Anthem for another Festival

The 30th Fiddlers Green Festival finished officially on Sunday night - although there was still some sessions happening last night as the last stragglers hung on for another day, many of  heading up to the top of Slieve Martin to toast the end of another year of friendship and great music. 

This was the band that played on the Main Stage on Saturday night.  Four Men and A Dog are a stupendous band - even though this video was shot  7 years ago, their energy is still as fierce and the virtuosity of the playing just leaves me breathless.
(The Dog, by the way, was the nickname of their first singer, Mick Daly)

The week went off really well - starting with a garden party here, then many local singers taking part in 20 singers, 20 songs on Sunday night - that's a lovely idea for a festival fund raiser and the house is always full.  

Tom and I played on Monday night, opening for Luka Bloom - we had a fabulous night.   Luka is a very energetic performer and writes a lot of rocky political songs.   But he always opens with this simple song that he wrote from the point of view of a child and is now being sung by choirs all over the world as an anthem for peace.  - I Am Not at War with Anyone

It struck me as the week went along that we are very privileged here to get to see world class musicians in our small hall.  wonderful stuff.  

I'll not go through the whole programme with you, but I'll share a couple more videos later in the week to give you an introduction to some of these Irish bands.  The pubs were full for all the sessions; the lunch time folk club had singer songwriters from here and from Scotland; the afternoon folk club was mostly local acts - we are blessed with wonderful young performers in this area; there were a couple of art exhibitions, workshops in traditional music and writing, singing and storytelling, singarounds, walks and even a Duck Derby!!

Our visitors are making their way home now - to Germany and Luxembourg, France, the Netherlands, Scotland and England - there were even some from as far away as Australia and Canada.  

Safe travels to you all and we'll see you back again in another year's time. 

Linking up today with the lovely Denise over at Denise's Planet. 

Looking back on June

Rain clouds were gathering across the water in Europe on Tuesday evening when I finally got out for a walk along the shore to clear my head after all the shouting, anger and depression caused by the Referendum vote.  

I can't have a look back on the month without mentioning it so you may bear with me and then I'll get on to happier thoughts :)

I voted Remain as did most people along the border here in Northern Ireland.   And I feel that the result will have a huge impact on us - not least of which is that we have the prospect of having the border back again.  

Since 1992, we could sort of pretend that we were one island, a part of a larger group of islands, and with the benefit of all places - the UK, Europe and Ireland.  But now, with huge respect to my friends in England and Wales, and to my friends here who voted Leave, for the first time in my life I feel that we are simply an annexe of England.

My dread has been that we would see a re-emergence of the Troubles and most of the thugs who were involved back then don't need much excuse to find their jollies wherever they can.  I do hope the politicians see the necessity to get on with things quickly and not let the place descend into anarchy.  And I hope that our friends living here who hail from outside of the UK and Ireland stay safe.  Sad to say that, as in other parts of the UK, the barely contained sectarianism is showing its ugly face again, although there hasn't been such blatant racist attacks as on the Mainland.  But there's been enough to make me afraid.

If the shoe was on the other foot, and the Leave camp had lost,  I'd be most angry if they were calling  for a repeat of the vote, so although I'm disappointed,  what's done is done and we wait with baited breath to see what happens now. One thing's for sure - the news has never been more fascinating.

On the plus side, already the changes in the value of the Euro:Pound exchange rate has meant that the shops North of the Border are having a little boom but the many farmers who have farms straddling the border are worrying as to where their income will come from now that European money will be withdrawn.   Any goods or services we buy from across the border are now costing us a good bit more - we'd be across in the South at least a couple of times a week - we were in Dublin yesterday, in Donegal on Sunday - but the exchange has always been very mobile here and most of us carry two purses, so that will all adjust.   We're quick to learn where the petrol is cheaper!!

* * * * * * * * 

It's been great to have a bit of downtime after all our travels and we arrived back to a fabulous couple of weeks of sunshine.   We finally got our hedges trimmed back and the garden is starting to take shape. 

I spotted this chap one evening - they're so skittish
so I was pleased he stood still long enough for a quick snap

We missed the Blues on the Bay Festival-
this sign outside one of the pubs summed it up.

Thistles in bloom along the shore

 Tom was involved in recording a CD for a local Church and at their launch last week I was thrilled to see these lovely modern stained glass windows.  The colour of stained glass always delights me but to see unusual use of it made it all the more beautiful.

Now preparations begin for Fiddlers Green Festival at the end of July.   They have a new website up, so visitors can now buy tickets in advance.  We're playing on the Main Stage on Monday night with Luka Bloom, and then running the singaround on the final lunchtime.   I'm looking forward to all the visitors arriving over the next few weeks from places near and far and to sharing some drinks, tunes and songs with friends old and new.

But for now it's Wimbledon - and of course its raining :) Perfect weather for enjoying a couple of days on the sofa to watch Andy's progress.

Happy Summer everyone :)

I Am Not At War With Anyone

Fiddlers Green Festival finished last night and a great week was had by all - there was so much good music and wonderful weather set it all off ... We're all in need of a rest now as we say goodbye to the visitors from England, Scotland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark and I'm sure many more that I didn't get to meet.   Our own gigs went off really well - yesterday we played a concert of new material from our forthcoming CD with a guest uilleann piper ... hopefully I'll have a video from that soon.  And my singing workshop on Friday was really good fun - multi lingual group of singers. 

You come to the end of a week like this and think you've missed so much, because there's so much happening and you can't possibly get to everything ...

One of the highlights for me was to hear Luka Bloom sing - he was wonderful - apparently simple songs but lyrics that really get to the point.   This was his opening song - although it's sung in this video by a children's choir -  he wrote this song to protest against the war in Iraq and decided to write it as a child would see it.   And somehow I think it's a fitting song at the minute.

I Am Not At War With Anyone
 by Luka Bloom

I am not at war with anyone


I am not at war with anyone


Go away warplanes


You bring fear and shame


I am not at war with anyone

I give my love to Iraq, and to America


I give my love to Israel, and to Palestine


We could live as one


Between the sea and sun


I am not at war with anyone

I don’t need to be friends with everyone


But I’d like to live in peace with everyone


This rush to war is wrong


And so I sing this song


I am not at war with anyone


I am not at war with anyone

I am not at war with anyone


I am not at war with anyone


Go away warplanes


You bring fear and shame


I am not at war with anyone


I am not at war with anyone


© 2003 Luka Bloom

And here's Luka live from a TV show, playing with Steve Cooney who lives here in the village - a guitar wizard.  

This song is called Heart Man.   We hear so much news about bad men - this was written for all the good men in the world. 

I've been absent from blogging most of this month - what with feeling really under the weather, and family stuff and festival rehearsals and lots of visitors - andt I'm still feeling jaded and out of sorts ...  However, it's good to get time to pause and reflect and I'll be coming back with a few more reviews in the coming days and weeks.  

And finally, the reward of our wonderful summer this year, my passionflower has bloomed!!   

Such a strange looking flower.  

 It has been more than 12 years since it last bloomed - so it's well worth the wait.

I just love it :)  It makes me smile :)

What's blooming in your garden?   Heard any good songs lately?  You know I love to hear.