By Earle Hitchner
In 1957 at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, the Tulla Céilí Band, led by fiddler P.J. Hayes, finally overtook their main rival, the Kilfenora Céilí Band, to win first prize in the senior céilí band competition. The Kilfenora had won the previous three straight years, making the Tulla’s victory in this perennial clash of Clare titans all the sweeter after so many runner-up finishes.
In March 1958, the Tulla came to the U.S. for a two-week tour as reigning All-Ireland champions, and one of their performances was at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Also on the bill were Irish-American songstress Carmel Quinn and Pat Boone, then a hugely popular American singer in white-buck shoes who had amassed more than 50 hit singles and had his own network TV show from 1957 to 1960.
"Pat Boone was dressed to the nines and really looked like a star," recalled Eyrecourt, Co. Galway-born button accordionist Martin Mulhaire, who had played with the Tulla on that stateside tour. "I was very impressed, having just arrived in this country, and I said to P.J., ‘Gee, I cannot believe that the Tulla will be on the same stage as the famous Pat Boone.’ And P.J. said, ‘Who’s Pat Boone?’ And I said, ‘P.J., you never heard of Pat Boone?’ And he said, ‘I haven’t a clue who he is.’ Then I said, ‘I can’t believe that,’ and P.J. replied, ‘Well, I’ll tell you one thing — I’ll bet he never heard of me either.’ "
Over the phone from his home in Queens, N.Y., Mulhaire let out a ripple of laughter at the memory. "P.J. had a very wry sense of humor and could be quite witty and droll," he said of his former friend and bandleader, who died at age 80 from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Maghera, Caher, Co. Clare, just before noon on May 6.
A 55-year commitment
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A founding member of the Tulla Céilí Band in 1946, P.J. Hayes was their leader from 1952 onward, taking them to All-Ireland senior titles in 1957 and 1960. (After 1962, they retired from competition.) This extraordinary half-century of service and dedication kept the Tulla afloat when many other céilí bands had struggled or sunk from sight.
"Even if the Tulla had never entered a competition, they would have achieved the same amount of fame," believes Mulhaire. "It was P.J.’s guidance that made the band last. He had a very diplomatic way of dealing with things. He got the job done, but you never realized he was doing it."
That was as true in 1996-97 as it was in 1958. The Tulla Céilí Band had recorded "A Celebration of 50 Years" (Green Linnet, 1996), marking their golden anniversary, and in November 1996 they performed at the Green Linnet Irish Music Party weekend in Monticello, N.Y. The following May, the band made an unforgettable appearance at the Washington, D.C., Irish Festival in Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va. Joining them on stage were two distinguished alumni: Martin Mulhaire and flutist Mike Preston, who was born in Ballymote, Co. Sligo, but later lived in Crusheen, Co. Clare.
"I was never as happy as when I joined the Tulla again in the Catskills and at Wolf Trap," Preston said by phone from his home in the Bronx. He was a member of the band from 1952-62, the year he immigrated to America. "P.J. was a great leader, very decent and kind."
Mulhaire’s recollection of that Wolf Trap appearance is as warm as Preston’s. "When we were picking out tunes to play together, P.J. would ask everybody if they were happy with them. Somehow you never felt he was the leader or the boss, even though he was. At Wolf Trap, I thanked him for keeping the band alive, especially with all the people who came through it over the years. He just smiled at me and said, ‘Why do you think my hair is so white?’ "
In his liner notes to "A Celebration of 50 Years," P.J.’s son Martin wrote that the Tulla "was the first example of participatory democracy I had ever encountered. Nothing was done and no choices made that went against the wishes of any individual musician. Everything . . . required collective agreement."
Peadar O’Loughlin, a flutist who played in the Tulla from about 1957-65, also emphasized the diplomacy and kindness of P.J. Hayes. "He never did anything mean; he didn’t know how," the 71-year-old musician said from his home in Kilmaley, Co. Clare. "It was a good bunch of lads in the Tulla. They were on time, and they did what they should, all because of him. P. Joe believed he was part of the best band in the world."
