Ó Domhnaill, Mícheál

by Linde Lunney

Ó Domhnaill, Mícheál (1951–2006), traditional musician, was born 7 October 1951 in Dublin. His father Aodh Ó Domhnaill (1913–77), known as Hiúdaí or as Hugh O'Donnell, was the son of Mící Ó Domhnaill (Ó Dónaill) and Maggie Ní Dhuibheannaigh, Irish-speakers from Rinn na Feirste (Rannafast), Co. Donegal, who moved in 1937 to Baile Ghib (Gibbstown), Co. Meath, a Gaeltacht in the east of Ireland then being established by government intervention and supported by grants of land. His family moved back to Donegal, but Aodh Ó Domhnaill, a teacher of Irish, stayed in Meath and became vice-principal of Kells vocational school. Aodh Ó Domhnaill was active all his life in Irish language and culture, organising Irish-language drama groups and collecting traditional songs for the Irish Folklore Commission. He married (1949) Brid Comber (Ní Chiaráin), who was also involved in traditional music; she was a member of a choir founded by her husband, as well as of a singing group which appeared on Radio Éireann programmes. She died in February 2006.

Mícheál was the second of three sons and had two sisters. He grew up in Kells, spending holidays with the Ó Domhnaill family in Donegal. He attended national school in Kells, and then the local Christian Brothers' School, competing successfully at several levels in schoolboy athletics competitions, and was a Meath minor footballer. At the same time, he was competing in feiseanna in Meath and elsewhere, winning prizes for Irish-language competence and in various traditional music competitions. He spent a lot of time in Donegal with his father's older sister Neilí Ó Dónaill (or Uí Dhomhnaill) (1907–84); she lost her sight as an adult, but was able to hand-knit Aran jumpers, and was a noted storyteller and singer in the traditional style, who knew hundreds of songs, in English as well as in Irish, and was featured on a UNESCO film recording, Ireland/Irland. Young Mícheál learned many of her songs, and developed a lifelong interest in song collection and study. He sang with his sisters and parents in family settings and in choral groups, and developed exceptional skills in playing almost all the instruments traditionally heard in Irish music. He was also taught piano, and learned to play the guitar when convalescing after an appendectomy when he was 12. Neither of these instruments had had a place in traditional music, but Ó Domhnaill developed notable skills, especially on the guitar.

Alongside his enthusiasm for and knowledge of Irish music, Ó Domhnaill learned to appreciate the music of modern American jazz musicians and international folk traditions, and he was able to forge a new sound from the synthesis. Mícheál, his two sisters, Tríona and Maighréad Ní Dhomhnaill, and their college friend Dáithí Sproule of Derry, formed a group which they called Skara Brae, and in 1971 released a Gael Linn album of traditional songs, also called Skara Brae. Ó Domhnaill and Sproule experimented with the D-A-D-G-A-D guitar tuning, used by Bert Jansch in the English folk-jazz group Pentangle, but not familiar to Irish musicians, and they also were open to influences from the Beatles and elsewhere. The siblings' vocal harmonies and the new possibilities with guitar accompaniments made their album a fresh departure in traditional Irish music.

While still a student at UCD, Ó Domhnaill was chosen to be first presenter of the Radio Éireann traditional music programme, The long note, and he also produced ground-breaking recordings of musicians. In 1974 he worked for the Irish Folklore Commission collecting songs in Donegal, and joined his sister Tríona, Matt Molloy, Paddy Keenan, Donal Lunny and others to form a group at first called Seachtar. After the accordion player Tony MacMahon left, the group was re-named the Bothy Band. Their original fiddler Paddy Glackin was replaced first by Tommy Peoples and later by Kevin Burke. The Bothy Band, their 1975 album, established them as truly original, at once experimental and traditional. Ó Domhnaill's contribution in skill, knowledge, and vocal harmony continued in other albums; Old hag you have killed me (1976) and Out of the wind – into the sun (1977) marked the Bothy Band as ground-breakers, whose enthusiastic exploration of tradition was matched by fine musicianship and by rock musician brio.

After a live album and lengthy international tours, the band broke up in 1979. That same year, Ó Domhnaill made an album, Promenade, with the fiddler Kevin Burke, and another, Portland, in 1982, after he had moved to Portland, Oregon, USA. He collaborated with an American violinist, Billy Oskay, on a 1984 album, Nightnoise, not entirely devoid of Irish influence, but introducing jazz and chamber-music influences to produce one of the first 'ambient' albums, almost New Age in inspiration. Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill joined her brother and Oskay to form a group also called Nightnoise, based in Oregon; the seven albums that they made explore the interactions of various forms of western classical and popular music, with the addition of the harmonies and melodies of folk singing, and are regarded as classic examples of a new and influential genre. All sold well, and Nightnoise toured successfully in Japan, Europe, and North America. The brother and sister also played together in a group called Relativity (along with Scottish brothers Phil and Johnny Cunningham), which produced two albums of more traditionally Celtic music. Throughout his career, Ó Domhnaill worked with other notable musicians, from various traditions, sometimes producing albums and often providing accompaniments on several instruments or adding vocals. The list of albums on which he collaborated is impressive, and the number of compilation albums and the amount of re-issued material in which he is represented adds to the length and complexity of the catalogue of his work.

After 1997 Ó Domhnaill lived in Dublin, and from 2001 played and toured occasionally with his friend Paddy Glackin; the resulting album, Athchuairt (2001), showcased Ó Domhnaill's artistry in refashioning old songs in Irish for a new audience. His knowledge of traditional material, counterpointed by a novel willingness to depart artistically from that starting point, made him one of the most important innovators in the development of Irish music into an art form appreciated worldwide.

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill married an American ceramic artist, Peg Feindt, when he was living in Oregon. He died on 7 July 2006 after falling down stairs at his home in Dublin. He was buried in St Columcille's cemetery in Kells, Co. Meath, alongside his parents and elder brother. A concert the following May in celebration of his life was a great event in Irish traditional music, with a resulting CD, and it was planned to establish a fund in his memory to help support traditional music.