Memories of Boys of Ballisodare Festival and Jargon resonate from Charlie McGettigan’s memoir
CHARLIE McGettigan’s years with Jargon, are fondly recalled in his recently published memoir, ‘Forever A Rock ‘N’ Roll Kid’. While there was a strong Sligo influence in Jargon and they played Sligo town and county venues regularly, McGettigan’s roots were in Donegal and latterly in Leitrim, but Sligo and its venues and people were very much part of his music journey and references to fellow musicians from the county are littered liberally through this recently published book.
‘Forever A Rock ‘N’ Roll Kid’ parcels up dozens of memories about the music industry of the north west in the 1970s and 1980s in particular, from his early days playing in Bundoran, to ‘Jargon’ gigs and later years playing with Maura O’Connell. All of this long before Eurovision success with Paul Harrington.
This memoir puts a focus on the bands and the music of an era where folk music held sway. His partnership with Harrington for which he will be remembered on a national stage, is an important part of his success and brought him to audiences across Europe and beyond.
‘Forever A Rock ‘N’ Roll Kid’ also deals with issues he faced up to as a teenager, in particular the brutal abuse meted out to him and fellow students while he attended De La Salle College in Ballyshannon, where he grew up. His observations on that part of his life are difficult but compelling reading.
In the memoir he devotes several chapters in full or part to his time with Jargon and recalls playing at one of the first Ballisodare Folk Festivals and at venues in Sligo town and county that in some cases are long gone, but others remain very part of the Sligo music scene. In the early years Jargon was a duo, McGettigan and his close friend Eamonn Daly, but band members changed, and the band members also increased, although for a spell it was still a duo, Charlie and Brendan Emmett from Ballyfarnon and in due course they were joined by Gerry Grennan, a brother of a legend around the Sligo folk scene, Tommy Grennan. Liam Gilmartin, who lived in Jink’s Avenue, a friend of Gerry’s, would in the course of time also join the band.
McGettigan writes: “Tommy Grennan was a great bouzouki player, and also made his own musical instruments. Gerry was his brother, and bit by bit, we got to know him and to appreciate his guitar and bouzouki style, which he had obviously learned from Tommy.
“One highlight was when we were asked to play at the Ballisodare Folk Festival, possibly the first reallybig summer festival in Ireland.
“It was the most terrifying gig of my life thus far,” but a piece of advice from legendary folk singer Dave Van Ronk who told him, “Don’t forget to enjoy it” as he walked out to play before 8,000 people at Ballisodare has stayed with him for his musical career: “We went on stage and started to play, and the crowd’s reaction was
Attendees at the Boys of Ballisodare Festival in the 1970s. great. I really enjoyed that night, so ever since, before I perform, I remind myself ‘Don’t forget to enjoy it’.”
You can read the stories of the hard work and dedication that brought him musical success to give us a snapshot of the heady days of the folk scene in Ireland in the 1970s and the 1980s, when the country seemed to be full of folk and ballad groups vying for a slice of the action. If ever the old adage of achieving overnight success after thirty years of hard graft applied to anybody, it surely applies to Charlie.
While now mainly associated at a national level with the Eurovision winning song Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids which he performed with Paul Harrington, McGettigan was a familiar face and more to the point a familiar voice on the Sligo singing scene in the mid to late 1970s and thereafter as a solo performer.
Sligo readers will enjoy his memories of playing in venues such as Heneghan’s and Beezies: “We had been playing quite a bit around Sligo in places like Coolera House, Heneghan’s and Beezies. Coolera House was the stomping ground of a great band called Pumpkinhead, which featured the late Thom Moore and his wife Kathy, as well as Rick and Sandi Epping.”
Writing about how the band recruited Liam Gilmartin he recalls how band member Gerry Grennan had a friend who lived around the corner from him in Jink’s Avenue. “His name was Liam Gilmartin. Although he was a really good lead guitarist, I asked him would he be interested in playing with Jargon? Luckily, he was interested, although I think when he saw me he probably wondered what he would have in common with an aging hippy.”
Gilmartin, he writes, gave Jargon “a complete line-up”.
Other stories revolve around the band’s success in various song contests which were hugely popular at the time and a song synonymous with the group ‘Bailieboro and Me’ which saw them win the Letterkenny Song Contest and come second in the Cavan Song contest put them on the map with regular radio and considerable television work following.
Throughout its 151 pages Charlie McGettigan, who is from Ballyshannon but now calls Drumshanbo home, turns hundreds of little stories and memories into print with little difficulty. It is an easy read broken into 51 chapters, some of them no more than two or three pages, and allows you to dip in and dip out if you so wish. In another clever twist that adds real value he includes QR codes you can scan and download and listen to 26 of his songs and he has selected songs which are very relevant to the chapter you will have read. All in all, if you read a chapter and then listen to a song via the QR code and your smartphone, it is a complete experience. For Ballyshannon and Bundoran people in particular, the book works on another level, it is a potted but fascinating social history of Ballyshannon (and to an extent Bundoran) in the 1950s, ‘60s and beyond.
