Cé hé Maurice O'Hanlon?
- CIBCA Committee
- 9 hours ago
- 9 min read
Tell us a little bit about yourself, Maurice
I'm from a little village in the north of Kerry, called Ballyheigue, a coastal village. I left Ballyheigue when I was in my early 20’s. I went off to Scotland for a couple of years to study and then I moved to Prague. I go back home about once a year. It's a lovely place to visit during the summertime. My family is still there so it’s nice to go back from time to time. I came to The Czech Republic in 2008. The reason I came here is, when I returned from Scotland in 2008, having finished university, I was trying to get a job but about that time, unfortunately, in Ireland, there was a bit of an economic crisis, so I didn't really find anything suitable there. I was searching online for some opportunities abroad and I found a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) course here in Prague. I did that 1-month course with the plan of maybe moving to France but after that, I decided to make it a year and, now, it's been almost 18 years!
And how about your background in music?
Yeah, well, I suppose my first introduction was when I was a young lad, maybe five or six years old, and I remember my mother sent myself and my sister off for a music class down at our local community centre. Those classes were run by one of our primary school teachers and that was the early 90’s. My sister and I brought along our tin whistles. We tried it for a while. It didn't really go anywhere. We didn't have much of an interest in it, so we gave it up. Then, I remember in secondary school, we had the opportunity of doing music and dance classes. So, we picked up the tin whistles again, 10 years later at this point. That also didn't go anywhere, so the tin whistles were shelved again. It was only really when I came to Prague, I started going to some live music bars. There was a nice little bar down by the river, called The Red Room, which used to have open mic every Sunday. There, anyone could go up and perform. So, I remember going there, I saw an American lad playing American folk music on his accordion and there was a Dutch man who was playing Dutch folk music so I said I might as well try to play some Irish music with them, and we all started performing together. It was a lot of fun. Over time, I continued meeting new people and more people continued to join us. We ended up with a variety of instruments, and it became a regular session.
And then, that's how Cúpla Focal came to be?
More or less, yeah. Most of us met in that music bar and there were people playing a variety of instruments. There was a flute, there was a banjo, there was a violin. We started getting together regularly. We began organizing weekly practices and learning songs. We were introducing songs to each other. There's been four of us who have been playing since the beginning, which is about 16 years ago, and the other two joined maybe 10 years ago. Then, we had a violin player who joined 5 or 6 years ago. With time, the band evolved into what it is today. We've been solid since then. We haven't had any new members for 5 or 6 years. I remember our first concert was at a pub called The Oak in Vinohrady. The owner wanted to advertise but we didn’t have a band name at that point, so he said, tonight you are called Cúpla Focal. And yeah, we still practice once a week. We were practicing on Wednesday, and we look forward to a nice evening out of the house which we enjoy every week.
Cool. And how often do you perform?
It depends on the time of the year. Between the New Year and the summer, we have a few performances, maybe once a month, I would say. St. Patrick’s weekend is a big one for us. Then we're off for summer, when a lot of people head abroad, and we start again in late August. Between summer and Christmas, again, we perform maybe once a month. In total, I’d say we have maybe 10 shows a year. We prefer to play outside when the weather is fine, so even for practise, we show up and start playing in some square in Prague. Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrad has just been reopened, so we might do a couple of Wednesday evenings there over the summer. The more organized events would normally be played in bars or music venues in Žižkov. There's a bar called Žižkovšiška which organizes different types of concerts from time to time. They have us for St. Patrick's Day and we usually do our Christmas show there, complete with Christmas carols. Our most recent performance was at the Žižkovská Noc festival where we played a benefit concert in aid of Ukraine. Otherwise, it's just maybe some random festivals and when people are looking for Irish music, they give us a call.
What type of fans do you have?
Over the years, the fanbase has changed. We still have our friends who come to a lot of the shows, but nowadays when we play the afternoon shows, and most of us in the band are in our late 30’s, or early 40’s, a lot of children seem to show up. Our members and friends bring their children along to introduce them to live music. Children are very interested in live music. It grabs their attention and, as soon as they hear music, you see them dancing along. They love the sound of the violin and the sound of the flute. That's really lovely to see. For the evening shows, we have a mix of both our friends and strangers who shows up. They usually sing along or listen in.
And what sort of repertoire do you have?
Yeah, so, when we started, back in the day, we played just cover songs. Mostly, it was Irish folk songs, Americana music and maybe a few old English folk or sailor songs, as well. After playing together for a while and finding our sound, we started writing our own songs. Now when we play a show, maybe half the song are originals. I think almost everybody in the band has written at least one of their own songs. The audience members, who come regularly, already know which member has written which original song. So, we like to try to do at least half the night of our own songs. Our violin player is away at the moment. She moved to France for a while. But when she's around, we play a lot of reels as well.
