Seeing Ireland: 3 music videos

Landscape and the love of it run deep in the heart of the music of Ireland. Whether you are dreaming of, remembering, or imaging a visit to the island of Ireland, here are three music videos that will help you see aspects of the place.

“This is what I believe that we bring to our audiences” says Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. to her long time friend Moya Brennan, “that they can sense the beauty of this place.” The two are walking in Donegal where they both spent time growing up and where Mairead lives.

They go on share a memory and a song about the lights in the windows you see a at Christmas. Perhaps you are reading this at another time. It is a fine song nonetheless, good to enjoy at any season. As Ni Mhaonaigh and Brennan remark during their conversation, you are going to want to bring a heavy coat with you when you come to Donegal anyway...

You may find the song Soilse na Nollag/The Lights of Christmas, recorded on the Windham Hill collection called The Very Best of Celtic Christmas. You may find more of NI Mhaonaigh’s work on recordings by Altan, and of Brennan’s with Clannad.They each have solo albums out as well.

The Wild Atlantic Way has become the descriptive name for the many landscapes and places you will meet along the west coast of Ireland, all the way from KInsale in Cork to Malin Head in Donegal. There are six regions and, indeed all sorts of things to aexplore and all sorts of great music to hear as well.

Aoife Scott and Enda Reilly wrote the song All Along the Wild Atlantic Way, and with her partner and fellow musician Andy Meaney along for the journey Scott brings quite a bit of the place to life through this video as well as in the lyrics and melody.

You will find the song recorded on Scott’s debut album Carry the Day, and she has a second one out now as well, called Homebird.

There is much of the landscape of Ireland which lends itself to myth and legend, and many stories to go along. The stories may be true or may not, likely some of both in most cases. The song Port na bPúcaí/The Fairy Tune is one such. It comes from the Blasket Islands, which lie off the coast of west Kerry. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh lives in the Dingle peninsula and across from the Blasket Islands.

The song, she says, was given her by her father, who told her the story that a Blasket Islands fisherman heard the music on the wind one night and played it on his fiddle. Some say it was a whale song, others that its origin was from the otherworld. The words are a story of a woman captured by the fairies. There is an otherworldly aspect to the landscape of the west Kerry shore where this video was filmed, and to the sound of the music, as well. Billy Mag Fhloinn constructed (after a concept of Gorkhem Sen) and plays the acoustic instrument called the yaybahar to compliment Nic Amhlaoibh’s singing. You will find the song on Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s recording Thar Toinn/Seaborne.

You may also wish to learn more about
Altan’s album The Gap of Dreams
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s Foxglove & Fuschia
Another Irish musician who draws on landscape in her work to learn about
One of the most loved stories at Music Road: Irish music, Irish landscape

From the Music from Shifting Times series at Wandering Educators
Music for Connection and Contemplation, with music from Aoife Scott, Matt and Shannon Heaton, Cathie Ryan, and others

Photographs by Kerry Dexter, Thank you for respecting copyright.

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You can also

Other roads: stories from Perceptive Travel

Music, landscape. legend, connection, heritage, history: each of those things comes into the music I share with you here along the music road.

Landscape and journey are more often the focus of what I write over at Perceptive Travel, where I am one of six writers. As we mark the ninth anniversary of Perceptive Travel this week, I thought you who read here at Music Road might enjoy seeing some of the ways I have included perspectives from music and musicians in stories I have done for that publication.

In Rathlin Island: history, landscape, legend meet I invite you to a place off the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. You have met Cathie Ryan and Mary Black here along the music road several times; they both have connections to Rathlin. Their comments and music are included in the story

There’s mention of some of the fine musicians who call Caithness, Sutherland, Wester Ross, Easter Ross and the Black Isle home in this journey through Scotland’s North.

Though she handled things with her usual understated grace in music and flashes of humor along with it at her concert it was still quite something to be there on The Falls Road as Cathie Ryan spent An Evening in Belfast a few years back.

Seasons are on the turn as I write this, which has me remembering this short piece -- and yes, it has links to music too-- with reflections on traveling in spring and in Donegal in Ireland’s far northwest stopping by Wildflowers and a Wall.

When you go over to Perceptive Travel to read these, I invite you to stay a while and look around. You will find stories from Singapore, India, Israel, Texas, Istanbul, Boston, Edinburgh, Louisville, Nova Scotia, North Uist, and many other places, and much more to explore.

You may also wish to see
Altan: The Widening Gyre
Canada's Music: Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: One
Ireland's music: Matt and Shannon Heaton: Tell You In Earnest

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Explore the Elements

Rhythm, tone, melody, cadence, word choice, story telling, heritage: those are the sort of elements we most often discuss here along the music road. For the moment, though, I invite you to take a look at images that evoke the physical elements of earth, water, air, and fire -- which of course have their place in the stories of music, as well. This is in response to a challenge set by Thomas CookUK (note: this challenge is now closed). Further down you will find about how you could respond to this challenge yourself -- and a few ideas of music to go along.

Rather than grandeur, I chose intimacy to frame these elements. Winter in Cooley, in Ireland, suggests intimacy to me, and always welcomes me home.

