Clare Gathering: Kilfenora Céilí Band Raising Spirits At Home and Abroad

Claire Daly steps it out to summon  a gathering of Claires

Forget the subtleties (or pretensions) of the modern aesthetic traditional ensemble, for me, there is nothing quite like an honest to goodness, foot stomping, full blooded ceili band to raise the spirits  and  the Main Square in Kilfenora was literally hopping this afternoon as a large crowd gathered to welcome the local globe trotting heroes, the Kilfenora Ceili Band at the annual music festival . Here the  function of the music was placed firmly at the heart of the activity and dancers took to the wooden floor to hammer out the various sets as the band set the pace. April showers and a near arctic wind chill sent the faint hearted scurrying intermittedly to the local teashops until the sun reappeared but the staunch troupe continued unabated over the two hour session. MC and flautist, Garry Shannon paused only to read messages received from the Clare diaspora, as the  music was carried beyond the square to far flung destinations via the world wide web, a poignant reminder of the reality of emigration in 21st Clare. Powerful stuff!

You can hear my interview with Garry Shannon recorded immediately following the gig in the audioboo below.

Doyen of press photographers, John Kelly  in action at the event

The Kilfenora return to Glór on May 26th and the NCH on 3rd August 


Kilfenora Ceili Band at Love Live Music Day Ennis

listen to ‘Garry Shannon’ on Audioboo

Post from Holy Family String Project Kilfenora Ceili Dancers

A most unusual comedy double act caught in the video clip below. It features Garry Shannon with  dancer Michael Donnellan 

Solvitur Ambulando: A Clare Camino

photo clarepilgrimway.ie

 "Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

                      Canterbury Tales

Pilgrim pathways are quite trendy these days with celebrities, Shirley McLaine  sprinkling a bit of stardust on the Camino de Santiago de Compostella and Martin Sheen giving the route the West Wing seal of approval in the film 'The Way' . Among my own more plebian circle,  I don't have to go too far  to find people who have stepped it out  along the iconic route although the real trial is not the trail but enduring the prelude of purgatory that is  21st century airline travel.


 I watched the development over the last two years of a pilgrimage pathway in the West of Ireland  with interest. I could hardly contemplate a trip to far flung pathways without at least treading part of the newly marked   route through holy wells, ancient crosses and churches scattered  across my home county of county Clare.

Entrance St Brigid's Well

I joined a group of twenty or so pilgrims on the final day of the latest stage of a Clare Pilgrim path on  Friday 6th April beginning at St Brigid’s Well, Liscannor, continuing to Liscannor Church Kilmacreehy church ruin, St Senan’s Well in Kilshanny and finishing in 

Kilfenora Cathedral (10km).   Fr Denis Crosby, parish priest of Liscanor was a font of knowledge  of local history and lore and an insightful and entertaining guide.   There was a convivial lunch of at Kilshanny House and fortified, the group walked on to  St Fachtna's Cathedral where the fire was lit and Brian Mooney spoke about the Doorty megalithic cross before a final closing ceremony. The group included members of both Catholic and Protestant traditions with both Canon Bob Hanna of St Columba's and  and Fr  Tom Hogan  of Ennis Cathedral among the pilgrims  giving the venture an ecumenical profile. 

Fr Denis Crosby with Brigid's Cross photo ennisparish.ie

On a glorious sunny day like this  mercifully free of those April showers,  with the panoramic coastal scenery looking like a John Hinde postcard, and an airport in easy reach,  it was easy to see the appeal a 'Clare Camino'  might have for   potential pilgrims  both at home and abroad . I enjoyed the walk, the sense of shared experience with old and new acquaintances and the glimpse into the customs and practice of  generations past through the eloquence of our knowledgeable guides.

Plans to map the route are in hand and it will be interesting to watch the project develop over the next few years.

'Solvitur Ambulando': Clare Pilgrim Motto  It is solved by walking 

And so schal we alle · may ther no man flee:

God bringe us to the Ioye · that ever schal be!

