Page 5 - Garda Journal Winter 2019

COVER HISTORY | The Garda Céilí Band
Musical memories
Pat Burke remembers the Garda Céilí Band, one of the forgotten names in the canon of Irish traditional music.
What is the origin of that institution known as the ‘Irish Céilí Band’? Sean O’Riada credits Seamus Clandillon, Raidío Éireann’s first Director of Broadcasting with its conception in 1926. But Irish traditional musicians had already been playing for house parties, barn dances and crossroad hooleys for centuries. One of the best-known early music groups was the Ballinakill Traditional Dance Players. Though referred to as a céilí band, they actually bore far more resemblance to a modern grúpa cheoil, with three fiddle, flute and accordion duets playing Irish dance tunes. Over the years, many céilí bands became quite famous, including the Tara, Aughrim Slopes and Kilfenora bands. One such group of Irish musicians regularly played on concert platforms and at céilithe all over Ireland from the 1930s until the late 1950s. Today they are almost forgotten, a footnote in the story of the céilí bands, their own unique musical contribution to 20th century Irish life rarely, if ever, mentioned- The Garda Síochána Céilí Band.
START OF THE BAND
From its inception, there were a number of different musical style bands within An Garda Síochána- a Pipe and Drum Band , Military Band , a Céilí Band and for a brief period, a Garda Swing Band. Fintan Vallely makes reference to a Garda Céilí and Pipe Band under Superintendent D.J Delaney around in 1927 in his ‘Companion to Irish Traditional Music’, published in 1999. This appears to be the precursor of the Dublin Metropolitan Garda Céilí Band, to give it its full and unabridged title. Under the stewardship of their first musical director, Superintendent Charles O’Donnell-Sweeney, a pianist and UCD music graduate, this new ensemble regularly performed a mixture of Irish dance and marching tunes on concert platforms all over the greater Dublin area. During the summer months of 1935, they were a regular sight in the Phoenix Park, St. Stephen’s Green, Blackrock Park, Dún Laoghaire Pier, Dalkey Park and Bray Promenade. Many of the Gardaí were highly talented musicians, including fiddlers Joe Liddy and Frank McCloskey, uilleann piper Andrew Mangan and Cavan box player Terry Lane. So successful were they that members of the band were asked to play at a céilí in Tralee, it was to be the first of many céilithe, at which they performed.
O’Donnell Sweeney was a not a traditional musician and favoured a more orchestral approach to their repertoire. In all, he had arranged a total of 257 Irish tunes for the band
by 1937, when HMV/EMI engineers came to Dublin to record Garda Síochána Céilí Band on a number of 78 rpm discs. The recording engineers log notes referred to the unique musicianship of the band members, as many tracks were taken ‘first time’ and adjudged to be of sufficient quality for pressing. Many of the Garda Céilí Band members were also multi-instrumentalists. At times, they were required to augment the Garda Military Band at passing out parades. Their dress uniform was a navy blue tunic trimmed with light blue serge V sleeve insets. The V and sleeve seams adorned with small Garda Síochána crested buttons. Their outer trouser leg seams had 1 inch light blue stripes. Collar badges were indicative of Garda bandsmen, silver Lyres. Both their broad bandsmen caps and their tunic belts and shoes were patent leather. At one stage, the Garda Céilí Band grew so large that it numbered thirty six musicians in all. Their range of instruments included seven fiddles, a full set of uilleann pipes, a double bass, clarinets, horns, piccolos, concert flutes, an oboe, a set of drums and a piano.
After the death of Superintendent O’Donnell-Sweeney in 1949, Sergeant Joachim Moloney became bandmaster. In 1953, the Garda Céilí Band first performed on ‘Din Joe ‘Fitzgibbon’s popular radio show, ‘Take The Floor’. Take The Floor was probably a first in broadcasting- an Irish céilí dancing show on the radio, but it was hugely popular! Thousands, in both rural and urban areas, tuned in to hear the Rory O’Connor Dancers step it out to the music of various céilí bands. The show also featured popular Irish vocalists, Willy Brady and Charlie Magee. Harpist Mary O’Hara was a regular guest, as were Abbey actors, Harry Brogan and
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