Music legend Johnny Connolly laid to rest

There were few people who played music with such joy and with such a welcoming air as Connemara melodeon player Johnny Connolly whose death occurred last week.

Johnny Phádraic Phíotair, as he was known locally, was born on the small island of Inis Bearachain in Leitir Mór and that’s where he first began playing the single-row melodeon, as a child in his parents’ house.

He emigrated to Preston, England, for work in his late teens before returning to Ireland in 1976 with his Mayo-born wife Patricia and young family. The Connollys settled in Cor-Na-Rón Láir, Indreabhán, and Johnny played music locally and further afield, although at that point his instrument was the accordion rather than the melodeon for which he later became renowned.

Then, in 1990 during a Celtic festival in Lorient, encouraged by his friend and fellow musician Meaití Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta, he performed on the melodeon and got a great reaction.

Shortly afterwards, Johnny was forced to take six months off work due to an injury and Patricia bought him a melodeon. It became a life-defining gift.

For the most part, while his three children Jimmy, Mary Ellen and Johnny Óg, were young, he had concentrated on their musical development, driving them to and from competitions and concerts near and far.

When he resumed playing the instrument of his childhood, Johnny redicsovered his own passion for music – and he played a key role in reviving the one-row instrument. In an era of superb accordion players such as Joe Burke and Paddy O’Brien, the melodeon had come to be regarded as simplistic. However, Johnny was able to play tunes on the melodeon that people hadn’t believed it was capable of delivering and his talent brought it back to centre stage.

“In his hands, it was every bit as expressive as the two-row instrument,” according to his son and fellow musician, Johnny Óg on the 2018 CD, Fear Inis Bearachain, which the younger man released as a tribute to his father. In the sleeve notes to that album, Johnny Óg wrote: “My father had an almost magical ability to overcome its limitations in a musically satisfying manner. This is the great challenge the melodeon poses and it compels you to find musical solutions that might not occur to you with the wider palette of a diatonic accordion.”

Sean Johnny Connolly’s graceful and effortless style earned him the title ‘King of the Melodeon’ and over the years, he was in great demand for concerts, at sessions or as an accompanist for set- or sean-nós dancing.  His joyous, rhythmic playing and welcoming presence at sessions won him fans among musicians and listeners and his love of the traditions and culture of Connemara coloured every tune he played.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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