Martin Hayes is keeping the Masters of Tradition on track
Martin Hayes moved to Madrid four years ago with his Spanish wife, Lina. As the Covid-19 pandemic began sweeping across Europe in the spring, he was due to return from gigging in Ireland to Madrid, but decided to divert to his wife’s family home in Asturias, perched in the north-west corner of Spain. It was there that he sat out Spain’s lockdown.
“We were in a country home,” says Hayes. “We had nice fields all around us and beautiful mountains and rivers. We were in the middle of nature for the entire time. We were lucky – glad that we weren’t in the city for it – but I’d been living out of a suitcase from March to June.” Hayes is back in Madrid now, but he has to forgo appearing in person at this year’s Masters of Tradition festival, which he has been running in Bantry, Co Cork, as the festival’s artistic director, since 2003. Instead he’ll present the acts virtually on screen.
