KIERAN IS AT HEART OF MUSIC SCENE
Gerry McLaughlin chatted to Kieran Quinn, who has done so much for Sligo as a footballer, pianist, podcaster, columnist, dad, Theme Night organiser and more
THE ONE and only Kieran Quinn from Ransboro is a towering “fear fada” or long man of Sligo GAA and a giant in Sligo music circles too. In 2002 he really walked tall on a Sligo team who were very unlucky not to beat eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh in a long, hot summer when the Yeats County came so close to walking in the shadow of paradise. In 2007, Kieran was at midfield for Tommy Breheny’s history-makers, who took the Nestor Cup for the first time in 32 years. Sligo drank deep from the sweet cup of victory.
Two years previously, in 2005, Kieran savoured probably his greatest Gaelic success when he and his native Coolera-Strandhill took their first Sligo county title since 1998, after losing controversially to Bunninadden in 2000 and losing to Eastern Harps after a replay in 2002.
The GAA is a very big part of his identity, as is his parish and his club. But he is also a giant in local music circles.
The ancient Irish would rightly have described the eloquent and affable Kieran as a duine ildánach or a man for all seasons.
He is also a bit of a philosopher, a thoughtful man who is always looking for ways to be better. He wants to help others to be better and to reach their goals, especially through his teaching of piano to the youth of Sligo.
In his pithy, thought-provoking and well-written columns in the Sligo Weekender he is a great promoter of all kinds of music in the town.
He also asks challenging questions on eternal questions: What is success? And how do we achieve a healthy balance in our lives?
Even though he loves that most democratic of instruments, Kieran is so much more than Billy Joel’s cliched ‘Piano Man’.
He is also a songwriter of some renown, releasing four albums and writing countless musical pieces. He’s a real force of nature on the music scene in this town.
What he has done is not easy, but anything really worthwhile never is. Around 2004 Kieran decided to follow his dream, his star. It is a journey that has many more miles to go as he is only in his 41st year.
Kieran has been teaching music to all ages and gigging around Sligo at various venues, playing the piano and performing with top acts like Cathy Jordan, Séamie O’Dowd, Eddie Lee and Sandy Kelly, to name a few. He began by playing gigs in the now sadly closed Source in 2011.
Before the infamous lockdown that began in March 2020, his two most regular venues had been Thomas Connolly and the Hawk’s Well.
Kieran has also run his highly successful Theme Nights at various locations around town and has got all of Sligo’s many top artists to perform at these successful events.
These things don’t just happen, and it takes loads of cajolery, diplomacy and drive to bring it to fruition.
But Kieran is also a very driven person who is very hard to turn down.
His passion for his craft is all encompassing. Look at him playing the lovely Raglan Road on YouTube with Steve Wickham and you’ll know that for him, music is the breath of life.
Listen to Kieran backing Cathy Jordan on the haunting Donal Óg, with Eddie Lee on double bass and the smooth waves of a soothing fiddle and piano accordion. There you can hear all of the anthems of the dispossessed and the fallen in Cathy’s unique voice. For a few years Kieran has been putting out a podcast with Luke Devaney and Rory Maitland called In The Lamplight.
When you are hit with the stunning “No More You And Me” with Cathy’s vocals and Kieran’s searing piano on the podcast the only word is “wow”.
KIERAN has brought his Theme Nights to Vicar Street in Dublin and packed out that famous venue. The Theme Nights have been very popular in Sligo. During the lockdown, Kieran brought the show online, with some really standout pieces, including a marvellous reggae version of Spancil Hill with the gifted Mark Kennedy. This busy, restless spirit is also a keen blogger and has his own music website entitled Kieran Quinn Music. He appeared in the magnificent Ken Loach film Jimmy’s Hall, a great tribute to the socialist Jimmy Gralton. Kieran was born in Perth in Australia in 1980.
His father, Dr Roddy Quinn, was a “flying doctor”.
His mother Colleen Bresnihan (a sister of Irish rugby international Barry Bresnihan), who is still a practising psychotherapist, moved there in the 1970s for an “adventure”.
