Boys of the Lough

Extract from the article - "From Strength to Strength"

The Boys of the Lough without Aly Bain. Let it sink in ... without Aly Bain. When your star striker breaks his collarbone and you're headlining the top-priced concert of the Festival, you're facing a tactical dilemma. Do you bunch up at the back and play defensive game or do you import a big name as special guest? Well the Boys did neither, choosing to rely on the youth policy and bring off the bench a young and comparatively unknown fiddler Iain MacFarlane from Glenfinnan and give the more-than capacity crowd an evening to remember.

Otherwise it was the recognised line-up with Dave Richardson on concertina, cittern and mandolin and accordion; Cathal McConnell on flute, whistles and song; Christy O'Leary on uillean pipes, whistle and very much on song and Chris Newman on guitar.

One minute into the opening set of Shetland jigs - which are almost as rare as Tory MPs in Scotland - anchorman Dave takes off his jacket; any pre-match nerves have gone. Not having seen the Boys in action since John Coaxkley left, my immediate impression is of the drive generated by guitarist Newman. He played here at last's years Festival with Maire Ní Chasthasaigh and once again he gives a superb display, alternately powerful and delicate as the tune or song demands. I notice that he's now wearing spectacles, perhaps to help him see the logic in Cathal's introductions - no wonder the Fermanagh Fluter identifies so much with a later request for 'The Rambling Irishman'.

After Christy informs us that the absent Aly is recovering and can now lift a glass, there's the first song of the evening. 'The Rocks of Bawn', collected by Cathal from Paddy Tunney of County Fermanagh some time during the 50's.

The rest of the evening is a magical blur of polkas, reels, slip jigs, Kerry slides and songs. Cathal is described as knowing Riverdance when it was only a trickle; Christy and Chris duet superbly as the rest of the boys go off 'to have their blood changed' and Ian comes back to steal the show with a couple of Glenfinnan tunes.

Inevitably, we go into extra time but there's no penalty shootout required. Overall there's only one team in it. Result? A resounding home win and they've proved they're no one-man band. The Boys done brilliant.

August 1997