Rob Stafford: Aboriginals, Australia, Fiddle, Racial Prejudice, Traditional music, Willy Clancy

Rob Stafford: Aboriginals, Australia, Fiddle, Racial Prejudice, Traditional music, Willy Clancy

Life History: Cork; Ireland; Austrailia;

Rob grew up in Carrigullen, Perth, in Western Australia in a Eucalyptus forested area. He is the second eldest of five children. He has one brother and three sisters.
Describes his neighbourhood as forested where the main source of income was growing apples and pears in the valleys. Sometimes temperatures could reach 45 degrees in the summer.
Talks about how he grew up in a mainly Irish community in Perth. They were like a family to him and introduced him to Irish music. He was taught to play the fiddle by Sean Doherty from Charlestown, Co Mayo.
Remembers fishing and going horse riding through the bush when he was a child.
Relates a vivid memory from childhood; how the early pioneers ring barked Eucalyptus trees to kill them and how his father felled one of these skeleton trees.
Describes in detail how he was taught to play the fiddle. Music was as much about the people as the music.
He speaks of the enjoyment of camping in the bush and recalls the treat of spending two weeks with the Aboriginal community in North West Australia.
Rob first came to Ireland when he was seventeen, to go to the Willy Clancy Week. He lived in Kerry, Macroom and Galway. He moved to Cork to study violin making with a French man called Bertrand Gallen.
He loves the mixture of brilliant classical music as well as traditional music in Cork.

He talks through the stages of making a violin.

Note; This interview was conducted as part of the Cork 2005 Project

21 October 2004

CFP_SR00338_stafford_2004

Cork; Ireland; Austrailia; 1990s - 2000s;

Cork 2005 Collection Catalogue Numbers:

CFP_SR00329_mccarthy_2004;
CFP_SR00330_odriscoll_2004;
CFP_SR00331_claffey_2004;
CFP_SR00332_hanover_2004;
CFP_SR00333_desplanques_2004;
CFP_SR00334_bale_2004;
CFP_SR00335_sheridan_1996;
CFP_SR00336_steiner-scott_2004;
CFP_SR00337_rot_2004;
CFP_SR00339_odonoghue_2004;
CFP_SR00340_hawkins_2004;
CFP_SR00341_ocarroll_2004;
CFP_SR00342_ikebuasi_2004;
CFP_SR00343_ogeallabhain_2004;
CFP_SR00344_geaney_2004;
CFP_SR00345_wulff_2004;
CFP_SR00346_abdoulbaneeva_2004;
CFP_SR00347_gunes_2004;
CFP_SR00348_fourie_2004;
CFP_SR00349_henderson_2004;
CFP_SR00350_valdman_2004;
CFP_SR00351_carmody_2004;
CFP_SR00352_osullivan_2004;
CFP_SR00353_mahknanov_2004;
CFP_SR00354_oflynn_2004;
CFP_SR00355_akhter_2004;
CFP_SR00356_walker_2004;
CFP_SR00357_kelleher_2004;
CFP_SR00358_manresa_2004;
CFP_SR00359_wimpenny_2005;
CFP_SR00360_skotarczak_2005;
CFP_SR00361_vermeulen_2005;
CFP_SR00362_owen_2005;
CFP_SR00363_dsouza_2005;
CFP_SR00364_setter_2005;
CFP_SR00365_obrien_2005;
CFP_SR00366_botan_2005:

Published Material:
‘How’s it Goin’, Boy? radio series (six thirty-minute episodes, broadcast 2005 and available on the Cork Folklore Project website)

O'Carroll, Clíona for the Cork Northside Folklore Project (2006) How's it goin', boy? Dublin: Nonsuch Publishing.

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

English

Sound

1 .wav File

31m 53s

Cork City, Cork Ireland.

MiniDisc

16bit / 44.1kHz

The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com


S.C: A bit like myself really, ok tell me about how did you end up coming to Ireland and to Cork, how did you decide on Cork?

R.S: Well I came to Ireland first when I was seventeen, basically because Sean Doherty put the idea in my head that I should go over for a summer and go to the Willy Clancy Week, and go round a few of the festivals so I did that and I ended up staying a year and a half, and then I went back to Australia for two years, and I've been back ever since, so I've lived in Kerry, Macroom Co Cork, and I've been in Galway for three years and I, the reason I moved to Cork city is for years now I've wanted to study violin making, that's kind of what I've wanted to do, and a year ago I moved to Cork to study with a French man in Cork called Bertrand Gallen, study violin making so that's what I'm doing.

S.C: You're actually making violins now at the moment!

R.S: I am yeah.

S.C: Em what are your memories of coming to Ireland, of arriving in Cork, what were your first impressions of the city and its people?

R.S: I thought Cork was quite relaxed, a bit more like a village than a city, and em I much prefer it to Dublin, because it's a small town, I don't think of it as a city, and I find that it is very friendly because of that. (I much prefer it to Galway because Galway is so touristy and here that doesn't, it's not like that).

S.C: It's kind of like a gateway to west Cork really, people only come to Cork, except for Shandon and other places in Cork or Blarney, they tend to go west of the county really and head for Bantry, places like Bantry and Glengariff, and . . .

R.S: Exactly, you've got the whole of West Cork right there for you, you know it's beautiful, and down into Kerry, and it's not too far up to Clare, so you might be, you know if they moved Cork up the West coast a bit it would be better, it's a good spot yeah.