Special performance honouring heroes of 1916

Clifden Arts Festival is up and running since this Wednesday and among the not-to-be missed events this weekend is a performance of Charlie Lennon’s recently composed suite, Áille na hÁille (A Terrible Beauty), which will take place on Sunday, September 18, at St Joseph’s Church.

The piece was commissioned by Gael Linn to honour the heroes of the 1916 Rising, with special reference to Seán MacDiarmada who like Charlie, was born in Kiltyclogher, Co Leitrim.

The Suite is dedicated to the memory of all who died in the 1916 Rising, focusing on those who signed the Proclamation of the Republic as well as recalling the legacy of O’Donovan Rossa.

Sunday night’s performance of the suite will feature Charlie on piano, his daughter Éilis on fiddle, Ronan Browne on pipes, Caitln Ní Gabann on concertina, with singer Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and the RTÉ ConTempo String Quartet. The musicians will be performing a broad sweep of music including a planxty (for James Connolly) jigs, double jigs, slow airs and a sonata for violin and piano. The piece in memory of Éamonn Ceannt will be performed by Spiddal based piper Ronan Browne, an apt choice as Ceannt spent a great deal of time in Spiddal and learned his Irish there.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh will sing an arrangement of Joseph Mary Plunkett’s poem, I see His Blood and Fornocht do chonac thú, by Patrick Pearse, which gives the suite its title.

Narration will be the well-known historian and publisher Proinnsíos Ó Duigneáin.

Charlie Lennon, who lives in Spiddal, is one of Ireland’s leading composers of traditional music – his works have been widely performed by orchestras and groups, at home and abroad.

This performance of Áille na hÁille promises to be a special event.

Tickets are available online at www.clifdenartsfestival.ie or at 091-442730.