Fifty years on from its first recordings, Ireland's oldest music label, Gael Linn, has an enviable back catalogue. Its anniversary is an opportunity to revisit some seminal works in traditional music, writes Siobhán Long
Gael Linn celebrates its 50th birthday as a record label this year. As well as being Ireland's oldest record company, it has many other strings to its bow, and the sheer variety of its pursuits means it risks diluting the celebration of its impact.
In an age of targeted marketing and forensically researched demographics, Gael Linn sits shoulder to shoulder with both the big guns (EMI, Virgin, Warner Brothers) and the boutique labels (Compass, Greentrax, Vertical Records), astride a back catalogue and track record that would be the envy of the most ambitious A&R movers and shakers.
Founded in 1953 as a vehicle to promote the speaking of Irish, Gael Linn was this country's very own lotto, its direct translation being "Gaelic pools". The dreamchild of a Co Kerry barrister and businessman, Dónall Ó Móráin, Gael Linn was founded as a weekly football pools based on the games of the GAA, with members paying a weekly shilling to participate. The proceeds were used for prizes totalling more than £100,000 a year, and to provide seed capital for an eclectic variety of entrepreneurial ventures that ranged from vegetable-growing in Connemara to the purchase of fishing boats and the establishment of fish-processing plants to manage their harvest.
Over five decades, Gael Linn kept its eye on the promotion of Irish language, with sponsorship of radio programmes, drama clubs and film-making nestling alongside its competitions (Slógadh and, latterly, Siansa). In December 1957, the company embarked on an innovative programme of recording sean-nós singers on 78rpm records, spearheaded by the pioneering production skills of Peter Hunt and Gene Martin under the watchful gaze of the company's managing director, Riobard Mac Góráin.
Gael Linn's back catalogue is a veritable microcosm of Irish social history spanning the past five decades. Its archive documents a burgeoning climate of recording, which nurtured a growing appreciation of Irish traditional music and singing, encompassing the pure drop of sean-nós singers, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí and Nioclás Tóibín as well as the orchestral innovations of Seán Ó Riada, Ceoltóirí Chualann and Ceoltóirí Laighean. Gael Linn kept one eye on the past while training the other firmly on the future, nurturing the talents of Paddy Keenan, Frankie Gavin, Skara Brae and Clannad, and cast a welcoming gabháil around both ensemble and solo playing. The company proved a boon for a listening public hungry for access to decent recorded Irish music after decades of neglect.
ANTOINE Ó COILEÁIN, Gael Linn's chief executive, is quietly proud of the company's continuous support of Irish music. Ever pragmatic, the company started out by releasing recordings of sean-nós singers on A-sides, with instrumental music on the the B-sides of their 78s, with singers drawn largely from the Gaeltacht and instrumentalists coming from English-speaking backgrounds. Spotting the rising tide of middle-class punters with an ear cocked to the music, Gael Linn released its first LP in 1958, a collection of Irish airs performed by the Radió Éireann Light Orchestra, and songs sung by tenor Tomás Ó Súilleabháin, with arrangement and piano accompaniment by Seán Ó Riada.
Ó Coileáin puts his finger on the essence of Ó Riada's seminal contribution to the development of Irish traditional music and, in particular, to his success in introducing it to a new audience by wedding the Irish traditional canon with the European classical tradition.
"Seán saw into the heart of Irish music," he says, "and because he had such a wide experience, through his classical learning, he was able to get a bird's eye view and then focus in on the essence of the thing itself, which had become a bit jaded and marginalised. He revived the music by reinterpreting it in a way that people could reconnect with. He managed to tap into the spirit of the nation through the music, which he carried on through the film work he did then as well: Mise Éireand Saoirse?."
Ó Riada's work with Ceoltóirí Chualann, followed by the music of Ceoltóirí Laighean, led to an expansion of the possibilities for orchestration across the Irish traditional music repertoire. It is a pathway still successfully being explored by the Chieftains long after Ó Riada's premature death.
"I see the Ceoltóirí Laighean recordings as continuing and developing the Ó Riada style of ensemble-playing, in a very authentic way, and I really feel it's deserving of a hearing," says Ó Coileáin, referring to Gael Linn's forthcoming re-release of two of Ceoltóirí Laighean's landmark recordings, The Crooked Roadand The Star of Munster. "It has a star-studded cast that includes Mary Bergin and Paddy Glackin, and I see it as an important bridge that got a younger generation involved, who then went on to great things themselves."
Among this year's 50th anniversary re-releases will be Peadar Ó Riada and Cór Chúil Aodha's Go mBeannaítear Duit, which has been described by John O'Keeffe of Maynooth College as "the most significant recording of vernacular liturgical music produced in Ireland over the past 30 years". Gael Linn's appetite has always been characterised by its enthusiasm for fostering newly composed music alongside the traditional repertoire.
Ultimately, the organisation sees its role as one of curator, a keeper of the flame that might now burn brightly but which, at one time, struggled for air.
"We are custodians of the music that came about through the goodwill and partnership of the people of Ireland and the musicians who gave so generously of their work," Ó Coileáin says. "We really do appreciate that we have something here that's a national treasure, and with the re-release of collections from Seosamh Ó hÉanaí and Nioclás Tóibín, and Ó Riada Sa Gaiety, we've gone right back and polished up the silver. It's something we plan to continue to do, along with, of course, releasing new CDs too, from Brian McGrath and Tony MacMahon with Steve Cooney."
LATTERLY, GAEL LINN has built a limited roster of contemporary artists, one of the most successful of whom has been Téada. Oisín MacDiarmada, Téada's fiddler and co-founder, believes the band's links with the label have borne fruit in a way that mightn't have been possible with a smaller or less adventurous recording house.
"Our relationship took off, because Gael Linn was very supportive of what we were trying to do," MacDiarmada says. "With our most recent album, Inné Amárach(2006), what was particularly important was that they threw their weight behind us recording a DVD, focusing on the music of Sligo, to accompany the CD. It meant that we got to work with people who really took a deep interest in the music itself, rather than just the process of putting out an album. When we looked at the sort of people who recorded with Gael Linn in the past, it put a certain pressure on us, but it was a huge inspiration too. It certainly gave us something to aim for."
Mary Bergin is a widely acclaimed whistle player, and was a member of Ceoltóirí Laighean, alongside James Kelly, Éamon de Buitléar and John Kelly. "Gael Linn was very important because they, along with Claddagh Records, recorded musicians who weren't commercially viable," she says. "These were musicians who were hugely important in their own right, nonetheless. I know they've had to juggle with very limited resources down through the years, but what they've achieved is just enormous. I grew up listening to Ceoltóirí Chualann, and when I was in Ceoltóirí Naomh Eoghan we were very heavily influenced by Seán Ó Riada's arrangements and the O'Carolan pieces. I enjoyed the mix of older and younger musicians who came together in Ceoltóirí Chualann.
"It's hard to define exactly what influence it had exactly on my playing, because my music was simply an interaction of everything that I was experiencing at that time, but I've no doubt it was huge."
Gael Linn plans to re-release a number of records this year, including Go mBeannaítear Duit, Peadar Ó Riada and Cór Chúil Aodha; The Crooked Road and the Star of Munster, Ceoltóirí Laighean; a Ceoltóirí Chualann box set (Ceol na nUasal, Reacaireacht an Riadaigh and Ding Dong). New releases by Tony MacMahon and Steve Cooney and Brian McGrath are also planned. www.gael-linn.ie