Kieran said: “I was born in Perth and
Conor, my brother, in Alice Springs. “Dad would go up in a plane – he covered an area 10 times the size of Ireland or something crazy like that. He just headed off to whoever needed him, that was his gig.”
The family came back to Ireland in 1982, so Kieran has no memories of his Australian childhood. But he went back to Oz when he was 18 and lived there for a year.
He said: “It was an exchange between my school, Clongowes Wood, and an Australian school. It was a great experience – a brilliant year.”
Kieran remembers his first day in national school, where Mrs Petit was the teacher.
He said: “I was sitting beside Barry Kilfeather, who still loves locally, at the back of the class.
“I remember my first GAA match for Coolera-Strandhill when I was only nine, pulling on the jersey at an U-9 blitz at the Cemetery Pitch at St John’s, with St Mary’s and Calry.
“I was named at midfield on that team, and it was great.
“Eamon Mullin, John McPartland Snr and Tom Gilligan were the main men behind the team and of course John McPartland Jnr was just two years older than me.
“I remember in 1996 when I was U-16 and John Jnr’s team were in the Minor county final.
“They had a good team, with John Jnr, Karl Gilligan, Neil Jones and Barry Doyle. I was called up. I had not played much Gaelic as it was all rugby at Clongowes.
“We were playing Curry in the final. They had Seán Davey, Kevin Giblin and Kenneth Morley and they were excellent. It was a great battle in Ballymote and they won by a point. And that was the day I fell in love with Gaelic football.”
Strangely enough, Kieran was
playing corner-back on that momentous day.
He said: “It was the only time I ever played corner-back and Tony Waters was right wing back just ahead of me. “It was a great game on a summer’s evening.
“We lost but I had not been all that connected or invested in the team at that stage. That changed in later years when I became more attached, and it was a really emotional thing and helped to give me a great sense of identity.”
“I put on the senior jersey for the first time in the summer of 1999. I made my debut against Shamrock Gaels for the last 10 minutes.”
“It was great to come back home to the club as I had been away at school for years and everyone was very welcoming.”
At Clongowes, Kieran kept Gordon D’Arcy off the U-13 team for three weeks. He played at centre and on the wing, but feels he was “too skinny to play competitively”.
He said: “In 1998 Clongowes won the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior Cup, but I was not near the senior team.”
BUT KIERAN’S return to his roots coincided with a strong revival in the fortunes of Coolera-Strandhill. He said: “That was the start of a really good team.
“In 2000 we got to the county senior final and a controversial last-minute goal from Bunninadden deprived us of the county title.
“We were winning by a point, and they got a last-minute free and we thought it was the last kick of the game.
“I can still see as I was standing in front of Fergal O’Flaherty, who was taking the free.
“The ball dropped short. I thought, it is dropping short, happy days, we are going to win this match.
“All of a sudden the ball comes back out to Bunninadden’s Pádraig Doohan, who punched the ball to the net on the volley.
“We genuinely thought the game was over, but it did not happen.
“That was terribly disappointing, and it was a big blow to us.
“It had been the club’s first final in many years, and we were a very young team. I was only 20 and a lot of the other lads were in their early 20s. We had a good team but that was a big knock back.”
“I played in four finals over the following years – 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2011.”
The sweet victory over Curry in 2005 was a high point in Kieran’s GAA career.
He said: “It was the club’s first win in 98 years. We had lost in 2000 and then taken a very good Eastern Harps team to a replay before losing again in 2002. “In 2000 and 2002 we had Declan McCabe and Michael Harte managing us. In 2005 it was Alan Kelly from Mayo who was player-manager. He works at IT Sligo.”
“There were huge celebrations. It was more relief than anything.
“I had been midfield along with Con O’Mara and we had Stephen Carty and Niall Carew.”
Kieran’s last county final was in 2011, but Coolera-Strandhill were well beaten by Tourlestrane.
On the county scene he first played for Sligo’s U-21s in March 2000. He said: “We had a good team in those years. We had the likes of Patrick Naughton, Michael Langan, Brendan Phillips, Conor O’Grady, Liam Óg Gormley and Karl O’Neill.” He played again the following season for the U-21 team and made his senior debut in June 2000 against Galway in the second-half, when Sligo were well beaten.
