Anthony McIntyre ⚱ looks back on a giant from the world of Irish traditional music who died in Derbyshire in May.
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| Seán Corcoran |
A hugely talented man, Seán Corcoran’s specialty lay in traditional music where he established a strong reputation as a performer and archivist. He became internationally renowned courtesy of having belonged to a folk group, Cran, which saw him perform in different parts of the world, including Japan and Canada. He “played the bouzouki, mandocello and other instruments and sang traditional songs in English, Irish and Scots Gaelic.” His Twitter account read:
I first met him a couple of years after I arrived in Drogheda, knowing none of this about him but coming to quickly realise that the genius he joked about was very much a trait of the man behind the music, leading to his being fittingly described by the journalist Alison Comyn as one of Drogheda's most famous sons. Out of work which was scarce in the recession, and miserable because of it, I had applied for a post as a researcher with Local Voices. It was one of those Community Employment schemes, not dissimilar to what were called Ace Schemes in the North. It would give me something to do, more than anything else. Sean interviewed me, knew my history, was undaunted by any of it - and soon enough I was perched at a desk in Local Voices.
Irish Singer, Vernacular Musicologist (Ceol na nDaoine), Audio and Film Documentary Maker, Fieldworker, Composer, Lecturer, Socialist, Unrecognised Genius.
I first met him a couple of years after I arrived in Drogheda, knowing none of this about him but coming to quickly realise that the genius he joked about was very much a trait of the man behind the music, leading to his being fittingly described by the journalist Alison Comyn as one of Drogheda's most famous sons. Out of work which was scarce in the recession, and miserable because of it, I had applied for a post as a researcher with Local Voices. It was one of those Community Employment schemes, not dissimilar to what were called Ace Schemes in the North. It would give me something to do, more than anything else. Sean interviewed me, knew my history, was undaunted by any of it - and soon enough I was perched at a desk in Local Voices.
For the two years I remained there I would chat with him any day he was in the building. He had an appearance that belied his years. Tall, big boned, pony tailed, denim-clad, endlessly researching and advising. His brother Terry would later say “Seán did all of this with a great sense of fun and mischief that made him a pleasure to work with and a joy to meet.” Concisely put, that sums up my experience of him.
He would regale me with stories of life in Belfast where he both performed music and studied during the dark days of violent political conflict. We had both been to Queen’s University and some of the personalities there were familiar to each of us. We delved into the Boston College controversy, which featured regularly on the news in 2014. He neither asked for nor needed any assurances from me that Local Voices would not end up in the eye of a similar storm.
When I travelled well beyond the borders of Louth once to carry out an extended interview for Local Voices with a one time political activist and Céilí House balladeer, I humourously told Seán not to worry – I would not bring anything back that would have the authorities in hot pursuit. But I did conclude a long exchange in a farmhouse by inviting the interviewee to sing a ballad which I recorded. It was late in the evening, I was stopping over, he had taken as much of the usice beatha as I had, but our work was over and I was sure he had rendered many a ditty with a glass or two warming his belly. The thought of recording him at song would never have occurred to me but for Seán’s interest in the topic. I considered it something of value to the archive he was meticulously putting together. The balladeer on that occasion is most likely the type of person Seán admired so much when he commented in relation to the resurgence of interest in traditional song and dance:
All these old guys who had been in the dark and sneered at for the past 20 years, suddenly found that thousands of kids wanted to hear them — they were heroes again.
One of his last serious projects before dying in England at the age of 74, was putting together The Seven Ages of Music exhibition in Millmount Museum in 2018 to coincide with the Fleadh Cheoil which was being held in the town. Drogheda Life reported that:
Seán has brought together his expert knowledge from the music of Mythological Ireland down through the centuries to the musicians and collectors and recorders of music in the later 18th century, through the Gaelic Revival Period and the significant input by people associated with Drogheda through the years.
Seán was also Chair of the Old Drogheda Society. His mother Moira had been one of the founding members of the Society and he was determined to carry on her commitment. But he presided over a committee, which I served on, that was fractious. The meetings could be interminably boring but he guillotined where he had to and spared us a filibuster which would have gone on throughout the night had he not pulled the rug. Eventually, he departed in circumstances that were less than harmonious and could have been handled much better. By that point, I felt it was probably time for a fresh pair of hands. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with Sean’s stewardship, he had taken the project as far as he could but sometimes it is best not to resist a yearning for change, particularly when the incoming Chair was also a person of ability with considerable administrative acumen and experience. The flag at Millmount Museum where he chaired so many meetings of the ODS was flown at half-mast in his honour.
The last time we spoke he was catching a bus to Dublin Airport, and he was philosophical rather than bitter about moving on from leading the ODS.
Sean hailed from the Left, his socialism blending with his humanism to produce a strong advocate of social justice and equality in a society that had long suffered an unhealthy deficit in both spheres at the hands of Church and State.
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