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Came across this while driving to glenties this morning from lifford. Memorializing Mickey Doherty I think






The message suggests he did something mighty to a panda. I might be getting that wrong...

This monument is built in the shape of the gable end of a traditional cottage and is built on the site of a locally famous incident where Mickey had a close brush with death. Before Ireland gained Independence from Britain the Black and Tans were patrolling the area and a very strict military curfew was in force. Mickey was out on the road since he made his living as a travelling tinsmith. He timed things rather badly that night though and was caught out after curfew. He heard the Black and Tan’s truck on the road and figured out who it must be and hid in a culvert under the road. The Black and Tans spotted him however and pulled him out from his hiding place. He protested his innocence of any wrongdoing and since a tinsmith on the face of it did not seem to be a threat to the British Empire, they told him to prove who he was. So on the spot Mickey got out his toolkit and made a tin mug or pandai as they are called locally. This monument to Mickey Doherty is built on the spot where this incident happened. Josie Campbell has carved a stone fiddle which is set into this tribute to a local musical hero.

Several items made by Mickey Doherty are in the collection of the National Museum in Castlebar, including a mug/pandai : here

Aha. That makes sense. Thank you

I struggle mightily with the Gaelic languages, but what I gather from the inscription is this:

In memory of
Mhici Shímí Ó Dochartaigh
(Late?) fiddler of Donegal
At this bridge made
He the mug that saved
His skin

Fellowship of fiddlers
1986

Here we have Mickey Doherty telling a story and playing the Fairy Reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRVz2TJElVU
Mickey was part of a sizeable family of fiddlers and itinerant tinsmiths travelling around Donegal. They were all quite tall with a distinctive craggy look about them. There is a TG4 video of Johnny Doherty, showing him making a piece of tinware on a cottagers doorstoop, and later playing the fiddle in the evening. You can see the striking family resemblance between the two men.
It was one of the Doherty´s who made the famous ´tin-fiddle´ now in a museum. Quite a family.

Bob

an seanduine wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:39 pm It was one of the Doherty´s who made the famous ´tin-fiddle´ now in a museum. Quite a family.

The brass fiddle on the cover of the 'Brass fiddle' lp was made by Frank and John Cassidy, Teelin fiddlers.



I have seen a few brass fiddles, they sound a bit dull, like a regular fiddle with a mute. Have a pic of Michael Kelleher playing one at a street vendor's.

[fixed image link

Here is a discussion of John Doherty´s tin fiddle: https://thesession.org/discussions/43595
And of course the album by Damien McGeehan : The Tin Fiddle
images here: https://imgur.com/a/XD9myLd
One such fiddle, ascribed to John ¨Tae¨ Doherty is said to be in The Riverside Museum, Glasgow.

Hadn´t heard of a ´brass fiddle´ before, Peter. Thank you.

The TG4 video is Fiddler on the Road in 5 parts is up on YouTube.

Bob

an seanduine wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 3:39 pm
Hadn´t heard of a ´brass fiddle´ before, Peter. Thank you.

Bob

Sorry, my previous post was a sort of half formed thought that launched probablty before its time.

The 'brass fiddle" album was the first major compilation of Donegal music of the 1980s. A classic. It's cover image also first introduced many of us to the notion of metal fiddles. And to the older Donegal fiddlers, for that matter.

That particular one was made during the 1920s so it would pre date Johnny Doherty's fiddle making although his father may have been at it at the time. It was reportedly made from a brass drum that washed up on the shore.

I don't think in Ireland many metal fiddles were found outside Donegal although there was a variety of home made instruments all over, box or 'Russian' fiddles and all that. People who couldn't afford instruments often made up things from what they had. I remember a farmer turning up at Eugene Lambe's who had made a set of pipes out of all sorts of bits and tractor parts found around the farm.

I have been knocking this around a bit today and came up with Caoimhín Mac Aoidh's doctoral thesis, 'The Metal Fiddle Tradition of Donegal' and a bit of a website connected to it: The Metal Fiddle Tradition of Donegal. If you're into that sort of thing, ofcourse.


Here's the image I mentioned in an earlier post. I remember it as at least partly brass but it was thirty years ago :

John ¨Tae¨ Doherty

Wasn't 'the Tae' a Gallagher?


As to roadside memorials. statues, plaques and that sort of thing dedicated to traditional musicians : a few years ago I had some exchanges with Verena Cummins @ NUIG who was gathering information on them and was mapping them from all over the country. It's interesting stuff, or it can be. I wouldn't pass one without taking a snap and trying to find out a bit more.

Exactly what I did!