Tim Dennehy's songs have long celebrated life in the county. His latest collection, the result of two decades' work, is a tribute to another devotee of the area. Siobhán Long reports.
Cute-hoorism, the GAA and John Hinde postcards have been Co Kerry's ruling triumvirate for decades. Long before most counties had cottoned on to the advantages, fiscal and otherwise, of self-promotion, the self-styled Kingdom was preening its feathers for locals and distant visitors alike. For some, the county's unique music, poetry and even geography have been relegated from the top spots by her irksome and knowing smirk.
There is another side to the county, though, one that wisely conserves its energy for the purer drop. Tim Dennehy, Cahirciveen singer-songwriter and keeper of the flame of storytelling through music, is surely a member of this latter class, his songs celebrating the small joys and uncomplicated triumphs of daily life in south Co Kerry.
Although modesty might prevent him from declaring it from the rooftops, his latest collection, a gathering of Sigerson Clifford poems, bears testament to simplicity, to a world where life is in the detail, and in the detail lies delight in all things ordinary - it's a kind of storytelling that bears close kinship with the essence of what Woody Guthrie did with his tales of the Dust Bowl during the Depression.
"In south Kerry it wasn't a very strong musical tradition," he says, explaining the attraction he felt to Clifford's work, "but my father's people and my mother's people told stories. I was listening to people using words all the time, and Sigerson's poems are very much a part of that. I felt very much at ease with it when I came across it."
Clifford is probably best known for his poem Barr Na Sráide, which is still frequently delivered with anthemic solemnity at weddings, wakes and christenings. What might surprise aficionados of that stalwart song is that Clifford was also a playwright whose work was produced at the Abbey and the Peacock and that he wrote a swathe of material celebrating Cahirciveen. It is to this body of work that Dennehy has turned in his 20-year preparation for the release of his new CD, Between The Mountains And The Sea.
Clifford's words conjured memories of growing up in south Kerry, where myth and reality collided, much as Gabriel García Márquez celebrated magic realism in his novels. Heroic tales of Diarmuid and Gráinne ("Spoke of doings old / before quills inked history") collided with less dashing stories of school desks, "when youth was a spancil tying me to the hills" and where "old men thatched their dreams with adjectives".
Dennehy, a founder member of Goilín Singer's Club on Dorset Street in Dublin, releases his tribute on the 90th anniversary of Clifford's birth, and he is anxious that listeners grasp the subtlety and finesse of the poetry.
A first hearing might suggest a writer looking back through rose-tinted glasses, but Dennehy is adamant that such an interpretation would miss the point.
"Strangely enough, I had that impression when I read him first," he says, "but when I looked at the dates in which the poems were written, I discovered that he was still quite young. I think he was someone who was genuinely, deeply in love with the place and the people.
"There is a simple quality to it, but there's also something else, and he has a comfort with phrases which elevates it beyond your normal folk poetry or your poetry of place. There were other aspects, too, illustrating his affinity with nature, which would hold their own anywhere."
Dennehy hopes his project places Clifford's work in context by virtue of his interpretation of the poetry through music, as well as the inclusion of copious photographs of the Iveragh peninsula by Tony O'Shea, a native of Valentia. He also believes the organic recording process overseen by Garry Ó Briain, producer and multi-instrumentalist, helped to mould the landscape of the album over the past two decades.
"One of the features of the album is the photography, because Clifford's work is so rooted in the place," says Dennehy. "This material was written in the 40s and 50s, and I think it's important to give people who mightn't know the area a sense of what the place is like now. Even for me, revisiting the place and capturing it in pictures was an important part of the process of making this album."
John O'Donoghue, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, who is due to launch the CD tonight in Cahirciveen, has long been a fan of Clifford's poetry.
"This beautiful production has been in the making for 20 years and has put the enthralling words of one of Ireland's most talented writers to music," he says. "I am delighted that pictures of south Kerry's magical scenery are part of the package, so that listeners not familiar with the area can fully appreciate some of Clifford's descriptions."
Between The Mountains And The Sea is due to be launched at Cahirciveen library tonight. It is available through Claddagh Records (www.claddaghrecords.com) or from online stores such as www.custysmusic.com
