3rd of December 2024

 

“I started learning harmonica (mouth organ) when I was 7 years old, which led me to learn flute (first classical then Irish some years later), whistle and singing. I learnt about Comhaltas through my record collection when I was 15 years old. I had bought a LP by an Irish composer called Seán Ó Riada and the band Ceoltóirí Chualann from my local shop. I started looking into Ó Riada and this led me to discovering the history of Comhaltas and the Fleadhanna. I had never heard of the organisation before and I was really excited to have found an established community of Traditional Irish music lovers. I started using the Foinn Seisiun tunebooks to learn some tunes to join sessions in my local area.  

 

I didn’t attend my first competition until 2020 when I was 17 years old. It was a very different experience as Covid meant we couldn’t see each other in person and it was strange for everybody involved. I remember being nervous when I started but afterwards I received some great feedback from the adjudicators which really improved my skills.  

 

Being at the All-Britain Fleadh 2024 was great fun and very busy! I really appreciate the opportunity to get to represent the mouth organ, and getting to play alongside many other brilliant musicians. I placed in the following competitions; 2nd for newly composed tunes, 1st for whistle slow air O18, 2nd for flute slow airs O18, 2nd for flute O18, 2nd for whistle O18, 1st for mouth organ O18, and 1st for miscellaneous O18. 

 

Qualifying to the All-Ireland 2024 was a really special thing to happen and going there to compete was certainly intense, but the challenge was a good one. It's really pushed me to improve my playing and to develop my sound into something unique. In the mouth organ competition, there was such a huge variety of playing with people from all over the world coming to play, it felt like a celebration of the instrument, one I'm glad I got to be part of.

 

My advice to competitors would be: make sure you are open to feedback at whatever stage (regional, provincial etc), and get the adjudication sheets sent to you. Having someone evaluate your playing in front of you is not easy, but it's such a rare and valuable opportunity. Choose tunes that have plenty of room for ornamentation, variation, but also ones which show that you have proficiency on the instrument (whether that's a more difficult tune, or one that you know was written on the instrument you play). My final thing would be to make sure you have a steady pulse while you play, because that will help you feel relaxed and confident.

 

I’m so excited that the All-Britain Fleadh 2025 is coming to the Midlands. It’ll be great to have the event close to my home in Bristol. We have amazing events like Birmingham TradFest, Cambridge TradFest25, Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Warwick Folk Festival which shows we have a thriving Folk and Irish Traditional music community here. The Midlands seem to be buzzing with great trad musicians, so it's a fantastic place for a great fleadh next year. 

 

For myself, I have lots of exciting projects and events coming up. I have recently released an EP on Bandcamp called 'Blue Eyed Lover' with lots of Irish (and English) harmonica playing on it. I recently taught and performed at the HarmonicaUK Festival in Birmingham, where I gave lots of people their first introduction to Irish music on the mouth organ. I’m starting to perform regularly, which is a dream come true. So fingers crossed you might see me at your local folk club in the near future!