His childhood and teenage years are recalled with a mixture of joy and sadness, they were the best of times, but he doesn’t shy away either from issues or difficulties encountered along the way, in particular the brutality of some of the De La Salle brothers in Ballyshannon. His student days at De La Salle were laced with trauma.
Charlie writes how one of the Brothers was moved swiftly from the school when it was discovered by the parents of a student attending the school that their son was one of a number of students who had been sexually assaulted by the Brother.
The brutality of two other De La Salle brothers is referenced by Charlie. In a chapter entitled: “Scary Times with the De La Salle Brothers,” he writes how he and other students were “beaten black and blue”. He describes his school days at De La Salle as “the most traumatic and terrifying years” of his life.
“The fear and terror of those days has always stayed with me, and I know now what a negative experience it was for any kid at that time. I guess the fun we had outside school hours was what saved our sanity. That’s the important thing …… “Corporal punishment continued right up until leaving Cert when it became more embarrassing than painful. I remember in Leaving Cert getting six of the best in front of the class because I refused to shave off a moustache that I had lovingly created over a period of weeks. I was a good six inches taller than the Brother, who administered the punishment, and I could have knocked him sideways with one punch, but still I stood and took it. I often wonder why I did, at that age.
“Nothing like this would happen in today’s schools, thankfully! In fact, during my entire education, fear is what I mostly recall. I look at my grandchildren these days, looking forward to going to school, without a worry or care. It is tremendous that they can.”
However, he acknowledges too that there were many wonderful teachers at the school, some of them Brothers, others lay teachers, but clearly his school years were traumatic.
A musical journey, full of unexpected stories and observations, McGettigan’s ‘Forever A Rock ‘N’ Roll Kid’ is much more than you might expect and it has a local and national feel to it that should offer added interest to Sligo readers. ‘Forever A Rock ‘N’ Roll Kid’ is for sale in bookshops across the north west and nationwide or you can also buy it online, just google the book’s name and you’ll arrive at a link to buy it.
By Sinead Moran
BUSINESSES in Sligo’s coastal communities are being encouraged to apply for the Brexit Blue Economy Enterprise Development Scheme, with funding of up to €200,000 available for Renewable Energy Initiatives.
Under the scheme, blue economy businesses operating within 10 kilometres of the coastline are being encouraged to go green and can apply for funding to support plans for controlling their energy costs and improving their sustainability.
With rising energy costs, renewable energy initiatives are a smart solution to reducing our carbon footprint, cutting costs, and improving energy security to enable development today without risking that of future generations.
With €25 million available, the aim of the scheme is to stimulate growth in rural coastal communities post-Brexit.
The scheme is an initiative of the Government of Ireland and the European Union. It is being administered by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) and delivered through Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs). Brenda O’Riordan, BIM Regional Officer, said the scheme has already received some promising and innovative proposals across a range of blue economy businesses from seafood, coastal tourism, boat building and repair, to marine leisure and sport.
“Given spiralling energy costs we’re seeing
Mullaghmore is one of several coastal communities which could benefit.
a lot of interest from a wide breadth of blue economy businesses across Ireland’s coastal communities, particularly those, looking to go green,” she said.
“From fishmongers putting photo-voltaic units on the roof of the business to supply power, and charter boat business upgrading their engines to hybrid/electric, to seafood companies looking at lighting, heating and refrigeration upgrades.
“With these grants, blue economy
businesses can start to take greater control of their energy costs and become more sustainable by helping to reduce emissions and the impact on our environment.”
The largest of its kind ever, the scheme is open to three streams of projects as follows: Capital Investment; Business Mentoring & Capacity Development; Upskilling & Training. Sligo businesses that wish to get involved in this scheme should register their interest online at www.bim.ie.
TRIBUTES have been paid to the late Eileen Blighe, a former teacher at Ballinode Community College.
Eileen, a native of Carrigan in Co. Cavan and late of Drumcliffe, was a guidance counsellor at the secondary school in the 1970s and 1980s and she also worked in Grange Post Primary School for a brief period.
In a post on social media, Ballinode Community
College said: “On behalf of the staff and past pupils of Ballinode Community College we would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the late Eileen Blighe, a former career guidance teacher in our school. May she rest in peace.”
Eileen’s funeral mass was in St Coca’s Church, Kilcock, on Thursday followed by burial in Drumcliffe Cemetery.