‘I remember thinking I’m not going to be back on stage for a year – now I know it’s going to be a second year’ 

TRADITIONAL musician Niamh Parsons remembers a worrying trip to Belfast just after news of the virus’s arrival was spreading last March.

She was appearing in a show about Irish wakes.

“We went up to Belfast as it hadn’t locked down and the Henry Girls were there, and God we were so nervous about doing that,” she said.

“There was a sound engineer there from West Belfast and his mother was a big fan of mine when I was starting my career. Nobody had masks. The first thing he did was give me the biggest hug, and I was petrified.”

She lost a month of work, and then a tour of England was cancelled, followed by a tour of Holland.

“Other tours that were beginning to be formed were abandoned,” she said. “I remember thinking I’m not going to be back on stage for a year, and now I know it’s going to be a second year”.

She also had a part-time job and went on the pandemic unemployment payment as soon as the first lockdown happened. She was not considered self-employed because of the part-time job, and her €350 rate has since been reduced to €203 a week.

“I was very grateful for the €350 a week rate, which lasted for a short while,” Parsons said. “I had lost all my touring money. Being a musician you earn a certain amount of money one month and that might do you for another two months.”

As a member of the Musicians Union of Ireland, affiliated to Siptu, Parsons has heard many members worrying about rent. Some have taken up jobs in other industries and may never return to the business.

“I am suffering not just from not earning, but not being able to bounce ideas off other people,” she said. She remembers a recent Zoom concert where she was telling stories and realised how much she needed an audience.

She describes her financial situation as “tight” although she is not spending as much on petrol or flying anywhere. “What I don’t spend on flights I’m spending on wine,” she laughed.

“I’m also by nature quite an optimistic person and have tried not to let it get me down. We have mental health issues in our family, so I’m very aware of minding myself.”

She believes it is very difficult to “tick all the boxes” to qualify for government grants. “The money from the government is not really reaching the ground floor,” she said. “The same people are getting the funding because they know how to do it, or have agents who know how to do it.”

Parsons feels the government’s attitude is that musicians should go and get a day job.

“We are the people that make Ireland so special,” she said. “We are why people come to Ireland, but we are not nearly as popular in Ireland as in the rest of the world.”

Online Editors