And what themes are in your songs?
The most recent song which our drummer wrote, like a lot of Irish songs, is about leaving the country and looking for opportunities in a foreign land. This is a repeating theme in traditional Irish songs. The song he wrote recently, titled ‘’Last Ever Heartbreak’’ is about a man who is telling the story of the places in which he tried to settle down and what went wrong in each place. After several failed attempts, he decides perhaps his life is better if he stays on the move, so he becomes a sailor in the hope that he doesn’t stay in one place long enough for trouble to find him. We seem to write a lot about the fact that things don’t always work out the way one hopes but other times you can be pleasantly surprised. It’s a good lesson to learn as, having overcome a problem in life the first time, you’ll be better prepared and experienced to face it and deal with it the second time. And if things go well, you’ll have good memories to look back on.
The band includes quite a number of nationalities, right?
That's right. We have 5 nationalities at the moment. There’s myself, a Czech girl on flute, three English people, an American on banjo, and a Japanese girl. We're all interested in folk music. The violin player was a music teacher back home. She’s originally from Cornwall and I believe her Celtic roots had an influence on her and her interest in the style of music. Most of us in the band sing and it’s enjoyable when one person does the lead vocals and the rest of us do harmonies in the background. Even when we learn new songs, part of our practise session can include analysing what the songwriter meant by a certain lyric or, perhaps, one of us knows what a reference in the song means and explains it to the rest of us. Therefore, it’s not always just a band playing instruments in a session. Sometimes, it can feel like a choir which repeats a verse over and over to ensure that everyone is hitting the right note and every harmony is covered. Other times, it can feel more like a book club where we analyse a song, considering when it was written, and this gives us all a greater appreciation for the history of the song and a little insight into the situation at the time it was written.
I guess then all those different cultures bring something to the mix?
Exactly, yeah, because they all have their own folk music as well. I’ve heard a lot of songs in Czech where I recognized the melody from the English version, but the words were completely different. It seems Western music from the 60’s to 80’s had a big influence on Czech culture, when they didn’t have as much freedom as nowadays so, perhaps, as a private act of rebellion, they translated famous Western songs into Czech to play in their cottages or underground venues. However, rather than singing about the sea or the next adventure, they might touch more on the tranquillity of nature around them or daily routines in rural life. It’s interesting to learn what the stories are behind each song. When writing songs, it’s great to have input and support from people of other cultures who can introduce you to a theme you may not have thought of and suddenly you’ve written a song with a theme that’s not common place in the music where you are from. In addition, along the way, you learn something new about your friend’s culture and know something that you didn’t know yesterday.
And your plans for the future?
I just moved into a new apartment down in Vršovice, where I’m planning to stay for the foreseeable future. I don’t think I’ll be leaving Prague anytime soon. In the short term, I'd like to try and visit a few countries I haven’t been to before. A few years ago, I spent the winter in Southeast Asia, and I was able to visit 8 countries in 4 months. The one county I didn’t visit was Vietnam as, with the Irish passport, it was the only place for which I needed to get a visa in advance of arriving. The other countries provided either visa on arrival or visa waiver. So, it's still on my mind that I have to visit and I'm thinking of spending a couple of months there later on in the year and avoiding the European weather.
And in the nearer term, I think I hear a rumour that you'll be participating in the 2027 St. Patrick's Day parade..?
Yeah, we're hoping to. We all went down to see it this year. To be honest, there’s a big difference from when I first came to Prague and I was looking for something to do on St. Patrick's Day. It was hard to find anything. And this year, we were downtown and from halfway down Wenceslas Square to the bottom, it was full of floats and people dressed up in costume. That was impressive to see in my lifetime here in Prague. We really enjoyed following the parade and running into people we knew along the parade route. I even had a few words with a gentleman from my village back home who has a bar in Bratislava. He took the train over from Bratislava for the weekend to take part in the festivities. I have a feeling that the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Bratislava haven’t caught up to the progress we’ve made in Prague. At the end of it, we were dancing and singing along to the band on stage. I think it was Foggy Dude who were playing when we got there. And we were talking amongst ourselves that it’s something we’d like to do and hopefully in 2027, we'll have a little spot as well.
So then where can people find your music?
We have a social media presence. We've got our own YouTube page, Cúpla Focal Prague, it's called, and of course, we're on Facebook, on Instagram, you can follow updates there. We post videos from time to time to let people know about concerts and just to show what we're working on at the moment. Our original songs are available for purchase on Band Camp.
Any gigs coming up soon where people could see you?
We do have one more outdoor concert before the summer break. We’ll be playing on Saturday June 27th at a place called The Tiny Tea House in Letná Park. We’ll be starting at about 5 PM and playing for a couple of hours. I expect quite a family atmosphere at this one. Event details are below.
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