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A rich aspect of Michael McNamara’s musical life was his involvement in ceili bands and groups with musicians from within and beyond his own locality.
His home townland of Aughavas had an active band scene. The Cloone Ceili Band founded in the 1930s by Fr. Peter Conefrey was in place during the time when Michael was learning to play. This included some very fine musicians including Thomas Canning, flute, Jimmy McKiernan, fiddle, and Jim Rawle, fiddle. St. Joseph’s Pipe Band, Aughavas was established and included as a member his neighbour John Blessing.
Together with his younger sister Josephine, the renowned singer, Michael started attending Fleadhanna Cheoil from 1956. Though these occasions were primarily for social interaction, competition engagement resulted in regular success for both of the McNamara siblings. This notoriety resulted in both Michael and Josephine receiving invitations to participate in concerts throughout the country and to join bands.
In the early 1960s both joined the Eugene Leddy Ceili Band based in Cavan, remaining members from circa 1960—1964 and traveling widely throughout the country, sometimes six nights per week. As Michael recalls:
You might just get to put your head down on a pillow for an hour after a night’s music before getting back up for work the next day
It was when playing for a dance with the Eugene Leddy Ceili band in Belturbet in the early 1960s that Michael met Mary Sweeney from Killeshandra, Co. Cavan who he was later to marry in 1965.
A rich flavour of ceili band life in Ireland can be heard in The Golden Era of Ceili Music and Dance, 1955–1970 a series of interviews with Ceili Band leaders and performers conduced and recorded by the late Brian Lawler. Freely available on the ITMA website, it includes an interview with Eugene Leddy.
Michael subsequently played with the Joe Delaney Ceili Band with whom he recorded and broadcast on RTÉ Radio in the late 1960s. The 1970s saw membership of The Ceoltóirí Conmhaicne Ceili Band alongside Frank Kelly, fiddle, Bridie Lafferty, piano, Pee Fitzpatrick, fiddle, Micheál Mac Aogáin, fiddle, Antóin MacGabhann, fiddle, and John Lee, flute. He was also playing with the Green Linnet Ceili Band during the time he was traveling to Dublin for work. All these bands broadcast many times on RTE radio as did the Leitrim Trio made up of Michael, Pee Fitzpatrick and John Lee.
Michael and his son Brian were members of a new version of the Ceoltoiri Conmhaicne Ceili Band who competed in the Fleadhanna in the late 1990s, being awarded 2nd place at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann three years in a row 1996—1998).
