Sounds of Cork echo on our city streets: A trip down a path less travelled 

I, much like many of us who visit the city centre, am admittedly guilty of sticking to the hustle and bustle of Pana and Oliver Plunkett Street, weaving in and out of Penneys and stores on Opera Lane on my day off.

Those are the streets where the city feels most alive, teaming with fellow shoppers, those dining outside pubs and restaurants and the steady stream of tourists that meander from place to place.

I began my journey in searching for the sounds of the streets in that very way, passing the Leprechaun duo whose songs echo down Patrick Street, I wandered down Winthrop Street, hearing groups exchange stories and a laugh over a cup of coffee from outside O’Briens, O’Flynns and onwards towards Joe’s & Bros on Oliver Plunkett Street.

The scenes and sounds I encountered were similar to my previous trips down this street. Crowd favourite Bubba Shakespeare serenaded the city outside the Echo office, and shoppers rushed past as they chattered with friends. It was a familiar sound but nothing out of the ordinary.

In search of something new, I altered my usual route, trekking down an unusually quiet Opera Lane until an unfamiliar sound travelled down the narrow stretch of street to meet me.

There, sitting in a pocket of sun outside the currently closed Crawford Art Gallery, was Darren Keane, a native of Cork city.

Sitting in this more tranquil part of the town, Darren softly played his guitar and sang while a more relaxed and easy-going breed of visitors padded past, less fast paced and not competing for space like those on the main streets.

Curious, I stopped, listened and while Darren took a well deserved break, I dared to ask him what brought him to this spot.

“Singing would be my main instrument, but I play guitar alongside it. I have been playing guitar since my twenties; I picked it up quite late in comparison to some people. I wished I had started when I was younger. I was about 21 and I had just come back from San Franciso where I was out working, painting, doing a bit of everything really, and I picked up the guitar when I got home,” he told me.

“I just love music, I have always had a strong love for music. My cousin used to play gigs, so as a young fella, I always looked up to him and admired him. He was a great singer also, so we always had singing and music was always something we had going on around our home and in the family when we were growing up. We would head down to Kerry and sing in sessions and stuff like that.”

Humbly, he said, “People who have a love for music, more often than not it is because they grow up with, 100 percent. But, you know, it can skip generations also. Some people, God bless them, they’re not musically inclined at all, but if they were I suppose, then everyone would be a musician. I wouldn’t even class myself as a musician, because I’m not. As Bob Geldof said years ago, I’m musical, not a musician because I couldn’t read music or things like that to save my life.

“I basically learn my guitar songs off the internet. I get chords online and just learn off songs that I like, I learn chord formations that way. After a lot of smoking, and being in my room and obsessing with it, I pick it up. You kind of have to obsess over it.”

When I asked him who his musical inspiration was, there was no hesitation when he answered: “The Beatles. I would say that if it wasn’t for The Beatles, it might have been a different story for me, because I have always really loved The Beatles. All of their songs I love, the harmonies are just beautiful. Even to this day, I still turn them on and I get emotional, even now talking to you about them, I get goosebumps. They were the best, they were outstanding and there was just something so magical about The Beatles.

“I suppose they were one of the first bands of their kind in the modern era. I guess, as Paul McCartney said, Beethoven and all them lads back in the day, they were the first to kind of go ‘viral’ if you will back then, the more highbrow stuff. But the Beatles were that for our era, and no one has ever come close to them and I don’t see anyone every really coming close.”

Darren continued passionately: “They were outstanding, even talking about them I get goosebumps as I said because of things like their harmonies. It’s a shame because you don’t see enough of it these days, and I don’t mean to knock people because I know that there are young kids out there that do karaoke with backing tracks and stuff on the street and they are getting out there, which is good, but the skill level seems to be gone from music in a way. I like to see people hone their craft and have an instrument but there is not enough of it nowadays. Of course, the mainstream media then doesn’t help. The mainstream music scene likes to push this X-factor kind of ideal, all this TikTok kind of stuff and it is really not good for music in general and kids today in general. They should pick up an instrument and learn a craft and make mistakes and not be afraid to make those mistakes.”

He described how the busking scene has changed in Cork since he first began over 20 years ago. “I’m 45 now, what I would consider an auld fella. I feel it today when I see the young ones on the street and they are just passing by me, and I am not even a blip on their radar. At least when I was younger, I used to get a few looks, especially when I would get a haircut.

He continued: “Covid definitely made a difference in the way people perceive busking. Just the landscape has changed since I first started when I was in my early twenties. It has changed massively, even money wise lately it has changed. I was sick for a lot of this year, and I am only really coming back to busking around this time, but since I have come back it has definitely changed. I don’t just do this for money, I do it just for the love of it and the joy.”

Darren is not the first to highlight how much even the smallest positive reaction to their work means, especially if the reaction comes from a small child. “Even seeing a kid just smiling, there is nothing like it. People go around with masks on, obviously in covid people literally had physical masks on, but adults go around with masks on, hiding how they feel but kids don’t have that mask on. You will see a lot of people may just pass you by but you might see a girl with her boyfriend or her friends, and she might want to stop and enjoy it but her boyfriend or friends would keep walking and so would she. But a kid isn’t hindered by anything like that, they don’t have that mask on and you see them enjoying what you do, it is a great feeling. Even just someone giving you a smile and saying ‘ah, I have no money, but you are very good’.”

He continued: “It is getting more disheartening to be out here nowadays, people are passing by more and more and they don’t seem to stop to appreciate. There is a lot of noise in the city now too, there are delivery trucks and people yelling or playing something on their phones.

“These new bylaws are making things harder as well. I am busking here for twenty-odd years, it takes the joy out of it, you can’t just perch somewhere and play your music. Artists are the kind of people who don’t stick to stringent routines and are more go-with-the-flow and to be told you have to play in this spot, at this time for this many minutes, it is completely against what music is. There are so many anti-social activities in the city centre and it is so unfair that they are clamping down on buskers of all people, we are just trying to add to the community.”

With the sun beating down on us, I left Darren to return to his music and there are no prizes in guessing what band his next song came from as I moved on.