The  Weekly Interview Paddy Homan We Caught Up With This Fine Irish, Yet Classically Trained, Singer After He Performed at The River Tree Center Last Sunday By Parke Burmeister Staff Writer Kennebunk Post August 29, 2003 Paddy Homan is a musician and social worker from Cork, Ireland. He performed Sunday at the River Tree Center for the Arts. His wide repertoire of Irish folk songs and airs highlights many aspects of Irish history and culture. Trained in classical music and voice, Homan says he hopes to inject passion into his music, to take Irish folk music to a stage-performance level. When he is not studying or working, Homan performs regularly in the United States and Ireland. He has gained a following in both countries, and hopes to develop his act to eventually become a lyrical history of Ireland. What part of Ireland are you from? I am from Cork City, which is in the southern part of Ireland. Cork's population is about 400,000. But I am currently living in Chicago, and I suppose Cork is like a suburb of Chicago, in terms of the population. I am working in social work at the office of the Public Guardian in Chicago. I suppose it's the largest advocacy agency in the U.S. that represents people who have been financially abused. What do you mean by financially abused? They are people who might, because of a dementia of some kind or other, generally lose control their finances in some way. You get family members and others who take advantage of that. It does happen quite a lot, you know. When did you come to the United States? I came last January. I did an internship in Chicago in the area of geriatric care management, and then got a job at the Public Guardian. What made you decide to come? Traditionally, my ancestors came here out of necessity, because of poverty and famine. But now it is totally different. There is a new type of person who is coming from Ireland to America. These people are generally well educated and are coming, I suppose, to seek economic opportunity. We also have an appreciation of diversity, and what better way to express it than Chicago? We have people from all races, creeds in Chicago. But Ireland is a pretty nice place. Why leave? Oh it's a gorgeous place. Someday I will go back there and live, there is no doubt- I love the hurling. I love going out in the morning and cycling down the road, fishing. It is a great spot. There is still quite a sense of community in Ireland, you know. How long have you been singing? Well my mother said I was singing since I was about 12 months old. I can't confirm that. I think I really began at eight or ten years of age. I learned a lot of the songs I sing when was 12 or 13. A lot of Irish stuff. I come from a very working class family. My father was a docker at the dock- yards, my mother is a housewife, and I come from a fairly large family. We were city kids, playing lots of soccer and hurling. How did you learn to sing? I learned an awful lot of singing in school. When I was 16-17, I entered Cork School of Music, and I studied voice there for about five, six years. People look at you and say, 'you got a good old voice Paddy,' and they think you can just sing a song at the drop of a hat. And you probably could, but when you add several years of training, it takes on a new dimension. Why are so many Irish songs about Ireland herself? That's the way songs were written, you know. Songs generally reflect the moods of the people at any given time, A lot of songs are about the struggle of the Irish people. But other songs are quite comical. And I might dip into old Irish airs as well. Why is music such a big part of Irish culture? When we had nothing, if we had anything, we had our music, and we had each other, and we had community. Music certainly brought people together. In the rural part of Ireland, there was a lot of dancing in crossroads. That still goes on today though maybe not as much. I think Irish music has influenced American musical culture. A lot of the music has traveled back and forth across the ocean, as people emigrated and came back home. The influence of the Appalachian music in this country has been brought back and forth by Irish musicians. Irish music appears in this country, and Appalachian music appears in Ireland as well. Describe about your formal musical training. I trained in classical music. Mozart, Handel. But I always loved Irish music. And it is actually very difficult for people trained in classical music to make that transition,  because classical music is so regimented. I always had a graƒ|, or love, for Irish music. And so, since I was classically trained, in a way I suppose, I was vocally prepared to turn these songs into something that is totally different. You can raise the songs to a concert platform. I'd like to think I can do that, anyway. What sort of reception do you get from American audiences? I get a very good reception. I sing a capella. I don't have a set repertoire. I have lots of songs I introduce and talk about their history before I sing them. It's probably a bit different from what people normally expect. They expect a guy to go up there and sing 10 songs one to the next. People appreciate my performance for that I think. How do you inject passion into your performance? Firstly, you have to be physically fit for it, and have the vocal ability for it. That takes a lot of practice. Getting up in the morning and warming up, going back in the evening and singing for another two hours. You have to understand what the song is saying. What it meant at the time for the people who were singing it. What are your plans for the next few years? For the next year, I'll be back home. I'm due back here in March. I'll be interested in getting my masters degree in social work, and singing at night. Five years down the road, I'd like to be giving audiences a true history of Ireland through song and story. People might say I will have to make a choice between social work and music. I think in a way, they are both the same. The purpose of both is to give a service to the community. If you can strike a balance between having a show and a job that's being a service to people and keeping within the ethics of your profession, then you're on the right hold you know. If you had to pick, between music and social work, which would you choose? Can you ask me again in five years time? Paddy Press Home