It is with great sorrow that the Irish Edition notes the passing of taoiseach na dtaoiseach Paddy Moloney (1938-2021), master uilleann piper and band leader of The Chieftains (known as ‘Na Taoisigh’ in Irish). Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis In recognition, we reprint this interview by our columnist Dr. Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew, originally published in 2006. A few contextual notes have been inserted by the writer.
By Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew
On February 13, 2006, I had a delightful chat with Paddy Moloney, the driving force behind The Chieftains. The following is a lightly edited version of the phone interview. While the printed page cannot capture his charming Dublin intonations, I hope they shine through with his lively language and catchy metaphor.
PM (Paddy Moloney): I’ll let you go first. When I start talking, I never stop!
RB-L (Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew): There are many areas I’d like to ask about, especially the current tour, and how you got started in music.
PM: Well, we’ll go for it! My mother bought me a tin whistle when I was six. My father played the flute and there were always bagpipes sounding out, and my uncles played also. The accordion was a great instrument for the house dances. I have great memories of going down to my grandmother’s in Co. Laois, the Slieve Bloom Mountains. It was a three-roomed cottage with no electricity or running water. But it would fill up for dances. The real thing!
“For Your Penance!”
RB-L: I’ve actually been following The Chieftains for about 25 years
PM: Oh, God! You have not! For your penance? Oh, that’s terrible! [Actually, I think he was delighted to hear this – RB-L]
RB-L: I have your first albums in vinyl.
PM: That’s going back to about 1962, when we made it, and it came out in 1963. That was when I put the name on it.
RB-L: I wanted to ask you about the name. It all hinges on John Montague’s book, Death of a Chieftain, right?
PM: Ah, sure. I remember that having found the sound and the people and the personalities that I felt were right, we made the first album. We didn’t actually have a name at first, because in those days, you didn’t actually go all out with the idea that you’d be playing all over the world. But we did need a name. At one stage I was thinking about “The Quare Fellows,” based on Brendan Behan’s work. That would have been a terrible disaster. In those days it just meant a sort of oddball. Thank God I didn’t go down that road.
So, anyway, John Montague was a colleague of Garech Browne, who was a director of Claddagh Records, the Honourable Garech de Brún, you know. He came up with the idea of “The Chieftains” as a name. And Montague is our Poet Laureate now. [John Montague, 1929-2016, became Poet Laureate/The Ireland Chair of Poetry in 1998 – ed.]. That’s how it came about. You might say it was meant to be a one-off album!
“Getting Into Trouble With The Purists!”
Garech and I were friends in our teens, you know, going to music festivals in the 1950s. It was a great opportunity. I’d been experimenting with different ideas, harmonies and such, getting into trouble with the purists and all that kind of stuff, and looking forward to the opportunity to record. Garech was also the first to make an album of uilleann pipes, although there had been 78’s of course. But he made the first LP of a piper, Leo Rowsome, in 1959.
Stones, Jones, Sellers, Winkler, McCartney
PM: Nothing much happened then for a while, but somehow, well, that album got into strange places. The Rolling Stones and Brian Jones and Peter Sellers! I remember I went to a house party in London, Eaton Square. I remember the evening well, and everyone with a glass in hand, of course. They were playing The Chieftains’ album, all into it!
And over the years, people came forward. I remember Henry Winkler, “The Fonz,” you know. He came to me a few years ago and said, “I’ve been following The Chieftains since the first time I heard “Bonaparte’s Retreat.” And Paul McCartney. In 1972 he wanted me to do some backtracking for one of his albums. And there were other collaborations. And films, like Barry Lyndon. You might say we became “musicians’ musicians.”
Flanagan, Tuohy and a Mortified Manager!
RB-L: Were some of those early 78-rpm recordings from the United States?
PM: Oh, yes. The Flanagans, Patrick Tuohy, incredible musicians. And then there’s the great collection of Francis O’Neill, the Chicago police force captain. And he would bring fellows like myself into the police, and I’m a small fellow! He had a purpose for it. They were all musicians and O’Neill published their tunes and did a great service to the music industry. The originals are at the University of Notre Dame, where we’ll be playing in the next leg of the tour.
RB-L: And you’ll be in Philadelphia on March 12 [2006 – ed.].
PM: Oh, The Kimmel Center! There’s always magic there! There’s something I love about that Sunday-afternoon show. The show has grown a lot, you know. We’ll have Cuban percussion, and solos from everyone, and Highland bagpipes, and at the end, a Breton piece, “An Dro.” And people get up to dance. We just turn on the house lights and have a party. Some of the group goes down into the audience and invite, well, grab people. They even got our manager in Seattle, and he was mortified. I won’t say what he said when he passed me on stage.
RB-L: I guess I couldn’t print it even if you told me!
PM: Right you are! Anyway, the show has a tremendous feel to it. The Cottars sing “Jimí, Mo Mhíle Stór,” in Irish and in English, and then they go into their own Cape Breton material. And Triona Marshall on the Celtic harp. Unbelievable. She’s on Cloud Seven when she plays.
“Philadelphia’s Lovely Charm”
RB-L: Is there any place you’ve been in Philadelphia on previous tours that’s especially memorable?
PM: I just love Philadelphia! I’m glad we have a day off there. Around Rittenhouse Square it’s lovely. The old feel of Philadelphia, and we have great memories of Valley Forge Music Fair, with the revolving stage.
RB-L: Some people say Philadelphia is very much like Dublin.
PM: You’re absolutely right! Like the Temple Bar area, the little narrow streets, and that lovely charm. I just love the city.
RB-L: We’ll look forward to having you here. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.
PM: I told you I could talk a hole into a pot!