If you have attended the Dublin Irish Festival in the past then you may have tapped your feet and clapped your hands to music from a band called Slide. Mick Broderick, one of the founding members of Slide, now calls Dublin, Ohio, his home.
“I grew up in Rathcoole,” says Broderick, “ten miles southwest of Dublin, Ireland on the Cork Road.”
Music comes from his dad’s side of the family as his aunt, Patsy Broderick, played piano and toured with an Irish group named Arcady, and his uncle, Vincent, was a great composer. Broderick learned how to play the mandolin from the local postman.
“I used to pay him a pound and he’d spend 20-30 minutes working with me,” he says, admitting that he wasn’t enthusiastic about academics but loved playing his instruments. “I got pretty good at the mandolin. It’s hard to play the fiddle or piano quietly but I could practice mandolin for two hours in my room and my dad thought I was studying.”
Slide was invited to play at the DIF in 2008, and in between performances, Broderick went to hear Gaelic Storm play. There, he met a woman from Upper Arlington named Shauna, got her number and they kept in touch. That Christmas, Broderick invited Shauna to Ireland and the rest is history. The couple married in 2011 and lived in Ireland for a few years before moving back to the U.S. so that Shauna could finish her undergraduate degree in biology. They have three children in Dublin schools: 9-year-old Finn, 5-year-old Cillian, and 3-year-old Freya.
Broderick has stayed involved with the DIF while also teaching fifth grade in Westerville, giving music lessons and starting the Dublin Irish Music Academy. Passing along the traditions of Irish music is important to him.
“I want to create a community of traditional Irish music lovers who enjoy seisiuns (pronounced sessions, meaning informal gatherings where people play and sing Irish music) as well as ceilis (pronounced kay-lees, which are more organized parties with group dancing and Irish music playing),” Broderick says.
He teaches mandolin, banjo and fiddle for now, but will add more instruments and possibly Irish language classes as the program grows. He instructs students on the basics, like how to hold the instrument properly and play scales.
“I start by teaching jigs which are straightforward and more manageable than other tunes and then we move into reels,” he says.
Broderick feels that if he can generate a strong wave of interest, it could really go somewhere. His ultimate goal would be to have students compete with their instruments at the world championships and possibly even win the title of world champion.
“Cleveland and Detroit have very good musicians who travel to Ireland and do well in competitions there,” he says. “I’d like to see Dublin generate top Irish musical talent as well.”
There are many Irish dance schools in the area but the Dublin Irish Music Academy is the only one of its kind locally.
“The two go hand in hand,” Broderick says. “Wouldn’t it be great to have teenagers playing Irish music while their friends are dancing to the jigs and reels?”
One young student who has taken to the mandolin is Dublin sixth grader Abbie McBrearty.
“You can see straight away that she’s into it,” says Broderick.
Abbie’s mom, Dymphna, is from Galway and her dad, Ollie, is from Donegal. Abbie was born in Germany but was raised in County Leitrim, Ireland, until 2015 when the family moved to Ohio.
“She enjoys playing soccer and swimming but Abbie has really latched onto the mandolin,” says Dymphna.
Adults are also welcome to take lessons and Broderick has a group learning the bouzouki, which is like a mandolin on steroids. It is bigger and longer with eight strings and its job is to accompany the lead melody like a guitar. Broderick and the students get together to play seisiuns at The Blarney Stone in Worthington and many of the students will be playing at the Dublin Irish Festival as well.
“Myself and Phil Frank from The Drowsy Lads will anchor the seisiun and it will give the students something to work toward,” Broderick says.
Slide will also be playing at the DIF Aug. 2-4.
If you’re still yearning for more blarney and the Emerald Isle, talk to Broderick and Dave Curley about their week-long cultural and music tour next summer. The bus tour is all about fun, starts in Dublin, heads southwest to Kilkenney, includes highlights like the Cliffs of Moher and Guinness Storehouse, many informal seisiuns in pubs, and ends with a performance by Slide in Dublin. Broderick’s dad, who loves to tell a good story like any respectable Irishman, tags along for part of the trip and it’s a guaranteed good time!
