'Mushroom farm upbringing taught me more than I appreciated back then'
Growing up on the family mushroom farm taught Monaghan-born Thomas Johnston far more than he appreciated at the time.
The musician, composer, educator and researcher is also the founder and artistic director of the Monaghan-based children’s arts company Ceol Connected.
Johnston told Agriland: "I saw first-hand the dedication it takes to build something, the resilience needed when times are difficult, and the importance of treating people well.
"My parents created employment locally, worked incredibly hard and were deeply connected to their community.
"Those values have stayed with me throughout my own career."
He added that at the same time, music was "woven through everything" in his youth.
"My parents directed our local choir for many years.
"My mother had been a showband singer in her younger years with Colette and the Partners, while as a young man my father performed in musicals with Monaghan Musical Society and was a wonderful singer himself," he explained.
Farm life
Johnston grew up in the townland of Sheskin in north Co Monaghan.
His father was a mushroom farmer and while they also had cattle and sheep over the years, mushrooms were "really at the heart of the farm" throughout his childhood.
"Like my three sisters, I was involved from a young age.
"Picking mushrooms, weighing them, packing them and helping was simply part of everyday life, especially during the summer months.
"My father eventually expanded the business to market mushrooms for other local growers, exporting them to the UK, so alongside the farming itself I was also witnessing entrepreneurship in action without really realising it at the time," Johnston recalled.
He said the family were "great musical partners" and always had songs they would perform together.
"All four of us children grew up playing music, so for me farming and music were never separate worlds - they existed side by side.
"As a child, I was probably more captivated by the landscape than I was by the farming itself.
"I have great memories of spending summer days walking the rivers with my cousin, climbing trees or visiting an old well on a neighbouring farm, accessed through a tiny wooden hatch. It felt magical.
"Looking back now, I realise those early experiences of nature and imagination have quietly shaped almost everything I’ve gone on to create," Johnston said.
The family home is still there and Johnston described it as "incredibly important" to him.
Johnston explained: "My mother still lives there, alongside my older sister and my two nephews.
"While the mushroom enterprise has long since finished, it’s still very much a working farm.
"I go back whenever I can. Monaghan, the landscape and the sense of home continue to ground me.
"Even though much of my work now takes me around Ireland and further afield, I always find myself drawing inspiration from where I grew up.
"When I look across the work we’ve created over the years, the influence of the land is unmistakable.
"Nature, place, community and the small moments of wonder you experience as a child continue to find their way into almost everything I make."
Music
After school, Johnston eventually found his way to the University of Limerick (UL), where he studied Irish traditional music and dance.
He later completed a PhD in music education, followed by postdoctoral research exploring the role music and the arts can play in children’s lives.
"Research gave me a deeper understanding of something I had always felt instinctively growing up - that music has an extraordinary ability to connect people, build confidence and create lasting memories," he said.
Over the years, Johnston's career has evolved across education, research, performance and producing.
Ceol Connected
He founded Ceol Connected, which has created touring productions, festivals, professional development for early years educators, sensory performances for children with complex needs and large-scale family productions that have toured nationally.
"Interestingly, when I think back, one of the very first live productions I ever created was 'The Quiet Tree'," the Monaghan man remarked.
"My father helped me gather fallen branches from the farm and tie them onto the roof of my car because they became the theatre set.
"It’s a lovely memory because it reminds me just how small those beginnings were, and how much my parents quietly supported the journey from the very start.
"The Far Field remains one of the projects closest to my heart because it was probably the clearest expression of my farming upbringing.
The story follows farmer Lonán, who discovers a magical whistle hidden in a hare’s nest and sets off to find its rightful owner.
Johnston said: "It celebrates not only farming life but also the imagination, folklore and quiet magic that can exist within the landscape.
"The production toured nationally to theatres and arts centres around Ireland, introducing children and families to a world inspired directly by the fields and countryside I grew up in."
That connection to the land has continued in other productions too, including 'The Land of a Hundred Little Hills', originally commissioned by the Patrick Kavanagh Centre and inspired by Kavanagh’s 'A Christmas Childhood'.
Johnston said: "Like much of my work, it celebrates nature, memory and the richness of rural life"
"At the moment I’m working on two very different projects that, in many ways, both have their roots in home.
"The first is The Very Curious Céilí, an intergenerational music theatre production inspired by my mother’s years as a showband singer.
"It’s set in a care home and celebrates music’s remarkable ability to connect generations."
The production will tour nationally next year with support from the Arts Council.
Digital media
The second project saw Johnston enter the world of digital media with the creation of The Curious Cubs, an app for children where two very cute fox cubs – Coco and Kai – guide children into the magical world of Foxglove Farm.
"Although it’s a digital platform, we’ve tried to create something that feels the opposite of fast-paced technology.
"It’s calm, low-stimulation and designed to encourage children to sing, dance, imagine and then put the device down and continue playing together in the real world.
Johnston said it is probably no surprise that one of his favourite parts of the app is the farm section.
"Children can meet farm animals, explore farm sounds, listen to original songs about life on the farm and discover stories inspired by nature.
"In many ways, it’s another way of passing on the kind of childhood I was fortunate enough to experience growing up in rural Monaghan.
"When I look back now, I realise that while my career has taken me into theatres, universities and now digital media, the farm has never really left me.
"It continues to shape how I think, what I create and the stories I want to share with children and families," the Co. Monaghan man said.
