Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Last week, alternative folk artist Ramper announced himself with Loner – a debut, ten-track album that looks backwards and forwards in equal measure. It is the solo project of Declan McClafferty, a native of Rosguill in Donegal, where rural communities have been decimated for years.

The people McClafferty recalls from his childhood, and the cultures and traditions that embodied them, are documented throughout the LP in a celebration and lament for the Ireland he knew.

Ramper will be bringing the record to Galway over the next couple of months, with a support slot for Ryan McMullan scheduled for Monroe’s on April 15.

“That old idyllic picture that you had in your head of what Ireland was like 100 years ago was still going on,” McClafferty says.

“That generation was still there, and they were still living the way they always lived, by and large. I got a good glimpse of that. It was very normal. The shop, for example, came in a van. The same for coal; the same for butchers.

“There was a realisation that it was very remote, and the services came to you rather than you going there. I’m sure you’ll have readers on the west of Galway or Mayo that’ll resonate with. Then I guess I lived through a big change where we are where we are today.

“When I was writing the record, I was considering what that generation would make of it all.”

The major issue in Rosguill, as McClafferty sees it, is the loss of people. He recorded Loner alone at home during the pandemic while raising young children. The process itself would have served as a reminder of the isolation felt in the surrounding area.

“There’s mass emigration for sure,” he says. “A lot of my peers from school – I’m 37 now and if I had a gig in London, I would see more of my school pals than I would if I had a gig in Donegal.

“A lot of the boys would have stayed and put the shoulder to the wheel for the GAA, and then when they were getting into their early thirties and were starting to slow down, they all went to Australia.

“Tourism, I guess, is the lifeline. But I think in Downings and Rosguill, in the last census, 83 per cent of houses are holiday homes.

Pictured: Ramper…solo album and Galway gig. Photo: Charlie Joe Doherty