From Maghera to everywhere
Martin Hayes
Martin Hayes grew up in Maghera, a townland in the Feakle parish. His father P.J. Hayes had already spent thirty years running the Tulla Céilí Band — one of the great céilí bands, still recording — and the house was full of music. Martin left for Chicago in the 1980s, played the bars, found his way to the concert circuit, and eventually became the most famous fiddle player Ireland has produced in living memory. His records with guitarist Dennis Cahill — particularly the 1993 debut and 'The Lonesome Touch' — are as good a document of the East Clare style as exists. He still plays Feakle when he can.
P.J. Hayes and a sound from 1946
The Tulla Céilí Band
P.J. Hayes formed the Tulla Céilí Band in 1946 in east Clare and led it for four decades. The band recorded for Gael-Linn and won the All-Ireland Céilí Band Championship multiple times. P.J.'s fiddle style — unhurried, precise, with a particular ornamentation that came from nowhere else — became the template that his son Martin would take to the world. The band still plays occasional reunion concerts. P.J. died in 2003.
The Midnight Court and the unmarked grave
Brian Merriman
Brian Merriman taught school in Feakle parish and in 1780 wrote Cúirt an Mheán Oíche — The Midnight Court — a 1,026-line poem in Irish in which the women of Ireland put Irish men on trial for failing them. It is satirical, earthy, and funny in a way that made it unprintable in English translation until the 1940s. Merriman died in Limerick in 1805 and was brought back to Feakle churchyard. The grave was unmarked for most of its history. The Merriman Society put a plaque there eventually. The poem is still in print and still startlingly modern.
August, every year, no fuss
The Feakle Festival
The Feakle International Traditional Music Festival has run every August since 1978 — workshops in the day, sessions in the pubs at night, a programme built around East Clare trad rather than the more accessible Clare-in-general version. It draws serious players and serious listeners. The village fills up for a week. Book early if you want a room anywhere within ten kilometres.