                                    Chaucer

Time for a lunchtime tune for the dancers 

Surveying the Cross   photo CD

More details of the  activities of the Clare Pilgrim Way group can be found on the website http://www.clarepilgrimway.ie/


A gallery of photographs taken at the event can be viewed on wwwennisparis.ie/gallery

Inside the labyrinth at Caher photo clarepilgrimway.ie

 Mission Statement

  We wish That the pilgrims On this way
   Enjoy a lifting of their spirits
                 And that Even those who do not believe 
Find themselves
     In a setting where
          The spirits are raised,
The mind is cleared and                 
The body itself is lightened.

After Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Ceili at the Crossroads Festival: Clarecastle Singers' Club

Singers Session with Tim Dennehy photo Colm Keating 

And advance, retreat, advance, retreat and dance in your own place
Round the house for the last time now your fleeting steps retrace
Shape the silence to a golden reel and dance away all care
Through the night I hear your whisper, "dance a set for me in Clare"
          From A Winter's Tear by Tim Dennehy

Clarecastle singer and hurler Dean Power
image courtesy of Clare Champion

The last time I was in Power's Bar in Clarecastle was the occasion of the farewell concert of local tenor Dean Power prior to his departure for a young artist's position at  the Bavarian State Opera. As Dean shared the stage with some of the world's finest international opera stars in  his role of Nathaneal in the Tales of Hoffmann, fellow members of the Clarecastle  Singers Club  gathered in the local bar for the 12th annual session last Friday night in one of the events of the Ceili at the Crossroads Festival. 

If you haven't been to one , singers' sessions or clubs are a very particular type of musical evening. The emphasis is very much on the solo unaccompanied voice and instrumentals are rarely a feature. At the ones I have attended , the song selection has been in a traditional mode usually in  English. They are presided over by an MC or  a Fear an Tí who calls for order and calls on contributers in turn and generally keeps proceedings moving along smoothly. This makes this type of evening a bit easier to navigate than the musicians session where the etiquette isn't so apparent. In contrast to many choirs in the area, there was a greater proportion of gentlemen than ladies voices.

Dancing at the crossroads photo Clare People

 I arrived at 9.30 pm to find the session in full flow with a gathering of more than a hundred singers and listeners.  Procedings I am told were opened by veteran singer Robbie McMahon,  the King of Spancillhill.  There were love songs, songs of young love thwtarted, and love gone awry .   By far the most prevailing theme of the evening though was of emigrants  pining for home and happier times be it the Town of Killaloe,  the foot of Slieve Bloom ,  or the ole misty isle in general as in Isle of Hope  and the old family homestead in particular as in My Father's House  and This Old House   A visiting singer's song extolling the virtues of the  English Lake District echoed this theme as did the lovely  lilting Scottish Soldiers's Song .  There were political  ballads  and the ever popular anti war song Willie McBride . As the saying goes  'all our songs are sad'  and indeed there were relatively few humorous songs  but I enjoyed Phillip Brennan's self penned The Well of Tobartaoscán and sport got a look in with Gerry McNamara's Let Hurling Win the Day  dedicated to the local Clarecastle GAA Club celebrating 125 years of existance .


 The songs came thick and fast with interludes of funny stories before finally a short break to gather breath. Fear an tí, Tim Dennehy resumed the session  with  the spoken word, a poem by Michael Coady from Carrick on Suir (reproduced below) and one of his own self penned songs , A Winter's Tear one of  the most powerful renditions of the evening. The were reminiscences on the late and much missed Peadar McNamara, long time host of the singers sessions in Clare . Last night as I was leaving at nearly midnight, local TD Joe Carey  was being called for  a song . I gather the singing went on til the early hours and everyone who wished to contribute was heard .  Fearr an Ti Tim Dennehy was assisted by Anne Whelan and there was excellent order for each contribution from the large gathering. A truly inclusive musical experience 

Listen to Deirdre Callinan Griffin singing and talking about  sean nós tradition  at a workshop in Clarecastle on Saturday morning.

listen to ‘Clarecastle songs ’ on Audioboo

listen to singer  ‘Deirdre Callinan Griffin  on Audioboo

Though There are Torturers
by Michael Coady

Though there are torturers in the world,
There are also musicians.

