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Tuesday Tune: The Masons’ Apron from An Fleadh Nua 2008

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The annual Fleadh Nua kicks off in my beloved Co. Clare this Sunday for a week of fantastic music, song, dance & fun so I decided to go trad for the Tuesday Tune today. This is the awesomely talented Darra Mulhearn from Ennis and the video is via Comhaltas, who have embraced YouTube with a great selection of videos from fleadhs and festivals all over the country.

Growing up in any part of Clare means you’re never far away from the trad stuff, be it music, singing or dancing. My grandfather was a button accordion player until arthritis made it impossible. It didn’t however have the same effect on his set dancing & he kept that up until close to his passing 3 years ago. He’s probably turning in his grave at the thought of none of his grandchildren being able to dance a step of a set! It’s something I’ve always wanted to learn. Myself and my siblings have brought it up in conversation from time to time at home & we always put the blame on our parents for never teaching us but considering we’re all scattered across the country now we should be sorting this one out for ourselves.

So there’s my next little project – I’m going to learn how to dance a set  & hopefully I’ll get to dance one with my dad before the year is out :)  Now where will I find lessons in Dublin…?

Events, Thoughts

Free BBQ tonight & Saturday’s tea day

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Free BBQ tonight

So it’s the perfect (or closest to perfect evening you’ll get for May) evening for a BBQ and as luck would have it there’s a lovely free one happening this evening in Dublin. Here’s the story (robbed from Darragh’s post):

“Jane Russell from Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages is kicking off the summer in style with a bit of food, chat, drink and of course some sausage samples from 7.30pm in the roof garden of the Odessa Club.”

For those unsure of where the Odessa Club is or how to find it, here’s a wee map. Be seeing you there later!

Saturday’s Tea Day for Alzheimers

I spent Saturday in Dundalk at my dear friend AnneMarie’s place where she held her 5th annual tea day to raise funds for local Alzheimers carers and patients. We had people coming and going from 11am till 10pm, the tea flowed, gorgeous home baking delights kept us buzzing & the chat was fantastic. Aside from the fund-raising benefits, it was a wonderful social occasion and gave people a chance to catch up and spend some time with each other. The day raised a tasty €1300 with another few quid to come in from folks who couldn’t make it on the day. I’m dead proud of her & can’t wait to do it all again next year!

Events

Siege of Ennis world record attempt

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On Sunday May 17th, Special Olympics Ireland are hoping to smash the world record for the largest ever ceili by calling everyone to Ennis to dance the ‘Siege of Ennis’ at the Fairgreen at 2pm. To raise funds, the ‘Siege DVD’ is up for grabs via local outlets or via the website at www.siegeofennis.com.

Here’s what you can do to help, in any order or combination you like:

The record attempt is part of the opening festivities for the Fleadh Nua 2009 festival, a fantastic festival of Irish traditional music, song and dance in the heartland of traditional & ceili music, Co.Clare. 

Tis me home county after all & I love nothing more than an excuse to get up and shake my tailfeather so I’ll be seeing you down there the weekend after next! Spread the word folks & get involved via the website, the Twitter account, Facebook or Bebo pages. And in case you’re worried about your dancing skills not being up to scratch don’t be – as my dad says, “sure any eejet can dance that”. Here’s what it should look like just in case the only time you’ve ever heard of it was at an Irish wedding reception around 2am:

Events

Cork International Choral Festival: my thoughts

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This festival first came to my attention somehow around this time last year right after the 2008 festival had just wrapped up in Cork. That in mind I was determined not to miss out this year so I headed for Cork on Saturday to sample some of the choral action to be had in the country’s fairest city. 

I went along to the Fleischmann Trophy competiton on Saturday, the major prize on offer at the festival. The calibre of performances from the choirs was amazing as was the range of people involved on stage. Personal highlights included ‘Ett liv for mig’ performed by Finnish group Chamber Choir Gallerie and ‘Elijah Rock’ by Irish choir Codetta. Gothenburg Youth Choir gave a fantastic energetic performance to end the evening including a finger-clicking version of ‘Chili Con Carne‘. For something a bit lighter and to satisfy my more jazzy & modern tendencies in all things choral I popped into the National Competition for Light, Jazz and Popular Music on Sunday afternoon where some delightful performances given. Highlights for me were ‘The Impossible Dream‘ by Portadown Male Voice Choir, ‘The Teddy Bears Picnic‘ by Moy Singers from Co.Mayo and ‘Unchained Melody‘ by City of Cork Male Voice Choir. The closing gala concert on Sunday gave many of the choirs who took part in the Fleischmann Trophy competition a chance to let their hair down & have some fun and that they did for a really awesome evening of music. Sadly the camera battery failed to hold out for long enough to capture them all. Probably the most bizarre performance of the festival for me was Warsaw School of Economics Choir with their take on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit‘. Highlights for me were the Slovenia’s Ptuj Male Chamber Choir take on ‘Happy Together‘, Cois Claddaigh with ‘Loch Lomond‘, Codetta once again with ‘Elijah Rock‘, Cantilena Children’s Choir singing ‘Molly Malone‘, Fleischmann Trophy winners Kammerchor I Vocalisti with the hair-raising ‘Pseudo-Yoik‘ and finally Brigham Young University Singers (U.S.A.) with their jaw-dropping rendition of ‘Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine‘. I’m delighted to see they’re on tour in the UK & Ireland over the next 2 weeks. This is deserving of a blog post all by itself so watch this space :)

Overall, it was a fantastic experience in Cork, if too short. I’d love to have taken in more of the festival – there were so many different performances on offer over the 5 days and many of them free of charge too! At the risk of sounding cliched or corny, it really hit me how music can bring people from all walks of life & parts of the world together in a happy, warm, positive & supportive collective. There was such a buzz about City Hall for the performances, all the choirs cheering each other on & getting along famously & enjoying each others’ culture. 

I’ve got a bunch of videos from the Closing Gala Concert and the National Competition for Light, Jazz and Popular Music on YouTube – apologies for the awful quality of the camera work but it’s getting a taste of the sound that matters! I can’t wait for next year :)