Blessings of Bealtaine - Beannacht Libh

Bealtaine is the 2nd major festival of the Celtic Calendar marking the start of Summer, although here it's actually colder now than it was at Christmas.
I've written more extensively about the mythology here (The May Morning Dew) and here (Bealtaine).

Today I just wanted to send you blessings and joy of the season.   Beannacht Libh (blessings on you, literally in Irish).

The primroses and bluebells are splendid and Spring has been a joy to watch and all feels well with the world when you turn off the television and the news.

My blogging friend Denise at Temenos of the Blessing Light often talks about joy and blessings and in her recent series for the AtoZ challenge I was struck by one of the words she featured - Benison - an old word for blessings.   Her blogs are a joy to read - so today I'm sending you benisons, blessings, benediction, beannachtaí.

And a song for the day that's in it.  This is heart wrenching - Isla Cameron singing One Morning in May from the film Far from the Madding Crowd.

The May Morning Dew

Happy May Day to you and yours.


Today, Bealtaine, is one of the ancient Celtic Fire Festivals, - I've written more about it here and about the tradition of MayFlowers where I come from.

This is positively my favourite time of year to be at home and in this old garden which was planted back in the 1930s and still has traces of violets and cowslip through the lawn as well as these lovely buttercups - although they look more like Marsh Marigolds to me.

The large golden flowers of Marsh-marigold certainly look like the cups of kings and the Latin name Caltha is derived from the Greek for 'goblet'. Hence, Marsh-marigold is also commonly known as 'Kingcup'. It is a widespread plant of ponds, marshes, damp meadows, ditches and wet woodland and, before the draining of the landscape for agriculture began, was a conspicuous spring flower. Source : www.wildlifetrusts.org 

 There are so many traditions around May Day across these islands and indeed across a lot of Europe - the 1st of May is Walpurgisnacht in Germany and is an important witches' festival.

To the Celts, the winter sun reigned from sunset on 31st October (Samhain) to sunrise on 1st May (Bealtaine) and on that day, his daughter, the Cailleach Bhéara (The Old Woman of Beara) turned to stone.   Then the summer sun reigned for the other six months of the year.

In Irish traditional music there are many many songs about May - particularly in the first line of songs - One morning in May ... or As I Roved out one May Morning.  But my absolute favourite is a quite mournful piece sung by the wonderful Dolores Keane who comes from the West of Ireland.

Happy May Day and may summer bring you blue skies and big smiles.  Do you observe any MayDay traditions where you live?  

Songs from the Wireless

While Tom and I usually perform contemporary folk with a smattering of traditional and some of our own songs, we still do one or two songs that were featured in our Songbirds TV series several years ago - songs of Delia Murphy and her contemporaries.   I wrote about Delia here during the A to Z challenge a few years back - you might be interested to see where our folk music started in the popular sense.

Now every year in May we put together a special show of all of those old Irish songs for the Festival of Bealtaine.

This year we're heading down to Cork this weekend for a couple of gigs in libraries to tie in with it.

Bealtaine is the Irish word for May, but it is also one of the 4 Celtic seasons of the year - the 1st May is Bealtaine, the 1st of Summer.  And in the South of Ireland the government for many years have given funds for creativity for older people during the month of May and that is the Festival of Bealtaine.   So our programme of songs fits very well.

Each year we try to make it a bit different and this year the theme is Songs from The Wireless.  We're including songs from John McCormack and his contemporaries as well as all my fabulous women's songs - I'm working at learning "The Kerry Dances" at the minute, a very intricate song which dates back to the 1500s - Here's Count John McCormack singing it.  Now try and imagine it with guitar and a light contralto voice!!!!!  Me!!!




This is our last dip back into a full programme of these songs for a while to come.   Full steam ahead now to finish the new album.  But oh I will enjoy a wee jaunt down to Cork :)

West Coast of Clare

I had a wee post ready to go today - about being overwhelmed and out of focus and stuff ... I posted it and then thought, you know I'm only putting that up to put something up ...  and I hate putting a whine into writing ... It somehow makes it too real ... so to cheer myself up I thought I'd post a few pics from our wee trip down South last week.