Though, at this moment,
Men are screaming in prisons
There are jazzmen raising storms
Of sensuous celebration
And orchestras releasing
Glories of the Spirit.

Though the image of God

Is everywhere defiled

A man in West Clare

Is playing the concertina,

The Sistine Choir is levitating

Under the dome of St.Peter’s

And a drunk man on the road

Is singing for no reason

This is a rough list of participants and songs 930 to 12.00 . All details may not be accurate

Maire O Donoghue  Love Song  Michael White Chapel Gate of Curraclare Rebecca Griffin My Forever Friend  Charlie Landsborough , Helge Belgium, Young Siobhan Cunningham Crusheen, Joe Downey Isle of Hope, Triona Marrinan O Grady  Hannah, by the roving of her eye, Gerry Abraham The Orange and Green, Mick ScanlonThe Town of  Killaloe,  Gerry McNamara Let Hurling Win the Day,  Darren Richmond Cumbria Song, Anne Whelan Love Song Can you hear me London Town,  Phillip Brennan The Well of Tobairteascain , Hugh Kearney , Joe Kearney   Funny tales,   Peter O Connell In my Fathers House PJ Fitzpatrick MyOld Sligo Home,  Ger Carrigg My home at the foot of Slieve Bloom,  Donal Kenny Robert Emmet,  Michael Whelan Scottish Soldier Song Mary Clancy Song of Emigration ,  Noirin Lynch Love Song, Cathy Desmond Love is Teasin'

Related articles
The Raw Bar  Festival of Traditional Singing

The Singer and the Song Willie Clancy Week  2012

Come the Sails   Michael Coady was one of the featured poets

Guitar Legend plays Monday Blues at Shannon Knights




Johnny Fean

 

I heard on the grapevine that Horslips guitar legend Johnny Fean has a regular gig in Shannon and  and although Monday night in  Clare might not seem  the most  likely time and place for  a lively  blues gig, we enjoyed a terrific night at the Rineanna Bar at ShannonKnights with a six piece!  band  no less.  Fronted by Stoney Walls on vocals and sax  and featuring ex Horslips guitarist Fean .

Independent Music Clubs Clare; Sean Tyrrell / Kevin Burke

 


  It has been a week for opera in  various forms and I am just back from Sean Tyrrell's unique traditional opera  setting of 'The Midnight Court'  at the  Frank Hayes' Island Music Club  at the Highway Inn in Crusheen. I think this is one of the most successful one man shows I have seen, both entertaining and thought provoking.  Based on the poem by Brian Merriman in a translation by David Marcus, it is an account of the age old  battle of the sexes, told  in  bawdy verse form and set to music by Tyrrell himself  in a trad' idiom.  The show opened with the spoken word but was mostly related in song to mandola accompaniment.  Although several hundred years old there were many resonances  with modern day Ireland  making it seem very  current. 



Sean Tyrrell in The Midnight Court



One was immediately struck on entering the intimate space that is the backroom of The Highway Inn by the theatrical props of masks, hats and puppets and considerable care had gone in to dressing the windows in lights and  crimson chiffon.  The use of masks to portray the hag and Queen Aeval lent an air of Greek drama and  the plot has some resonance with  the battle of the sexes in Euripides' Lysistrata.

There was something of a festival atmosphere in the Highway Inn this evening as the GAA  Crusheen  Junior A team had won a match  adding to the success of Crusheen GAA  in recent weeks  and the team were in to accept plaudits all adding to the general hurly burly of Saturday night. It was a shame that the venue was not packed to capacity as this show deserved to draw a larger audience.