A REMARKABLE book which celebrates the ‘twin islands’ of Arranmore in Donegal and Beaver Island in the US was launched on Arranmore yesterday.
Fiddler and former Donegal Person of the Year Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh launched ‘Islands of Fiddlers / Oileáin na bhFidiléirí’ in the island’s Community Hall.
The book tells of how emigrants from the Rosses, Arranmore and Rutlands created their own Donegal community on Beaver Island on Lake Michigan in the second half of the 1800s.
They continued to speak Irish and carried on with social customs such as singing, playing fiddles and dancing.
The book has been produced by two leading fiddlers, one from Ballyshannon and one from Michigan.
Caoimhin MacAoidh is a founder of the Donegal fiddle organisation Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí, which has recently received a TG4 Gradam Award for its work. Caoimhin has written several books on Donegal fiddling and traditional music generally. He was there for the launch.
Joining by video link from the States was his co-author Glenn Hendrix, who has spent a lifetime researching and promoting fiddling in Michigan.
‘Islands of Fiddlers / Oileáin na bhFidiléirí’ has been published by Cairdeas na bhFidléirí with the support of the Arts Council.
Caoimhin said: “This is an amazing story of the people who link Beaver Island with Arranmore Island and Rutland Island in particular, and the Rosses in general. And it’s very much tied in with the great Donegal traditional of fiddle-playing – it’s thought there were around 15 fiddlers among the earliest Donegal settlers on Beaver Island.
“The launch is a chance to celebrate links between these islands on opposite sides of the Atlantic. The book is intended as a tribute to those remarkable emigants and the fiddlers among them.”
Co-author Glenn Hendrix
One of the fiddlers highlighted in the book is the character that was Patrick Bonner, already well-known to fiddle lovers in the States in particular. He was the son of ‘Black Jack’ Bonner from Rutland Island, who was a leader among the Donegal settlers on Beaver Island.
The famous music collector Alan Lomax was among those who recorded Patrick Bonner, on his very first music collecting trip.
Patrick’s accent was so strong that Lomax sometimes had difficulty understanding him. Lomax noted down the name of one reel Patrick had just played as ‘Black Tar on a Stick’. It was ‘The Blackthorn Stick’, well-known throughout Donegal.
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