In those years, Kieran had good friends and mentors in John McPartland Jnr, who was a few years older and, Kieran said, “looked after me”.
Kieran said: “On the county scene it was Eamonn O’Hara and Paul Durcan but I was also looking for a midfield slot so there was a fair bit of competition. I got a few runs at midfield.” Kieran’s debut was in the last year of Mickey Moran’s management. Peter Ford arrived in 2001 and gave this young side some real momentum. Kieran said: “2001 was a big one and that great victory over Kildare in Croke Park was a real turning point. “It was wonderful. There were people crying with joy. It was just magic. “We had gone down to 14 men and they were the reigning Leinster champions. It was a massive win for Sligo and it was the first time we had worn the black jerseys.”
Of course, Eamonn O’Hara was at the peak of his powers at that time. Kieran said: “He was phenomenal and of course we had a great run that year. Tyrone were seven points up in the first-half, but we had a great team in Dessie Sloyan, Paul Taylor and Gerry McGowan up front with myself, John McPartland and Dara McGarty in the half-forwards.
“Then you had the likes of Eamonn O’Hara and Paul Durcan in midfield. “We also had a very good defence in Johnny Curran, Niall Carew,
Nigel Clancy, Brendan Phillips, Noel McGuire, Patrick Naughton and Pádraig Doohan. Seán Davey was a powerhouse. Nigel Clancy and David Durkin were there too.
Those mighty men in black certainly gave Sligo a summer to be proud of. Kieran said: “It was a big, strong, physical side and well able to hold their own.
“We drew with Armagh the first day after being behind. I was marking Kieran McGeeney for a while. We were able for them physically.
“I did not know much about Armagh, and I asked to get a look at video of them at the time.”
It was then on to Navan for the replay and controversy again when Seán Davey seemed to have been pulled down for a penalty that was not given and Armagh won by two points. Kieran said: “I remember at the time thinking that it was a penalty as four or five Armagh lads brought him to the ground in the square.
“I don’t know how the referee decided it was not a penalty.
“It was an opportunity missed and even without the penalty we missed a few goal chances and hit the post. We were right up there with the AllIreland champions.
“I was a bit too young to realise how close we were – I was just riding a wave. But people like Eamonn O’Hara knew exactly how big a deal this was and the chance that was missed.
“He had put everything into it. The thing about Eamonn was that he had great belief.
“He had us believing that we were going to beat Armagh and that we were going to play the Dubs in Croke Park. But we just did not make it.” How did Kieran feel when the whistle went?
He said: “It was not the same crushing disappointment of the county final of 2000, when we were winning and the game was snatched away from us. “We were always a bit behind, and it was slightly numb. The realisation was that this great summer had come to an end – that magical summer was gone. Sunny days that you just did not want to end.”
Kieran was not involved for much of that season as he was doing his final exams in philosophy and psychology.
HE SAID: “I was not a big thinker about the game. I wish that maybe I did think about aspects of the game a bit more. “The GAA did so much for me. I had lost touch with a lot of people in Sligo, being away at school for six years and then in Australia for a year as well. “I came back to Sligo in 1999 not really having many relationships or friendships here.
“All of a sudden, through CooleraStrandhill first and then Sligo, I had a whole new bunch of friends. People knew who you were when you walked down the street and I guess that you had a bit of standing around the place as a footballer.
“Coming from where I had been a few years previously and wondering what was I going to do, or if I was going to live here, it gave me roots.
“I am grateful to the GAA for that. I live here and am married here and am very much part of the community through football and music of course. “It all started with the GAA and only for it I could easily have ended up living somewhere else. But it the pride I have in my county and the love that I have for my area certainly started with the GAA.”
When Kieran left college, he worked at a job selling rented houses in Dublin for a while.
Apart from the glory of winning
a county title in 2005 with Coolera, Kieran experienced more great glory when he was at midfield with Eamonn O’Hara when Sligo won their first Connacht senior title since 1975. Kieran said: “We lost a Connacht final in 2002 and by the time we got to 2007 I got it how important it was to win it.
