James McKeevey and Lauran Murphy are local musicians of Shinrone, with Roscrea native Jack Keeshan having equally strong ties to Shinrone. We talked about the impact of Shinrone’s musical heritage on their own songwriting, and how the village itself has played a key role in their musical and personal development. Jack says “in Shinrone, everyone’s not in a mad rush”, James: “100%, that’s why I love Shinrone...[it] is kind of slow paced”.

Shinrone genuinely feels like a collective unit, a family in a way. James remembers meeting Joe Cleary (local historian, former principal) and Catríona Cullinane (current principal) on his first day of school and now has a rapport with them as an adult. “That’s just an example of how tight-knit it is here”. This sentiment rings true within the music community too, with Jack expressing how “one of the earliest memories I have in music here” is James performing at a local show, who inspired him to keep learning songs on guitar. This sense of collectiveness is helped by the natural curiosity of the town and its people. From walking through the town ourselves, a few people joined us and easily struck up friendly conversation. As Jack put it, “People will stop you and to talk to you, and whether they know you really well or they don't know you at all, it's to find out who you are”. Lauran held the same feeling, praising the town’s “tight-knit community, even considering the fact that Shirone is quite small. There's not actually much going on in the village itself, but it's the people that make it”.

Music and community in Shinrone

Shinrone has a remarkable history of hosting iconic musicians at the Shinrone Community Centre, from Meatloaf and Christy Moore to The Pogues and Nanci Griffith, with Shane McGowen paying many visits to the stage since he regarded Shinrone as his “home” venue. Jack’s own dad was loading in the gear for the Pogues’ performance in Shinrone in the 90s, and recounted the surreal story of his father having to get Shane from Foxes- one of the local pubs- to the main stage:

Jack and James talk with such pride and fondness about growing up gigging and writing music in and around Shinrone, and how much this small community shaped their musicality and their sense of self.

James: “I think growing up in Shinrone kind of moulded and shaped me into the person I am today. I feel kind of blessed to have lived in Shinrone all my life. I don't think I could live anywhere else to be honest with you. I love coming back here. A lot of my songs are about real-life situations and stuff like that- first heartbreaks, first crushes, or first time to ride a bike, and all those nostalgic firsts, so that's what I love about the place, yeah.” What’s beautiful about Shinrone is how everyone is interlinked and willing to encourage each other, evident by one of James’ earliest performances during his school days where he had “learned Blown in the Wind by Bob Dylan, and Joe [Cleary] said to me, ‘Sure, would you get up on stage and I'll sing that’. So I got up on stage that night and sang that song and I'll never forget it. It was five or six hundred people in there. That was mind-blowing to me”.

This community camaraderie would rub off on touring musicians as well it seems, with James recounting a heart-warming interaction with Christy Moore when he played there in 2011.

During our own visit to Shinrone as part of this project, we unanimously felt this sense of fellowship throughout our time in Shinrone. Lauran reiterated this sentiment, talking about how she moved to the town with her mother when she was a kid, “she came and knew nobody, and then she got welcomed with open arms and loads of friends and everything. You wouldn't think that for such a small community, but everyone's just really lovely. It's very friendly”.

What struck a chord throughout our conversation was how Jack, James and Lauran went against the stereotypical narrative of wanting to escape from small towns to the big cities- they both expressed how they feel drawn back to Shinrone, feeling grounded and connected to the area, on a personal and musical level. Jack and his partner recently moved away, “and we already want to get back because for me, the songs have always been trying to reflect on your environment, and that's what I've always tried to do”. He went on to tell us the beautiful way in which Shinrone, the surrounding area, and the people in it inspire his music and how he taps into its strong sense of community when he performs:

“The characters I was meeting, and friends and family. I think that's what it is; you're trying to reflect your environment so then when you go on stage, you're bringing that all, which you know. You're bringing all these people, all these feelings and then trying to give it to someone that maybe isn't from your area to let them know ‘this is who I am and this is where I'm from’. I get everyone that I play with and family to write on my guitar and I have a picture of my friend John on there as well who passed away, he was involved with the boxing, but I flip it up and I can look at all those things and see that I'm bringing all these people on with me. I say a prayer to my granddad and I just go out. It's great that way, keeping your area with you. It's a good way to go out on stage because it's not just you then. It's your community, it's everything, you know.”

There truly is a tangible sense of neighbourliness and local pride to be found throughout Shinrone. It feels like home. There is an air of “simplicity” and support that is very comforting about the town as Lauran puts it. “when someone's suffering in the village or if there's a problem, people really do come together...it shows the beautiful community that we do have here and the community that I've grown to love growing up because I couldn't imagine going somewhere else and not having that kind of tight knit community where everybody just wants to see each other doing well. They just want to look out for each other, and I don't think I'd ever change that”. There is always an encouraging presence to be found in Shinrone, with Jack, James and Lauran all benefitting from the encouraging music community in Shinrone and the surrounding areas. It was Jack who encouraged Lauran to start performing her music in front of an audience, “So because of [Jack and James] growing up, I kind of gained the confidence to play in front of other people. I think without that [music] community, there wouldn't have been a chance for me to kind of gain confidence in that regard”. This once again reveals the supportive culture at the heart of Shinrone and its people.