The view from our room at Croc an Oir

Our first stop was in Tipperary - our friends John and Monika have a self catering farm house and rooms for people to rent  - it's called Croc an Oir which means (I think) the Hill of Gold. .... and it has a gorgeous wee music room /theatre as well.  

All our concerts for the last few weeks were for the older part of our community and at this gig, I think the average age was about 85 and we had the best of craic .... They sang with every song and we all had a cup of tea together afterwards.


Then it was on to County Clare - on the West Coast.   Clare's a beautiful part of the country and steeped in traditional music and for once it wasn't teeming with rain.
Tom was messing about with my iPhone and took this panoramic view of the horseshoe beach there.

The horseshoe beach at Kilkee

and my less adventurous pic of the same place 

Our view from the stage in Kilkee

The venue in Kilkee is in a library and part of the place has been converted into a 2 tier theatre with precisely 103 seats!  It was quite interesting because the audience here were much younger and it gave a totally different feel to the evening - still very enjoyable for us, but the very elderly have no qualms about talking back to you on stage whereas a younger audience, regular seniors as opposed to senior seniors, are more reserved and it becomes more of a theatre show.

And like a proper theatre it has real dressing rooms .... I love playing in theatres ... the lights around the mirrors in the dressing rooms make me feel like I'm in a black and white movie!

Our last stop was also in Co. Clare, in the County town of Ennis ....There's a huge Arts Centre there call Glór - and all the big bands play there - I really thought we'd never be in it so it was real treat to be there.   Our audience came in from a few centres out of the town and sang with everything we did and bought loads of CDs afterwards ... We were well pleased with the day.

Some of the audience in Glor!!!
Getting ready for a pageant of some sort 

I've been changing my focus over the past few weeks - away from everyone else's music and onto my own ..... something that I've learned out of the A to Z challenge ....I was flailing around a bit between students and choir and sessions and trying to write, and organise tours and events and recordings .... But my head's clearing a wee bit now - it's left me with a stinking cold (snuffle, snuffle) but a sense that we'll cope with everything that needs doing.  And I can finally remember the words of my own songs :)

So we have one more concert left of Just A Song At Twilight - that's next Thursday afternoon in Dublin - then we're off to Germany for 6 concerts at the start of June.   But before that I have choir starting back tonight, and one of my students has her A level practical tomorrow and I'm playing piano for that .... so that's enough to think about for today...

Focus on the details ... one thing at a time.

How do you cope with the various strands of your life?   I know many of you have jobs and families and still produce amazing art and books and projects .... Any tips?

Singing and dementia

It's well established now that music can have an affect on people with dementia.   

A few years ago I witnessed this first hand when we played in some Alzheimer's wards of local hospitals during Bealtaine Festival.  

People who were motionless and silent gradually came to life and sang along to the old songs that we were singing from their childhood.  

One woman sang from the very first chord we played right through until the last note - we thought she was perfectly ok, but the nurse sitting with her told us afterwards that she hadn't spoken a word in more than 6 months and no longer recognised her children or grandchildren.  Yet the songs from her young day were there as an automatic response.  

I was both delighted and really saddened.   

It was an amazing gift she gave us to allow us in to her life for a few moments.  

I'm always ranting on that everyone can sing - just open your mouth, throw back your head and let whatever noise comes out just happen - you'll feel better for it.   This video proves my point .... it just makes my heart sing.

Taken from an inspiring documentary made a few years back pointing out the loneliness of our senior citizens in old peoples homes.  The documentary is inspiring to say the least ... all links are under the video on You Tube - take a look if you have time.

Last night we played to a full house in Blanchardstown in Dublin - lots of seniors groups in the audience and a good night was had by all :)