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County Donegal is in the northwest corner of the Republic of Ireland, to the immediate west of Northern Ireland. Donegal has a very large Gaeltacht, or Irish-speaking region, where traditional culture is particularly likely to be found. There's a good article about Donegal in National Geographic Traveler, July/August 1990, pp. 94-103. I quote from it: "Like an Ireland in miniature, County Donegal embraces heathery moors, vast peat bogs, mountains, and 230 miles of sea-torn coastline, which varies from golden beaches to Europe's high ocean cliffs at Slieve League. Living on the island's far fringe has fostered an independent spirit among Donegal's people, many of whom cling proudly to Gaelic, Ireland's native language." (p. 98) I think that independent spirit may be heard, in a way, in the music.
A caveat first. It is misleading to say that there is just one style of fiddling in Donegal. One might say that the music of most of the fiddlers from Donegal display strong family resemblances. That being said, if there is one characteristic that is most common to and distinctive of Donegal fiddlers, it would probably be the attack and aggressiveness. Dreamy and meandering, for the most part, this music is not.
Some other common (but, again, not universal) characteristics of Donegal fiddling include: short (one-note-per-bow), driven bowing (something particularly associated with John Doherty), a rapid pace, sometimes a tendency to be more straight-ahead (unswung) in the playing of reels and jigs (though the playing is hardly ever completely straight, and some Donegal fiddlers exhibit considerable swing in their playing, such as Mickey Doherty and James Byrne), finger ornamentation more sparse than in Sligo or Clare fiddling, use of bowed triplets more than rolls as ornaments (but it is simply wrong to say that Donegal fiddlers never play rolls), and copious use of double stops and droning. Several primary differences with other styles are in the bowing. Other distinguishing characteristics include the often unique kinds of tunes played (and the kinds played less often; see below for details), the unusual settings of otherwise familiar tunes, and the fact that many Donegal tunes and settings go into the upper positions, which is generally unusual in Irish fiddling.
The result is an extremely exciting style. It is somewhat similar to the Cape Breton style of Scottish fiddling. Irish styles from areas further south often tend to be more flowing and pulsating (if you will), due to their greater use of slurring, and swinging or "dotted" rhythms. The best way, of course, to get acquainted with what makes the style unique is to listen to people like John Doherty, James Byrne, and Vincent Campbell, and directly compare their playing to that of southern fiddlers like Michael Coleman, Frankie Gavin, Paddy Canny, and all the rest. Another perspective would be gotten by comparing Neilly Boyle playing "The Moving Clouds" (Boyle's composition) with the performance of largely the same setting by James Kelly. Another nice comparison would be that of John Doherty or James Byrne playing "Lord Gordon's" reel; compare that with the playing of Michael Coleman or Kevin Burke.
There are various possible explanations. Most importantly is the fact that the musical centers especially of western Donegal are separated by mountains and water from the rest of Ireland; the county is often said to be "remote" though its remoteness is much less a problem today, of course.
Consequently Donegal absorbed stylistic cues from both the rest of Ireland, as well as Scotland. And, like some Scottish fiddlers (which tends to use a short bow and play in a more straight-ahead fashion), some Donegal fiddlers worked at imitating the sound of the highland pipes. Scotland has influenced Donegal fiddling in various ways. Workers from Donegal would go to Scotland in the summer and bring back Scottish tunes with them; Donegal fiddlers have found some good tunes in Scottish tunebooks and learned from records of Scottish fiddlers like J. Scott Skinner and Mackenzie Murdoch. And fishermen from Donegal have returned from Shetland fisheries with Shetland tunes.
In addition to reels, jigs (double, slip, and some single), hornpipes, and airs, Donegal fiddlers (like Northern fiddlers generally) play:
There is a variety of other rare dance tunes, such as lancers and the marine. Slip jigs (9/8 jigs) and marches (in some players' repertoires) seem somewhat more popular than in other counties. Polkas are played but are considerably rarer than other tunes, and slides (at least so called--single jigs are played) have little currency in Donegal.
Donegal could claim just two of the fiddlers of the 78 rpm era: Neilly Boyle and Danny O'Donnell. Collectors such as Seamus Ennis, Peter Kennedy, and Allan Feldman visited Donegal from the 50s and 70s and recorded much valuable archival material, particularly from John and Mickey Doherty, Francie and Mickey Byrne, and Neilly Boyle. In these years, some uninformed observers regarded Donegal music as "not Irish" and a kind of bastardized Scottish music.