When it comes to Shinrone’s musicality, there is a healthy trad, folk and singer-songwriter style of music that comes from the local musicians, and despite its smaller population compared to neighbouring towns, Lauran feels that “Shinrone nearly has a tighter community. There might not be as much going on, but we all look out for each other more and I think that's what makes it... there's a really good community here for music, even if it is small”. From talking to all three musicians, this sentiment of Shinrone being small but mighty was expressed through each interview and was something we experienced first-hand upon visiting and meeting with the locals here. For Lauran, “being welcomed into that community at such a young age, it kind of helped me to be authentic in terms of my own songwriting and playing my own music, and then expressing myself through other forms of creativity... So I think it's really helped me to be myself and express my own form of songwriting without judgment”. The town’s capacity for nurturing young potential/interests of young people far outweighs its small population, now all it needs is the space to do so.

What never needs to change, and what must

We asked the musicians if there was one thing they would never change and one thing they would like to see changed for Shinrone. Firstly, one of the charms of Shinrone for Jack- and why it is such a grounding force in his life- is how its facade has barely changed since the 60s. Jack explained this reasoning quite poignantly in that it connects him to his family:

“[Shinrone]'s not in any rush to catch up with the rest of the world, you know, and that's what I like about it. When you come to Shinrone, you can walk down the street and think ‘my father walked down the street and saw the same things that I'm seeing now.’ and his father probably saw the same things I'm seeing now. It connects you to all that, all that past generations”.

In terms of change they would like to see, Jack, James and Lauran all talked of a need to revitalise and make space for music and creative outlets, for the youth and for the spirit of Shinrone as a whole. While Shinrone has “the biggest community hall in Offaly...it’s actually rarely ever used, which is sad”, given that it gave the town national and international recognition during 80s and 90s. And it’s certainly not due to lack of potential, as Jack went on to talk of the days when promoter Tom Stapleton hosted many touring musicians in Shinrone:

“Back then it was such a rich area for live music because everyone passed through going from Limerick to Dublin or from Cork to Belfast, you know, so it was great and I think that's maybe something that we could look to the past too and say we should expand on that or bring that back in a way because I don't know why that stopped really. It's not like the love for music stopped here or anything”. Shinrone’s appetite for music goes back even to the marquee dances and céilís in the 1920s, where Jack’s grandfather was part of a local céilí band called Morning Glory.

The three musicians share the opinion that the hall could be a vital resource for the youth of Shinrone and surrounding areas, with James recalling the youth club he was part of growing up, but now it no longer exists. It’s clear that the town could benefit from the space being used more regularly in the form of a youth club or “maybe some sort of music and arts, or creative centre”, according to Jack, “because there is a lot of kids that are teenagers now, there's a lot of bands forming and there's a lot of kids picking up the guitar and writing, starting to write now too”. Lauran expanded upon this too, mentioning that there is no outlet for kids who are not part of thriving GAA scene there, so a creative centre or youth club could be a fantastic addition to the community, given the already passionate community spirit in Shinrone. “Like a lot of rural Ireland”, Lauran told us, “it's very, very GAA focused and a lot of the music kind of gets left behind. I wasn't a sporty kid growing up at all and I did feel at times I was like, there's none here for me... there are a lot of great musicians around here. But I think just to give more of a space, maybe like a cultural hub for Shinrone. For all art mediums, whether it be art or writing or music and stuff, and just not really focus only on sport, I suppose. That's one of the only things I would change, really”.

Harkening back to the glory days of Shinrone’s musical past, when the community hall was included as a notable spot for touring musicians, Lauran echoes how “there were so many [musicians] playing in the community hall. I remember growing up hearing the stories being like, why don't they do that now? It's a dying art, to gig all over Ireland. Nowadays, people just hit the bigger areas”. Perhaps that is the biggest revelation from these interviews, the fact that the Irish music circuit has forgotten the importance of touring within local towns and not solely rotating between 3-4 major cities. Shinrone has retained a spirit of oneness in a society where we continue to grow further apart from each other. We bypass smaller communities in favour of the newest city hotspots. Shinrone has not forgotten each other; they welcome outsiders with a friendly curiosity and pride for the locality.

Shinrone’s musical legacy- and location- is something that the Irish music community of today seems to have forgotten and would benefit from revisiting. Lauran even mentioned how Shinrone used to partake fervently in Scór, the Irish arts promotional initiative, “It used to be a really, really big thing up until about, I suppose, the early 2010s. It's not a thing around here anymore... artistically, there was a lot going on here”, and that passion and potential still exists in the town today, as we’ve heard in so many ways from these three fine musicians, there just seems to be a lack of facilities or investment into the townspeople from further afield. From these interviews, we discovered that there certainly is a creative drive and passion for community-led projects within the community, but a lack of facilities and initiatives for such projects to take off. For Jack, James, Lauran and many other musicians from Shinrone, they had to go busking primarily in the nearby town of Roscrea, being a secondary home for the Shinrone music community. Shinrone and rural areas like it are “just as rich in terms of talent and capabilities than the cities and I just think they get left behind a lot, and there's so much talent. I know personally so many talented musicians and writers and artists just around the area and they'll never get the same outreach unless they go up to Dublin or to go to Cork or whatever, so I do think there needs to be more of a push for rural gigs. I think that would be really good”. All three musicians talked separately about how small but impactful the town is for their sense of self, be they in or away from the town, “There's something about Shinrone. Like the lads are right, there is like a draw to the place”, says Lauran. The town feels like a home that is but never empty, “there will always be a vibrancy about the place”, according to Lauran. This vibrancy- from legendary concerts to local sessions- just needs a place to thrive again, and we have no doubt that it can.