This article is from page 69 of the 2009-05-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
THE GREAT P Joe Hayes was re- membered in the way he would have liked best at the weekend in Feakle, with three days of music, song and dance.
Fight years after his passing, P Joe was remembered by throngs of mu- Sicians and music lovers, who came to the village for a celebration of his hater
On Sunday night, the Tulla Céili
Band, of which P Joe was leader for more than 40 years, played.
There was a musical Mass at which he was remembered in Kilclaren Church and a graveside oration by Paula Carroll.
On Saturday night, there was a lively session in McNamaras, with Eion O’Sullivan, Pat O’Connor and Mary McNamara and, on Sunday, P Joe’s son, Martin, led the session in Pepper’s.
The Tulla Céili Band had another
outing in Pepper’s on Sunday while Andrew McNamara and Brendan Hearty led the session before that.
Vincent Griffin, Seamus Bugler and Mary Corry all took part in the Bank Holiday Monday session in Pepper’s.
P Joe was born in Maghera, in the parish of Killanena, in 1921. He came from a farming background and spent all his life in the Maghera area.
His mother,
Margaret Hogan,
played the concertina.
He began learning the fiddle at the age of 11, taught by Pat Canny of Glendree, a near neighbour and fa- ther of the fiddler Paddy Canny.
There was a gramophone in the Hayes household and they listened to the fiddle-playing of Coleman, Kil- loran and Gillespie.
P Joe and Paddy were to play house dances together in the following years around Killanena, Feakle and Tulla. Both P Joe and Paddy were
also founder members of the Tulla Ceili Band in 1946.
With them in the band then were Theresa Tubridy, Bert McNulty, Ag- gie White, Jack Murphy, Jim and Paddy Donoghue and Joe Cooley.
P Joe took over as leader in the eK
The organisers said that the week- end festival was “very well support- ed” and the “quality of the music was second to none, It was very enjoy- able.”