HISTORY

> Ed Reavey
> Gerry Whelan

COMPOSER OF THE CENTURY: ED REAVY By Earle Hitchner

Published during first week of January 2000 in the IRISH ECHO
newspaper, New York City. Copyright © Earle Hitchner. All rightsreserved. Reprinted by permission of author.

Paddy O'Brien (1922-1991), the brilliant B/C button accordionist from Newtown, Tipperary, was one of the most productive and accomplished composers of music in the Irish tradition. Another musician from Newtown, fiddler Seán Ryan, who died in 1985, is credited with some 250 tunes. Fiddler Paddy Fahy (b. 1926), hailing from Kilconnell, East Galway, wrote dozens of melodies greatly admired today. Charlie Lennon (b. 1938), a gifted fiddler and pianist originally from Leitrim, has also made a lasting contribution to the repertoire of Irish dance music. So has Chicago fiddler and 1994 National Heritage Fellowship winner Liz Carroll (b. 1956), who's penned more than 200 tunes.

But the compositions of one individual stood out above all others in the 20th century for combined artistry, abundance, and acceptance: Ed Reavy(1898-1988), a fife and fiddle player born and raised in Barnagrove, Maudabawn, County Cavan, and a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1912 until his death.His sons Ed Jr. and Joe estimate that he wrote between 400 and 500 tunes in all, of which 127 have been preserved in notational form.Ed Reavy recorded a large number of his tunes onto homemade six-inch disks that he stored in his cellar. But heat played havoc with many of them, damaging the disks beyond reclamation. Only in the 1960s, with the interest and aid of Joe Reavy, were Ed Reavy's surviving compositions properly collected and written out from his own dictation and still available tapes and disks.

In 1971, about 80 Reavy tunes were published in "Where the Shannon Rises," a book that Armagh-born fiddler and close friend Louis Quinn (1904-1991) helped to shepherd into print. Reavy was 73 years old at the time of publication, and the irony is that many of the tunes appearing in the book had already passed into the active "oral tradition" of most players, some of whom were unaware that the Cavan man had written them. The book, then, forged a formal link between composition and composer, giving credit where it was long overdue, and informing and reminding musicians everywhere of the extraordinary talent possessed by this humble musician, a plumber by trade.

Eight years later, Mick Moloney produced an album, "Ed Reavy" (Rounder), that featured such instrumentalists as Paddy Cronin, Liz Carroll, Billy McComiskey, Brendan Mulvihill, Martin Mulvihill, Louis Quinn, Maeve Donnelly, and Eugene O'Donnell performing Reavy compositions. Among them were "The Hunter's House," arguably Reavy's most popular tune; "In Memory of Coleman," named for the great Sligo fiddler who occasionally visited Ed's home in Philadelphia; and "Maudabawn Chapel," inspired by a place of worship Ed knew as a child in Ireland.

This last reel was played with memorable touch by Kevin Burke and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill on their 1982 album, "Portland" (Green Linnet). It was also the tune Bronx-born fiddler Eileen Ivers chose to play in her successful quest for the All-Ireland senior fiddle championship in 1984. Liz Carroll, another U.S.-born All-Ireland senior fiddle titlist, won a junior championship with Reavy's "The Lone Bush," a hornpipe he wrote about a remarkably resilient shrub outside his family farmhouse in Cavan.

The appeal of Ed Reavy's compositions continues unabated today. They seem wholly sprung from within the tradition, yet the vast majority of them do not sound alike. Critic Whitney Balliett once described jazz as "the sound of surprise," and that's an apt description of Ed Reavy's music as well. It's distinct, sometimes employing keys (F-major, G-minor) uncommon to Irish dance music.

Like Dublin fiddler Tommy Potts, who died the same year, Ed Reavy was adeeply religious man. He often felt God or, whimsically, a druid guidedhis hand at composing. Whatever the provenance, what he left us is abody of work not likely to be eclipsed in the 21st century.It's interesting to speculate what Ed Reavy's reaction would have been to one of the best-selling and recurring pop hits of the past few years, Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You." The song is based on "Weep Not for the Memories," a melody written by Seamus Egan largely in tribute to the late Cavan composer, at whose graveside he played in Drexel Hill,Pa.

