Comhaltas Kids

 Because of the devious nature of Gaelic orthograpy, the word comhaltas is not pronounce anything like you would expect it to be. It sounds like 'coal-tass' to me, or possibly 'coultice', to rhyme with poultice, 

The comhaltas is the first part of the name of the organisation CCE (comhaltas ceoltóirí éireann) and the general translation is something like 'society/organisation of Irish Musicians. Wikipedia renders it as 'Society of the Musicians of Ireland'. But apparently the comhaltas  part is actually more like 'joint fosterage' as it emphasises how the members are trying to foster, protect and promote our music.

We were comhaltas kids. We grew up in Leeds and our father John 'Jack' Gillard was part of the group that set up a CCE Branch there. My father taught fiddle, Mick Hurley's father Michael taught whistle and flute, and John Ferguson taught piano accordian (brilliantly, I might add) . I believe Maureen Dwyer was our source of button accordion inspiration. 

So many of us were playing from nine or ten, and when we were into our early teens we had gone past the neophyte stage, especially when we dimly realised that this music would give us access to pubs. In fact we took to our moutons so well that we won the All-Ireland Ceili band contest for our age group two years in a row, in 1973 and 1974. That is us in the photo at the top.

And being a comhaltas kid was fun, is fun, and sticks with you. There are people that we played with as teenagers who are well into their sixties and still playing occasionally together. Some of us drop off the branch, but many are still left. And you can usually recognise a comhaltas kid, even many years later. 

We have a remarkable tenderness for ceili band playing, which many other Irish musicians anathematize. My brother jokes: "How do you know when there's a ceili band at the door?" "Two taps and they all come in!" We also have all the old tunes and pairs of tunes that were lifted off records from the Tulla, the Siamsa and various other ceili bands. I can't play the Salamanca without wanting to go straight into the Sailor's Bonnet.

And comhaltas kids know their music and - even if they have dropped playing years ago - they can get back into it and dig out all the tunes that slipped into them before adolescence did. It was a present from our parents and grandparents. We knew that it made them happy but I well know how happy it has made me over the years, and am proud to be a comhaltas kid.