Niamh Ní Charra: Donnelly's Arm
with
Kevin Corbett/; Guitars
Dominic Keogj: Bodrhan
Guest Musicians:
Mikie Smyth: Uilleann Pipes
Órlath McAuliffe: Flute, Tin Whistle
Claire Sherry: Banjo
Niamh grew up in Killarney, surrounded by a wealth of Sliabh Luachra musicians and has been playing almost all her life. Following 8 years touring the world with Riverdance as the featured fiddler and introducing Riverdance audiences to the concertina along the way, she has returned to Ireland where she is now based. This album her fifth, is the fruits of her lockdown period, during the past 18 months.
The Story of Donnelly's Arm.
Two hundred years ago the boxing pioneer from Dublin’s docklands, Dan Donnelly died.
Discovered by piper and aristocrat Sir William Kelly, he famously beat three English prize-fighters of the time and was proclaimed Ireland’s champion. This colourful character subsequently became a proprietor of several bars in Dublin, garnered a reputation for gambling, womanising and drinking and in 1820 passed away at the young age of 31.
But like all good stories, it doesn’t end here. Shortly after his burial in Bully’s Acre his body was snatched by grave-robbers on order. Donnelly’s admirers tracked the body down to a surgeon and it was returned for burial - minus his right arm! Legend has it that Donnelly’s arms were unusually long and the surgeon successful negotiated to keep one for medical research.
Donnelly’s arm was preserved in red lead and spent several years in Edinburgh where it was studied by medical students, before it became an exhibit in a Victorian travelling circus. It eventually made it back across the Irish sea where it was displayed firstly in a pub in Belfast before finally returning to Kildare, the scene of his first successful fight. More recently it flew first class to America but that’s another story! I first heard about Donnelly and his amazing feats while drinking in Fallon’s, my local in the Liberties in Dublin, and coincidentally the only one of Donnelly’s bars still in existence.
Donnelly is one of several people and events I commemorate in this album which has been influenced not only by my time spent in Dublin, which has been my home since 2005, but also by my upbringing in the musically rich area of Sliabh Luachra in Kerry, by my travels playing music internationally, and by my work as a professional archivist.
This album has been in gestation for several years, but work commenced in earnest just as the Covid_19 pandemic took hold and lock-down was initiated. I would therefore like to thank everyone involved for their work and support under these extraordinary circumstances, and to dedicate this album to both the amazingly courageous people working the front line, and to those who sadly passed away during this time. Ar scáth a chéile a mhairimid, Niamh
Audio
Track 1: The Worn Torn Petticoat
Track 2: Two-Part Pour
Track 3: Cad é Sin t É Sin
Track 4: Richie Dwyer's
Track Listing
- The Copper Mines of Killarney / Covering Ground / Andy De Jarlis (Jigs)
- The Curlew Hills / Tripping to the Well / Two-Part Pour (Barndance / Polkas)
- Cad é Sin Don t'É' Sin (Song)
- Donnelly's Arm / Pretty Peggy / Julie Delaney's (Reels)
- Flush of Success / The Worn Torn Petticoat / Tom Billy's Favourite (Slides)
- Eanach Dhúin (Slow Air)
- Gone, Gonna Rise Again / Ar Scáth a Chéile (Song/ Slip Jig / Reel)
- Seanchnoc (Clan march)
- Waltz for Rosie / The (Old) Lark in the Morning / Cooper and Keegan's (Waltz /Jig / Slip Jig)
- Ceol An Phíobaire (Song)
- Amaitzeko Soñua / As I Looked East and I Looked West/ The Glen Cottage / I will, yeah (Arin Arin / Polkas)
- The Exile of Erin / Richie Dwyer's / Red-haired Catherine / Ril Du Forgeron (Reels).
Also available from Copperplate
Niamh Ní Charra: From Both Sides
Niamh Ní Charra: Happy Out
Niamh Ní Charra: Cuz, A tribute to Cuz Teahan
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine.
Niamh Ni Charra’s albums are always a delight, and often a surprise, as is the case with Donnelly’s Arm, simply put, it is exceptional.
The news to get the gossips going is she has found in Kevin Corbett her Dennis Cahill. Other musicians are called on, employed sparingly, Mikie Smyth (uilleann pipes), Katie Ellis brings her cello to Eanach Dhúin, Orlaith McCauliffe (flute and whistles) and Claire Sherry (banjo) each contribute to 3 tracks. The core duo have a synergy rarely heard in traditional music. Corbett’s guitar accompaniment is ground breaking, there’s an intangible intelligence here on tunes such as the first set of jigs, Kevin’s guitar leading The Copper Mines of Killarney, Niamh’s fiddle deep and rounded, Dominic Keogh’s bodhrán steady and sonorous, a track I could put on repeat for an hour. More guitar magic on Cad é Sin Don t És Sin. Niamh taking the vocals and a fiddle break to add more richness to the tale. If it’s a story you are looking for the title track Donnelly’s Arm is actually a bunch of reels, the limb a macabre trophy that once hung on the wall of a pub in Kildare, the set of reels closes with one of my all time favourites Julia Delaney’s with added banjo. Tasty.
