Mountshannon Miscellany
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Available to watch on https://www.facebook.com/mountshannonartsfestival/
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The theme we chose for 2020, is ‘Identity’, and our Culture Night event this year explored that theme in words and music.
Two of the artists taking part, have personal experience of Irelands inhumane Direct Provision system, and contributed to the wonderful ‘Correspondences’ book, edited by Jessica Traynor and Stephen Rea.
Direct Provision is an appalling system that needs urgent change.
In her piece in "Correspondences", Emilie Pine compares Direct Provision with the Magdelene Laundries, and asks how it is possible, that we continue to make the same mistakes, and continue to allow our government to commit such shocking abuse to our fellow men, women and children, in our name.
We call on the government to take immediate steps to change the system and show the world the true compassion of the Irish people.
We need to promote greater tolerance and understanding among the peoples of the world. Nothing can be more dangerous to our efforts to build peace and development than a world divided along religious, ethnic or cultural lines. In each nation, and among all nations, we must work to promote unity based on our shared humanity. – Kofi Anan
We intended to have a live stream event for Culture Night, but unfortunately, we had technical difficulties, and although the artists all performed their pieces on the night, we were not able to successfully share the wonderful evening.
We were determined however, not to lose the energy and beauty of the evening, and nearly all of the artists generously gave their time, so that we were able to record them again, and produce this video. Sadly, Ruth and Fergal were unable to join us.
We wish to sincerely thank Imelda and all in the Clare Arts office, for their generous support, without which, this event could not have happened.
We would also like to thank Peggy and all in ‘Under the Oak’, for allowing us to use the cafe.
Thanks also to Klaus and Gudrun and Paschal for all of their work on the technology side of things.
And of course a huge thank you to all of the artists who took part, including Ruth and Fergal, who we would love to work with again in the not too distant future.
Programme
- Introduction: Eavan Brennan
- Patricia Donnellan reads her poem ‘Earth Mother’
- Gaelynn Lea. Unfortunately Gaelynn couldn’t join us, but sent this video of her song ‘Breathe you are alive’
- Owodunni Mustapha reads her poem ‘Up the Hill in Mayo’
- Jyoshna and Denise play a Bengali song with Celtic influence, called 'Dharma amari sathe' or ‘Spirituality is my friend' and an English song called Tiny Green Island, by Prabhat Ranjain Sarkar
- Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe reads three of her own poems:
- ‘Ama de Casa’ ‘C’est poésie’ and ‘Hard Border’
- Cathal Moloney plays ‘One Day Like This’ by Elbow, and ‘Man in the Moon’ by Cathal Moloney.
- Victoria Claire Thoughts on ‘Identity’ followed by her song: ‘Know you Matter’
- Denise and Terence ‘A walk in the Sun’ Denise Glass followed by ‘Lonesome Robin’ about Robin Hood by Bob Coltman
- Insaf Yalçinkaya reads two poems: ‘A Worthless Life’ and ‘Borders’
- Pearse O’Shiel reads his poem ‘Zwelihle’
- Fin and Cian ‘The Parting Glass’
- Ruth Smith and Fergal Scahill. Sadly we didn’t manage to re-record their contribution.
The Artists
Ruth Smith and Fergal Scahill
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Husband and wife, Fergal Scahill & Ruth Smith are originally from county Galway but have made East Clare their home over the past few years.
Both multi-instrumentalists and long time performers Ruth & Fergal love to get the chance to perform together and are delighted to be taking part in this year's Mountshannon Arts Festival. Fergal is a member of the Irish-Bluegrass fusion band We Banjo 3 and has many years of performing and touring under his belt. https://www.webanjo3.com/ Ruth presents her show Simply Folk every Sunday night on RTÉ Radio 1 and works in a variety of performance roles within music & theatre. https://www.rte.ie/radio1/simply-folk/ |
Patricia Donnellan
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Patricia Donnellan from Mountshannon is a member of Pen Pushers Portumna Writers Group. Her poems have featured in The Works, Sliabh Aughty Magazine, Shorelines Arts Festival, Iniscealtra Arts Festival and Scarriff Bay Community Radio. Her work has also been Highly Commended at the SiarScéal Festivals 2014 & 2019.
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Photo. John Kelly
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Gaelynn Lea
PHOTO: Thanks to EvrGlo media
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Gaelynn Lea won NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2016, and not long after she hit the road with her husband Paul. So far she has toured in 45 states and 9 countries, captivating audiences around the world with her unique mix of haunting original songs and traditional fiddle tunes.
