Reliving the glory days of Lisdoon Folk Fest
The Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival, made famous in song by Christy Moore, was a fixture on Ireland’s music calendar for a few short years. Actor and music fan Frankie McCafferty was 17 when he attended it in 1983. He tells JUDY MURPHY how his epic road trip and adventures there are captured in his one-man show, Lisdoon Nirvana, which comes to Galway next week.
Actor Frankie McCafferty was just 17 years old in 1983, the year he did his Leaving Cert. To celebrate that milestone, he, along with two cousins and two friends, decided to attend the Lisdoonvarna Folk Festival that July.
The popular annual festival had been running since 1978, earning favourable comparisons with the legendary US folk gathering that had taken place in Woodstock in 1969.
It was July 1983 when Christy Moore first performed his song Lisdoonvarna, which went on to become an anthem. But, although nobody knew it then, 1983 was also to be the Clare festival’s last hurrah.
A drowning tragedy, coupled with rioting by Hell’s Angels, took the gloss off the gathering.
However, that was all in the future as Frankie and his buddies were making their travel plans in Ballybofey, County Donegal.
Their epic adventures are now the subject of a new one-man show from the actor and writer that’s coming to Galway next Wednesday, September 17.
Frankie plays Macker and several other characters in Lisdoon Nirvana, a nostalgic, music-filled ride through youth, rebellion and the lure of music festivals.
For dramatic purposes, his story has three travellers rather than five. They include Dubliner, Cool Steve, who wants to learn the guitar to win a girl’s heart. The third character is from Mayo, says Frankie, explaining that a range of accents helps keep things lively onstage.
Donegal-born Frankie, who now lives in Belfast, called Galway home during the 1980s and 1990s, doing a BA in UCG and then settling in the city.
He also trained in drama at the National Conservatory in Paris and was a regular actor with Druid Theatre, appearing in groundbreaking plays from Wild Harvest to The Black Pig’s Dyke.
Later, he went on to shine in the hit BBC comedy series Ballykissangel. Throughout his career, he has managed a successful mix of theatre, TV and film – and he’s always been writing.
Lisdoon Nirvana has been in gestation for decades, ever since Frankie told a friend about his adventures in Clare, and the friend told him they were worthy of a show.
The resulting one-man play, with a live, original score by Frankie and Ciaran O’Neill, is produced by An Grianán Theatre in Letterkenny and directed by Charlie Bonner.
It sold out a three-night run in An Grianán in February, before going on to play Roscommon, Louth and Cavan. It will be staged in Belfast’s Lyric Theatre from September 24-27.
The group’s Lisdoon adventure began with three of Frankie’s buddies hitching from Ballybofey to the North Clare town. But that wasn’t an option for him.
“I was 17 but I looked 12, and if anyone had seen me hitchhiking, they’d have thought I was running away from home,” he recalls, laughing.
His cousin owned a Yamaha 125 motorbike, “with a two-stroke engine”, and that became their mode of transport for the 360-mile round trip.
“We had our rucksacks, our sleeping bags and cooking equipment, so we couldn’t travel at more than 40mph, and we had to stop every 20 miles to let the engine cool down,” says Frankie of that epic journey.
His cousin had a helmet. Frankie hadn’t, so they improvised.
“His dad was a garda and had a riot-control helmet, so we stole that.”
It was way too big and had a visor to protect the wearer during riots They removed that and stuffed the inside of the helmet with bin bags. Safety gear sorted, off they went.
Frankie had the best weekend of his life.
“My son went to Albufeira with his friends this year after doing their A Levels – this was our version of that.”
Better, if you loved music and Frankie did.
“It was a great line-up, including Peter Green who was playing on the Saturday. Even then, he’d been a recluse for more than a decade,” says Frankie of Fleetwood Mac’s founder. “He had a fantastic band, Colours, with him and blew the place away,” adds the actor, who “was and still am, very much into music”.
Rory Gallagher was playing on the Saturday evening with another great set, as was Christy Moore. Stockton’s Wing were the final act, in the rain.
“It was quite wet by then”, says Frankie. He and his mates were enjoying the booze they’d got cheaply across the Border in Northern Ireland, and didn’t care about getting wet.
Pictured: Creator and performer Frankie McCafferty describes Lisdoon Nirvana as ‘funny, sentimental, nostalgic and life-affirming’. He co-wrote the music for the show and plays live guitar and bodhrán.