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Donnell, we're in the beautiful grounds of Glenarm Castle. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
It's belonging to the MacDonnells, but when did they take it over? | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
Well, that happened in 1399, | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
when John Mor MacDonnell, | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
who was the second son of the Lord of the Scottish Isles, | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
came across to Ireland and married Margery Bissett, | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
who was the northern heiress to the Glens of Antrim. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
This connection to Scotland, it predates the old MacDonnells, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
doesn't it? | 0:06:35 | 0:06:36 | |
Well, the coast of North Antrim | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
and the coast of Western Scotland are only 12 miles apart | 0:06:40 | 0:06:45 | |
at their closest point, from Torr Head to the Mull of Kintyre, | 0:06:45 | 0:06:49 | |
so for thousands of years, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:51 | |
there have been people travelling from one coast to the other, | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
but one of the most interesting ones is the kingdom of Dal Riada. | 0:06:55 | 0:07:02 | |
And it's amazing that this kingdom existed almost 2,000 years ago | 0:07:02 | 0:07:08 | |
and yet the name of it is still remembered, | 0:07:08 | 0:07:12 | |
and I think that's quite a rarity. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:13 | |
There must have been something about the Dal Riada | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
which gave it that stability. What was it? | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
Well, to begin with, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
the founder of Dal Riada was a very important man, Cairpre Riada, | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
and Cairpre Riada was both the son of a King of Ireland | 0:07:25 | 0:07:30 | |
and the cousin of a King of Ireland, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:32 | |
so when he came from the south of Ireland to the north and established | 0:07:32 | 0:07:36 | |
a small kingdom here, it was very powerful and very important. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
What about in terms of geography? Can we pin it down that way? | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
Yes, well, to the north, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
the boundary was the River Bush, and to the south | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
the boundary would have been between Glenarm here and Larne. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
Then, inland, the boundary was the hills, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
the mountains behind the Glens of Antrim. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
In 498, Fergus Mor mac Earc | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
established Scottish Dal Riada from here, | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
and we really have much the same situation there, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
because the west coast of Scotland is also | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
bounded by a range of mountains, | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
which separate it from the rest of Scotland. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
So in fact, the mountains in Scotland, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
and particularly the mountains here, were pivotal in defining Dal Riada. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
There's no doubt about it. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
They probably protected it, to a great extent, | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
from the other surrounding | 0:08:29 | 0:08:30 | |
tribes and reduced the pressure that there was from those tribes. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:36 | |
Is there a connection between your name and the MacDonnells? | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
No, I have to say there is no connection between my name... | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
-I'm an Irishman. -So you're not a MacDonnell. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
-My mother was an O'Donnell. -Ah! -And that is where the name comes from. | 0:08:44 | 0:08:48 | |
-I see. But it's your forename. -It's my forename. -Yes. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:53 | |
But, interestingly enough, I'm married to the MacDonnells. | 0:08:53 | 0:08:57 | |
They get everywhere, don't they? | 0:08:57 | 0:08:59 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
# Eire lionn dubh agus o... # | 0:17:06 | 0:17:12 | |
# Agus och och Eire 'lig is o... # | 0:17:48 | 0:17:56 | |
Meabh, the County Derry and Antrim Country Fiddlers Association, | 0:17:56 | 0:18:01 | |
that's an awful mouthful of a name. Do you ever think of changing it? | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
Everybody says that, but in actual fact, we were inaugurated | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
in 1953 as the Antrim and Derry Country Fiddlers Association. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
-I beg your pardon! -Not that there's any problem. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
I don't mind which county comes first! | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
But, no, that's the way we were, that's what we were born as. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
What is it precisely that you do? | 0:18:20 | 0:18:21 | |
We have a community of musicians, not just fiddles, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
but we have a bunch of musicians that just love music, | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
and I've been teaching there for the last, what, 23 years. | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
So, really, the teaching team is now nine, | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
and we have over 100 fiddlers come on a Saturday morning, | 0:18:34 | 0:18:39 | |
and they come from all arts and parts and from all backgrounds, | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
because that was the ethos | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
of why the Antrim and Derry was set up in 1953. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
The style of this area, would you say it's a unique style? | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
I think the north has a recognisable style. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:00 | |
It is very direct, and it's very clipped, | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
and that kind of shows as well | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
the exchange we would have with Scotland. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
And Donegal would have the same. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
We have a liaison with Donegal fiddlers, and it's the same. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
-Can I ask...? I mean, you've been talking about the style. -Yeah. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
I think I would like to hear the difference in style, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
if you could illustrate it in a short passage, perhaps. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:21 | |
In a short passage, if I take a jig, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
the Antrim style would be very pronounced, very... | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
Yeah? | 0:19:37 | 0:19:38 | |
Whereas I'd say the more ornamental style would be less "beaty", er... | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
It would be much more "lilty". | 0:19:53 | 0:19:55 | |
I think it's the sort of music it would be easier to dance to. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
It's a good dancing style. It's good for ceilidh music. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
We like our ceilidhs up here. Probably keeps us warm, as well! | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
You mentioned earlier there the connection with Scotland. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
I'm not an expert at all on Scottish music. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
Would Scottish fiddle music be very similar to your own style? | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
Very, very much, because | 0:20:23 | 0:20:25 | |
there was an awful lot of work... emigration due to work, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:28 | |
a lot of people going across and getting songs | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
from there or carrying the music there and then bringing it back. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
Equally so, there would have been | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
in our own history from the plantation | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
quite a lot of Scottish influence in this area, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:41 | |
so it's inherent in our music and we just play what we have. | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
Meabh, I know in other parts of the world there is a kind | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
of recognisable mountain style of fiddling. Appalachia, for example. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
Is there an Antrim mountain style of fiddling? | 0:20:52 | 0:20:55 | |
The physical boundaries of the mountains and the Sperrins | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
and all of those mountain ranges stopped, I suppose, as much flow. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:04 | |
Prior to the media and CDs and everything, | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
the internet available, they caused a physical barrier, probably, | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
between regions, and so you got more regional styles. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
But it's great to have the community of fiddle playing, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
and the fact that we - corny though it sounds - we care for each other, | 0:21:18 | 0:21:23 | |
we actually... | 0:21:23 | 0:21:24 | |
You know, they can come back and come in | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
and we still maintain a contact with everybody. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
-Well done to everybody. -Thank you very, very much, Cormac. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
FIDDLE MUSIC CONTINUES | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 |