We were blessed that in 2016, Gaelynn came to Mountshannon and peformed an unforgettable concert here. In addition to performing and recording, Gaelynn also does speaking engagements about Disability Rights, finding inner freedom, and accessibility in the arts. She uses her music as a platform to advocate for disabled people and to promote positive social change. TIP JAR FOR THE ARTIST: PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/gaelynnleamusic Venmo: https://venmo.com/gaelynnlea CashApp: https://cash.app/$gaelynnleamusic If you want to support Gaelynn's work on an ongoing basis, Patreon is a great place to look: https://www.patreon.com/gaelynnlea Website: violinscratches.com Patreon: patreon.com/gaelynnlea Newsletter: https://show.co/hJ3gOYn Bandcamp: gaelynnlea.bandcamp.com YouTube: youtube.com/gaelynnlea |
Eavan Brennan
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Eavan Brennan is a performer and playwright from Mountshannon. Having trained in Dublin and Paris she spent many years with the legendary Footsbarn Traveling Theatre before her return to East Clare where she co-founded Wayword Theatre with Siobhan Donnellan and Ruth Smith. Their inaugural production "Get The Boat" written by Eavan, toured to New York's off Broadway venue the Soho Playhouse in 2018 and Wayword were delighted to perform a rehearsed reading of Agnès of God by John Pielmeir in Mountshannon Arts Festival 2019.
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Owodunni Mustapha
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Nigerian, Owodunni Ola Mustapha, is a graduate of Political Science and a mother of three.
She is an asylum seeker, here in Ireland, an activist, a writer/aspiring poet and has had some of her work published in journals in Ireland these include: Up the hill in Mayo, published in Correspondences, edited by Jessica Traynor and Stephen Rae The Unknown, published in MASI journal in 2019. She is the founder of Ballyhaunis Inclusion Project and last year she was honoured with the Christine Buckley Volunteer of the year award courtesy of Volunteer Ireland. |
Jyoshna and Denise
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Jyoshna La Trobe and Denise Glass will be playing a Bengali song with Celtic influence, called 'Dharma amari sathe' or Spirituality is my friend' and an English song called Tiny Green Island, by Prabhat Ranjain Sarkar. We chose the first song because it is an exploration of Indian and Celtic influences and the second song as it is relevant to Ireland and New Zealand, where Jyoshna hails from.
Jyoshna is a singer/songwriter from New Zealand, who writes and records original songs. She also explores the connections between Indian and western music. Her own music has been described as having lyrics which exude a sublime joy about life, the natural world and especially the great unknowables which remain tantalisingly beyond reach but give her a spiritual compass. We've probably said this before, but it bears repeating: Jyoshna is unique. https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/music/9073/jyoshna-unity-hours-iii-jyoshnamusiccom/ Denise lives close to Mountshannon and teaches music in Scariff Community College. She will also play with Terence O’Reilly, and you will find a more detailed biography with that page. |
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Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe
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Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe is a poet, pacifist and fabulist. Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming in July 2021.
Born in India, she grew up across the Middle East, Europe and North America, before calling Ireland home. She is the founder of the P[l]ay It Forward Fellowships, and co-editor of a forthcoming anthology with The Ireland Chair of Poetry (UCD Press, 2020 | UChicago Press, 2021). Her poems are widely published or forthcoming, most recently in Banshee, Poetry Ireland Review, Rattle, The Irish Times, Irish University Review, The Stinging Fly, and Winter Papers; anthologised in Writing Home: The New Irish Poets (Dedalus Press, 2019), Ko Aotearoa Tatou | We Are New Zealand (Otago University Press, 2020), P L A G U E P O E M S (The Salvage Press, 2020), and Empty House (Doire Press, 2021); broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1’s The Poetry Programme, Pantisocracy, RadioMoLI, and Poetry Ireland podcasts; hosted in the Irish Poetry Reading Archive; and featured in interactive installations such as Raining Poetry and Poetry Jukebox across Dublin, Belfast and Paris. |
Cathal Moloney
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Lead singer for the cover band Naked Bare. Huge interest in all music and likes to play more intimate gigs too. You may have also seen him perform in East Clare Music Society's various cabaret nights and musicals.
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Victoria Claire
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Victoria Claire is a singer/song writer from the UK, she writes and composes her songs on her piano before taking them into the music studio to produce and arrange them at Broadwood Music. She currently has 2 singles released, Know You Matter and Believe, these are available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal, Apple Music and YouTube. She is currently working on her album, The End Stage, and will be releasing her third single, By Any Means, featuring Tom Reid, in October.
