A memorial to renowned fiddler player Julia Clifford will be unveiled tonight in Knocknagree, Co Cork, a place of where she spent “many happy hours playing her fiddle” and from where she gifted the rest of us her glorious music.
A report from the Maine Valley Post, which carries sterling reporting on all things Sliabh Luachra amongst much else, in the tradition of local papers which remain a vital part of rural Ireland.
Julia Clifford has a special place in the panoply of historic Irish traditional musicians and a special place in the hearts of many musicians today.
Thanks to a partnership between her family and a group of her friends in England, a permanent memorial has been installed in the village of Knocknagree, a place where Julia spent many happy hours playing her fiddle.
The memorial will be launched on Friday, June 16th 2023 at 6pm.
It takes the form of an individually commissioned bench overlooking the green, with the special feature of a sound recording of Julia Clifford embedded in the bench, which may be listened to via mobile phone.
Isn’t that an absolutely brilliant idea? A lovely way to remember one of the bright stars of our tradition, one of the standard bearers that kept our glorious music alive.
From a family of musicians, she was also taught by the blind fiddle maestro, Pádraig O’Keefe, and considered a torchbearer of his style. her brother Denis Murphy was equally talented and famed and the siblings recorded a mighty album, The Star Above the Garter.
Julia was born in 1914 to Bill and Mainie Murphy in Lisheen, where Julia’s oldest sister Bridgie Kelleher continued to live all her life. Their late brother Denis Murphy was a regular musician in Dan O’Connell’s Bar in Knocknagree alongside accordion player Johnny O’Leary, and Julia herself had close links with the village throughout her life.
Julia left Ireland in her early twenties for England, where she married fellow musician John Clifford whom she had known from home. They lived for many years in North London, playing for dances and raising their two sons, John and Billy.
They visited home whenever possible, and played at fleadhs and music festivals all over Ireland, even moving back for a few years in the 1950s.
In 2019, a group of her friends from East Anglia had the idea to celebrate Julia’s life and musical legacy with a weekend festival named after one of her favourite tunes I Looked East and I Looked West which took place in Stowmarket in Suffolk, a town she had a close association with through her friends George and Eileen Monger. First on the guest list was, of course, Julia’s son Billy Clifford, a respected flute-player himself.
Top Sliabh Luachra musicians including Matt Cranitch and Jackie Daly, Connie O’Connell and Bryan O’Leary flew over for the festival. Alan Ward, who, in the 1970s, recorded many older generation Sliabh Luachra musicians with Julia as his guide, and music historian Dr. Reg Hall were among the eminent English attendees.
That event made a small surplus, and organiser Katie Howson suggested that this be put towards a permanent memorial in Ireland. Eventually the idea came to have a bench with a QR code embedded on it, enabling the person who sits there to listen to Julia playing the fiddle!
The family then took up the reins, and the result is a bespoke design of bench which will be a unique memorial to a unique musician.
A unique memorial indeed – those who sit to rest might not just learn about who Julia Clifford was but will get to hear her masterful, mesmerising music.
Here she is playing the haunting old air O’Rahilly’s Grave which is not heard as often as it should be these days.
Broadcaster Aoife Nic Cormaic presented a lovely, informative programme about Julia Clifford in 2020, and featured some of the beautiful reels that Sliabh Luachra is renowned for, sometimes overshadowed by the liveliness of the slides and polkas of the region.
Julia’s marvellous album with her brother Denis is available to listen to in its entirety online. Enjoy.
Photo information for photo at top of article: Julia and John Clifford playing at ‘The Favourite’ in Holloway, London, c1970. The Favourite, now alas six feet under Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, was the legendary pub where the Irish gathered Sunday lunchtimes to play and enjoy traditional music, and Guinness. Photograph Courtesy of Katie Howson and appeared in the Maine Valley Post