“I came back in 2007. Tommy Breheny came in and he had very clear ideas.
“A few more lads like Michael McNamara came back and I got the feeling that it was going to be a big year for Sligo. I got involved early on – I was around 27 then.
“We beat New York and then Roscommon in Hyde Park and then the final was in Hyde Park against Galway.
“You know we nearly threw that match away, we missed so many close-in frees and let Galway back into it and it was a very tense finish.
‘But in fairness to O’Hara he got a great goal with the left foot – an amazing goal. It put us ahead and gave us the belief to close it out. And we just about did that.
“Eamonn was good to play with and my job was to hold the fort and make a screen in front of the defence. He had the licence to move forward.”
Galway had a late opportunity but Ja Fallon missed the chance to level matters for Galway. While it was not clear on the TV, Kieran says he always knew it was going wide.
He said: “I was right beside him and I could see immediately that it was going wide so that was a real relief. That was magic.
“It took is 98 years to end the famine with Coolera and now this our county of Sligo ending a 32-year famine. “That was huge. I remember trying to get to the dressing-room because my back was killing me from everyone just slapping it.
“It was a good complaint. The Sligo people just took over the pitch. “There was huge emotion. I just wanted to find my family and my friends because I knew it was a big moment in my life. You wanted to share it with those who are close to you.”
The celebrations were suitably epic. Kieran said: “On the Sunday night we all went into Toffs. The music just stopped, and nobody moved. We just sang songs for about half an hour. “That was just amazing. Then we went to Easkey, where our captain Noel McGuire is from. We went to Gurteen. We watched the match in the
Strand in Strandhill to start off the Monday. It was a hectic but a great few days.
“These things are worth celebrating.”
Another thing that Kieran celebrates is his great passion for music and promoting it in truly innovative ways in and around Sligo – especially the piano.
Kieran had played music as a child but gave up the piano at 12 as he did not like the way he was being taught.
HE SAID: “I came back to it when I was around 15 or 16. “I remember being in an Irish class one day and hearing bass line of ‘With Or Without You’. I remember working it out in my head and recognising notes in my head. “I had been taught from sheet music and I had never done this before. All of a sudden, in this Irish class, I said to myself, if this note is a D then the next one is an A. It completely blew my mind.
“So I could work it out. I ran up to the piano after the Irish class and tested out the notes that had been in my head and tried them out on the piano. It was pure elation when I found out that I was correct.
“It was a musical ear. I teach piano now and I try to get pupils to work notes out by ear as much as possible. “That lit the fuse, and I just went on from there.”
“None of my family were into music and I thought that in order to make a living from music you either had to be Bono or teach music in school.
“I did not want to be a music teacher in a school and the chances of being Bono were slim enough.
“At the age of 24 in 2004 after college I saw an ad in the Irish Times for a professional musician training course at Newpark in south Co. Dublin.
“For the first time I thought, right, that’s something I could do.
“It was brilliant, and it opened my eyes and my ears as to what was possible with music and playing with other people.
“I had never played in a band with other people before, so it was all very fresh and new to me.
“It blew my mind – it was another real eureka moment.
“I met people there like Dave Flynn and Steve Coleman who have moved to Sligo and are playing here, and that was great.
“Dave was more experienced than me and showed me how to lead a gig
“Cathy Jordan came to me and suggested doing something special for Christmas. It was a great idea. That was the first Theme Night at the end of 2011”
and front a gig. I learnt bits and pieces from him and other, lads and I decided I would move back to Sligo to get gigs. “I came home in 2005. I put an ad in the Sligo Weekender for piano students and I approached the Strand Bar for a gig.
“I taught the pupils in their houses in the beginning.
“I was given a gig on a Tuesday evening. I had a residency in the Strand Bar for the summer.
“There was two of us in it. Peter O’Grady played guitar. We did Steely Dan, U2, Paul Simon, the Saw Doctors and Tom Waits. We did Billy Joel, Elton John and the Beatles. It was very enjoyable.”
KIERAN’S pupil numbers grew, and he was teaching the piano in a different way – to play by ear. He said: “It grew. I met Eddie Lee and Ken McDonald. I played in the Coolera Pantomime Band with them in the Coolera Drama Group.
