Aran retreat a spiritual journey into Celtic past

Date Published: 12-May-2011

She’s not a hermit, and she’s not a mystic, but Deirdre Ní Chinnéide is on a spiritual journey – one that links directly with Ireland’s ancient past and a time when Ireland’s Christianity belonged to the Celtic rather than Roman Catholic tradition.

Deirdre, who lives on Inis Mór, runs a spiritual hostel on the island for “people who are taking time out from the ‘busyness’ of life to be creative and to meet fellow journeyers. It’s for people of all religions and no religions”, she says.

For the past two years she and others have been doing residential retreats there, incorporating yoga, music, movement and sacred arts.

Galway based Go West tours have now begun promoting these retreats under the auspices of its company Celtic Footstep, which organises “Christian, Cultural and Spiritual journeys of Ireland”.

Inis Mór has long been regarded as a sacred place, both in pre-Christian and Christian times and Dublin born Deirdre found herself drawn to the island from an early age.

She trained as a teacher and worked as a school principal, during which time she studied psychotherapy, feeling it would help her pupils maximise their potential.

After specialising in the area of Trauma and Recovery she worked throughout Ireland, and then in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, helping people who had been raped and traumatised during the bitter conflict in former Yugoslavia.

During that time, Inis Mór offered a haven from the death and destruction she witnessed, explains Deirdre, whose clear voice and use of her hands to stress her points feel strangely familiar on our first meeting. And well they might, as she is a sister to Nationwide presenter, Mary Kennedy, who joined the rest of the family on the island recently, helping Deirdre to redecorate her house/ hostel.

They are a close bunch, says Deirdre and they have supported her in a journey which saw her give up a secure job teaching for a freelance life centred on spirituality and music. Many people might think she is mad, but this is not a “New Age thing” for Deirdre – it’s grounded in the island and in her music.

“I’m open to the fact that there’s more to life than material things,” she says.

Deirdre’s biggest musical project to date has been the CD, Celtic Passage, a mix of music, song and chant in Irish and English, which was released in 2007.

She spent six months on the island writing Celtic Passage, which was inspired by her experiences in the Balkans as she needed to respond creatively to the death and destruction she had witnessed there.

“I’d always been singing but this was my first time writing music. Celtic Passage goes on a journey of the heart, returning to a place of peace within ourselves.”

Celtic Passage was performed in the Balkans shortly after its composition, and she was amazed by the way people understood the emotion, if not the words.

When Deirdre sang it in Glenstal Abbey, one of those who heard it recommended her to US record label Sounds True, who released the CD in America and Ireland. It won Celtic album of the Year in the US in 2007.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.