Niamh sings Ceol An Phíobair over an uilleann pipe drone from Mikie Smyth. The recording quality is astonishingly clear, her voice unwavering for the five minutes of the track. The home ground is not entirely forgotten. Niamh picks up the concertina for one of the most joyful tunes in the tradition The Curlew Hills, once again in lock step with Corbett. The selection ends with a polka; sure it wouldn’t be an album from Niamh without one. There are slides too on track 5, Flush of Success, The Worn Torn Petticoat and Tom Billy’s. They will be a must-see duo once the lockdown is lifted. Until then you can play this on endless repeat. I know I will. Seán Laffey
The Independent
Donnelly’s Arm is the new album from Kerry fiddle player, concertina player and singer Niamh Ní Charra. The title refers to the nineteenth-century Irish boxer Dan Donnelly and is the name of a reel composed by Ní Charra. She has also included several other of her compositions, plus tunes by Diarmuid Moynihan and Orlaith McAuliffe as well as traditional pieces. Songs include Si Kahn’s ‘Gone, Gonna Rise Again’ and ‘Ceol an Phíobaire’, and guest artists include guitarist Kevin Corbett, bodhrán player Dominic Keogh, cellist Kate Ellis, McAuliffe on flute and tin whistle, Claire Sherry on banjo and piper Mikie Smyth. Available in 6-panel CD digipak with 20-page booklet.
www.mustrad.com
Niamh Ní Charra has made three 'solo' CDs before this one - Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides in 2007, Súgach Sámh / Happy Out in 2010, and "Cuz" in 2013. If you've read my reviews of any (or all) of them, you'll realize that I'm a fan - particularly of her concertina playing. Exactly why it's taken eight years since the wonderful "Cuz" for her to come up with this one I don't know ... but maybe it's because she's needed the time to compose the ten of her own tunes found here - including the title track Donnelly's Arm. I won't dwell on the interesting story of prize-fighter Dan Donnelly and his unusually long arms, which may have contributed to his victories over three English Champion boxers of two centuries ago. Buy the CD and read the booklet! But what about the music and singing?
The gestation of the work began some years ago, but recording started just as the Covid Lockdown began, so we must assume that much of the CD has been constructed entirely in overdub mode. If so, they've made a damn good job of it. Compared with the previous three, this one has several sets of mixed time signature pieces - this makes for increased interest, but pleases me less than more 'coherent' sets.
We start with The Copper Mines of Killarney, one of Niamh's own composiions; a nice slowish jig, followed by another in similar vein, followed by a Nova Scotia one played, as is appropriate, much faster. Next comes a nice barndance on concertina called here The Curlew Hills, but you may know it as the Glenbay Horpipe; it's followed by two polkas. Track three is a song aboout cider; It think Niamh is better on free rhythm songs - and this one is very rhythmic.
Track five is slides; the first by Niamh, the others traditional. One of the nice things about a Niamh Ní Charra record is that there's always at least one story involved - in this case Tom Billy's Favourite is a 2-part tune you'll recognise from one that Paddy Molony accidentally added a part of another tune to, and called the result Dingle Regatta. Apparently it's considered sacrilegious to play that version in a session in Tom Billy Murphy's homeland of Sliabh Luachra!
As has been clear from her earlier CDs, Niamh is rather good at playing slow airs on the concertina, and she continues to do so with one of the (to these ears) most beautiful, Eanach Dhúin. It's not quite the usual solo performance, as Kate Ellis joins her very effectively on 'cello. Track seven stands out as an unusual inclusion - Gone, Gonna Rise Again / Ar Scáth a Chéile is an American song by Si Kahn, followed by two of Niamh's own compositions which reference it both musically and emotionally, "But the new wood springs from the roots underground."
Track eight is also unusual in that it's really played by guitarist Kevin Corbett, with Niamh backing up and adding the tune later. She wrote it in memory of childhood summertime visits to Seanchnoc (Old Hill) in South Kerry. Kevin also starts Waltz for Rosie, before moving into an old jig and a new slip jig. Next is a free rhythm song about a piper's courtship, Ceol An Phíobaire, which Niamh sings very effectively, with the pipes played by Mikie Smyth. Very nice!
Next we have a Basque tune followed by two well-known, old polkas, followed by a new, good one, written by Niamh. And we finish up with the only set of reels on the CD, played on fiddle, concertina, both, and both plus Claire Sherry's banjo on the last - phew! It goes without saying that all the playing is superb, and very well recorded. There's so much to listen out for and, if I don't like it quite as much as I do the others, that's down to me, not Niamh Ní Charra. Rod Stradling - 9.3.21
