Songs for Ireland | Sean Kelly's 'The Celtic Roar'

some members of The Kelly Family, ~1989, Wuppertal Germany Deutsch: Einige Mitglieder der Kelly Family als Straßenmusikanten, ~1989 (oder etwas später), Wuppertal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)The latest entry for our increasingly popular Euro 2012 song search is a lively traditional number called ‘The Celtic Roar’ by Down musician Sean Kelly.

Sean, who hails from Newry, has a bit of an advantage over some of our entries to date as he has been singing and playing music for almost 40 years – although you’d never tell by the look of him that he had gone past the 40 mark.

Sean is a member of The Kelly Family Folk Group Rostrevor and wrote this number in an effort to inspire the Boys in Green in their exploits in Poland and Ukraine in the summer.

For this ditty, Paul is joined by his brother Paul Kelly on banjo and mandolin, sister Bronagh McElroy on vocals and bodhran, Dolores O'Hare on uilleann pipes and whistles, Dermot McQuaid on electric guitar and bass, Thomas Kelly on fiddle, Mark Hughes on drums and a number of the band’s children on back-up vocals.

With that amount of musicians in the mix, it goes without saying that they make quite a bit of noise and you can listen to the end result for yourself in the video above and let us know what you think in the comment box below.

For more information on Sean, you can visit his website and if you’d like to download the song, you can do so here.


Songs for Ireland | The latest entry for our Euro 2012 Song Search is Sean Kelly's 'The Celtic Roar'

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JOHN REID par BalconyTV

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Oranmore twins with Breton village

Oranmore wild grass (Photo credit: boocal)Last week marked the beginning of the twinning of the town of Oranmore and the Breton village Clohars-Fouesnant, organised by the Oranmore Twinning Committee and its chairperson, Gerardine Costello. A group from the village arrived in Ireland and was greeted by members of the committee before they commenced their busy week-long visit to the west.

For those of you who are not familiar with the village of Clohars-Fouesnant, it is situated in a department of Finistère in the northwest of Brittany. The village has a strong community atmosphere, a very rich history and a healthy tourist market aided in no small part by the large nearby Odet golf course. The Mayor of the village, Michel Lahuec, sought out Oranmore specifically as a potential town to twin. Having already sent representatives over last year to experience St Patrick’s Day in Ireland, they were already on schedule for a very amicable and rewarding alliance.

Prior to the group’s arrival from Clohars-Fouesnant, the Oranmore committee members met with the French ambassador to Ireland, Parisienne Emmanuelle d’Achon. Amid tea, scones and a small photo shoot, Mrs D’Achon expressed her obvious support for such an undertaking and praised committee chairperson Gerardine Costello, the committee and all others from the area who were involved for their efforts in not only securing an EU grant to fund the events of the last week but also for the general effort invested by the community in making it all a reality.

Musical welcome

Following their arrival, the representatives of Clohars-Fouesnant had two days of activities ahead of them witnessing some of the finer sights of the west of Ireland including the Salthill promenade, Spiddal craft village, the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Upon the groups’ return to Oranmore, local members of the Western Veteran and Vintage Motor Club collected the group in several classic cars and brought them to the Oranmore Lodge Hotel for the centrepiece of the week; the Charter signing ceremony. With the sun luckily shining down, the group was greeted at the door by members of the Oranmore town twinning committee as well some live traditional Irish music from local musicians Tommy Keane on the uilleann pipes and Jackie McCarthy on concertina. In attendance at the event were Galway County Mayor Michael Maher, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames and the Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton, Councillor Liam Carroll and Galway city Mayor Hildegarde Naughton.


Oranmore twins with Breton village

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Paddy Keenan to perform at London Irish Centre

Cover of Paddy KeenanThe Jimmy Hendrix of Irish piping will delight traditional music enthusiasts in London.
Paddy Keenan, a former member of The Bothy Band, performs at the London Irish Centre on Friday, February 3.
Born in Meath to a Travelling family steeped in traditional music - both Keenan’s father and grandfather were uilleann pipers.
Paddy himself took up the pipes at the age of 10, playing his first major concert at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin at just 14. At 17, having fallen in love with the blues, Paddy left Ireland for England, where he played blues and rock.
Returning to Ireland after a few years, he was a member of a number of bands including Seachtar and The Bothy Band.
Band-mate Donal Lunny once described him as “the Jimi Hendrix of the pipes” and more recently he has been compared to jazz great John Coltrane.
Catch him at the London Irish Centre on February 3. Doors 7.30pm, support from 8pm with Paddy on stage from 9pm. Tickets from www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2588618628, priced at £13.50.

Paddy Keenan to perform at London Irish Centre: "

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Karl Jenkins releases new choral work ‘The Peacemakers’ on EMI Classics

Cover via AmazonKarl Jenkins is to release The Peacemakers, the follow-up to his highly successful The Armed Man:
A Mass for Peace, on EMI Classics.
The 17-movement work for chorus and orchestra features texts by some of the most famous advocates of peace and compassion in the 20th century, including Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, and Anne Frank, the 15-year-old who died while incarcerated by the Nazis in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
Passages from the Bible and the Qur’an also feature in the piece, together with new texts by Terry Waite, who was held captive by the Islamic Jihad Organization in the Lebanon for 1,763 days (four years
of which were spent in solitary confinement) before his release in November, 1991.
The Peacemakers received its world premiere in Carnegie Hall, New York, conducted by the composer, on January 16 this year. Its first British performances will follow in May.
Jenkins says the work “is dedicated to the memory of all those who lost their lives during armed conflict and, in particular, innocent civilians. One line from the 13th-century Persian mystic poet Rumi sums up the ethos of the piece: ‘All religions, all singing one song: Peace be with you.’ Many of the other ‘contributors’ are figures who have shaped history, others are less well known.
“I have occasionally placed some text in a musical environment that helps identify its origin or culture: the bansuri (Indian flute) and tabla in the Gandhi; the shakuhachi (a Japanese flute associated with Zen Buddhism) and temple bells in that of the Dalai Lama; African percussion in the Mandela; and echoes of the blues of the deep American South (as well as a quote from Schumann’s Träumerei in my tribute to Martin Luther King. ‘Healing Light: a Celtic prayer’ is with uilleann pipes and bodhrán drums.”
Performing on the disc are: the London Symphony Orchestra, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, City of Birmingham Youth Chorus and 1,000-voice Really Big Chorus (which includes members of choirs from across the UK). Guest artists include violinist Chloë Hanslip, soprano Lucy Crowe, Davy Spillane on uilleann pipes, Indian bansuri player Ashwin Srinivasan, and jazz saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and bass player Laurence Cottle.
The Peacemakers will be released on EMI Classics in March.


The Classical Review CDs / DVDs » Blog Archive » Karl Jenkins releases new choral work ‘The Peacemakers’ on EMI Classics

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