IT HAS long been part of the Irish pscyhe that we tend to belittle and begrudge our very own. Talented people are often thought to be a bit above themselves, not as good as the wonderful imported geniuses with international reputations we see on TV and inverted snobbery is the order of the day.
It's why we prefer Manchester United to the Dubs or Arsenal to Kilkenny hurlers.
But we love the local boy and girl made good on the international stage, the Roy Keanes, the Westlifes, the Boyzones and em, The Bachelors.
Sometimes, it takes an outsider to let us know the treasures we have in our midst.
The thought struck me at the first-ever RTÉ Folk awards were announced in Vicar Street on Tuesday night.
Ann-Marie Power, the new group head of arts and culture at RTÉ, said that through the good work of Conor Byrne and others, they had almost been committed to doing a folk awards event but an experience across the water finally put the dlaoi mhullaigh – the cap – on it.
“Our minds were 80 per cent made up but then we went to the BBC Folk Awards in the Royal Albert Hall and saw that many of our finest singers and musicians were being honoured over there so when we got home we decided to address that,” Power said.
The BBC Folk Awards have been on the go since 2000 while Gradam TG4 has been around for 20 years – both held in Belfast this year – so it's great to see Dublin catching up with the nordies.
Bragging rights aside, the inaugural RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards is going to be great gas with the winners’ concert being held at Vicar Street on October 25 this year, and the event being broadcast live on RTÉ Radio 1 on the night, presented by John Creedon and Ruth Smith.
However, despite this only being the first ever RTÉ folk awards, Irish radio has long been broadcasting folk music since the wireless first came to Ireland with 2RN.
(Did you know Ireland’s first radio station was called 2RN as a pun on “to Erin” from a popular song of the time, Come back to Erin, Mavourneen, Mavourneen?)
Tom McGuire, head of RTÉ Radio 1, said that folk music was “an archive of achievement” as he recalled “singing the praises of Killoe as they won the Longford Championship in 1960; we also sang of the burning of Ballinalee in 1922 but also in more recent years, we remembered Granard and Ann Lovett.”
(Ann Lovett was 15 when she gave birth in secret at a grotto on a hill near her home town of Granard, Co Longford. When a passerby came across the scene, the baby boy was already dead and Ann died later that day in hospital.)
Sport, history and a terrible human tragedy all recorded for future generations in a way that only folk music can achieve. It serves as a repository of oral histories, human stories and social commentary.
Christy Moore sang a song about Ann Lovett, Middle Of The Island, at Tuesday’s launch. He too spoke of the BBC Folk Awards and recalled Barney McKenna of The Dubliners receiving a lifetime achievement award.
“It was a magical moment,” he remembered. “Barney accepted the award and spoke only in Irish – no-one in the audience knew what he was saying, but they loved him for it.”
He also recalled the time when you weren’t allowed to sing in O’Donaghues bar in Dublin but then the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem came along and everything changed.
“But now there are so many young voices and music being heard in Ireland,” he said. “It is one of the most exciting things about folk music. In the early 60s, the Clancys were one of the most exciting things around but now it is the new music that is emerging that is so exciting.”
And with that he launched into The Wild Colonial Boy – accompanied by all present.
But as well as the come-all-yes, Ireland has an atavistic relationship with folk music as Cavan’s Lisa O’Neill proved when she sang A Year Shy Of Three, a song about the day that was in it, Lá Bealtaine, May 1, when tradition has it that Irish women would rise early to bathe themselves in the morning dew.
RTÉ Radio 1’s John Creedon said he thinks it is the perfect time for the awards.
“From my years presenting music programmes and presenting the Fleadh Cheoil, the standard of songwriting and musicianship has never been as high as it is now,” he said.
“There is a confidence there among young musicians and songwriters that maybe we didn’t have in the past – and thankfully we’ve some of our legends around as well.”
The inaugural RTÉ Folk Awards will feature nine categories celebrating the best in Irish Folk music. The list is:
Best Original Folk Track
Best Traditional Folk Track
Hall of Fame Award
Folk Singer of the Year
Best Emerging Folk Artist Award
Best Folk Album
Folk Instrumentalist of the Year
Best Folk Group
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement and Hall of Fame Awards will be decided by a committee comprised of the Folk Awards Steering Group, with two additional external members. The Best Folk Album of the Year award will be chosen by RTÉ Radio 1 listeners through The John Creedon Show and Simply Folk with Ruth Smith.
The remaining six awards will be decided by two rounds of panel voting. The judging panel is comprised of 40 people and includes musicians, promoters, broadcasters, journalists, bloggers and venue owners. They come from all over the country, span all ages and have a deep interest in folk music.
The panel judging process will take place from early August to early September and nominees will be announced on 17 September 2018 and the winners will be announced in at the live event in Vicar Street on 25 October.
There will also be a series of folk documentaries which will be heard every Saturday evening after the sports programme on RTE1 and also online.
