Irish Fridays

[johncorrigan]

I was catching up on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show from last week. The mighty Altan were live guests in the studio with Mark Radcliffe and wonderful they were. I believe they are celebrating 40 years on the go. One song they did was 'Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa' and how beautiful it is.

https://youtu.be/lrQ92p5JOmM?si=qATx9pysIuyDFhDT

Here's the link to the programme. Some great tunes in there, but Altan were the stars.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0027c5y?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

Happy Irish Friday.

[Globaltruth]

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n03/colm-toibin/seagulls-as-playmates

This article is a review of Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World
by Patrick Joyce, also mentions Patrick Joyce's other book about his family who are from Mayo; the review is by Colm Tóibín.

I have recently read Remembering Peasants so obviously found the review a must-read.
Tóibín's review has an section relevant to this forum on peasants singing - indeed on the connotations of the word 'peasant', still used in a derogatory way on occasion by some and described by Tóibín as a 'tricky' word - and mention of Joe Heaney, subject of many previous posts. I was astonished to read that he had worked with John Cage...

Rather than just quote the section on music as you can see, I have included a link to the complete article - if only for the photograph from Croagh Patrick at the head. The significance of which will be appreciated if you read the article.

[Padraig]

This article is a review of Remembering Peasants: A Personal History of a Vanished World . . the review is by Colm Tóibín.

Most interesting review,Global. I still have to finish reading it. I stopped when I got to the Joe Heaney and his father part to have a think. Earlier I had come across a new word and had to look it up, and even that took some puzzling out. The word is 'chthonic' and it was Joe Heaney who helped me understand - something to do with delving into the past in search of lost songs, some of which will never be recovered in this world. So, in a way, we could be in touch with an other world.

That mysterious thought seems to fit with John's Altan post. I have included a translation of their song Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa which echoes the kind of journey taken by Joe Heaney in his native Connemara.

A fascinating couple of posts. Did you two collaborate?

Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa/Niwii-aabiziwinge – Poetry Daily

[johncorrigan]

Most interesting review,Global. I still have to finish reading it. I stopped when I got to the Joe Heaney and his father part to have a think. Earlier I had come across a new word and had to look it up, and even that took some puzzling out. The word is 'chthonic' and it was Joe Heaney who helped me understand - something to do with delving into the past in search of lost songs, some of which will never be recovered in this world. So, in a way, we could be in touch with an other world.

That mysterious thought seems to fit with John's Altan post. I have included a translation of their song Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa which echoes the kind of journey taken by Joe Heaney in his native Connemara.

A fascinating couple of posts. Did you two collaborate?

Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa/Niwii-aabiziwinge – Poetry Daily

#
Thanks for that, Padraig...I think GT and I have been here so long we've started finishing each other's sentences. I was also stopped in my tracks by chthonic - my brain was trying to work out how to pronounce it.
'Faoiseamh a Gheobhadsa' was also echoing some of the late Michael Longley's poems from Carrigskeewaun in Co Mayo that seem to have been inhabiting me this last week. Somehow a place that keeps taking you somewhere new no matter how often you go.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020px5?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

[Globaltruth]

Well we didn't consciously; your post wonderfully conflates those posts for us.


Thank you.

[Globaltruth]

Cúirt Bhaile Nua - Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin & Ultan O'Brien

strong sean-nós roots, from their album The Light Of the Day

This was recorded at a certain Watercolour Studio 4 years ago - thanks to MAK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY3Lp9fkR6E

a classic song of love and heartbreak from Mayo from the singing of Treasa Ní Mhiolláin. The track is accompanied by a night-time video, filmed outside at Watercolour Music’s studios, which is situated on the shores of Loch Linnhe within sight of Ben Nevis.

[Jazzrook]

On BBC4 tonight(21/2/25):

10.30pm - Folk Hibernia at the BBC

11.30pm - Sounds of the Sixties: the Folk Revival

12 midnight - John Martyn in Concert - The OGWT Special from 1978

JR