CEOL - OR IS IT “IRISH SOUL”? By Brian McGowan Rethinking Irish 5 You may recall prior mention of a singing style called sean-nós. What, you may be asking, is this sean-nós singing? Quickly said, sean-nós is a highly ornamented style of solo, unaccompanied singing defined by one authority, Tomás Ó Canainn , as a complex way of singing in Gaelic , with a highly ornamented melodic line, and varying greatly in ornamentation depending upon where in Ireland where the singer hails from, either the South (Munster), the West (Connacht) or the North (Ulster), three of the four “provinces” of Ireland. The fourth province, Leinster, in the east and southeast of the island, and holding Dublin, capital of the 26-county Republic of Ireland, was historically called “The Pale”, that region of Ireland centered on Dublin where English law and authority prevailed in the centuries following the 12 th Century Norman invasion. The other three provinces retained their Gaelic identiti
Hello, I'm Brian McGowan. Welcome to RETHINKING IRISH, a journey of thoughtful exploration and introspection into things Irish, wherever they may be. I invite you to revel in the continued strong influence the land of Saints and Scholars exerts on the world, through its music, film, literature, history, language, cuisine and culture.