Louth musicians Zoë Conway and John McIntyre on Irish music and carrying culture around the world

Back in February we spoke with Louth musicians and husband and wife duo Zoë Conway and John McIntyre as they reflected on their deep ties to Irish culture, St Patrick’s Day, and the unique privilege of carrying their heritage to global audiences.

Q: When did you two start playing together as a duo?

Zoë: We were both professional musicians before we met. I came from a traditional Irish and classical music background, while John was playing rock and roll with his band, The Reds. We met on the circuit, but it wasn’t until after we got married that we officially started performing as a duo. Now, we would have had the odd session and stuff, but we didn't really think about playing together as a duo until maybe a year or two after we got married.

Q: What’s it like playing together compared to working with others?

Zoë: It’s definitely easier. There's that kind of intimacy there, even in music, and where he can predict me as a fiddle player, can kind of make a sudden decision and change tack, and John will already know that.John is coming from a slightly different background, and the colour that he brings to the traditional music that I'm playing is really contemporary, and that makes it very exciting.

Q: How do you decide which projects to pursue together versus individually?

John: At the minute, we're sort of struggling to keep up with all the demands, external demands. It's actually quite hard to dictate how you want to spend your time or what you want to do, because a lot of that sometimes comes from the outside. Cole Porter, or some famous songwriter, was asked, Which comes first? The lyrics or the melody? And he said, ‘the phone call.’

Zoë: It's the joys of being a professional musician and being self employed and all of the things [associated with that], and trying to be creative all coming together. And so it's fun. It's a bit of a roller coaster, but it's fun.

Q: Do you have plans for St. Patrick’s Day this year?

Zoë: We will be doing something with Martin O'Connor in Belfast. So we're working on a project with him and with some young musicians. I think it's a cross community project based in Belfast. So we'll probably be [there] that week, the week of St Patrick's Day. We're going to be working with all of these young musicians from Belfast and different areas, all coming together, and we'll be teaching and playing with them and then doing a concert at the end. And so that's the plan this year for St Patrick's Day.

Q: Speaking of Irish culture, what does being Irish mean to you both?

John: It’s at the core of our lives because we work in Irish music. I try to speak Irish as much as possible. I enjoy Irish culture. I read Irish, you know, Irish books and culture.

Zoë: One of the things that John really loves is the Irish language. So he's a bit of a nerd when it comes to words and place names and all of that, and he could just go on and on and on about that forever and ever. So that definitely permeates our lives every day. But I suppose for me, the thing that I feel most about being a musician and playing Irish music is I feel very privileged that that's my role, and that's what's happened in my life.

And I think you know Irish music as a folk music, when you look at it from a world perspective, we have in Ireland one of the greatest cultural gifts in the world.. And I think actually people all over the world realise that too. And one of the interesting things as a touring player is when you go to America and you play in Boston, or you go to Tokyo, or you go to Oslo, or all of these different places, we get invites to go all over the world to play traditional Irish music. And I think that is quite astounding. 

I think really, when you have that perspective. It's like, you know, looking at Earth from space. It's that kind of perspective. Then you really, really realise how special it is that we have what we have, and how lucky we are to have it. And all of the people who went before us and like, risked everything and lost everything, and in order to be able to speak Irish or to go to mass or to play jigs, or to own a fiddle, you know, or for a woman to play the pipes, or, you know, there's just endless stories there of people fighting to keep this alive and it is alive, and that's just so incredible to me.

Read Next: Refusal for 80 homes outside Dundalk appealed

Q: Any particularly memorable St. Patrick’s Day performances?

John: We played at the Kennedy Center in Washington. It's an enormous  construct, stunning stage, and it was a real privilege to be there and to have played. We played as part of a big event. So we played ten minutes, I think, in the first half, and ten minutes in the second half. 

Zoë: When you're in America and on St Patrick's Day, it's quite incredible, because it's just green everywhere, and all the shops buy into it. They have shamrocks, and they have special drinks that are green, and all this stuff and you're just like, this is so mad.

One memorable time was when I had the honor of being the Grand Marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day parade [in Dundalk]. Riding in a convertible with my family, waving to the crowd, and tossing sweets—it was absolutely gorgeous.

Q: Do you have any traditions for St. Patrick’s Day?

John: If we’re at home we like to go to a parade with the children.

Zoë: We’re not actually always playing on St Patrick’s Day. A lot of the festivals that we get invited to are actually around St Patrick’s Day, so it could be the week before or the week after. So we do often get to spend it in Dundalk, which is lovely.