Sean McGuire - 'A Regional Style in his Own Right'

by Geoff Harden

There's no stopping the man - Belfast fiddler Sean McGuire has a catalogue of albums and honours to his name that would make any musician blush with envy. Now approaching his 69th birthday and "playing like a demon" he has just released his latest CD. He talks to Geoff Harden

Although he plays uilleann pipes, piano, guitar and whistle, it is as a fiddler that Sean McGuire has made his mark. He prefers to call it a violin, perhaps a reflection on his classical training from the age of twelve, although traditional music was always in both sides of the family.

Sean McGuire's first music teacher was Professor George Vincent. "He taught me fingering and then I learned my bowing technique form Madam May Nesbitt." Madam was a polite form of address in those days. "She would pull you up if you didn't address her as Madam. She and George Vincent were both brilliant teachers."

His first broadcast was at the age of 15, for the BBC. The first commercial recordings were made after a meeting at a ceili in Enniskillen.

"It was 1948. I was with the Malachy Sweeney band and I was introduced to Major Bill Stapleton who wanted to start the first Irish traditional label, the Irish recording Company. I recorded a number of pieces for him in Dublin with his wife, Eileen Lane, on piano. He never released them but they turned up, unbeknownst to me, in the USA. Some of the material, ended up being released by EMI in Dublin." That EMI album was reissued in 1987 by the Yorkshire Celtic Music label under the curious title "60 Years of Sean Maguire".

At the same time, McGuire was attracting attention in the USA in his own right. he went there first as accompanist for the celebrated McCoy troupe of Irish dancers in 1952. They played to a full Carnegie Hall and made celebrity television appearances on the Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey Shows.

"We never played the 'stage-Irish' music. After one TV show a woman rang up to ask why I wasn't wearing a leprechaun suit! I tried to show the authentic Irish culture - that's my dedication in life."

In London, in the mid Sixties, he became a familiar figure on the Irish music scene. He worked regularly with flute player Roger Sherlock and the two were in the Hibernian Ceili Band there for a while.

He also coached the Glenside Ceili Band to their 1966 all-Ireland championship and coached Kevin Burke. And it was in London that he recorded the first of a string of albums with Josephine Keegan (also a fine fiddler) on piano. These were released by Belfast's Outlet Records and are mostly still available - some recently reissued on CD.

He has been honoured many times, including being named a 'Man of Achievement' by Cambridge University, having his name in the 'Golden Book' at Wurlitzers of New York along with Yehudi Menuhin and Fritz Kreisler and being made an Honorary Artiste of the Soviet Union.

Sean played little in the late Seventies as his health deteriorated until he had a tracheotomy (removal of his voice box) in 1983 and for a while could not speak; now he has a voice box fitted and although talking is hard for him it is equally hard to stop him!

His great passion though is teaching. He has taken classes for many years, first in Francie McPeake's Clonard school and then in the Andersonstown Music School, both in West Belfast. He is a hard task master but a superb teacher. Several of his pupils have reached a high standard and are featured on the new album, 'The Hawks &Doves of Irish Culture'.

The project has been a great success and fired McGuire with a new lease of life. "I'm living for those youngsters; I'll work myself to the bone for them. It's an ongoing thing - it must never be allowed to die out. And I've got to be encouraged so that I can encourage my pupils".

He's already talking about making a video to go with the album. There is no stopping the man - and may there never be.

December/January 1996/97