I had changed for bed and was reading, skimming actually, a detailed biography of Lady Augusta Gregory…more than I ever want to know about this woman. I will leave the book here for the next guest and save them €15. I heard men’s voices coming in the back of the house and they were calling out for me. I asked them to wait a minute, ran upstairs and changed. When I returned, I discovered my new friend I had interviewed, Tómas, and a friend of his, Charlie. They were off to play music in a pub in Clarinbridge, would I like to join them. We agree and Tómas suggests that he ride with me and then I will not get lost. We are off. I get there, they are such gentlemen and all of us holding hands dash across the highway to the Clarinbridge Pub with a sign out front welcoming Charlie Piggott and John Flanagan. I had no idea I had just met Charlie Piggott. Charlie was one of the founding members of De Dannan, one of the most influential bands in Irish traditional music and has played the world over for twenty-five years.
“De Dannan (originally Dé Danann) was an Irish folk music group. They were formed by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny “Ringo” McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes’s Pub in An Spidéal, County Galway, subsequently inviting Dolores Keane (vocals) to join the band.
They named themselves Dé Danann after the legendary Irish tribe, Tuatha Dé Danann. The late fiddler Mickey Finn is also acknowledged to have been a founder member of De Dannan.
These two instruments were supported by accordion and bodhran. The vocalists with De Dannan frequently changed but they read like a Who’s Who of Irish music: Dolores Keane, Mary Black, Maura O’Connell, Eleanor Shanley, Tommy Fleming and Johnny Moynihan. Supporting members of the band also are impressive; Johnny McDonough (bodhran) Jackie Daly (accordion), Artie McGlynn (guitar), Caroline Lavelle (cello) and Colm Murphy (bodhran) were all at one time or another members of the band. Songs popularized by the band include: Maggie, My Irish Molly and Song for Ireland. The band was famous for its cross-cultural experiments. They recorded traditional Irish versions of The Beatles’ – Hey Jude and Let it Be. From Queen the Bohemian Rhapsody became the Hibernian Rhapsody. And even Handel: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba became Arrival of the Queen of Sheba in Galway.”
The men played wonderful music, the pub was friendly with a game of darts going on in the back room, a place where couples came in to have a pint and enjoy the music. In the photo from left to right is John Flanagan (flute), Charlie Piggott (melodeon), and Tómas Nailain (bodhran). Notice a poster on the wall of the group De Danann. Charlie is the second from the left with red hair, once upon a time.
Leara Rhodes 