Matt’s ‘visit’ was a welcome break from our current woes

Country Matters with Francis Farragher

I’m still unsure as to whether or not I’m going to wake up from what seems to be an eerie dream. Surely, this couldn’t be the reality . . . deserted streets in the very heart of Galway city at normally peak times . . . country pubs as dark as coal with not a drop of porter spilled on the floor . . . deserted pews in the local church . . . and a near shock reaction when you tell someone that you’re going off to work in the morning.

If it’s a dream, well the alarm hasn’t gone off yet to rouse me from my slumber and I fear that there won’t be any awakening from the nightmare for at least a month – or even longer – but here and there, little unexpected nuggets of consolation tend to turn up.

Watching TG4 on a Saturday night would never be on by weekend entertainment list. Saturday is always a great day for odd-jobbing around the farm, having a good scrub in the evening, then take in a ‘shot of religion’ with the evening Mass, before rounding off the day with a couple of pints and a game of 25. Here and there, a song or two might feature on the agenda.

But these are different times, and on the Saturday night after St. Patrick’s Day as I perched down on the armchair, I saw the name of Matt Cunningham flashing up on the TG4 screen, and it brought back memories of his many trips to Annagh National School near Ballyglunin, where once-a-week, he would impart his knowledge of ceili music to my children and many more who liked to ‘have a go’ on the tin whistle, accordion or even the violin.

Matt mightn’t have been a qualified teacher in the strictest definition of the word, but he was blessed with a mildness of temperament that made him probably the easiest person in the world to learn the very basics of Irish music from . . . never forceful or demanding but always trying to nurture a natural grá in the young for the music of their forefathers.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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