Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh of Altan told David Hennessy about the band’s new album ahead of their UK launch at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith next month.
One of Ireland’s most prominent traditional bands, Altan have brought the music of Donegal around theworld and are about to return to The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith to launch their latest album entitled Donegal.
The first trad band to secure major label representation when they joined Virgin in the 1990s, Altan have paved the way for many bands who followed and have played with greats like Dolly Parton, Enya, The Chieftains, Bonnie Raitt and Alison Krauss.
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh told The Irish World: “We’re looking forward to coming over to launch the album, we’re delighted.”
Donegal is Altan’s first album since 2018’s The Gap of Dreams.
“Oh, it’s been too many years. It’s just that then COVID arrived.
“Well, it was really good in one way because we took our time with this album and rejigged it a few times, happy now with the result.
“We’ve actually toured it in the states already but this is our first time to reveal it in the UK.”
It is probably good to take your time, there’s no need to rush these things, is there?
“Somebody told me the other day inspiration is when you get a phone call and they say, ‘I want it on Monday’.
“But then again music and art stuff, I suppose the longer you spend at it, the better you will be pleased with it, you know?
“And it was enjoyable because it gave us time to actually ground ourselves again and we really re recharged the batteries.
“It’s very exciting to have something completely different to anything we’ve done in recent years.”
It’s certainly an apt title with you being such an unmistakably Donegal band. Altan wouldn’t be Altan if you weren’t from Donegal, right?
“That’s the thing, you see.
“I just thought, ‘We can own this. We can own this marketing tool, Donegal’.
“And it is.
“I was actually chatting to marketing people who have studied this and the word Donegal is very attractive to people so I just thought, ‘Sure why not use it then?’”
There is great tradition in Donegal with bands such as Clannad, The Bothy Band as well as Altan.
“A lot of the reasons we say ‘renaissance of traditional Irish music’ was based on people from Donegal, songs from Donegal, tunes from Donegal, and it’s really nice for a forgotten county, shall we say.
“Because if you look at us in a political way, we’re cut off by the North so the rest of Ireland seems to be working away on its own and we’re just cut off.
“It’s nice that Donegal gets featured especially in the arts, that we’re showing that we we’re not asleep here.”
With so many musicians in Donegal, does it mean you don’t know who you’re going to bump into when you go out for your shopping?
“Definitely, I meet people of different genres all the time.
“It doesn’t have to be traditional music like Moya Brennan, one of my neighbours.
“Daniel O’Donnell lives over the road, and Margo.
“It’s nice, but people here do appreciate music and musicians.
“I think the late Derek Bell of The Chieftains put it in a good way.
“Somebody said, ‘Why is there so many singers and players from Donegal?’
“And he said, ‘It’s all the rain, they have nothing else to do’.”
And it’s great inspiration for young Donegal musicians then as well, isn’t it?
“It’s so important.
“That’s how we all started.
“All you need is a little bit of encouragement, it goes a long way and just gives people the confidence to express themselves musically. Music says things that words can’t really express.
“And a lot of young people are going through a lot and if they’re able to express themselves somehow, that helps them in the long term.”
Let’s talk about the album.
I was struck by the song The Barley and the Rye, a song about a farmer more interested in his farm than his wife, isn’t that right?
“This is really an old song.
“It would be a child ballad which was well known in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
“I was always attracted to the melody of it and then when I actually researched it, it’s from medieval times where young girls would marry older farmers but then the older farmer would turn a blind eye if she had other, let’s say, extracurricular things to do and all he was worried about was his barley and his rye.
“It’s a theme that’s found in even old Gaelic songs as well.
“When the Normans came to Ireland, they brought a type of song in with them, ‘the songs of a bad marriage’ as they call it, and it’s very, very popular in Gaelic songs as well.”
It is amazing all the different places a tune or song can come from. It reminds me of The Gap of Dreams which referred to a dream like place where the inspiration came from…
“The thin veil between this world and the other world, this gap of dreams where you’re not sure which world you’re in.
“You might be in this world or the other world.
“It’s a very interesting concept and very much in the oral tradition here in Donegal.”
