Mícheál Ó'Domhnaill discography

With SKARA BRAE

With MICK HANLY

  • Celtic Folkweave. 1974 (never released on CD and hard to get – copies of the LP have changed hands on ebay for over $50)

With THE BOTHY BAND

With RELATIVITY

With PADDY GLACKIN

Biography

Below is a partial attempt at a biography, running up to the point where the Bothy Band was formed.

Early years

Born and raised in Kells, County Meath, Ireland, Mícheál Ó’Domhnaill comes from an interesting family background. His grandparents were from Rann na Feirste (in English "Rannafast"), a village in an Irish-speaking region (a "Gaeltacht") in County Donegal. They received a land grant in County Meath as part of an Irish government initiative to set up a Gaeltacht near Dublin by transplanting native Irish speakers to the area (Irish was, and still is, only spoken as their daily language by a minority of the people of Ireland, concentrated mainly in certain western areas of the country).

Mícheál’s grandparents returned to their native Donegal after 15 years. However, in the meantime their son Hugh (to whom the tune of the same name by Tríona on the album “At the End of the Evening” is presumably dedicated) had married a Dublin woman, Brid Comber, and settled as a teacher in Kells, Co. Meath. His children, Mícheál, Tríona and Maighread grew up in Kells, spending their school holidays in Rann na Feirste. Hugh was also a musician, singer and collector of songs, and Brid was a choir singer, so the children grew up in a very rich musical environment. They received music lessons from an early age (Mícheál recalls receiving piano lessons from the age of six until he was sixteen – when he was able to focus on the guitar – his preferred instrument

Summers in Donegal brought the siblings into contact with their aunt, Neilí, a renowned singer who had a vast reportoire of songs in Irish and English. Other acquaintances made in Donegal were Pól and Ciarán Brennan (members of Clannad and, incidentally, older brothers of Enya), and Dáithí Sproule (long a member of Altan.

Skara Brae

Mícheál and Tríona came together with Dáithí when they went to University College Dublin in the late 1960s. They played gigs around Dublin and Mícheál and Dáithí spent a summer as the house band at Teach Hiudaí Bhig in Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore), Donegal. Around 1970, the three siblings – Mícheál, Tríona and Maighread – teamed up with Dáithí Sproule to form Skara Brae. Daithí has long been a member of Altan.

Skara Brae produced an album of the same name in 1971, and broke up in 1972. The album was re-released in 1998 by Gael-Linn.

Monroe (with Mick Hanly)

Mícheál met up with Mick Hanly at the Swamp folk club in Rathmines, Dublin, in early 1972. Together they formed Monroe and played support for Planxty on their Irish Tour in 1973. In 1974, Monroe recorded an album, ‘Celtic Folkweave’, for Polydor, now considered a seminal album which signposted the arrival of a new and confident breed of contemporary Irish folk singer. Monroe split in 1975 when Michael joined the Bothy Band and Mick headed for Brittany and the life of an itinerant Irish folk troubadour. (Text adapted from the Mick Hanly web site). The “Celtic Folkweave” album has never been released on CD.

To be continued …..(to include The Bothy Band, Relativity and, eventually, Nightnoise). Comments or corrections to the above are gratefully accepted.

Posted Jan 21, 10:18 pm
John Rynne