Sounds of Cork echo on our city streets

What is the sound of Cork? The streets of Cork are filled with sounds that are instantly recognisable, from the call of the Echo Boy’s “Echoooo” to the bustle of the traders in the English Market or the chatter of conversation as locals and visitors alike navigate the busy streets.

Among the many sounds of the city are those who provide the backing track to our walk down Pana, to our coffee break on Oliver Plunkett Street or our pint of Beamish in one of the many pubs. The buskers of Cork have been adding joy to our commutes and shopping trips in our city centre for generations. While new bylaws have been put in place to regulate the trade, this thankfully hasn’t halted the dulcet tones and melodies that echo around the streets.

But who are the people behind the music? To celebrate our city’s music makers Downtown spoke with three performers on the streets about who they are and their passion to perform.

On a sunny morning just off of Paul Street, John Collins sat perched on a small stool with a piano accordion, a tin whistle and a love for his hometown.

The 70-something-year-old’s eyes lit up when he spoke about his beloved music and even brandished a black and white photo from his suit jacket pocket which showcased him and his sister alongside an Echo Boy when they were young.

“I always keep this in my pocket at all times,” he told me as he tucked the photograph safely away in his breast pocket, which was suitably adorned with a Cork badge.

“All my life I didn’t have time for music or to learn music. I moved abroad and I lived in Australia in the construction business. There was no time for music then, all you did was work.”

He said: “We had a great time here in the 60s with all the dancehalls and the music. So, I always wanted to come back to Ireland and to Cork. I love Cork and I always knew I would come back here. I have five grandchildren over in Australia now and my son is coming over to see me at the end of this month.”

John is a self-taught musician. “I don’t read music at all. No, I learned how to play the piano accordion and the tin whistle by ear alone.”

“I have a bad leg and the accordion is quite heavy so I sit down on a stool when I am out playing. I am retired now so I love being out there. What else would I be doing? This way I get out of the house and see people and get to play the melodies that I love.”

John’s love for the music he grew up with remains his favourite to play, he told me: “It is the old stuff I love to play like the Banks Of My Own Lovely Lee and Thomas Moore, songs like that. It is the melody that I love about the older music. I don’t understand the stuff they make today, I’m not familiar with it.”

While a talented musician, he revealed that he was also capable of holding a tune when he sings, but has yet to put his voice to work on the streets of Cork: “I play the guitar also, usually to back my voice. People always tell me I should sing but no, I would be too shy for doing that. Maybe one day but I will stick with the music for now.”

How John came to play the accordion was a situation of ‘right time and right place: “It was by chance that I had a friend and he had the accordion out in one of his back sheds. I told him I always wanted to learn to play it, and he told me to take it away and I have been learning it since.”

The call to music was not synonymous with John, however, as spoons player Seamus Kelly, who originally hails from Mayfield, and has been a Northside local all his life.

“When Riverdance first came out, myself and my wife were watching it one day and it just lit a fire inside of my belly. So, I tried for an age to learn and to find someone to teach me.”

“I had kind of given up on it almost when one day, my wife was in the kitchen and she was in the cutlery drawer obviously grabbing a spoon or something. Two spoons clattered together and the sound! The sound stopped me in my tracks and called to me.”

“If it wasn’t for Michael Flatley, I wouldn’t have become a spoons player and I wouldn’t be standing here today,” he said.

“I started off playing with bands, I played with the Ferrymen for I would say around three or so years. I still play on the band scene the odd time now when they need me to.

“So, what I do is I have all the old traditional songs, I have them all on my phone from the original bands. I have that set up to the speaker and I play along with the spoons.”

He stresses that you don’t need expensive equipment to follow a passion: “I get my spoons in Home Store + More there in Togher. Two euro is all they are." I do get some odd looks, I would say they would be wondering where this fella is going with all the spoons all the time.”

He explains how it works: “I bring a few spoons with me when I go out to play because, as you can see, there is a natural bend in the two spoons, and they fit together perfectly but after a while the bend starts to flatten out and then they don’t work the same way.

“On me knee then I have just a torn up sock that I put over my jeans so that I don’t put any holes in them. Then on the fingers that I play with, I have bandages because after a while with the speed that I am playing at, they could easily cut the skin.”

He has now passed on the love of the spoons to his seven year old granddaughter Ruby and he beams with pride as he tells me of her talent. Ruby can often be spotted busking alongside her grandfather on the streets of Cork.

“I love coming out here. I wouldn’t be out rain, hail and snow, no I just come down for about an hour or so every now and again. It’s not about the money for me, lots of people always ask ‘oh would you make much’ but no, it’s just for the love of it. I’m retired now so this is just a great thrill for me.”

Seamus tells me that he is the founder of Survivors Unite, a support network for those who suffered the abuse of Ireland’s industrial schools. He has said that many who have seen him on television or read his book have come up to him while he has been busking on the streets to say how he has inspired them to take up music to heal.

The healing powers of music also resonated with Bubba Shakespeare, a well-known name on the Cork busking scene. He says: “I battled with an addiction and my friend said to me I should start busking to do something positive. I had so many excuses as to why I shouldn’t do it, but for every excuse I gave, he had an answer for it. When I was out of excuses one day, I went out.

He continued: “After one day I was hooked. It wasn’t a new addiction. It was the opposite of an addiction. Addiction comes from an absence of connection to the heart, and you use your addiction to soothe the pain of that absence. Performing connects me to my heart. It is something that I have to do. I come out here because I love it but also because I need it.

“To see people singing and dancing is an amazing feeling. A woman there just passed me and gave me encouragement, she said she loves to hear me sing and to keep going. I was out with a friend the other week and he couldn’t get over how many people came up and knew me. You are a local celebrity.”

The singer, rapper and poet said: “I am an artist so that recognition, it feeds my soul. Music feeds the soul.”

Bubba invites like-minded souls to follow “his journey though life” on his Instagram page
@bubbashakespeare.