PAT
KENNY (1884-1975) FIDDLE PLAYER.
Pat Kenny was born
in Carrowcully, Tartan, Ballinameen, Co. Roscommon, in 1884. He
was the son of Jack Kenny and Bridget Finan. Pat's mother was
a melodeon player, and loved music and dancing, and indeed danced
well into her eighties. She lived until nearly ninety, but Pat's
father died at a young age.
Pat went to school at Ballagh and grew up in a close knit rural
community. He started to pick out tunes on his mother's melodeon
at the age of five, after learning music at the local country
house dances. Kate Boland recalls her father telling her that
he used to stand by the musicians all night long - most unusual
for a young child full of youthful exuberance. Pat then started
to play the fiddle, taking lessons from local man John Travers,
from the hill of Scur. John Travers himself learnt to play ftom
the fiddle and dance masters, Peter and Pat Towey. The Towey brothers
were from Irishtown, Co. Mayo, but travelled the county, passing
on their craft, and spent a good deal of time in the Travers'
household. All teaching was done by ear, and new tunes learnt
from the radio or travelling musicians like the Toweys, were passed
amongst each other like gold-dust when neighbouring musicians
would meet for a session. Pat Kenny's house was noted as a 'session
house'. The music would start around eight or nine 0' clock, and
go on through the night until perhaps five in the morning, with
only a short break for tea and maybe a chat. Local musicians who
gathered there included fiddle players,:- Johnny Flangan, Mick
and Jimmy Casserly, Eugene Connor, Paddy Kenny, Matt Naughton,
Joe Donoghue and Paddy Shannon; flute player Eugene Duffy; and
singers Jimmy Mac, from Scurbeg and Johnny Farrell, from Slieve
Rua.
Pat Kenny went to England as a young man in search of work. He
went to Maidenhead, in Berkshire, and worked as a labourer, before
returning home to look after his widowed mother. He recalls being
told in England that with his talent on the fiddle he would never
have to earn his living by manual work. Pat married his wife Brigid
and they had three children, Jack, Kate and Mary. Jack played
a little on the accordion.
Pat taught most of the local fiddle players to play, passing on
what he himself had learnt from John Travers. It was in this way
that fiddle playing became so popular in the area. His pupils
included Paddy Kenny, Johnny Flanagan, Joe Donoghue, Eugene Connor,
Tom Pat McGrath and Tommy Hester. Lessons were given in his own
home, and hours were spent teaching the fingering of the tunes.
The first one taught would be an easy one, such as 'The Connaught
Man's Rambles' or perhaps an air. Tom Pat McGrath recalls Pat's
style as being very distinctive and unique. He was a very fast
player with a short bow hand. No one in the area has his style
now, which was very different to the recorded musie of the day.
Paddy Shannon, of Tartan, played with a similar style.
There was a great dancing tradition in Tartan, and dancers from
the locality would gather at the country house sessions to dance
polkas, mazurkas, barn dances, reels and jigs. They called dancing
'timing the set' and had their own individual steps, ones which
are no longer seen