“We formed a jazz trio and that was my first band in Sligo.
“It was called the Odd Couple. I later played in another band called Anything Goes with Dave Flynn and Sinéad Conway.
“Eddie is a brilliant musician and the jazz festival he puts on every year is a world-class event. It has influenced so many young musicians. “I am still teaching. I have a place in Strandhill. The students are literally from nine to 90.
“I have enough pupils to keep me going. I know that if I teach too much, I will burn out, so I need a balance with the playing.”
These days, the hugely talented Séamie O’Dowd is Kieran’s main musical partner.
Kieran he also runs his very successful Theme Nights, which are now nearly 10 years old.
“It started in Source. I had a Thursday night residency there and I got a different person in with me every week. That introduced me to so many great musicians. Cathy Jordan, Séamie and Joe Hunt would come in and play with me in Source on a Thursday night.
“Coming to the end of 2011 Cathy Jordan said to me, as I’d had a lot of people in over the year, what about doing something special for Christmas? She asked me if I would invite them all in to sing a song each.
“I thought that was a great idea. The theme was Christmas songs and that was the first one.
“We had a house band and we had a few from the audience as well.
“The second one we did was all Tom Waits just before the end of December of that year. It was very popular too.” “When Source closed, we went to the Velvet Rooms, which is down by the river.
“Since then, we have been in a lot of different places, but the Hawk’s Well has been our spiritual home. We’ve been in IT Sligo’s Knocknarea Arena, outside in the car park in Stephen Street, and we did one in Vicar Street and sold it out. It has a capacity of 1,000 people, so it was really encouraging.
“We’ve done Michael Jackson, the Beatles, film music, Paul Simon, big band music, songs linked with sport, and Irish songs.
“I pick a theme, book a band – usually a big band with a string, horn and choir section – and I invite singers to come in and perform a song each according to whatever theme it is. “Cathy Jordan, Sandy Kelly, Séamie O’Dowd, Sinead Conway, Joe Hunt and Paddy Callaghan are all regulars. It’s a who’s who of local musicians – they all come in and do their bit.
“The other great thing about it is that we ask new people, ones who would not be all that well known, and this gives them a chance to show what they can do.
“Sligo has loads of people who work in other jobs and are also amazing singers and that is something that is really exciting.
“I do Theme Nights for teenagers as well. It is a great launching pad for them to get up on a stage with a professional band and showcase their talents. “We have done 27 Theme Nights for adults and we did 22 teen Theme Nights. They are becoming well known.”
Kieran loves the challenge and the variety of the project. He said: “I like all types of music. Billy Joel and Elton John are two of my favourites – we did some nights on these artists which were very popular.
“We did a night at the Grand Ole Opry, a country music night. It was a really fantastic night as there is so much interest in country music. We also did Elvis. The variety is really great.
“It takes a lot of work and organisation, and you need space in your life for other stuff as well. I would not do any more than three a year.’
Kieran also gigs and teaches. He was gigging with Séamie O’Dowd in Connolly’s on Monday nights before the pandemic and has also played with John Joe Kelly and Cathal Roche. Kieran is a long-time fan of jazz but he said he does not play as much as he would like. He said: “My first band here was a jazz band. But I love all types of music and if it is good music with good people then I’m there.
“The piano is a great instrument. It is a great instrument to learn on because you can see the whole notes in front of you and you can put the whole puzzle of music together. That is very good for a young person starting out to play music. You can play melody and chords. It has a great range.”
How has the lockdown affected Kieran and the Theme Nights?
He said: “We have had a few adult and teen Theme Nights online and that brought different challenges.”
Kieran also started a podcast, In The Lamplight, in October 2020 as a way of meeting people, chatting to them and playing a few tunes without an audience.
He said: “We are just so keen to play, and this is a way of doing it.
“So it is a bit of fun. We have had Leo Moran of the Saw Doctors, we’ve had Niamh Crowley and others I’ve already mentioned.
“It is a big selection of local musicians having a chat and playing a few tunes. We have done about 30 episodes since last October.
