Milltown man recalls bodhrán he made for first Fleadh Cheoil

Clodagh McKeon

I made that bodhrán with a 200-year-old machine,’ says fleadh veteran, Eamonn Doolin, who made the instrument for the Fleadh Cheoil in 1951.

There are six generations of cooper tradesmen in the Doolin family now led by Eamonn Doolin, who is originally from Milltown.

The bodhrán he hand made when he was just 14 is on show in window at Fagan’s Office Supplies in Mullingar, meaning everyone can see a piece of fleadh history.

Mr Doolin remembers his experience leading up to the 1951 fleadh and tells of how the bodhrán came to be: “Comhaltas was the big thing then. More and more people were playing music and gathering for céilís but the fleadh itself was still only in its infancy at that time.

“Weeks before the festival, someone from Rathconrath Comhaltas suggested that they needed a bodhrán, so I started by making a wooden ring for it.

“I had all of the tools and knowledge on how to do it because of my father and grandfather. A local man, a family relation actually, got a goat not long after that. The skin had to be cured for a couple of weeks and then I put it on the rim of the instrument.

“I didn’t play the instrument but it was played during the fleadh.”

The instrument has three coins on it dating from 1944, 1946 and 1949 and it remains in good condition.

Mr Doolin comes from a long line of coopers, following in the footsteps of his father Ned Doolin, his grandfather, John Doolin and his great grandfather, William Doolin.

He has a deep rooted love for the trade and has successfully passed it down to his son Paul Doolin and grandson Lorcan Doolin as they are both skilled at the craft too.

Lorcan started working with his grandfather in the workshop and when he was just 13, and he now repairs hurley for his local hurling team.

Mr Doolin took us on a tour of his workshop and showed us the tools he used to make the bodhrán six decades ago. The wooden machine where he sat to shave and shape the wood was the same that the three generations before him used. He said it is at least 200 years old.

The hand tools he uses today are also the same ones his father, his grandfather and his great grandfather used.

“These tools were handed down to me by my grandfather and my great grandfather and it could go beyond that, but I wouldn’t know.”

He explained the process that was involved in making the instrument is the same one traditional coopers would follow when making wooden barrels.

The first step is to shave the wood to the correct size, then it is shaped – so the wood is soaked in hot water, which allows the fibres to stretch and bend.

Eamonn said: “I put the wood into a pipe, filled it with hot water and put the pipe under a fire and then bent it. That’s how we did it.

When that step is complete, the two semi-circle shaped pieces of wood are connected to make the bodhrán shape.

Eamonn detailed how to make the perfect wooden barrel and demonstrated how to use the hand tools. He is passionate about documenting the skills of the cooper trade.

He made a video of himself, his son and his grandson each making a wooden barrel that shows the individual steps to follow in detail.

Eamonn keeps an impressive collection of wooden casks, butter churns, wooden lamps and other items that he made over the years on display in his workshop.

He said: “That’s what my family was into, making butter churns. There’s different types – ones that sit on frames and ones that sit on tables and have handles that you can churn away.

“The churns would take me one day to make anyway. The farmers churned butter so these were in high demand back then.”

Mr Doolin now lives in Blanchardstown, and said this year’s Fleadh Cheoil will be his third in Mullingar.

He enjoys spending time in his workshop as a pastime, he said: “When I get fed up with everything and anything, I can come out here to the workshop and sit down and work.

“The lockdown kick started everything here. Myself and my grandchildren were so glad of this space during Covid. It was a great way to spend our time and I got the opportunity to teach them what I know.”

Mr Doolin reminisces on his time at the first fleadh festival in Mullingar and said: “The local musicians were playing music outside the pubs. But, as the evening went on, everyone got a bit merry and started dancing.

“I remember there were a lot of people in Mullingar that day because there was a big football match in Cusack Park.

“The fleadh was totally different back then to what it is today, but it was the start of a big thing.”

Mr Doolin also keeps an album of photographs of his family from over the years. He even has a photograph of his great grandmother, Elizabeth Doolin, that was taken some 160 years ago.

He said that he never made another bodhrán after the 1951 original but he is now in the process of making a fiddle.