After years of relative isolation, traditional art forms now have the benefit of a special committee. But can it live up to musicians' expectations, asksSiobhán Long
It has been a long time coming. Traditional music has been ploughing its own furrow for generations, bolstering our tourism industry and fuelling numerous young musicians who have embraced it with the kind of passion and commitment that should guarantee its rude health for at least another generation.
Now, hot on the heels of last year's Arts Act, John O'Donoghue, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, has appointed a special committee on the traditional arts. It appears the tradition's hour has finally come, at least in terms of official recognition of its cultural significance in an increasingly multicultural Ireland.
Chaired by Jerome Hynes, chief executive of Wexford Festival Opera and deputy chairman of the Arts Council, the committee consists of Philip King, the film-maker and musician, Úna Ó Murchú, artistic director of Brú Ború cultural centre, in Cashel, Mícheál O hEidhin, the musician, broadcaster and former chief inspector of music at the Department of Education and Science, and Katie Verling, director of Glór Irish Music Centre, in Ennis.
The Bill for the Arts Act proposed a separate standing committee to address all matters relevant to the traditional arts. Greeted enthusiastically by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the proposal was viewed with everything from caution to outright disdain by many, who viewed the notion of a permanent committee as a council within a council, ghettoising the traditional arts rather than including them within the broader cultural landscape - a landscape that is vibrant and rapidly changing.
Although we still await a full definition of what the term "traditional arts" encompasses, it's the traditional-music sector that has been quickest off the block in reacting to the Minister's decision. The special committee has been broadly, and cautiously, welcomed by musicians, managers, promoters, archivists and teachers, who have all expressed the hope that, in selecting representatives from across the spectrum of opinion, the Minister will ensure that those on both sides of what has become known as the great divide will have a place at the table when a policy framework, the key requirement of the committee, is developed.
Matt Cranitch, the fiddler and academic, sums up his expectations of the committee's activities succinctly. "Any initiative which helps to secure and promote the special position of Irish traditional music in Ireland is to be welcomed. This committee has an important role to play, and so I welcome its establishment," he says. "Perhaps not everyone would agree with the way in which the various facets of the spectrum of Irish traditional music are included on the committee. For example, I feel that the many performers, i.e., those who actually create this music, are underrepresented.
"I am not clear on the details of its terms of reference - whether these have been laid down or whether the committee is to establish its own guidelines in this respect. How will it function and operate? For example, will it set up a process for accepting submissions, both written and oral, from the public?"
Similar reservations have been expressed by Tom Sherlock, manager of Altan, Séamus Begley and others, who contends that a number of fundamental principles must be established before the special committee can seriously embark on its task. "A definition of 'traditional arts' would be welcome," he says. "I am hopeful that the committee's report will be practical, that it will mobilise the Arts Council and other bodies to recognise not only the cultural and economic importance and worth but the sheer vitality of traditional arts in this country and to take practical steps to engage with, and offer practical support to, the very wide body of creative people involved in traditional music."
One immediate step highlighted by almost everybody interviewed for this piece, which should ensure the traditional arts assert their identity at a strategic level, is to re-establish the post of traditional-music officer at the Arts Council. It was previously held by Paddy Glackin (1980-85) and Dermot McLaughlin (1986-89), but it first remained unfilled and was then abolished when the council was reorganised.
Glackin views the re-establishment of the post as crucial to bringing traditional arts into the mainstream, alongside all other arts forms, many of which are in receipt of far healthier funding. "I think if you're going to take any art form seriously it has to be represented at executive level," he says. "It needs someone on the ground who knows what they're talking about and who's in some way neutral. All other art forms seem to have their officers, but traditional music is now lumped under 'music', and therefore it doesn't command the priority that other forms do."
Steve Cooney, the guitarist, accompanist and producer, views the brief of the committee in even more fundamental terms. "This undertaking relates specifically to the Arts Council. As important as it is, the Arts Council doesn't play a significant role in the rough and tumble of the traditional musicians' daily world," he says. "It's perceived as remote. Although it occasionally may, via intermediaries, sponsor work for traditional musicians, it has no power to legislate for fair working conditions for them or establish natural justice for traditional musicians who seek it."
