MY MORNING ritual always consists of putting on the radio first thing, to check in with the rest of the world. A normal enough habit, I would have thought, until my cousin laughed at my eccentricity a couple of weeks ago.
The last thing I did before going to bed on Wednesday night was post a link to the sublime Woodbrook by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin on social media. It’s a piece of music that takes me back to my teenage years when a good friend introduced me to his music. I was mesmerised, enchanted and have been since. As she remarked to me on Wednesday night, he was the soundtrack to our ‘Gaeltacht’ years.
The news of Mícheál’s death broke late on Wednesday evening, November 7. I woke unusually early on Thursday, turned on the radio, and there it was, the beautiful Woodbrook, being played in memory of a lost great. I imagine we will hear it many times over the next few weeks, and rightly so.
If you don’t happen upon it, look it up, close your eyes, and allow yourself to be transported away with the magic.
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra peform Woodbrook at the 2011 Irish Film and Television Academy awards
Mícheál’s untimely death at the age of 67 was reported as the headline news on RTÉ radio on Thursday, and rightly so. The outpouring of shock and sympathy was befitting.
Through my work with BBC Radio Ulster I was very lucky to have met him on many, many occasions. I fondly remember meeting Mícheál on the Isle of Skye around 15 years ago when he had a small group of us in fits of laughter like naughty schoolchildren while attending a céilí which he deemed to be much too sensible an affair.
A highly respected musician, Emeritus Professor of music, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin was from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, and educated in Cork, where he later lectured. He then founded the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick.
Irish music would not be what it is without him and his influence. He influenced generations of musicians. I last spoke to him for Folk Club in August and he told me that while he was in UCC, he was captivated by his lecturer – the composer and great musician Seán Ó Riada. Mícheál in turn went on to redefine how Irish music was played on the piano, and embraced traditional and classical music in his composition and arrangement of age-old tunes. These arrangements will stand the test of time. He famously existed ‘Between Worlds’.
He had recently retired from his work at UL but as he told me in that final interview, nothing would stop him ‘creating’. One of his last projects involved breathing new life into the music of the blind harper Turlough O Carolan who in turn had been hugely influenced by Vivaldi.
I always found him to be a generous man who carried his huge intellect and immense talent lightly. He was engaging, eloquent and very funny. He never refused an interview, especially if that interview was as Gaeilge. He had particular respect and love for the Irish language.
Woodlbrook is a very contemplative piece of music. Hearing it on the radio on Thursday morning had further significance for me; November 8 is a date engrained into our family calendar since another untimely death – that of my uncle Brendan, 25 years ago.
I remember the phone call. It was a Monday afternoon and we had just got home from school. I remember the shock of it. It was the first time that a family death really hit me hard. At 15 years old, I don’t think that I quite understood what had happened and why it had happened.
Twenty-five years later, I still don’t. Uncle Brendan chose to leave this world, and we will never know why. The questions remain.
Last week’s column was about the coming of winter. The shorter days, the physical darkness and darkness of spirit that many feel at this time of year. November is often referred to as the month of the Holy Souls – a time to remember those who have passed. Perhaps that explains the sadness of this time of year.
It has certainly been made all the sadder this year, with the passing of a legendary figure whose music has moved and influenced so many. He was a national treasure. My thoughts are with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin’s family and with all families who are missing a loved one. Codladh go sámh a Mhíchil.