Preston mentioned another, more private side of Hayes — his spirituality. "When we got in the car for a trip to, say, Dublin, we’d say the rosary. You had to bring your rosary beads when you went with the Tulla on a long journey. We said it aloud in the car."
Money was never a priority for band members back then. "We used to get a pound a person," Preston said. "Then it came up to two pounds, and if we went to Sligo, we might get about three pounds ten." The distribution of money was as egalitarian as the band itself. "If P. Joe got a penny for playing the night," O’Loughlin recalled, "you got the same thing."
2 seminal recordings
During their swing through New York City in the winter of 1958, the Tulla Céilí Band cut an album, "Echoes of Erin." Originally released by Dublin Records, it was done in just four hours. "We had to get out of the studio because a rock-and-roll band was due in after us," Preston said.
Among the dozen tracks on the LP was one solo: "Cottage Groves/Sally Gardens" by Martin Mulhaire on button accordion. "For whatever reason, the record company needed three more minutes of music, and because the band had already gone back to Ireland, they stuck me in there with a drummer and piano player," said Mulhaire. "I remember nervously watching the minute hand on a big studio clock going around."
Mulhaire, who had decided to stay in New York City, couldn’t listen past the first track of the LP when it came out. "It tore the heart out of me," he said. "My life had taken a whole new turn."
For those lucky enough to own copies of the Dublin LP or subsequent Shamrock release, the music performed by Tulla touring members Mulhaire, Hayes, Preston, Séamus Cooley, John Reid, John O’Shaughnessy, and Dr. Bill Loughnane represented céilí-band music at its pinnacle. It remains a coveted classic and collectible.
A year later, fiddler P.J. Hayes and fellow Tulla Céilí Band members Paddy Canny on fiddle and Peadar O’Loughlin on flute joined Bridie Lafferty on piano to record in Dublin. That pioneering LP was entitled "All-Ireland Champions — Violin: Meet Paddy Canny & P.J. Hayes" (Dublin Records), and O’Loughlin remembers the difficult circumstances under which it was made.
"We were unrehearsed, we knew very little about recording, and we had one hour to do the whole thing," he said. "Then we had to leave before finishing, so the next day we had to find another studio in Dublin to complete the record. We made it for the big sum of 40 pounds. That’s 10 pounds each."
It’s regarded as one of the greatest albums of Irish traditional instrumental music ever made. "That recording will always be a benchmark," said Ennis-based button accordionist Paul Brock, who knew Hayes since the early 1950s. "It exposed people to the beauty of East Clare music, to the gorgeous tune selections on it, and to the musicianship of those four players in full flight and in total sympathy with one another. It was a defining moment in Irish music."
Lasting legacy
"A real slice of history has gone," observed Boston button accordionist Joe Derrane after hearing of Hayes’s passing. Derrane had met him and his wife, Peggy, twice in New York’s Catskills. "It’s a big loss to the music."
Besides the three recordings mentioned earlier, Hayes has left us with other Tulla Céilí Band albums, a 1990 duet with his son Martin called "The Shores of Lough Graney," and guest appearances on solo releases by Martin and East Clare concertinist Mary MacNamara. There’s also "The Irish Folk Fest From Wolf Trap," a videocassette and CD soundtrack produced in 1998 by PBS-TV affiliate WLIW, Long Island, N.Y., that spotlights the Tulla at the 1997 D.C. festival.
The legacy of Hayes is inextricably bound up with the wide influence he exerted as gentleman, fiddler, and bandleader. Only in recent months did illness finally prevent the octogenarian from performing with the Tulla and at sessions in Peppers Pub, Feakle.
"We don’t stop playing because we get old. We get old because we stop playing." Those words were spoken more than half a century ago by a different cultural icon, American baseball pitcher Satchel Paige. P.J. Hayes would have understood.
On May 8, a funeral Mass was said for him in St. Mary’s Church in Killanena, near Maghera, after which he was buried in Kilclaren Cemetery. The Tulla Céilí Band played at both the church and the gravesite. Hayes is survived by his wife, Peggy, his sons, Martin and Pat, and his daughters, Anne-Marie and Helen.