View from the Green Room: The gentlest of concerts casts its own spell
Iarla O Lionaird and Cormac McCarthy at the Theatre Royal.
It’s the gentlest of concerts. Understated with the absolute minimum of fuss. Softly-spoken Iarla Ó Lionáird orbits his work with the grace of a Provence courtesan serenading unspoken love for a distant beauty beyond his station in life.
Most of the concert is in Irish and there’s a slua mór ón Roinn who know Iarla by name and reputation as a kindred spirit – a fellow traveller from the dúchas of the Celt.
‘Fáinne Gheal an Lae’ opens as a journey in time and romance with the iconic words of all Gaelic love - ballads. ‘Maidin mhoch do ghabhas amach’ (one early morning as I roved out) says he as he wanders down the path of instant attraction that summer always brings when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love. It’s no surprise that Patrick Kavanagh used the melody for ‘Raglin Road’. Iarla’s mastery of the story of love’s encounter sits easily with his audience and there’s a stillness in the house that’s marked by grace and love.
There are twists to this beautiful Aisling – a love song that opens with a youth smitten by a beauty, whose nakedness is masked only by her glossy golden ringlets, in a chance encounter as dawn breaks.
Despite the gentleness of his courtship:
She sends him on his way at the dawning of the day… "Sin iad aneas na soilse ag teacht, Le fáinne geal an lae."
"I’ve got a list," Iarla assures us, as he wonders what he’ll sing next, giving the concert all the feel of an impromptu session with intimates always in control.
A chance encounter with a couple from Ring, who are in the house, led to dinner. "The hake was in," says he, "and it was gorgeous", as he dedicates An Súisín Bán to his accidental chef.
It’s another song about a youth who encounters a beautiful young girl in "the loneliness of the beach at the bend of the green wood an hour before the dawn".
His words of seduction work their charm as she responds gently… "tá an saol ina gcodladh, bogaimís an súisín bán" (the world is in its slumber, let us move the white rug.)
Art Mac Cumhaigh’s most famous poem, Úr-Chill An Chreagáin, is one of the most famous political aislings in the language and has been called the national anthem of South Ulster. The great Gaelic scholar Seán Ó Tuama comments that "in its simple innocence marks it as a more attractive Aisling than some more polished vision-songs by the late eighteenth-century Munster poets".
Unlike other works of Aisling poetry, that poem does not mention the Stuart Pretender, nor does it hold out hope of foreign help coming to free Ireland. Ó Lionáird’s ‘Úr-Chill An Chreagáin’ captures all its magic and the awe and reverence paid to his performance brings the concert onto another level.
Cormac McCarthy’s playing dazzles as he takes the compositions on pathways and tangents undreamt that are all improvised in off-the-cuff performances that leave the audience spellbound.
A special concert on the Mall that’s marked by grace and beauty.
