Eckehard Krupp, or Ecki, as he is fondly known by in Beara, is one of many colourful characters who have moved to the peninsula over the years and now call it home. “A hat man” as he proudly describes himself – his other weakness is shirts – this flamboyant character with his ever-growing collection of wild and wonderful headware is probably best known for his contribution to the music scene in the area, writes Mary O’Brien. Anyone who has been to one of the music sessions in Allihies will have crossed paths with Ecki.
The German native – and self-confessed “trad head” after a chance encounter with a Dubliner’s record in his father’s collection sparked his interest in Irish music – was in his early 20s when he first visited Ireland in 1983 to attend the annual Willy Clancy traditional Irish music festival in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. He hitched a ride on a bread van but a misunderstanding meant he ended up in Milltown, Co Sligo instead. “I went to the pub and asked where the festival was but of course there was no festival,” he says laughing. “The people who owned the pub did however wake their daughter up and she played the harp in their kitchen for me!” Ecki did eventually make it to Miltown Malbay and spent the next two months travelling up and down the west coast of Ireland, stopping off at folk festivals along the way and visiting the birthplace of Turlough O’Carolan, the famous Irish composer and harpist remembered as ‘one of the last Irish bards’.
After returning to Germany, he dipped into University studying English and History, before dipping out again and working for a few years, but music kept drawing him back to Ireland. “I just couldn’t figure out at the time how I would make a living here,” he says.
There wasn’t much of a music scene in Beara back then, so it wasn’t until 1991 that Ecki landed there, when a friend who had moved to Beara to write a book issued an invitation to join him. “I was in Dingle at the time, so I hitchhiked over, and the very next day I was the wheelbarrow race champion at the Allihies festival,” shares Ecki laughing. “I couldn’t believe the craic there,” he says. He was also amazed at how intergenerational the village was. “You’d find four generations in the hall in Allihies on any given night,” he recalls.
While his friend’s book was never penned – “He was in the pub most of the time!” – the next chapter in Ecki’s story was written in Allihies. “I brought my mother back with me the following year to show her the place where I would live,” he shares.
At the time, Ecki held a five year lease on a bar in Germany. When one of his bartenders died unexpectedly at the age of 36, it drove home to him how short life was. Two years in, he decided to cut his lease short, called a taxi to the airport, and the next thing he knew he was in Allihies. “I was blind drunk at the time,” he admits. That was 1996 and the musician hasn’t looked back since.
“I did a bit of this and a bit of that when I was first here,” he says. He stayed at the local hostel, helping out there in return for board while waiting for a house to come up for rent. Every day brought something different but Ecki loved it and the wildness and remoteness that came with his newfound home. He spent two years living in a caravan, met his future wife – they’re now separated – who he had twin daughters with…and started giving music lessons to the local children.
Ecki traded his car for four sheep to make the lamb stew that fed the 200 guests at their wedding reception in the hall in Allihies and the couple honeymooned in a tiny cottage on Dursey island. “The landlord knocked on the door the first day and told us we didn’t have to lock it, as he would be coming in to have his lunch every day,” laughs Ecki. That landlord is now his neighbour and friend.
While the music might have drawn Ecki to Beara, it’s the community that has held on to him. “The community here is so important to me and I feel very much a part of it,” he says. He has settled in to the way of things here and is possibly more Irish than German now, finding humour in the absurd, like the huge bus that has recently started travelling on the narrow stretch of road in the area that was never widened or the council bringing 20,000 tourists every year to Dursey, an island without a toilet. In fact he’s written a song about it!
A multi-instrumentalist, for the past ten years, Ecki has been giving music lessons at the Lehanmore Community Centre, just two minutes from his home. He holds a regular music session there every Tuesday at 8pm and also plays for residents at the Day Care Centre in Castletownbere Hospital as part of the Arts in Health programme and teaches open music classes at the primary school in the town. He’s a regular at the music session held in O’Neill’s pub in Allihies every Sunday from 6pm – keep an eye out for his hat!
“The nice thing about trad is that you can just meet up and play,” says Ecki. “With music, you’ll always be in company.”