The new album also includes the track Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa.
“There’s a song on the album that really brings the band together.
“It’s called Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa which means ‘I will get solace’ or ‘I will get peace’.
“And it’s a Máirtín Ó Direáin poem and he talks about the way people in the west all have to go to the urban situation to get third level education and then to get their jobs and it’s only when you come back to where your roots are that you realise, ‘This is where I’m able to breathe again, this is where I’m able to get peace, this is where I get solace’.
“And it’s such a simple little song but it says so much and the beautiful Zoe Conway put a melody to it and it’s one of my favourite contemporary songs ever because the melody is so poignant.”
There’s also the track Kitty Rua Mooney which pays tribute to your own mother..
“Yeah, Mammy was 97 last week and she’s great. She’s just the best.
“She loved dancing when she was younger. She was a great dancer apparently.
“And she’s always an inspiration to the family, to all of us.
“That wee tune came to me because she sits in a session.
“She may have a little bit of dementia now but oh my god, as soon as a tune starts, the feet start to tap as if she’s dancing.
“She would sit for three hours and tap away and not talk to anyone.
“You daren’t talk to her because she’s listening so intently.
“That’s the kind of listeners we all want.”
That’s sad if there is dementia but music has such power to reach people through that, doesn’t it?
“It’s the most healing thing and it’s incredible how she just goes back into another world there.
“Music, they say, is really important to people with dementia and it brings them back to their youth and helps them in every way.”
And even though you’re at it so many years now, I’d say she’s probably still a proud mammy like any other mammy, is she?
“Oh stop, sure we can’t do any wrong.
“It’s a wonderful way to be but my father was a fiddle player, you see so she always loved the music around her and the songs of course, very important as well.
“And the language, Gaelic language is our first language.
“It’s all very special.”
Mairéad is considered one of the most prominent singers of the Irish language.
With The Quiet Girl and Kneecap, there has been a great resurgence of the language in recent years..
“It’s so important because for instance when we started years, and years and years ago, world music became a big thing and the likes of (BBC radio DJ) Andy Kershaw was very good to ourselves over there in London.
“Singing in your language was just as important as the music and you didn’t have to translate it to make it work.
“And it was very contemporary, and still is when you travel.
“The only place I ever get a problem with the language is when I’m in Ireland.
“People say, ‘Can you not sing in English?’
“We have a problem about our own culture in this country.
“A lot of the Gaelic songs are so musical and you don’t have to understand every word, you get the sentiment right away.
“But it’s just so funny.
“It’s ironic that Ireland is the only country that I ever got anything negative.
“That says a lot about our own self esteem.”
You’ve sang in Irish on some of the world’s greatest stages…
“We sang it in The White House. We sang it in Sydney Opera House, The Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall in New York. All over so it isn’t a problem musically.
“Audiences love the idea of this old Celtic language and especially when we go to places as far away as Japan.
“They just adore this small country on the edge of Europe that has its own culture that’s so strong, that we have our own expression of language.”
You mention some famous stages there, what’s a highlight of all the things you have done?
“I remember the first time we played the Hollywood Bowl.
“We thought, ‘This is a kind of a pinch me moment’.
“So we actually took a photograph, but you weren’t allowed to take photographs we were told after.
“And then of course, we played Dollywood with Dolly Parton and that was very, very special as well.
“So those two places that was like, ‘I have to pinch myself here and make sure that I’m still awake’.”
Are there special memories of the special people you have met?
“We’ve met so many special people. Of course President Higgins.
“He brought us up to Áras an Uachtaráin a few years ago and recognised the band’s music as well.
“We had a garden party there with him and then of course we met Dolly Parton a few times and she’s been very, very good to the band.
“We played the Grand Ole Opry with Ricky Skaggs. We met President Clinton and all the dignitaries in the White House, it’s been so good but really the people that matter are those people who appreciate our music, the ordinary joe soap who comes up and says ‘thanks for playing’.
“To me that’s more important than any ‘important’ personalities that you meet because these people listen to our music.”
You were the first Irish trad band to secure major label representation..
