CHRISTY LEAHY

From Carrignavar, outside Cork city, Christy Leahy was something of a late starter in music. "I only took up the button accordion in my early teens. My first teacher was the great Bobby Gardiner, who travelled to the city from his home in Tipperary each week to give the classes..."

"...I was the only kid in the class, the others were all adults. The classes ceased after about six months so I went to Noreen Murphy from Macroom, learning waltzes, marches, polkas and Scottish music. Playing in pubs and for local dances with my father and brother, my interest in real traditional music was sparked through listening to Sharon Shannon and from going to weekly Ceilis at An Sraidbhaile in the centre of the city.

There, I was exposed to the box playing of Derek Hickey, Seamus Begley, Donal Murphy and Pat Sullivan. For someone who already had the rudiments of the instrument, I couldn't have asked for a better start. I began playing sessions with Derek Hickey who really encouraged me and remains my favourite box player."

Christy's eagerness and enthusiasm for playing and absorbing the music was obvious. He was a ubiquitous figure at sessions in bars like the Gables and the Lobby in Cork. The Gables sessions had expanded during the summer of '96 to take in Sunday afternoons. Caoimhin Vallely and Ciaran Coughlan were regulars and the nucleus of the North Cregg sound was beginning to evolve.

"It was a really enjoyable time," remembers Leahy. "The bar was relatively quiet on Sundays and we had the time and scope to develop together".

The birth of North Cregg came about as a result of the thriving informal pub session scene in Cork (Ireland's second city). In 1995, two locals - young accordion player Christy Leahy and veteran guitarist John Neville - were regulars on the session scene. When Armagh fiddler Caoimhín Vallely arrived in Cork to study music at the local university, an instant musical friendship struck up and the bones of North Cregg were taking shape.

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