RETHINKING IRISH

SONG OF GRANITE                  Song of Granite:  w hat a wonderful title!   What strength it evokes.   What magic, what mystery it unfolds.   Let’s have a look, both at the film, and the principal subject, Joe Heaney, a revered sean nós singer born and raised in the Gaeltacht of Ireland, a sadly-diminishing region where Irish was, and remains, the beleaguered spoken tongue of the people.                 The synopsis of the film reads thus: “Enigmatic and complex, Joe Heaney was one of the greats of traditional Irish singing (sean nós).   Shaped by the myths, fables, and songs of his upbringing in the west of Ireland, his emergence as a gifted artist came at a personal cost.   Featuring performances from Colm Seoighe, Macdara Ó Fátharta, Jaren Cerf, Lisa O'Neill, Damien Dempsey, and sean nós singers Mícheál Ó Chonfhaola and Pól Ó...

LAST NIGHT'S FUN                                 So, I'm revisiting – for the umpteenth time – a great little book on traditional Irish music by Ciaran Carson, titled “Last Night’s Fun”.   I can do no greater justice by it than to repeat the blurb on the back cover, which, in this umpteenth plus one reading, still rings so true.                 “ Last Night’s Fun,” it says, “is a sparkling celebration of music and life that is itself a literary performance of the highest order.   Carson’s inspired jumble of recording history, poetry, tall tales, and polemic captures the sound and vigor of a ruthlessly unsentimental music.   Last Night’s Fun is remarkable for its liveliness, honesty, scholarship, and spontaneous joy; certainly there has never been a book about Irish music like this one, and few books ever w...

BEGINNINGS                 A very good friend asked in an email this morning if I was familiar with a movie, Song of Granite , playing at a local fine arts movie theater not far from home, the Pelham Picture House, in Pelham, New York, about a sean-nos Irish singer named Joe Heaney.   Home for me is Pleasantville, New York, and we have a very good fine arts theater here as well, the Jacob Burns, but March is the Jewish Film Festival, and not much of Irish fare seems to make it to the big screen, wondrous though it be.   I crafted a quick response to my friend.   No, I had not heard of the film, but I did know somewhat of Joe (or Seosamh, pronounced SHO-siv, the Irish for Joseph) Heaney, a BIG name (capitals fully intended) in Irish traditional music.   I went on at some length in my email reply, and the germ of an idea seized me, that I might have more knowledge, acquired over a li...