Hammy’s last flute
Cúil Aodha craftsman lays aside the lathe after making more than 2,500 flutes and selling them globally
BELFAST born traditional musician and maker of flutes Colin ‘ Hammy’ Hamilton has been away from his native city and living in the Múscraí area for a long time - but he still speaks with a very distinctiv, soft spoken accent from the northern metropolis.
It’s also musical, which is little wonder given Hammy’s reputation as one of Ireland’s most talented flute players and an artist when it comes to actually making the wooden instrument.
Now after forty three years crafting the flute in the workshop behind his Cúil Aodha home, he’s decided to retire from making the instruments on order. In his time at the lathe and woodturning machine, he’s made approximately 2,500 flutes which are being played all over the world.
“I‘ve sent them to musicians in Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Israel, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China, U. S.A., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.”
Hammy’s global exploits started closer to home in his native and very loyalist East Belfast. When he was just two, his family moved to the western outskirts of the city.
“I think probably the most important influence on me then and for the rest of my life was that I went to Friend’s School in Lisburn, a Quaker school established in 1774.
“Their ethos was strongly liberal, internationalist, and very much non-sectarian. My classmates included Catholics, Muslims, Jews, and Buddists from as far afield as America and Malaysia.”
Given the time of year, what is traditionally regarded as the Twelfth Fortnight, the height of the Orange Order’s marching season, the question of the North’s sectarian divide and its impact on traditional music comes up.
In the Belfast of the early 1970s, the Troubles were escalating but the traditional music scene was very mixed and a lot of Protestants were involved as what religion you belonged to was not a huge issue.
“Since then, society in general in the North has become very polarised, and I doubt if the music scene is as open as it was in my day.
“One of the major elements of this polarisation is the abandonment by the Protestant population of all areas of culture which were previously shared by both communities.
“Since that was a large part of the general culture, it leaves the Protestant community with little that they see as specifically theirs, and for quite a while now a large body of Protestant/loyalist opinion sees traditional music as politically republican and as such rejects it.
“I wouldn’t hold out much hope of musical collaboration in the field of traditional music, at any rate.”
When he first moved to Cork, it was, as he said, for ‘ three months’ but he met a Cúil Aodha woman, Nóirín Ní Thuama, and they married and raised two daughters, Aoife and Sarah May, and he’s still in Cúil Aodha.
What brought him to Cork originally was the pursuit of a Masters in Ethnomusicology as he had been advised to broaden his horizons,
In Queens University, he had read Human Physiology but got into traditional music and, in particular, singing with the Folk Music Society where he met famed singers such as Len Graham, Geordie Hannah and Joe Holmes. This led him down another track in terms of his academic career, that of ethnomusicology. He eventually ended up lecturing in the subject in University College, Cork.
When in school, he had been assigned the bassoon to learn, though he wanted to play the flute and the result was, as he pointed out, something akin to the opening bars of the Simpsons theme music. He came to flute playing and the making of the instrument in a roundabout way.
“I began in the area of traditional singing, and at that stage was what can only be called mucking about on various instruments, from the bodhrán and tin whistle to the guitar and banjo.
“A good friend advised me to put my energies into one and concentrate on that. It was good advice, I applied myself to the tin whistle, and shortly after that to the flute.
“I had always found the flute attractive as an instrument, and when I began to see its importance in the Irish tradition it became an obvious choice.”
Back in the 1970s, it was difficult to get a hold of a flute as they weren’t commercially available. You had to get your flute from someone who was willing to part with one. Hammy got his from renowned tin whistle player, Mary Bergin, in 1976.
“The problem with many of these old flutes was that they were in really bad condtiion, and as such didn’t play as well as they could.
“Being of a mechanical frame of mind, I almost immediately began to maintain my own flute, and then shortly after, to do so for other players.
“It was a combination of that, and the difficulty of getting a flute in the first place that led me to start making them full time, in 1979.”
More than 2,500 flutes later, Hammy is still playing the instrument but he’s decided to give up making them to orders from musicians.
“Well, I’m still going to be making a few, but they won’t be available on a waiting list basis.
“Anyone interested can see what I’ll have for sale on my Instragram account, @hamiltonflutes.
“But I will miss some aspects of it...43 years is a long time.”
There are far more people playing the instrument now - and there are a few more making the instrument than when Hammy started off but his instruments are regarded as the benchmark by those who play them.
“I think musicians like their instruments for various, and sometimes very different reasons, so it’s actually a very hard question to answer.
“I would like to think that they like them because they are well made with first class materials, sound good (tone is of the utmost importance to the flute player ), and also because I always prided myself on delivering on time, and on providing good after sales service.”
Now that he’s stepping back a little, he may have time to indulge some of his bobbies, such as fishing and nature rambing. He’s an expert in woodland plants and the like - if ever you’re unsure whether the brightly coloured fungus is poisonous or a tasty accompaniment, Hammy’s your man. If he’s not available, don’t take a chance and find someone who knows the difference!
There’s plenty he’d like to do. “Is there anything I don’t want to do? The problem is the time, not a shortage of interests.”