Old tunes resonate in big house

The Masters of Tradition Festival takes trad music out of the pub and into the very different setting of Bantry House

"THE THING itself": that's what fiddler and musical director Martin Hayes insists on bringing, for the sixth year, to the Masters of Tradition Festival in Bantry.

It's a celebration of traditional music in its purest form, far from the mayhem of a conventional pub session.

While many parts of its neighbouring county of Kerry gurgled beneath floodwaters, west Cork's Bantry Bay lived up to its mythical reputation this week.

Against a backdrop of sun-dappled trees and countless boats bobbing in the waters beyond the lawn tennis court of Bantry House, Hayes struck the opening notes of this year's Masters festival with customary clean-lined simplicity.

Transferring traditional music into the sylvan setting of a big house brings its own challenges for punters and musicians alike.

The laser-like attentiveness of the audience takes some getting used to, admits accordionist Danny O'Mahony, who also teaches in one of the festival's six workshops.

"There's definitely no room to hide when you're out there, with the audience hanging on every note," he smiles, sinking deep into the sofa after a superb opening performance alongside fiddler MacDara Ó Raghallaigh.

"I can't imagine them leaving a yelp out of them, as you'd hear at most sessions, but by God, they're listening.

O'Mahony revels in the old tunes which, he says, dryly quoting Galway box-player, Joe Burke, "are the best ones, although it's hard to get parts for them".

Jimmy Brosnan was one of those punters whose antennae were on red alert throughout Wednesday night's opening concert, while traditional music-legend Christy Moore sat transfixed in the midst of the thronged library.

Brosnan had the rosy glow of a farmer after a day saving hay.

The truth of it was that he's been holidaying in west Cork for years now, ambling in from Ballylickey to imbibe some of this elusive "pure drop" in an extraordinary setting.

"I used to go to a lot of sessions in Cork city, but I found myself getting tired of the noise and the messing in the pub. This is something else altogether though. You can come here to Bantry and hear the best musicians in the country without anyone shouting in your ear. Maybe it's a sign I'm getting old, but sure what harm," says Brosnan.

With 90 children and teenagers lined up for the workshops which ran yesterday and continue today, and with a concert performance on Sunday afternoon, the Masters festival is a boutique affair, with an emphasis on the intimacy of the songs and tunes of the tradition.

Most students who are involved in the festival are drawn from the surrounding regions of west and east Cork, although festival originator Ruud Kupper admits that "some even come from over the mountain", meaning neighbouring Co Kerry.

Micheál Ó Suilleabháin muses about whether, with this transplanting of the music into the new setting of the big house, the festival is "putting the agriculture into culture or the culture into agriculture".

Ultimately it really doesn't seem to matter to the packed house: this music was remarkably at home, regardless of the cultural subversion of the setting, as Ó Suilleabháin wryly noted.

Masters of the Tradition Festival continues until Sunday. Performers include Joe Burke, Frankie Gavin, Kevin Crawford, Jean-Michel Veillon, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. Bookings: 027-52788