For Cooney, some of the most important issues to be addressed require little in the way of money but much in the way of consideration of the reality of musicians' lives. Through Filí, Amhránaithe & Ceoltóirí na h-Éireann, which he founded, he sees improvements in the welfare of musicians and their families as central to any judgment of progress.
"Codes of fair practice need to be established in relation to venues, promoters, record companies and so on," he says. "Exploitation is endemic. For example, young musicians have been blatantly exploited by clone-dance-show promoters doing horror tours of Europe. Withholding of royalties by record companies has been common, and most traditional artists are now trying to bring out their own CDs, in order to have some control over their own work."
Cooney cites his experience as representative of what many traditional musicians endure. "I remember playing at a function at Dublin Castle a couple of years ago," he says. "I was with a group of well-established musicians. There was no dressing room as such, and the only place available to wash and change was the public toilets in the foyer. We were working there for 11 hours, and the invited audience ate and drank all around them.
"Strange as it may seem, all the musicians were refused water, let alone tea. The official with the three castles on his blazer said that he had no authority to let us have tea. It was a surreal feeling, all of us on stage with our parched throats, playing traditional music to an audience full of well-fed and well-watered people. A sorry state of affairs, whereby in the seat of the State, Dublin Castle, respect for traditional music had fallen so low that musicians were officially refused drink and food. Bizarre and insulting."
Garry Shannon, a flute player, member of the Kilfenora Céilí Band, teacher and member of Comhaltas, views the priority to be the establishment of trustworthy lines of communication between the Arts Council and stakeholders in the tradition. "The special committee must devise a formula to heal the regrettable antipathy that exists between the Arts Council and some of the traditional-arts stakeholders, notably Comhaltas," he says. "The special committee will produce a five-year plan for the traditional arts. The council is going to have to bite the bullet and work with organisations who can provide it with indispensable expertise in the formulation and implementation of such a plan."
Central to the committee's deliberations must bethe primacy of the artist, according to Shannon; it is a view echoed strongly by Glackin.
"The council will sometimes need to interact directly with the traditional artist as an individual," says Shannon, "such as is the case on the classical side. This will help build a community of professional traditional artists, which is in line with the council's policy to foster a cohort of professionals.
"I have a fear that the special committee, being made up, as it is, of administrators, will neglect this crucial issue of the individual artist. The council must also ensure a traditional-artist presence in Aosdána or introduce an equivalent group for the trad sector."
Muiris Ó Rócháin, director of one of the most successful traditional-music initiatives, the Willie Clancy Summer School, is a moderating influence in the debate. Funded to the tune of just €27,000 this year, he is sanguine about the paltry sums received by traditional arts compared with other art forms, although he is quick to point out that the Willie Clancy Summer School is run largely voluntarily and has not sought particularly large levels of funding from anywhere.
"The first thing I would expect," he says, "is that consultation would be fairly wide. There are so many excellent people involved in traditional music that they would have a huge amount to contribute. Funding is important, but it's bigger than funding as well. An important component in any discussion on the traditional arts is the Irish language. I think it is the richest part of our heritage, and will have to be central, and it hasn't even been referred to in the Minister's statement.
"Also, there is no one organisation which can represent traditional music. In the last 20 years it has grown nationally and internationally; people are researching our music abroad, and the media are contributing too, through local radio and television, so it's very important that more than one organisation is consulted in developing this policy framework."
One recommendation emerging from all quarters is the need to increase funding to the Irish Traditional Music Archive, which offers highly professional and specialist support to musicians, historians and collectors, on the back of what is viewed by many as skeletal funding.
Nicholas Carolan, its director, sees one of the committee's crucial responsibilities to be to audit support systems, facilities and funding programmes. "The audit would include a look at the quality of what's there at the moment," he says. "And from that audit a policy would naturally emerge, as they would identify what should and shouldn't be supported in the future. Also, they would identify gaps in the whole panoply of state support for the traditional arts.
"I think the major gap is one of funding, in that the proportion of the current Arts Council budget devoted to the traditional arts has been in the region of 1-2 per cent, and that to me doesn't reflect the importance of the traditional arts in the cultural life of the country. I think there's no disagreement on that point among anyone involved in the traditional arts."
Trust, openness and broad consultation are three elements viewed as crucial to the success of the committee's work. Following its second meeting, last Monday, many beady eyes are trained on its deliberations, with breaths bated for whispers of its modus operandi.
