Gerdie Commane was born in 1917 and spent his whole life on the family farm at Kilnamona, Co. Clare. He took up the concertina at eight or nine. In 1951 he bought the Jeffries concertina he played for the rest of his life. It came from London, and a neighbour collected it for him.
His father Pat, known to the neighbours as “the Irishman”, used to hum a tune about the house. Gerdie learned it from the humming. Today it is known as the Kilnamona Barndance and is played in sessions around the world, and the Traditional Tune Archive credits Gerdie with making it popular.
For most of his life, the concertina recitals at the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay were among the few places outside his own house to hear him play.
In November 1999, in his eighties, Gerdie made his first recording in his own living room. He played with the Inagh fiddler Joe Ryan, whom he had first met at harvest time in 1941, and Eoin O’Neill played bouzouki. The album, Two Gentlemen of Clare Music (Clachán Music), keeps the sound of the house, the wind outside and Gerdie’s own spoken memories. Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin called it “a landmark in archival recording”.
Gerdie died in December 2005, aged 88. A reel named after him, Gerdy Commane’s, has been recorded by Jacqueline McCarthy and is played far beyond Clare.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.