Sligo Traditional Singers Circle

The Sligo Traditional Singers Circle was set up to encourage foster and perpetuate the singing tradition in the Sligo area by strengthening the bonds of friendship already established between The Sligo Traditional Singers and other singers both in Ireland and abroad.

We meet for our monthly sessions on the second Wednesday of each month ( 9.00 pm  in winter and 9.30 pm in summer) at Durkin’s Pub  in the village of Ballinacarrow  located between Collooney and Tubercurry on the main Sligo to Galway road.

 

Frank Finn Traditional Singing Weekend 2018

Our 2018 Festival will be held on Fri 5th, Sat 6th and Sun 7th October 2018. We have an exciting lineup of guests and we are looking forward to your company for the weekend. Confirmed guest artists are:

• Pat McGeeney
• Con “Fada” O’Drisceoil
• Lorcan MacMathuna
• David Larkin

The venue, as ever, is the Yeats Country Hotel in Rosses Point, Co. Sligo, and it wouldn’t be the same without our Saturday visit to Coney Island, where we will hold our singing workshops, and, of course, our singing/storytelling session in M.J. Ward’s public house on the island, hosted by the McGowan family. Transport to the island will be organised and visitors will be fully informed of arrangements at the Friday evening session.

To introduce our guests:

Con Fada Ó Drisceoil

Corkman Con (Fada) Ó Drisceoil is a skilled accordion player and singer, as well as a great songwriter who has penned hilarious songs written in the style of traditional ones. He is a member of the Four Star Trio group and is in high demand as a performer.

Lovers of humorous verse can satisfy their taste with the work of many writers. Noel Coward, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Tom Lehrer spring instantly to mind. But Ireland has its own tradition of comic song, with many skilled writers keeping the nation laughing. Prominent among these is Con Ó Drisceoil. He is a fan of the writers already mentioned, but he writes in the deadpan style of those more local song-makers that he admires, in the rich Munster traditions of Muscraí and Sliabh Luachra.

In his own self-deprecating account of his writing, he aims for ‘cheap laughs’. But these are produced through outrageously-contrived rhymes allied with a meticulously strict attention to metrical precision, all applied to ordinary situations that have been made epic through his imagination. A case of ‘making The Iliad from a local row’!

To use a phrase of Tom Lehrer’s, cheap laughs may be just what we ‘desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha’. These songs will provide many deceptively cheap laughs.

CON Ó DRISCEOIL was already celebrated, throughout Ireland – “The Spoons Murder and other mysteries” – was published in 2006. His talent for creating comic songs was recognised in 2009 when he was awarded the TG4 Gradam Ceoil as Composer of the Year.

As well as being a singer he is a upon which he specialises in the music of Cork and Kerry. In this work he has the good fortune to enjoy, in the group The Four Star Trio, the company of musicians Johnny McCarthy and Pat Ahern, with whom he has released two CDs, “The Square Triangle” and “Magnetic South”.

In the company of Hammy Hamilton and Seamus Creagh, his playing and singing can also be enjoyed on the CD “It’s No Secret”.

 

 

Lorcan Mac Mathúna

County Cork born Lorcan Mac Mathuna has been described as the shaman of Sean-Nos who conjures a world of intense emotions coloured by mythology and legend. His voice will make you “believe in ghosts” and his songs will bring you through time to witness tales of old Celtic romance and adventure, and experience an oral art of storytelling that stretches from the  recent past to the prehistoric.

An attendee at the premier performance of one of Lorcan’s projects, An Táin, described the effect of his voice:

“Lorcan Mac Mathúna gathers from the air something that is older than the Táin – ageless, primeval, and haunting. He has caught and manifests for us a sound that is fundamental; that has existed since men and women first sang –sang to express what they felt and what they knew to be true. It is the music of mythology – all the cadence of history and prehistory residing in one man’s voice. It calls to the soul, and the soul answers, and we are privileged to listen and hear in our blood and in the fibres of our understanding”

 

 

David Larkin

Though reared in Galway, David was born in County Roscommon. His mother Ann, a fine singer, was a frequent and very popular contributor to “I’m Singing in The Crane”, the singing session co-founded and co-chaired by David, which has been running to packed houses for over five years in Galway’s Crane Bar. David learned one of his most popular songs, The Little Beggarman from his father Willie, who loved to sing it as his party-piece.

David’s repertoire consists mainly of comic songs, with a particular affinity for the songs of his fellow county man, Percy French. Much of his influences came from years spent working in Galway’s traditional music pubs. In these establishments David readily soaked up the tradition, regularly hearing the likes of Tim Lyons, Dick Hogan, Terry Smith, Willie Green, Éamonn Brophy, Seán Ryan, Pat Conneely and many other fine traditional singers.

David attended voice-training lessons with acclaimed Uruguayan voice-coach Andres Martorell for four years and performed in several showcases staged for his pupils.

Over the past 15 years David has become a well-known voice and face at myriad singing sessions, festivals and weekends throughout the west of Ireland. He was a guest at The South Roscommon Singers Festival in 2008 and has attended The Frank Finn Traditional Singing Weekend every year since its inception. In July of each year he makes the annual pilgrimage to The Willie Clancy Summer School of traditional Irish Music, Song and Dance in Milltown Malbay where he is a popular contributor to their daily singing sessions. In 2012 / ’13 / ’14 he delivered singing workshops as part of ‘Julie’s Extraordinary Festival de Musique Irlandaise à Tournay’ in the French Pyrenees.

David plays the mouth-organ and fiddle and regularly attends sessions in Galway and the surrounding area as well as visits to all counties west of The Shannon.

Since February 2016 David has been sharing his huge passion for traditional Irish music and song with the public through his weekly programme, Larkin About, on Flirt FM, Galway’s student and alternative radio station. The programme has gained an international audience through being podcasted on Mixcloud.

David hopes to record (and release!!!) his debut album sometime before the end of this century!!!

 

Pat McGeeney

Pat McGeeney comes South Armagh, a place which has long been associated with the bardic tradition through stories, songs and lore.

Pat is part of that tradition, being a creative writer with an impressive output of poems and stories, all delivered in his own distinctive style.  He has performed poetic eulogies to many outstanding personalities who have made significant contributions to Irish culture and sport, including Tommy Makem and Páidí O Sé.

He has also taken part in the annual Bard of Armagh competition on many occasions over the years, winning the coveted title a number of times and was the recipient of the “Hall of Fame Award” in 2011.

Booking the Hotel for the Frank Finn Traditional Singing Weekend Festival

As mentioned above, the festival will be based in the Yeats Country Hotel in Rosses Point, Co. Sligo.

We have negotiated a special weekend festival rate of €80.00 per night, per double room for Friday night and Saturday night.

1. When booking on-line at www.yeatscountryhotel.com please remember to use the code 175199 to ensure that you take advantage of the special weekend rate
2. Bookings can be taken over the phone at +353 719177211 , but please remember to make clear that you will be attending the festival and you want to get the special weekend rate.

We look forward to meeting you for what promises to be a very enjoyable weekend.

The Festival is a bilingual weekend of singing,  workshops, informal singing sessions, storytelling, audio and video presentations, scholarly talks and a field trip

It features local and visiting singers, speakers, academics, storytellers.

To contact members of the organising committee call:

Deirdre on +353 863097596

Or

Frank on +353 874182185

 

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the support of

 

Monthly Sessions

            

Our next session will be held at 9.00 pm in Durkins Pub Ballinacarrow on Wednesday 11th July 2018.