Award-winning harpist Laoise Kelly has embarked on a concert tour to five west coast islands on a Galway hooker.
As The Times Ireland reports, Kelly aims to reconnect island communities with music, storytelling and song.
Kelly, a TG4 musician of the year and artistic director of the Achill International Harp Festival, is collaborating with fellow Achill islander Diarmuid Gielty.
Their project named “Casadh na Taoide/Turning of the Tide” has secured Arts Council support.
Casadh Na Taoide - An epic cultural journey connecting five off shore islands. Launched on the feast day of St. Macdara, is a traditional maritime pilgrimage off the coast of Connemara’s Carna bay, to the uninhabited monastic island, Oileán Mhic Dara /St. Mac Dara’s island, where fishermen and locals come to venerate the patron saint of seafarers, bless the boats and to keep fishermen safe for the for the year ahead. Pictured is musicians Diarmuid Gielty (Achill Harp Festival), Freda Nic Giolla Chatháin (Casadh Na Taoide) and Laoise Kelly (TG4 Musician of the Year and Director of the Achill international harp festival. Photo: Michael McLaughlin
Both are on board the Galway hooker Mac Duach, skippered and owned by Dr Michael Brogan, who is chairman of the Galway Hookers’ Association.
The vessel participated in a blessing of the boats off the Connemara island of Oileán Mhic Dara last Friday before setting sail for Inishbofin, Co Galway.
The annual blessing event pays tribute to Mac Dara, the patron saint of seafarers.
After Inishbofin, the hooker sets a course for the Mayo islands of Inishturk, Clare Island, and then Achill Photo: Michael McLaughlin
After Inishbofin, the hooker sets a course for the Mayo islands of Inishturk, Clare Island, and then Achill.
It will then head north for its final destination, finishing at Árainn Mhór /Arranmore in Donegal.
Kelly, Gielty and crew will meet musicians, artists, storytellers and historians along the route.
As part of the project, an artist has been commissioned on each island to collaborate, compose and create a new body of work.
They include Inishbofin singer Andrew Murray; Inishturk musician Cathy O’Toole; Clare Island weaver Beth Moran; and Árainn Mhór writer Proinsias Mac a’Bhaird.
A tribute will also be made to the late Achill island visual artist Mary Lavelle Burke, who was an enthusiastic participant in the project and passed away last year.
The voyage is being filmed, as is the artistic work on the five islands.
It will feature as the Friday night performance of this year’s Achill International Harp Festival in October, Nic Giolla Chatháin says.
Read The Times Ireland here