Her career as a professional sculptor has been creatively linked to her music for many years where she has written songs that portray the sculpture that she has exhibited. For further information on Victoria Claire please visit: www.victoriaclaire-beyondvision.com https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-cy-Jmea5VdFSKEfRVGNIA www.victoriaclairesculpture.com https://www.instagram.com/victoriaclairesculpture/?hl=en Links to released songs: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/know-you-matter-single/1494385313 https://music.apple.com/gb/album/believe-single/1505862078 |
Denise and Terence
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Denise Glass [formerly Larkin], comes from the musically renowned Larkins pub in Garrykennedy, across the lake. She now lives in Mountshannon.
She learned the fiddle from her father, and she and her family played constantly, to entertain visitors to the family pub. Her father spent some time in the USA, and brought home bluegrass and Canadian tunes, which Denise took up with fervour. She went on to obtain her degree in music, and now teaches music in Scariff Community College. She plays regularly with a variety of groups, ranging in style from traditional/folk to country/rock music. Her style has a wonderful eclectic mix of traditional/bluegrass with shades of jazz. Terence O’Reilly has been playing folk/traditional music, since the early seventies. He has toured extensively throughout Europe, and North America. Whilst in the USA, he had the privilege of playing with wonderful musicians, such as James Kelly, and Paddy O’Brien. Terence was the tour manager for the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and worked with them in the University of Limerick for several years. He is highly regarded in traditional/folk circles, and noted primarily for his excellent guitar accompaniment. One of the defining characteristics of his music is his sensitivity. This sensitivity demonstrates a respect for the style of music he is accompanying, the tune being played, and the melodic structure of the music itself. |
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Insaf Yalçinkaya
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Insaf Yalcinkaya is a Kurdish poet born in Dersim in the Turkish part of Kurdistan.
After Bachelor degree she taught in primary and secondary schools. She was a political activist, and also Political Consultancy Advisor. She has also shown ceramics in several art exhibitions. Her articles have been published in national and local magazines and newspapers in Turkey. She has started to collect her poems. After she moved to Ireland to translate her poems into English. Her poems are published in Correspondences an anthology to call for an end to direct provision by Stinging Fly, in the MASI journal by MASI, in Flare 14 and Flare 15 by Dublin’s Sunflowers Session. Also she contributed with a poem to Pendemic.ie She is a member of Dublin Writer’s Forum since September 2017. Also she joined Poetry in The Park Killarney. She read her poems during some poetry events open mic in Dublin and Killarney. For instance during Kilmainham and Inchicore festival 2017, Poetry in Ireland At Cabra library open mic, Inchicore Library open mic, Books Upstairs as a reader. At Lord Edward, Sunflower Session as a reader. She was a performers at the Phizzfest – Phibsborough Community & Arts Festival 16th January 2020. She contributed a her art a group show called Transhumance / the Nomadic Artist:part of this land on 25th February 2020 at Phizzfest-The Space /Dublin. Also she contributed a her art work with Art Nomad group at the Christ Church Cathedral Dublin. Imagine: A Virtual Art Exhibition for World Refugee Week, 15-21 June 2020 She has a workshop at the IMMA as a member of Art Nomad on 12th and 19th September 2020. She is member of Catherine Young’s Dance Group. She involved the Big Bang Rhythm festival 2018-2019 in Dublin and Several times in Kerry as a member of Catherine Young’s Dance Group. She was member of Killarney Drama Circle where she involved as a player and a musicians. She likes art, music, drama and dance. www.insafyalcinkaya.com |
Pearse O’Shiel
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“I do not think of myself as a 'poet' nor do I write on any kind of regular basis.
However, there are from time to time moments or incidents that seem to require a response and this often takes the form of a short poem.” Pearse will read his own poem ‘Zwelihle’ “Zwelihle is the name of a township in Cape Town that I visited some years ago. The local women put on a show for the 'tourists' and I found myself detached from the group and looking at the performance as though from a distance. When I looked about me there were two shy children nearby looking at me as though I were their 'show'. It was the juxtaposition of the onlookers that heightened the awareness of my own tendency to experience from the 'edge'.” |
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Fin and Cian
Fin and Cian are brothers from Bodyke. They have been playing music together for over 10 years.
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better.”
Chuck Palahniuk
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better.”
Chuck Palahniuk
Ronnie Griffin With thanks to Nick and Annabelle