That January day in 1988, Egan was supposed to do a Reavy slow air on the uilleann pipes, but the gelid weather forced him to play the tune on the tin whistle in gloves with their tips cut off. Camden, N.J., pastor Michael Doyle vividly wrote of the scene in a poem that ends: "Listen, my friend, to the lad with the whistle / With his fingertips timid and cold. / See the life that he brings to the old man's tune / And the leaks that he brings to the eyes. / See Reavy arise from the holes in the tin / And announce on his grave, 'I'm alive!'" The question posed by the poem's title, "How Could Reavy Die?" is easy to answer: He hasn't, not when so many of his tunes still find their way onto albums and into concerts, sessions, and hearts. The work done by his sons through the Ed Reavy Foundation, 2004 Aspen
Circle, Springfield, PA 19064, 610-543-3295, keeps his music and memory burning brightly. Helping to preserve and perpetuate his musical legacy are two books,

"The Collected Compositions of Ed Reavy" (127 tunes in all) and "The Ed Reavy Collection of Irish American Traditional Tunes, Vol. 1: The Music of Corktown" (100 Reavy settings of favorite tunes,
including seven he wrote); a three-cassette release, "The Collected Compositions of Ed Reavy, Vols. 1-3"; and more recently a video, "The Music of Ed Reavy," recorded at Philadelphia's DUTV-Cable 54 studio.

The books and three-cassette package are also available from Green Grass Music, Carrick Rd., Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim, Ireland, phone:
011-353-78-41236, fax: 011-353-78-41237.

Earle Hitchner is the Irish traditional music columnist for the IRISH ECHO newspaper and a contributing music writer for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Mr Whelan was actively involved with Comhaltas Ceoltoirí Eireann since the organisation was set up in 1951, and was President of the Ulster Council for a period of thirty years.   It was perhaps fitting that he still held position on Honorary President at the time of his death, which occurs on the fiftieth anniversary of Comhaltas.
Over the years, he build up a successful footwear manufacturing business: an enterprise that played a vital part in the economic prosperity of Cootehill, providing a constant source of employment when jobs were not as easy to come by as they are now.
Irish music and culture also benefited greatly from his entrepreneurial skills in the form of sponsorship for fleadhanna, festivals, broadcasts and a wide range of activities organised to promote an interest in the tradition, especially among the younger generations.
With his beloved melodeon or bodhran in hand, Gerry liked nothing better than to settle down to a good seisúin.   The trip to Fleadh Cheoil na h Eireann became an annual pilgrimage ever since the first was held in Mullingar in 1951, and it would take a foolhardy individual indeed to suggest that  his presence in Cootehill had no bearing on the fact that the town secured ten Ulster Fleadhanne since the ‘sixties.
Among Gerry’s other passions was angling, and his favourity spot for casting the line was at Lough Drumlona in the nearby Dartry Estate.   Gerald Whelan was born in 1918 a few miles outside Mohill County Leitrim, the youngest of ten children.  At an early age, he began playing the mouth organ and melodeon.  His first job was in Connolly’s shoe shop in Cavan in the mid-thirties.   By 1939 he was employed with a retail shoe outlet in England.   When World War 11 broke out, however, he had to beat a hasty retreat to this country to avoid conscription into the British Army.   During the course of an interview with this reporter two years ago, he recalled the episode: ‘If I’d stayed on, I’d have ended up like the boys from 1918 – on the green fields of France!’
Work was scarce on his return, but when he got word that a shop was for rent at 12/6d a week in Cootehill, he decided to put his experience in the shoe trade to the test.  Gerry’s Business acumen didn’t fail; within 3 years he had 25 people working for him in the old Town hall building. Footwear was in short supply during the war years, so there was a great demand for the hard wearing ‘clogs’ that he was producing.

On the 1960’s the Whelan Boot Manufacturing Company moved to Chapel Lane, Cootehill, and was later relocated to its present position on the Cavan road.  Through the difficult economic times of the seventies and eighties, Mr Whelan succeeded – where other footwear businesses in County Cavan had fallen by the wayside – in competing with cheaper imports, and in the process he established the successful “Drifter” brand. In addition, a successful distribution plant was set up on the Station Road.

He also promoted a children’s marching tin whistle band for many years.  Indeed, it was only on St. Patrick’s Day of last year that the glory days of St. Michael’s Junior Band were recalled when Gerry and the former band members were belatedly presented with their medals for winning an All-Ireland competition at the Fleadh in 1971!

When he was playing a few tunes with a handful of like- minded enthusiasts in Molly Rice’s front room over sixty years ago, before the fleadhs and the pub sessions, Gerry Whelan could hardly have envisaged the widespread popularity the music enjoys today.  The formation of Comhaltas was the catalyst that began to breath new life into it. Gerry himself summed it up: “The music was nearly gone at that time.  If CCE wasn’t set up for another decade, it could have been gone for keeps!”

Through his untiring support for and promotion of the tradition down the years, few would argue that he did not play his own part in its revival.
Gerry Whelan Died  on February 29th 2001, following a long illness.

With permission of Michael McDonnell (the Northern Standard) 22/3/2001 Writer.