A New Life:While a bit nervous about owning a company, former Saw Doctor Johnny Donnelly tells Michelle McDonaghthat he is keen to keep MacTeo alive.
Since Johnny Donnelly became the owner and managing director of his own company earlier this year, he feels like he has been "put in a circular room and told to sit in the corner".
All the former Saw Doctors drummer has ever wanted to do is play the drums, but in March he agreed to buy out MacTeo, the corporate sister company of Macnas in Galway from its holding company Aos Macnas.
"I went to singing and dancing school, they don't teach you how to own and run your own company. I never thought or wanted to own a business and I didn't think I was the right man to take over even though I have run MacTeo as general manager for a few years," he says.
However, the turning point for Donnelly came when he realised that if he did not buy MacTeo, it was likely that the company would be closed down because of the huge confusion in the mind of the public over Macnas and MacTeo.
As Donnelly points out, MacTeo - which he has renamed Arcana - is a corporate entertainment production company best known for its work at major events such as the Ryder Cup and the Special Olympics, whereas Macnas is a funded community arts organisation of international renown.
"If I didn't buy the company, I would probably have ended up back on the road with a band and that's not really an option with three children," he remarks.
The son of a bank manager, Donnelly grew up in Roscommon where he started drumming at the age of three and became the youngest and smallest lead drummer in the history of the De La Salle school pipe band. To this day, he remains a petite figure both in height and frame, but the power and energy he brings to his drumming performances is phenomenal.
"I had no interest in school and left after the Inter Cert. The only subject I passed was woodwork because I used to make my own drumsticks."
As a teenager, Donnelly bought Hot Press religiously and he joined numerous bands through answering advertisements in the magazine. After leaving school, he played in the Baggot Inn in Dublin with various bands travelling up and down to the city for gigs, sometimes three days a week, while also working in the local chipper, supermarket, sportshop and as a porter in the bank at various times.
One of the ads that he answered in 1989 was for Galway band The Saw Doctors who were looking for a drummer. Although he admits he wasn't a fan of their music at the time, when he was invited to join the band for four nights in the Olympia where they were special guests with the Waterboys, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
Mike Scott of the Waterboys then invited The Saw Doctors to go on tour for six weeks with them - Donnelly went along as drummer and that was the start of his 13-year career with the band.
In 1995, Donnelly first got involved with Macnas and MacTeo as percussion director teaching drumming and directing percussion performances, while still playing around the world with the band.
"I did have a great time with the band, but I feel I wasted a lot of years not being happy but not being brave enough to leave. Towards the latter part of my Saw Doctor days, I would start to feel sick as soon as I set foot on the tarmac at the airport at the start of a six-week tour and would have lost weight when I came home despite having a huge appetite."
In 2001 his wife, Aisling, told him she was expecting their first baby and within 24 hours Donnelly had left the band. He played his last gig with The Saw Doctors at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and it took every ounce of his strength not to burst into tears on stage.
Soon after this, he was offered the job of musical director of MacTeo as well as staying on as percussion director with Macnas. When the vacancy of general manager arose a few years ago, he got the job despite "knowing nothing about managing anything other than a set of drum sticks".
His takeover of MacTeo took place around the same time as the birth of his son, Harry, on March 10th this year. With his baby in and out of hospital since his birth, Donnelly has been rather preoccupied since he took over MacTeo. He has started a bookkeeping course though and bought a new desk.
"When you own your own company everything changes. I worry now about paying people's wages and it's totally different writing cheques for 400 metres of tartan cloth when it's your own money you're spending. It's a weird mindset to get around. I hope it won't make me go grey," he says.
While it's hard to ever imagine Donnelly wearing a pin-striped business suit, he now has to learn to adapt to a nine-to-five, Monday-
Friday work routine as well as directing and taking part in performances around the country.
"The fact that MacTeo is still in business after 15 years in a small country like Ireland says a lot. We do 150-200 performances a year which is a huge percentage of the corporate entertainment market and I want to keep the company alive," he adds.