The Founding Father...

Fr. Pat Ahern

Pat Ahern recalls the origins of Siamsa Tire ...

"The story of Siamsa Tire goes back to the early 1960's in Tralee. Some members of St. John's parish choir, of which I was then the director - began, with my encouragement, to experiment with a treatment of Irish music and song. We turned first to some of the work songs - na hamhráin Saothair.

A Butter Churn

Liam Tarrant located an old butter churn in Co. Galway. It was still in good working order. We filled it with water and used it to demonstrate how butter was made - to the rhythm and music of 'amhrán Cúiginne'.

It became a kind of dance as we added a jig to the churn tune and two dancers moved in and out to take turns beating the dash of the churn.

A Flail

I found an old flail at home in Moyvane. My grandfather would have made it. Using it as a model we made a few new flails and two of the lads learned how to swing them knocking each other on the head a few times in the process!

Using two sheaves of straw we were able to demonstrate how corn was threshed by hand. We added a song and a tune and another dance was born. We did some nice choral arrangement too of the songs. Singing these was second nature to the gang, being experienced choir members."



Fr. Pat on the first tour abroad, 1971 Weilheim, near Munich, Germany.