There will be a very special concert in Derry tonight as Dublin sean-nós singer and composer Lorcán Mac Mathúna brings 1916 - Visionaries and their Words to the Glassworks in Derry at 7.30pm.
The show is one of the few commissioned by the southern Arts Council and explores the writings and ideals of the leaders of the Easter Rising in a spectacular dramatisation and musical interpretation inspired by their lives, their work, and their words.
With a script written by those who fought in the Easter Rising, actress Elaine O’Dea interprets the written words of its participants to a backdrop of archive footage of Ireland one hundred years ago.
Late last year, Mac Mathúna issued an album of songs that delved into Ireland’s mythological stories, especially An Rúraíocht, the Ulster Cycle which tells the story of Cúchulainn.
“I was always interested in the old stories and I think it was the epic story of Táin Bó Cuailgne which really fired my imagination,” he says, “and since then I have kept dipping into the stories.”
With the characters and themes of Irish mythology in the back of his head, did he see a similarities between the likes of Cúchulainn and the leaders of the 1916 Rising?
“Well, when I was researching the people involved in the Easter Rising Pádraig Mac Piarais was certainly someone who stood out for me,” says Lorcan.
“Pearse was keen to set up a whole new system of education in opposition to what he called “The Murder Machine”, the English-dominated system of National Schools which was set up to erase native Irish history and culture, and he always encouraged his pupils to look deeply at history and mythology as an inspiration for them.
“Some of the boys who attended Pearse’s Scoil Éanna told of how it seemed there was another person in the classroom, that Cúchulainn himself was present.”
So those ideas of bravery, of patriotism, of looking after people which are there in the earliest Irish tales are also in the story of the Easter Rising.
1916 - Visionaries and their Words focusses on the characters of those who took part in 1916 through what hey said and what they wrote, rather than looking at what others wrote about them. Lorcán, as usual, is interested in the primary sources rather than second- and third-hand accounts.
We will be focussing in on Mac Piarais, on Joseph Plunkett and on James Connolly and I’ve composed new music to go with the poetry of these three.
“For instance, if we take Pearse’s pamphlet The Murder Machine about the education system of the time, I have composed some new music to illustrate Pearse’s life as a schoolteacher and as well as that there will be archive film showing to give some context to what is happening on the stage. There are two things going on at the same time, the historical account of the times as told by those involved in the Rising, as well as an artistic reponse to the events and to the writings.”
Lorcan has got together a fine band of musicians for the show, including Íde Nic Mhathúna (voice), Martin Tourish (accordion), Daire Bracken (fiddle, guitar), Eamonn Galdubh (uilleann pipes, flute, saxophone) and Elaine O'Dea (spoken word).
1916 - Visionaries and their Words is on at the Glassworks in Derry tonight at 7.30.
