A chara, – So a gentleman is someone who can play the accordion but doesn’t, declares the Culture section of the Irish Times (Hugh Linehan, “A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion but doesn’t – especially on an Aer Lingus plane”, November 11th). In defiance, as the proud owner of six accordions, I instantly took out one and played a few tunes. It felt great and much better than reading a piece with sentiments which remind me of those who once ruled us, a puzzling quirk or twitch of post-colonialism among the afflicted perhaps. Musical choice is personal, however, and all are entitled to their preference, as is the writer.
How privileged, however, to be one of the tribe of non-gentlemen, a label attached by those who’ve never heard or understood the musical genius of the likes of Joe Cooley, Tony MacMahon, Seamus Begley, James Keane, Joe Burke, Finbar Dwyer, Johnny Connolly and his son Johnny Óg, Máirtín O’Connor, Jackie Daly or Oliver Diviney. And what about non-gentlemen like Anne Conroy Burke, Karen Tweed, and the great Sharon Shannon? And the countless nameless accordionists who bring joy across the land in sessions every week? We also have world-class virtuoso classical accordionists such as Patricia Kavanagh and Dermot Dunne. Perhaps the greatest non-gentleman alive today is the classical and jazz maestro Richard Galliano, but he’s only one: France, Italy, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia for example boast legions of accordion wizards playing jazz, folk and classical, such as Ivo Ralchev, Maria Vlasova or Vladmir Danilin. And then there’s Latin America which gave us the father of them all, the legendary bandoneon tango maestro, Argentina’s Astor Piazzolla. In such countries where the Culture pages of the Irish Times are not read, PhDs in accordion music are studied.
The term “diddley-eye” referred to in your piece is a sad badge of ignorance of Ireland’s deep and sophisticated cultural expression, one of the oldest unbroken forms of musical traditions alive, played and respected across the globe. What fresh hell if we were to similarly label jazz “parpity-parp” or classical music “law-dee-daw”? – Is mise,
DIARMAID PLÉIMIONN,
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Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
A chara, – Hugh Linehan criticises the members of Cavan Town Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann for beginning a trad session on a plane that was delayed.
Has he ever considered that the Anglo-American consumer culture that so dominates the Western world today is something that is thrust upon many people who have never asked for it, and that thousands of unasked for and inescapable advertisements are thrust upon us all every single day? Perhaps the contrast with Anglo-American consumer culture is uncomfortable for some people, and is the real reason Hugh Linehan took issue with it. – Is mise,
CÓNÁN Ó BROIN,
Ráth Cúil,
Co Átha Cliath.