“Virgin Records signed us when it was really important to be signed to a label at that stage.
“That was a big deal, because we didn’t compromise. We didn’t gel with another type of music. We played our own music.
“I think they liked that. They liked the idea of being authentic and it seemed to have worked because it brought us to a new audience completely and even spread the audience for all the other Irish acts as well.”
Did you get a real sense of paving a way or being trailblazers in that way?
“It was just sheer luck. We felt it wasn’t just us.
“We felt we were inspired by the likes of the Bothy band and other people like that and they ploughed the way for us and we ploughed a bit of the extra way for other people.”
You’ll soon be back at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, have you always enjoyed coming over to the UK?
“Amazing, England has always welcomed us with open arms.
“We played Cambridge Folk Festival, Glastonbury a few times and loved playing in London.
“There’s so many people in England that follow folk music and during the ‘60s it was the height of the folk music revival.
“A lot of Irish people were part of that in London.
“A lot of bands that were recording Fairport, Steeleye Span and even the younger bands, they were looking into the Irish well of songs, the old traditional songs and singing them.
“I remember Maddy Prior singing a lot of Ulster songs and June Tabor singing a lot of beautiful Irish ballads so there’s been that connection and huge respect between the musicians especially and then, of course, there’s an audience there that follows the music religiously really.
“We love going there, always.
“It’s a second home. Definitely.”
Did you ever encounter any anti- Irish feeling back in the days of the Troubles?
“Never.
“This is the thing.
“It shows a great calibre of open minds and knowing that music had nothing to do with the troubles, and also shows how generous the audience were that they didn’t bring any politics into supporting music.”
The last time you came over to the Irish Cultural Centre was with T with the Maggies, the supergroup also made up of musicians from such as Moya Brennan from Clannad and siblings Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill of The Bothy Band and Skara Brae.
Are there plans for any more with that group?
“Oh, yes but it’s very dangerous when you get those four women together.
“It’s a fun project, it’s just that I’m so busy.
“Moya’s so busy, Tríona is busy with the renewed Bothy Band, and it’s just when we can get together.
“We definitely enjoy it.
“And It’s wonderful singing with them.
“Tríona, Moya and Maighréad were my heroes when I was growing up.
“I’m just a little bit younger than them.
“They showed me the way and we were all brought up with the same songs so there’s hardly any rehearsal needed because we all know the songs from our youth.”
You say it can be dangerous but that’s nothing new. I read a funny story about you playing with a broken arm and not realising it, is that right?
“Oh yeah, I was in China.
“I had fallen on a marble floor that day and I knew there was something very wrong because I couldn’t zip up the back of my dress.
“But I went on and I played a few gigs in China that time, came home. My arm was black and blue so I went to the doctor then and luckily the arm had actually healed in place, in situ so I didn’t have any physio to do because the physio was done by playing the fiddle.
“Fiddle physio: If you can stick the pain, you’ll be alright.”
Sounds very Roy Keane actually, playing through such an injury..
“You’re so focused on the music, I suppose he was so focused on his football.
“But you get so focused on what you have to do that you nearly forget the pain, although the pain is excruciating.
“But I was lucky that it didn’t heal in a different place.”
What’s next? I suppose there won’t be such a long gap before the next album…
“We’re heading actually to America in the autumn again as iBAM! (Irish Books Arts and Music) in Chicago want to recognise Altan for our work.
“We’re looking forward to that in November.”
You’ve had such honours before, what makes you most proud?
“Donegal County Council bestowed an honour on the band a few years ago and I got Donegal Person of the Year.
“I was very lucky to get Musician of the Year a few years ago which TG4 gave me but this is kind of special because it’s in America and America has been very good to the band.
“America sustained us as an entity over the years because it’s so hard to make a living playing traditional Irish music in Ireland. That’s the thing. You have to actually leave the country so we were very appreciative of the Irish- American press for recognising us in Chicago this coming November so that’s a big deal.”
Altan play the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith on Friday 16 August. For tickets and more information, click here.
Altan also play Snape Maltings Concert Hall on Thursday 15 August.
For more information about Altan, click here.