“It is great way of getting across to people. Ocean FM are broadcasting it as well so it is getting out to a lot more people that way.”
Kieran was back doing some face-toface lessons with pupils last summer, but it was on Zoom for a while.
HE SAID: “We are hoping that when we come back this time it will be for good.” Kieran is very well-known in and around Sligo – as is his wife, Sinéad Maguire, who is a Fine Gael county councillor.
Sinéad is a native of the Blacklion area and is a first cousin of the chef Neven Maguire. She is also a solicitor. Kieran said: “We both had moved back from Dublin to Sligo at around the same time and we would not have known each other.
“We met after a gig one night with the Odd Couple in 2007. I’ve slagged her that she was alerted by some friends that there was this fellow that played the piano, and that she should go and check him out.
“It was in McGarrigle’s in O’Connell Street. We had a gig upstairs. I met Sinéad at the bar afterwards and we got chatting and one thing led to another. “I think we had a lock-in after that gig with a few friends. Sinéad was living in Strandhill too and by the time we got a taxi home it was getting bright. We said we would keep the party going and went for a walk on the beach.
“That was a few months after we won the Connacht title, but Sinéad was not into football really.
“We got married in Blacklion and had our reception in Neven Maguire’s. “Sinéad has a great grá for the Irish language.”
Kieran and Sinéad have two children – Nixie, who is 10, and Tom, who is six. They are starting to play football and Kieran is now involved with Tom’s U-7 team.
KIERAN said: “I started coaching with them in the past few weeks. It is great to see all the kids out enjoying themselves.” This is also a way for Kieran to re-connect with the club. Both Nixie and Tom are very keen on GAA. Kieran has a great mix in his life between two very creative forces, sport and music.
He said: “It is a great mix. Obviously you want to stay healthy with exercise. And for me, with a creative mind, if I am not writing columns or blogs or songs or music or collaborating with others I would know it in myself – I would not be in top form.
“You try to figure it out. It is about keeping a balance in life between the projects that pay a few quid and the things you love doing and satisfy you creatively.
“It is important to create and to share what you create. Even if people out there don’t like it, it is better being out there with the world for some people to like it than for it to be stuck within yourself.
“It is better to express these things and get them out. I have put out lots of things from blogs and columns and songs, and some of them are not great. “I have released four albums and an EP. In 2013 the first album was ‘Not Just Black and White’. In 2015 it was ‘The Next One’. In 2017 it was an album with Séamie O’Dowd called ‘Melodic Reflection’ and an EP called ‘Our Place’. “There is a variety with some songs. Piano instrumentals with different artists featured on them all. There was some trad.
“When you are working for yourself you have to be creative in lots of ways. While there is no money in albums I still think it is important to release them.
“They are on CD. The last one was a solo piano album called ‘A Year Of Wednesdays’ in 2019.”
Kieran not only writes the music – he writes the lyrics too. It is “all my own”, he says.
He also enjoys writing a weekly column with the Sligo Weekender.
He said: “It is sitting down each week to reflect and think and put your thoughts down on paper in a coherent way about music or football or Sligo. “It is 400 or 500 words, and it is a lovely thing to have in your week.” Kieran and Sinéad have very different jobs but they share a common love of music.
“Sinéad always says that musicians are no good unless they are heard. “She would be at a gig every night in the week if she could. She is involved in the Theme Night choir and she is a lovely singer.
“Life is busy but we manage it. The pandemic has been no harm for slowing down and taking stock.”
Kieran is very glad that Sligo has so many musicians per square foot.
HE SAID: “Sligo is great. It is a melting pot of creativity and culture. It is great to be involved in the scene here. You can’t go wrong when you have so many great musicians around you – you will always be stimulated and always be challenged. There will always be something new to do or someone new to play with. And long may it last.
“Sligo seems to attract all sorts of artists, which is great too.
“We have the mountains and the water and the Yeats connection.
“We have theatres and pubs that support music and places to learn music – there is very good support for music here.”
Keep the lamp of culture lit, Kieran.
Read Kieran’s Sligo Weekender column – and find out about his new weekly email letter – on page 24
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