Remembering Andy Dowling

[Canada Jim]

When I was hitchhiking in Ireland in the late sixties, I was picked up by this guy and taken to a fleadh cheoil in New Ross. He asked, "Are you goin' to the fleadh?"
I said, "What's a fleadh?" He explained and I said,"Yes, I'm goin' to the fleadh."

Andy Dowling, (pronounced Doolin) was one of the more memorable characters that I met on my trip. We spent the whole day together. I took this photo in a parking lot in New Ross of Andy playing his hammered dulcimer. I had never seen, nor even heard of a hammered dulcimer before this.
That's the case of the dulcimer by the trunk (or boot as Andy would say) of his car.
A bit of Googling reveals that Christy Burns said, in her excellent thesis, of Andy:
"Andy Dowling lived in Clonmeen, Errill, County Laois until 1991 when he died at the age of 92. Many knew him for his dulcimer playing, as he was always active in the local traditional music events and organizations.
Before receiving his first dulcimer, which was purchased in Dublin by his brother, Andy was a fiddler. He admits to giving up the fiddle in favour of playing the dulcimer.
In an interview with David Kettlewell in 1976, Andy said, “You want to be playing an instrument all the time, that's the way it is with music... it becomes part of your life; 'twas never like that with the fiddle...”
Much like John Rea in Co. Antrim, Andy Dowling was pleased to appear frequently in public with his dulcimer. He would play at parties, fleadhs, and also played on both RTÉ and BBC radio. The movie, “Lock Up Your Daughters,” was filmed in Kilkenny and featured Andy with his dulcimer. By the time Andy passed away in 1991, his dulcimer playing had developed such a reputation that it seemed perfectly appropriate to have dulcimer music at his funeral."
Here's a photo from her thesis of a younger Andy Dowling.

The fleadh cheoil in New Ross was a trad music festival that took over the whole town. There were fiddles, flutes, concertinas, accordions and bodhrans in every pub, church, school house and street corner. I didn't see one guitar or ukulele.
This ranks right up there as one of the best days of my life. Andy told me so many stories and played me so many songs.

I went to see "Lock Up Your Daughters" three times. It wasn't a fabulous movie, but I loved seeing the townsfolk dancing in a circle around Andy and his dulcimer in the closing scene.

 

[puppywins]

He is lucky to have someone remembering him.

 

[Oldscruggsfan]

A fleadh cheoli is now firmly on my bucket list!

Your description of the event makes it seem a bit like Dahlonega, Georgia, USA’s annual early September festival, “Bear On The Square” but with far more colorful musicians and not one single “retail hell” vendor tent.
In other words, this is one of many things that the Irish do so well.

I haven’t seen LUYD but as to Irish movies, there are none better than “The Quiet Man” and “Waking Ned Devine”. In TQM, Father Lonergan’s backhandedly- generous description of Sean Thornton’s father and grandfather is one the most hilarious lines in movie history.

 

[Canada Jim]

Years later I married a hammered dulcimer player.
Here are Maggie, me, our buddy Al Kirby and our son Darcy playing at a festival in Aylmer, Ontario.

 

[Ukecaster]

Thanks for posting. I found this video on him.