Belfast Trad Festival

When my amigas were in town, I was reminded how much goes on in Belfast every week. I picked up brochures for various events and this week I went all in on the weeklong festival celebrating traditional music. This festival is only a few years old--the north wouldn't historically have had as big a trad music tradition as the south. This week there were dozens of lessons, tutorials, dances, jam sessions and concerts every day.

I started out at the John Hewitt Sunday afternoon listening to one Niamh Parsons, who has recorded seven solo albums and two live albums. She's as much a story teller as a singer and was very entertaining. My favourite song of hers was Sweet Daffodil Mulligan. Then on to the Black Box, above, where I saw the Cathy Jordan Trio. She has a lovely strong voice and all three are talented musicians. Then back to the John Hewitt to see the trio below, including Gerry 'Banjo' O'Connor and friends. John Hewitt was a famous Belfast poet, hence the nib of a pen in the photo below.

Monday night was a real treat--eight fiddlers and a singer in a tribute to Belfast fiddler Sean Maguire, who died in 2005. He was a virtuoso player and several of his students played and told stories about him. They hailed from Donegal, Armagh, Belfast, Dungiven and America. It was held at the Duncairn Arts Centre, below, a stunning venue. I'm afraid all my photos are crap b/c my phone doesn't handle low light well (or I don't know how to compensate).  

After the Duncairn, back to the John Hewitt for a trio on fiddle, flute, and guitar. Then Thursday over to West Belfast to Culturlann McAdam O Fiaich to see six extraordinary women muscians--another crap photo below.

The woman on the left is called Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, from Kerry. She has an angelic voice and sang in traditional Irish song stylings. On the right is harpist Sile Denvir from Connemara, who sang lovely sad songs. The fiddler is Doireann Ni Ghlacain, grand daughter of music royalty, Sean O Riada.

One of the things I loved about all the musicians I heard was the complicated etymology of each song. "I got this song off Galway fiddler Sean O'Riordan, who rearranged for the fiddle an air written by Donnchadh Ó Hámsaigh." I made up the first name but the second name is a famous blind fiddler from Northern Ireland who lived from 1695 to 1807.

I listened to slip jigs, hornpipes, reels and airs. I listened to this music constantly in the US in the 1980s and 1990s, when I never stopped being homesick for Ireland. It's lovely to hear it on the soil from which it sprang. After the Duncairn, I went to the Deer's Head for what was billed as a Trad Disco. The opening trio was still playing at midnight when I left, so I never got to try my hand at dancing to trad disco music. Maybe just as well?

A final note. Most of the speakers over the past week spoke in Irish, often without translation. I was amazed that a short drive from my house (less then 20 minutes) I seemed to have arrived in a completely foreign land. It could have been the Czech Republic. I really should go to West Belfast more often.

end of July