A MUSICAL HISTORY OF IRELAND
01 - Taisteal Go Mall
- The first humans arrived in Ireland about 10,000 years ago during the last ice age, when the island was still linked with the continent, and we know almost nothing about those original inhabitants, except that they imported the construction of megaliths and burial mounds, such as those of Newgrange, Howth, etc... As everywhere, life began here very slowly. "Taisteal Go Mall", an expression in Gaelic that can be found today on road signs in the Gaeltachtaí (Gaeltacht areas), means "Go slowly".
Gaeltacht (photo EFP)
02 - Amhergin’s March - The Boyne Jig
- Amhergin (Amergin, Amorgen, etc.) is the principal druid and judge of the Milesians, the last mythological people to conquer Ireland. After his side had won the final battle, he decided that the Milesians could live on the land of Ireland, while the Tuatha Dé Danann, who had lost, had to live underground. This may be the origin of the Irish superstitions of the "little people", the banshees, etc.
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- The River Boyne, north of Dublin, takes its name from the goddess Boann: mainly described in the manuscript of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, she belongs to the Tuatha Dé Danann clan, and her lover - the almighty god Dagda - used magic so that she could conceive and give birth to Aengus in a single day. It was in the Boyne River that the Salmon of Knowledge was caught, giving Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) all the knowledge in the world.
Saint Brigid's Cross
03 - Brigid’s Fancy
- Along with St. Patrick, St. Brigid is one of the principal figures who evangelized Ireland in the 5th century AD. St. Brigid's Day is celebrated on February 1st and marks the beginning of the Irish Spring, replacing a similar ancient Celtic festival, Imbolc. Brigid also appears as the goddess of poetry in the manuscript of Lebor Gabála Érenn and probably existed long before the arrival of Christianity. It is very likely that her character was simply adopted and adapted by the early missionaries, marking the transition from the mythological to the Christian history of Ireland.
04 - The Tears of Rathlin Island
- Rathlin Island, off the coast of County Antrim, was the first Irish victim of the Viking invasions, in the year 795 according to the manuscript of the Annals of Ulster. This marked the beginning of a dark period, which would not end until Brian Boru's victory at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. In the meantime, the Vikings had plundered countless villages and monasteries, but had also founded ports and cities, including Dublin.
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05 - Adrian’s Bull - Derbforgaill - Bannow Bay
- This is not a reference to Adrian's animal, but to the papal bull of Pope Adrian IV (the only English pope in history) which in 1155 granted King Henry II of England the right to invade and govern Ireland, too pagan a country in the eyes of some.
- Derbforgaill, daughter of the King of Meath, was kidnapped in 1152 by Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster. Exiled out of Ireland in 1166 for this crime, he asked King Henry II of England for help in order to reclaim his throne and territory.
- In May 1169, with the blessing of Henry II of England, an Anglo-Norman army led by his vassal Richard Strongbow landed at Bannow Bay, County Wexford, to help Dermot McMurrough reclaim his kingdom. This episode marked the beginning of Anglo-Norman domination in Ireland.
06 - Beyond the Pale
- The mutual incomprehension between the Gaelic way of life and the Anglo-Norman and later English way of life gave rise to the English expression - still in use today - "beyond the pale", i.e. "unacceptable".
It originated in the English-dominated
West of Ireland (photo EFP)
region around Dublin, called The Pale, which considered everything beyond its limits as incomprehensible, even intolerable. The gap widened even further when King Henry VIII of England decided to establish a Protestant church independent from the Pope in 1534, while Ireland remained fundamentally Catholic.
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07 - Cormac MacDermott - The Globe Jig - The Humours of Kinsale
- Few people know that Queen Elizabeth I maintained in her service Irish musicians, including harpers, the most famous one being Cormac MacDermott. He remained in the service of her successor, King James I of England, until the musician's death in 1618.
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- The jig is a very common 6/8 musical form in Irish and Scottish music, but was also the name of the theatrical entertainment provided after the main performance at the time of Shakespeare and of his London theatre, the Globe. The work of the great Elizabethan author is in fact full of references to Ireland and its music.
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- In 1601, a Spanish fleet commanded by General del Águila came to the assistance of the Gaelic clan chiefs against England. But the Irish and Spanish forces were defeated by the English army at the Battle of Kinsale, which marked the end of Gaelic Ireland.
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08 - Major General Boisseleau
- The struggle between Catholics and Protestants for the throne of England continued throughout the 17th century, including two important battles in Ireland. William of Orange and his Protestant army won a decisive victory over the Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and at Aughrim in 1691. Like Spain, France was an important ally of the Irish Catholics, and it was Major General Boisseleau who commanded the defence operations during the siege of Limerick in the summer of 1690 and succeeded in repelling the attacks of the Protestant king's supporters.
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09 - Grattan’s Parliament - The Eagle Tavern - The Republic of Connacht
- At the end of the 18th century, the first Irish nationalist aspirations were expressed by Protestants, and in particular by the Patriot Party led by Henry Grattan, which obtained from London the creation of a truly independent Irish Parliament, but still without voting rights for Catholics.
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- A unique period of union between Catholics and Protestants occurred at the same time in Belfast. It was at the Eagle Tavern that the United Irish Society was founded on November 9, 1791, with the ultimate goal of an independent Irish republic. Their uprising in 1798 led in retaliation to the repeal of Grattan's Parliament and the integration of Ireland into the United Kingdom.
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- In 1798, after a previous unsuccessful attempt in 1796, the French Directory decided to support the Irish rebellion at the request of Theobald Wolfe Tone. The troops led by General Humbert landed at Kilcummin, County Mayo: the first few days were exhilarating and a republic was proclaimed. It lasted only twelve days.
Willie Clancy Summer School, 2017
10 - The Lad from Cahirciveen
- Daniel O'Connell, born in 1775 in Caherciveen, County Kerry, was the first Catholic elected to Westminster Parliament in 1828, but he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the King, head of the Protestant Anglican Church of
England. As a sign of appeasement, the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed at Westminster in 1829, followed in 1858 by the emancipation of the Jews. O'Connell died in 1847 while trying to secure the creation of an independent Irish Kingdom.
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11 - An Drochshaol
- The period of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1850) was long surrounded by feelings of shame and guilt for many reasons. The most common expression used at the end of the 19th century to describe these years - which saw the Irish population decline from 8.5 million to 5 million - was "an Drochsaol", the "bad times" or, literally, the "hard life".
12 - The Rising Polka - The 32 Polka
- Taking advantage of the British engagement on the continent during World War I, a handful of Irish citizens decided to organize an uprising during Easter 1916, which turned out to be a resounding strategic failure. But the brutality of the British response quickly turned this failure into political success, and Irish Independence was granted on December 6, 1921, taking effect on December 6, 1922.
- However, only 26 of the 32 Irish counties gained independence and 6 counties still remain part of the United Kingdom, where the Protestant population is slightly more important in numbers and where an armed struggle resulted in more than 3500 deaths between 1968 and 1998. Recently, Brexit and the extreme political difficulties that have ensued suggest that the reunification of Ireland could solve many challenges in the decades to come.