Meath musicians honoured with lifetime service awards
Quartet have combined expertise of centuries
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Martin Darby (right) receives his CCE Teastas Award from Bill Slattery.Image 2 of 4
Micheal Clarke receives his Teastas Awards from Niamh Farrelly.Image 3 of 4
Bill Slattery presents a Teastas Award to Thomas Darby.Image 4 of 4
Paddy Reilly is delighted to receive his award and medal from Bill Slattery.by Sean Wall
FOUR Slane-based trad musicians were honoured with lifetime service awards recently for their promotion and playing of traditional Irish music for over the last 70 years.
The Darby brothers, Thomas and Martin, Michael Clarke and Paddy Reilly were the recipients of the awards from Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann at a ceremony in Aras Muileann in Mullingar. The quartet perform at the weekly trad session in the Youth Café in Slane and over the years have featured on RTE's Ceili House as well as concerts all over the country including the Coleman Music Centre in Sligo, the Solstice Arts Centre Navan, and Drumshallon Forge and Heritage Centre.
Thomas and Martin Darby’s music interest began at an early age and along with their brother, Packie, they formed the Darby Brothers Ceili Band in 1955 and were hugely popular all around the north east. The band broke up following the tragic death of Packie in a road traffic accident though Thomas, now 91 years young, and Martin 88, continued on their musical journeys and still perform on a weekly basis.
Fiddle player Paddy Reilly (88) first played with the Oriel Ceili Band from Collon and after that joined the Emerald Ceili Band who featured on Ceili House numerous times. He also played with Dermot O’Brien, Joe Tolan Ceili Band and the Fintan Stanley Ceili Band.
Paddy first featured on a Radio Eireann broadcast from the GPO in Dublin when just a teenager and has performed numerous times on Ceili House since 1954. He still performs with his own band the Tara Ceili, along with Tom Duff, father of country star Mary.
A native of Longford now living in Drumree, Michael Clarke (85) began playing the button accordion at an early age, learning from his father who was also a renowned box player. A long standing member of Comhaltas he has travelled abroad bringing traditional Irish music to places like Japan and Kenya.
He has played on the Gig Rig at All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, featured on Ceili House and still performs three times a week in the Slane and Trim/Dunsany areas.