Last year, I had a spellbinding conversation with Eugene Dunphy when the shared his knowledge and passion for Karl Hardebeck, the blind organist, composer, Gaeilgeoir and champion of Irish music. Hardeback was of the opinon that Edward Bunting got it all wrong when he transcribed the music played at the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival. The 19-year old …
Author Archives: Robert McMillen
Dunne scores
Billboard posters were torn from their moorings, flags strained on poles, branches waved like a furious Italian, hats rolled down the street – yes, the force of nature that is Niamh Dunne was in town today to play as part of the Out to Lunch festival in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. Limerick-born Niamh, best-known as a …
The Seamus Heaney Tribute Band
Wakes, in my experience, are great craic. That is not to make light of the deceased or of the pain of kith and kin, but more a nod to the mixture of joyful reminiscence and celebration that distracts for a while the ineluctable sense of loss. And so it was at the Lyric Theatre …
The Campbells of Greepe at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann
There is something special about Scottish singing. A few weeks back I was in Crumlin Road Jail for a concert – no, it was nothing like Folsom Prison Blues as it featured Kathleeen MacInnes and Manran. At one point Kathleen was joined by Sineag MacIntyre and I was totally transported to na hEileannan Siar …
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The Lau Lowdown
This weekend one of the most talked about contemporary folk bands, Lau, are in the north for a couple of gigs in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, Derry, Thur 6th June, 8pm; in the Black Box (Fri 7th June, 8.30pm) in conjunction with An Droichead; and at Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick, on Sunday 9th June, 8pm. Coming …
French GAA
Ever thought of combining a holiday to Brittany with a day’s Gaelic Games? That opportunity will come up on June 15th when the local GAA club at St. Brieuc hosts the French Gaelic Football Finals, with 20 clubs from all over France and the Channel Islands taking part on on Saturday, June the 15th. (Saint-Brieuc is named …
Fisk on Syria
To say the situation in Syria is complex is like saying the Pope is a Catholic. An illustration of this is the talk eminent journalist Robert Fisk gave in Belfast last Thursday when invited by the British Council to take part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Fisk told us he’d just spent the past …
Eastern European Gaels
Danilea Pukite (Latvia), Santa Berzina (Latvia), Arnas Paulauskas (Lithuania), Domantas Kiausis (Lithuania), Eva Varaniviciute (Lithuanian), Gabi Chmielewska (Poland), Wiktoria Wictorowicz (Poland), Anthony Dimitrov. (Bulgaria) With Ruairí Quinn giving himself sleepless nights about “restrictive practices at some all-Irish schools, which are prohibiting some pupils from entry”, this little story from Gael Linn adds a little context …
Mea Maxima Culpa
It was the children’s eyes that hit home. The eyes of young deaf boys who, for the first time, had seen their new school St John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin and were beguiled. “When I first entered St John’s, I loved it. The campus at that school was beautiful. Such magnificent stonework. It was …
A new jazz club for Belfast
A new monthly Jazz Club will be opening in Belfast on Friday 1st March and after that on the first Friday of each month. The venue is upstairs in the new Sunflower Public House which is situated behind Belfast Central Library on the corner of Union Street & Kent Street. The great news is that …