Jack O'Leary on the enduring connection between Ireland and Australia

Hello Streets of Your Towners!

This is the start of a fabulous little mini-series of Streets of Your Town—taking you overseas on my most recent travels to London, Scotland and Ireland.

Hope you enjoy rollicking along with the Irish music in the podcast (click on the link embedded at the top of this email!) which I found in Brisbane just on the eve of going overseas.

I was fascinated to discover that pretty much wherever you are in Australia, there’s an Irish sesh at your local not far away.

Hope you’re inspired to go and find one after listening or reading this week’s edition of Streets of Your Town!

And plenty more adventures to come in the next few weeks.

Enjoy my Wandering Journo tribe!

Nance

Jack O’Leary’s Irish music

Every Tuesday night a lively and ever-evolving group of musicians gather at Brisbane’s well known Irish pub ‘Gilhooleys’ for a spontaneous Irish music singalong.

Some are regulars, others are travellers from around the world, hearing word on the musical grapevine of where and when to find musicians of a similar hew.

The weather couldn’t be more in contrast to Ireland this evening, with the intense humidity still lingering in Brisbane’s late Autumn, bringing a drop of sweat to the brow of many of the musicians as the music builds to a resounding climax.

The throng of musicians hoot with delight, raising their instruments high and clapping—the easily recognisable guitars and fiddles sharing the improvisational stage with the Irish drum the bodhrán, an Irish flute, tin whistles, concertina and banjo.

Local organiser of sorts of this rag tag group is Jack O’Leary, also part of the Brisbane-based Irish band The Munsterbucks.

“For the Irish diaspora, holding onto a little bit of culture was important,” O’Leary says.

“Somebody asked me the other day, what is it about Irish traditional music in the world? Well, we nearly lost it in Ireland, and it was as a result of people in America and in London that kept it alive.

“So I suppose we treasure our memories. We try to hold onto ‘em. And the people that came here wanted to bring a little part of Ireland.”

This weekly céilí of sorts is an unofficial tradition that extends to pubs all around Australia. Jack says no matter where he’s visiting, he can usually find other like-minded souls for a Irish trad music sesh. He’s fascinated by the Australian influences he’s increasingly noticing too.

“The gift that music has given me is that we’ve travelled all over Australia from Cairns to Tasmania, to Melbourne to everywhere. Irish music is at the heart of Australian culture. There’s a session in mostly every city that you go into,” he says.

“We meet and create connections at the festivals. Like at Woodford Folk Festival every year there’s a traditional Irish session there. I’ve got invitations down to Sydney to play at the Gaelic Club, there’s a session there. There’s a number in The Last Jar in Melbourne, and there’s a session actually in Cairns and a session in the (Atherton) Tablelands.

“There’s a man from America that’s playing here tonight. There’s a man from London that’s playing here tonight, and the rest are from in and around Australia.

“So that will tell you how it’s travelled and how it’s ignited something in the spirit of people.

“When you think about the history of Australia and the foundation of Australia and the Irish within Australia and how they thought and how they imagined themselves in this country, I suppose they were very much part of the fabric of it. We like to celebrate that.”

And in the best known way so far, Jack O’Leary and his Irish band Munsterbucks are doing their part too of making sure this exchange continues for generations to come.

“I was travelling around Australia in ’99/2000 as a backpacker, and I met an Australian girl on the Gold Coast in Australia. And she travelled to Ireland with me for 10 years and we lived there. And we’re back here now for about 14 years with three young kids and doing the best we can with that,” he says.

“I was up very, very late last night watching matches in Ireland, hurling and Gaelic football. I’m connected with Ireland. I suppose my heart is in Ireland. So it is.

“We travel nominally every year (to Ireland) for six to eight weeks. This year, I’m not sure but we’re looking at it. We’re putting a few dollars aside.

“There’s nothing better than, as my father said, that the Irishman loves his native shore and yeah, I do love it. I do love it.

“There are lots and lots of similarities. I was in a nursing home out at Narrabri today visiting my uncle-in-law, and we were reflecting on the relationship between some of the men out there and their Irish ancestry and the connection and all those things that are meaningful. I suppose that’s what we want is connection. And if we can find it in our ancestry, how beautiful is that?”