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| Young Buskers Miltwn Malbay - photo Cathy Desmond |
I'll roam the deserts of wild Abyssinia And yet find no cure for my pain I'll go and enquire on the Isle of St. Helena No there we will whisper in vain Now tell me ye critics now tell me in time The nation I'll range my sweet linnet to find Was he slain at Waterloo or at Elba on the Rhine If he was I shall never see him more
The Green Linnet
The
Willie Clancy Summer School, held annually in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare is celebrating 40 years of activity dedicated to the memory of the influential uilleann piper. The format of classes, ceilis , lectures and concerts has remained reassuringly unchanged over the years and on Friday I heard the afternoon of 'Traditional Singing in Irish & English' at the Community Hall.
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| Traditional Singing fromSean Garvey at Miltown Malbay Hall an Pobail |
The singers in turn offered two numbers each from their sean nós reperoire of unaccompanied song.
Pauline Hanley from Donegal was followed by
Mary Smith from Isle of Lewis who sang lullabies in Scots Gaelic.
Sean Garvey from Kerry gave us the Napoleonic song,
The Green Linnet and a song of emigration from Valentia by Sean Murphy . Representing the younger generation,
Nell Ni Chrónín. a Cork singer in her early twenties had a lovely warm delivery in her lilting song. All gave short introductions to set the context and the provenance of the song. Young Scottish singer,
Griogar Labhruaidh's charming introduction to a song of cattle rustling in the Scottish Highlands was as long and as much a part of the performance as the song itself. A piper himself, his vocal style imitated that instrument at times almost like scat singing.
What a pleasure to hear Ulster Singer,
Len Graham, surely one of the most authoritave voices in the sean nós tradition . His powerful delivery of
The Wee Lass on the Brae and a North Antrim version of
The Parting Glass were a highlight of the afternoon. Mike Flynn represented Clare and closed the proceedings with his rendition of
The Rocks of Bawn
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| Gown and Parchment for late Muiris O Rochain cofounder |
This was music stripped to its barest elements, a solo voice unsupported by any instrument telling stories. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the afternoon was the intensity with which the audience of locals and international visitors listened to each singer to catch every nuance in the lyric. It was the same intensity which surrounded me in an audience in a packed French Theatre last week
for a new opera production at the prestigious Festival d'Aix. While the forces and scale may have been different, the impulse of storytelling through song and the eagerness to listen were the same in the Grand Theatre de Provence and Halla an Pobail , Miltown Malbay
Here's to the next 40 years of Willie Clancy Festivals in Clare. Long may it prosper.
For the Great Gaels of Ireland are the man that God made mad, for all their wars are merry and all their songs are sad.
The Willie Clancy Summer School, held annually in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare is celebrating 40 years of activity dedicated to the memory of the influential uilleann piper. The format of classes, ceilis , lectures and concerts has remained reassuringly unchanged over the years and on Friday I heard the afternoon of 'Traditional Singing in Irish & English' at the Community Hall.
'Without Delia Murphy , there would have been no Christy Moore' was the claim made by actress and writer Carmen Cullen in her tribute act to her aunt Delia Murphy , one of Irelands best loved singers and song collectors at Glór this afternoon. The event was part of the Bealtaine Festival as a guest of Clare Arts Office. Decades before the Clancy Brothers , Delia Murphy popularised many Irish Folk Songs bringing them to the attention of international audiences giving them a respectability at home . And what pearls were the songs she unearthed, so simple and charming that once heard they are never forgotton. Standard party piece favourites for my parents' generation, they are ingrained in our subconscious. The show was a mix of songs , illustrated lecture with a slide show of old photographs with the songs delivered by Mairín O Donovan with a great degree of charm accompanied by Gerry Anderson on guitar. Carmen also read from her soon to be published biographical novel, Two Sisters Singing using a simple prop of an on stage wind up gramaphone to evoke a past era. (Carmen's mother and Delia were sisters) Opening with The Queen of Connemara, included in the set list Courtin' in the Kitchen, The Spinning Wheel Song, The Connemara Cradle Song, Three Lovely Lassies , Down By the Glenside, Thank You Ma'am Says Dan , If I were a Blackbird and of course The Moonshiner from which the delightfully assonant title for the show, I'll Live Till I Die is taken .