Lucy Farr

about

Baile na Kil Lucy Farr (née Kirwan) was born in 1911, third oldest in a family of seven girls and a boy. Her father, Martin, farmed at Baunyknave, one of six townlands that made up the parish of Baile na Kil, East Galway. Martin played the melodeon and also the flute in a local fife and drum band. An aunt - Margaret - played fiddle and concertina, both of which Lucy tried to play, and she recalls her aunt playing fiddle and dancing at the same time. Photo by Graeme Kirkham"No way", says Lucy, "could I do it." The fiddle, which had but two gut strings, was kept above the kitchen fire and when aunt Margaret eventually married it was left in Lucy's care. She still has it but has always found it, somehow, cramped to her fingers . Lucy's father, she says, was a quiet, self-contained man who rarely offered immediate comment on music but would keep his observations until later. Then he might point out a felicitous run or phrase and suggest where a note might be changed - an instinctive response, it would seem, born out of long acquaintance with the music. He was also firm: once, Lucy remembers, he listened to her attempts to join in a session and, after the other players had gone, told her simply never to play along in such circumstances again unless she truly knew the music because, whatever they might say, it could put the musicians off their stroke. Apart from her father, only her brother (also Martin) of the immediate family played in any regular fashion - a flute - and

top songs

albums

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Paddy In the Smoke: Irish Dance Music from a London Pub

Heart and Home

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Voice of the People 08: A Story I'm Just About To Tell

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The Voice Of The People Vol. 8: A Story...

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It Was Great Altogether! The Continuing Tradition of Irish Music in London

Heart & Home - Irish fiddle music from Lucy Farr

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Paddy In the Smoke - Irish Dance Music from a London Pub

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The Voice Of The People_ Volume 08_A STORY I'M JUST ABOUT TO TELL_ LOCAL EVENTS & NATIONAL ISSUES

Heart & Home

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It Was Great Altogether (The Continuing Tradition Of Irish Music In London)

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The Voice of the People: A Story I'm Just About to Tell (Local Events & National Issues)

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Stepping It Out!

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