To a great extent, it was the recordings, released in the 1970s, by (the then elderly) John Doherty, Paddy Glackin, and especially Tommy Peoples (both with and without the Bothy Band) that started to educate the Irish musical world about the music of Donegal.
John Doherty is still in the minds of many "the" Donegal fiddler--it was long thought that unless one sounded like John, one did not have a Donegal style--though in fact his style was particularly unique, and no more diagnostic of the rest of Donegal playing than many other Donegal fiddlers we might mention. In fact, his brother Mickey (whose playing is sometimes preferred to that of John) is sometimes said to have an "older" sounding style than John's.
Paddy Glackin was born in Dublin of parents from Donegal; his father Tom learned his music in Donegal and Paddy was greatly influenced by visits to Donegal and sitting in with John Doherty and others. Paddy's recordings exposed many people to many Donegal tunes. Paddy is able to combine astonishing speed with a sweet tone and accuracy. He is, with Tommy Peoples and a few others, recognized as one of Ireland's greatest living fiddlers. Paddy's brothers Kevin and Séamus are also excellent players with Donegal-influenced repertoire and style; their Northern Lights, released in the 1980s, is now a classic.
Tommy Peoples, from St. Johnston in eastern Donegal, came from a musical family as well and also learned a great deal from John Doherty. It is often said that, when he first arrived in Dublin, he made a huge impression on the musical scene with his fast, staccato playing, unique triplets, variations off-the-cuff, and unusual repertoire. In recent years Tommy has given us two new CDs, Waiting for a Call (reviewed here) and The Quiet Glen (reviewed here by Ted Hastings). Though his playing is deeply rooted in the Donegal style, his style is very personal. For more information on Tommy, see his own website. Two of his relatives, daughter Siobhán and nephew Séamus Gibson, are carrying on his style and are extremely fine players in their own right. Tommy is heard playing duets with Siobhán on Tommy's Traditional Irish Music Played on the Fiddle and with Séamus on the Donegal fiddle showcase CD Fiddlesticks.
It was not until the 1990s, however, that Donegal fiddle music reached its widest audience, with the great artistic and commercial success of the band, Altan. Led by fiddler Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, they may be the most popular Irish traditional music group playing today--they have been in the first rank of Irish "supergroups" for over a decade. Other instruments in the current lineup are another fiddle (Ciaran Tourish), button accordian (Dermot Byrne), bouzouki (Ciaran Curran), and two guitars (Mark Kelly in Ireland and Dáithí Sproule in the U.S.)--all played to the very highest standards.
Mairéad's fiddling is among the best to be heard anywhere Irish music is played. But no less talented are the excellent Paul O'Shaughnessy, who used to be the band's "second" fiddler, and Ciaran Tourish, a brilliant replacement. The accordian player, Dermot, is as skilled on the button accordian as any of the "old boys" were on the fiddle; he plays very sensitively, with an astonishing ability for variation, in a style learned from long playing with the source, Con Cassidy, James Byrne, and others. If there were more like him--playing Donegal music on something that is not a fiddle--I would be glad to rename this site the "Donegal Music Pages." But in fact the vast majority of dance music in Donegal is played on the fiddle.
(There is a new and apparently growing tradition of uillean pipers playing Donegal tunes, however, that includes Robbie Hannan, Sean Og Potts, and Joe McLaughlin.)
Mairéad's husband and co-founder of the band, flutist Frankie Kennedy (external link to a page on the Altan site--they can say it better than I can), tragically died of cancer in 1994. He was one of the best flute players in Ireland. The annual wintertime Frankie Kennedy School was established in his honor and memory.
For more information check out the official Altan site. Their four latest releases, Runaway Sunday, Blackwater, Another Sky, and The Blue Idol. available from Virgin Records. Their recordings can be obtained from Green Linnet.
In fact, it's really quite amazing, the number of successful (even commercially successful) traditional musicians who have come from Donegal in the past 20 years, in addition to all the great solo fiddlers. Clannad, Enya, and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and his sister Tríona (of the Bothy Band, Relativity, Nightnoise, etc.) all come from the same small area of Donegal that Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh calls home: Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair). And the original incarnations of the Bothy Band included several members with Donegal roots--fiddlers Paddy Glackin and then Tommy Peoples, and Mícheál and Tríona on guitar, vocals, and clavichord. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, not least because to a large extent the source of these great musicians' music is from the southwest corner of Donegal, where the Doherty brothers spent much of their time, home also to Francie and Mickey Byrne, Frank and Con Cassidy (source of many a tune), and James Byrne (ditto). See the next page for more details.
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