Birr sean nós singer wins prestigious music award

Geraldine Grennan

A sean nós singer who was born in Birr but now lives in London is “over the moon” at being named as the 2019 recipient of the prestigious TG4 Gradam Cheoil Award for traditional singing.

Born into a traveller family in Birr, Thomas McCarthy was surrounded by music from as far back as he can remember. “My mother, Mary, was a fabulous singer, and my earliest memory is of her singing to us as children, she was always singing” he says.

Mary McCarthy, who passed away in 2010, knew all the old traveller songs that were passed down from one generation to the next, and her son, Thomas, says he still includes some of those old songs in his repertoire to this very day.

“My Uncle Johnny was also a great keeper of songs that have been long since lost, and my grandfather was also a great storyteller and, believe it or not, he was the first man in the town of Birr to get a radio and when the radio came into the house half the town turned up to listen to it, and my grandfather wanted it gone then as he said it was a conversation killer” laughs Thomas.

When he was just ten years old, Thomas McCarthy moved to London with his family in search of a better life, and they settled in Shepherd’s Bush, and worked in the markets on Portobello Road. “They were tough times” acknowledges Thomas, but he adds that his family “made the best of it” and England was good to them.

“Back in the time when I was growing up, every traveller family had a great store of songs, and as they travelled the length and breadth of the country there was always a few more songs to be collected” says Thomas “singing was like a form of home entertainment long before radio or television, so by the time I grew up I already had a huge collection of songs.”

Like his late mother, Thomas McCarthy always loved singing, and he sang in local clubs all around London for many years. His unique singing style, which is in the folk tradition and which pays homage to his traveller background, led to him being discovered and he now has three albums to his credit.

Thomas travels a lot around England, Scotland and Wales, and he has also been to the United States on a number of occasions. He regularly runs workshops for young singers, and recounts how he recently ran a workshop in Wales for young gypsy girls aged between nine and 15 years and he couldn’t believe they would be interested in learning all the old traveller songs. “I thought they would be more interested in Lady GaGa or singers like that” he says.

Thomas McCarthy admits that there is “a close link” between his ethnic identity and his music identity, although he would like to think that his music now appeals to a very broad-based audience. While he does mix in a few traditional traveller words into his songs, he has a very varied repertoire and his haunting and melodic voice is widely acclaimed everywhere he goes.

While he is very proud of his traveller background, Thomas McCarthy says he comes from the old tradition where members of the travelling community enjoyed very good relations with their settled neighbours and there was a very deep bond of trust between both communities.

“It is very easy to tar everyone with the same brush” he says “nobody from my family ever harmed anyone, we were brought up to respect people, to work hard and to pay our dues to society, and that is the way I have always lived my life” he says.

Winning the TG4 Gradam Cheoil award is “a great honour” says the humble sean nos singer, who is eagerly looking forward to the Awards Ceremony in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast on February 17 next, which will be broadcast live on TG4. The live televised concert will feature a star-studded line up of singers and musicians and each winner will be presented with a specially-commissioned piece by leading sculptor, John Coll, as well as a small stipend.

Thomas McCarthy is hoping that winning the Gradam Cheoil Award will bring his unique singing style to a wider audience, particularly in Ireland, and he says he is looking forward to performing at

more events in his home country.

“I have loads of relations still living in Birr, so maybe I might get the chance to some stage in the future to play a concert in my own home town, now that would be lovely” he says.