Kerry accordionist Danny O’Mahony pushes the buttons in theatrical collaboration
Danny O’Mahony, with Gary Keegan of Brokentalkers, for their show Bellow. Picture: Ste Murray
Marking forty years as an accordionist playing traditional Irish music, Danny O’Mahony is collaborating with experimental theatre company, Brokentalkers, in a performance entitled Bellow, exploring his rich history and engagement with the instrument since childhood. The north Kerry musician, who will be fifty this year, took up the accordion at just ten years of age.
In a career that has seen O’Mahony win many awards, including the Top Button Accordionist from the Irish Music Association in American in 2013, his touring theatre piece explores the weight of tradition and the artist’s need to express his true self. It’s in the form of a dialogue with music and movement.
Bellow arose out of O’Mahony’s post as traditional artist-in-residence at UCC in 2019.
“During my early engagement there, I spoke with the theatre department. They were very interested in the idea of giving expression to my story. The head of the department suggested that Brokentalkers would be a good fit for me and a meeting was set up. When I met Feidlim Cannon (who is directing Bellow) and Gary Keegan, the connection was quite quick. They seemed to latch onto it immediately and we started working on it. Apart from covid, the work has been continuous.”
A native of Ballyduff, O’Mahony comes from a long lineage of traditional musicians, on both sides of his family, which can be traced back to the 1800s.
“My relative, Tom Carmody, was the first traditional Irish musician from County Kerry to be commercially recorded by the Columbia Music Label in New York in the 1930s. I play his instrument and the instruments of other relatives of mine who have contributed to our tradition in a very impactful way.”
O’Mahony says that Carmody’s accordion is almost a century old.
“If you had seen it before I had it restored, it had grass growing out of the box of it. It had been lying idle and forgotten in a shed in north Kerry for decades. It was restored by my tuner Charlie Harris in Galway and is a thing of beauty to look at and listen to. Tom came home from New York in 1959 and retired and led a very quiet life. Charlie Harris found him in 1986 and visited him. He got on to RTÉ immediately afterwards and as a result, Tom was recorded at the age of ninety-two for a radio programme called The Irish Phonograph. Harry Bradshaw from RTÉ said it was his seminal interview.”
An early childhood memory of O’Mahony is being at his father’s knee, looking up at him playing the accordion.
“I was enthralled by it. I got my own instrument at Christmas 1984 and from then, I was hooked. It had some kind of draw for me. We had a great teacher in national school called Maureen Flynn. She encouraged all of us to sing and play and dance while we were in the classroom. I thought that was so much better than doing maths. The fact that you could play music in the classroom was the best. Everything else took second place for me.”
The local musical community took O’Mahony under its collective wing. “As a child growing up, I learned a lot from the older players, in particular in Browns’ kitchen in Ballyduff. I learned the history of the tunes and the context of the music.”
Rock‘n'roll held no interest for O’Mahony which meant he wasn’t in sync with many of his peers. “I’d walk past the arcade in the village to be with my elderly friends. Of course, I didn’t mind going into the arcade for a game of pool with the lads but I was more at home with what were known as the ‘traditional men'."
O’Mahony hopes to return to playing music on Radio Kerry, having left it during covid. He admits he isn’t au fait with newly-emerged acts such as Lankum and The Mary Wallopers, but he’s not surprised at the folk and trad revival.
“Traditional music is constantly evolving and changing. I think that’s vital to keep traditional music alive. Anything that’s static won’t last. There are more people playing traditional Irish music than ever now. I have been involved in music education for thirty years. My real focus when I’m teaching is to connect young students with where the music has come from so they’ll be informed going forward."
O’Mahony doesn’t have children but is delighted that his niece’s seven year-old Son, Charlie O’Connor, is keen on playing the accordion. “It’s like looking at a young me in terms of his enthusiasm for the instrument,” he says.
- Bellow is at the Everyman, Cork, on March 12-13. Other dates include Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, on March 7
