchu's recommendations were largely adopted by the Committee.

The recommendations are vague in the main, such as the "full recognition of traditional music in the education system". Education has always been one of Comhaltas's strong points, although the organisation's approach is not without its critics. Comhaltas recently joined forces with the Royal Irish Academy of Music to launch a national syllabus and system of traditional music examinations at Elementary, Junior and Leaving Cert level for the first time. The first tranche is set to go ahead next May.

Apart from the Comhaltas committee and examiners within the Academy, the syllabus is largely the brainchild of Micheal O hEidhin, a Music Inspector with the Department of Education. Not a Comhaltas member, he is nonetheless extremely close to the organisation and, over the years, has been instrumental in getting traditional Irish music onto the schools syllabus. Similarly with the new syllabus, no discussion was held with non-Comhaltas educationalists spoken to by this reporter.

Another recommendation in O Murchu's report is the creation of a National Board for the development and promotion of traditional arts. It is unclear how such a move would affect the Arts Council, which already funds numerous traditional music initiatives. The Arts Council, which was not sent a copy of the report, has placed it on the agenda for its next meeting at the end of this month.

Of particular interest also to the Arts Council is the Committee's recommendation of the revival of Seisiun, with Arts Council funding. This Comhaltas costumed performance showcase was discontinued in the 1980s, after the Council cut its funding for artistic reasons. This led to considerable acrimony between Comhaltas and the Arts Council - a rift which apparently lasted until Labhras's wife, Una Ni Murchu, the director of Comhaltas's Bru Boru offshoot in Cashel, was appointed to the current Arts Council.

Even the recommendation of a cross-border body for heritage has run into misgivings, from some quarters, about Comhaltas's involvement - given Labhras's controversial republican pronouncements down the years, which have resulted in the alienation of many individuals and bodies north of the border.

Remarkably, the report was endorsed at the same meeting that passed Michael D. Higgins's exhaustively researched document on Digital Broadcasting - which involved many submissions from public and private concerns. Higgins admitted he had been too involved with his own report to devote much thought to O Murchu's.

Committee chairman, Donal Carey (a Fine Gael TD), commented: "Basically, we have eight subjects to address during the life of this committee, and we were trying to maximise our time, since the area of Language and Heritage is so vast, from whales at one end to tiny snails on the other.

"I would readily acknowledge that we should have invited submissions prior to publication, and issued guidelines to Labhras O Murchu. But everything isn't lost. At our last meeting, we agreed to advertise nationally to give an opportunity to people to make submissions to the Committee. The report won't go before the Dail until we have investigated and compiled these submissions, which will then go into the record."

Another Fine Gael deputy, Olivia Mitchell, said: "There's no question about it: we boo-booed in this instance. And this issue highlights the fact that politicians often don't have the back-up to make informed decisions. We certainly weren't qualified, without attracting submissions. On a personal level, I am embarrassed at having passed a report without spotting these glaring omissions."

Based on submissions from individuals and organisations working in traditional music, fresh recommendations will now be drawn up, probably by another member of the Joint Committee, and the report and "appendix report" will be presented to the Dail. Yet many in the field of traditional music hope the original report will be shelved entirely.

Muiris O Rochain, director of the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, is not often drawn into faction-fighting within traditional music: "Traditional Irish music is not about dominating by numbers, it's about the quality of the music. And the music is very much larger than Comhaltas, and Labhras in this report would be seen to be trying to contain it.

"If you take County Clare alone, you could cite non-Comhaltas initiatives like Doolin, the Miko Russell weekend, traditional singing in Ennistymon, the Lahinch folklore school, the Willie Clancy school, Eigse Mrs Crotty in Kilrush, the Tulla Festival, everything that's going on in Ennis, the Feakle festival, Maoin Cheoil an Chlair, even Clare FM. Then there's several craftsmen making traditional instruments, and even several recording studios . . .

"Now, if you wanted to compile a report on Clare, and you mentioned little other than what was happening in Comhaltas circles, that report would be totally incomplete and inaccurate - just as, of course, it would be inaccurate to omit Comhaltas. Basically, our concern is that the Oireachtas document is far too narrow and restrictive."