Earth: the rock of this mountain is millions of years old; mist rises anew each winter morning

Air: what does this have to do with air? look closely and you will see the snowflakes falling...

Water: there are many peaceful scenes of the waterside in this place, and rolling waves as well - and there are times when the wind down from the mountains meets up with the waves, producing this

Fire: mysterious and welcoming one in the same -- and welcome after winter snow, mist, and water

One of the requirements from Thomas CookUK is that five other writers be nominated to take on this challenge. Whether they choose to explore the elements or not, I think you will find their ideas and images of interest.

Jessie at Journey to Scotland
Corey at Irish Fireside
Irene at More Time to Travel
Vera at A Traveler’s Library
Shannon at Leap Little Frog

and the challenge itself this challenge is now closed: details at Thomas CookUK

Music ideas to go along
Shadow and Light: Irish Music from John Doyle
Music and Mystery: Conversation with Carrie Newcomer
Listening to Ireland: Patrick season

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Silence and music: Ireland

Background silence. That is one of the things Ireland holds. Not that Ireland does not have its noisy places and moments when people -- and nature -- become loud. There is a silence though, in the waters, in the mountains, in the green fields, in the mist. Just at hand, if you choose to know it.

Music arises from and is framed by silence. So do words, and writing, and thought. And faith, if you care to see it that way. No accident that Ireland has centuries of history as a land of saints and scholars -- and musicians.



this photograph, from Louth, Ireland is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

You may also wish to see
Music Road: learning about Irish music
Music Road: old songs, old stories
Music Road: inspiration: looking for the quiet
Music Road: Blue fiddle, and Ireland's northwest
Quiet Moments: waters of Ireland [at Perceptive Travel]
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Concerts, Conversations, and Travel: Ireland

As Saint Patrick’s Day approaches, here is a look back at several favourite conversations with Irish musicians, stories about travel in Ireland, and reports of concerts of Irish music. Most are from here along the Music Road, along with several from other places. Follow the links to enjoy good reading and great music -- with, of course, more of both to come.


conversations with Irish artists
Cathie Ryan talks about teaching tradition
Mary Black shares her reflections on her career and song choices
Michael Black talks about music, family, and friends
Heidi Talbot talks about learning music growing up in Kildare, and about creating her latest album, sharing songs and stories [at Wandering Educators]




travel in Ireland, north and south. photo essays too
Ceol Chairlinn: sharing music in winter a quieter side of the Irish year
Irish music, Irish landscape and why not all Irish songs are drinking songs

an encounter with the not so distant past in Newry: Meeting the Past in Northern Ireland [at Perceptive Travel]
history, memory, museums, and the Reminiscence Project in Northern Ireland:
Holding Memory in Your Hands [at Perceptive Travel]
reflections on Belfast Unrest and Travel in Northern Ireland [at Perceptive Travel]
Traditional Irish musicians honored at Gradam Ceoil [at Irish Fireside]

two favourite stories about concerts

at Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Another Fine Winter's Night with Matt and Shannon Heaton
from City Halls in Glasgow, Scotland T with the Maggies and the music of Donegal

photograph of a Sunday afternoon session in Louth, Ireland, is by Kerry Dexter and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting that.

Ahead, in honor of Saint Patrick I’ll gather up for you stories of my favorite recordings of Irish music -- this is now available at Music Road: learning about Irish music: a bouquet of albums for spring. Who are your favourite Irish musicians, and what are your favourite places in Ireland? If you like, let us know in the comments.

If you enjoy what you’ve been reading here, a way to support more of it: b>

Best Irish Interest Articles of 2010, from Irish Fireside

Over at the top travel site Irish Fireside, there's a lot of good reading on their list of Best Irish Interest Articles and Posts of 2010. You can
check out the list here.

I am happy to say that an article from Music Road and another I wrote for Perceptive Travel have been named to the list. As you might think, they both have to do with music.

at Perceptive Travel an evening in Belfast

at Music Road
Ireland: the best free thing


you may also wish to see
Music Road: looking forward, looking back: happy new year

-->If you'd like to support my creative work,
here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this.Thank you.

Ireland: the best free thing

What is the best thing to do in Ireland that is free? This was asked of me recently.

Ireland can be quite a pricey country, that’s true. But The National Museum of Ireland, in Dublin -- which is four museums, actually -- is free. I like the archeology part best myself, with learning how the bog people and the Vikings lived, seeing the Ardagh Chalice, which I’d often met in schoolbooks, in the real, and meditating on a pair of shoes said to have belonged to Saint Bridgid.

It also doesn't cost anything to cross the border into the north of Ireland and walk the walls of Derry, or to look at the murals there-- quite a span of history in those two things. You can stop in at the bookstore and tourist point at An Chulturlann in Belfast, too, to brush up on your Irish language and Irish history, and get advice on seeing the city. Back over in the republic, you can walk the longest main street in Ireland, in Letterkenny in Donegal, and see the ancient tombs at Carrowkeel. Just about anywhere in Ireland you’ll find water, in lakes, rivers, and seacoast. A walk along the edge of the waters and a listen to their music reminds that Ireland is an island, and water forms part of its identity.

The best thing to do in Ireland that is free, though, is just that, to listen

*To people talking with each other -- Ireland has many regional accents and turns of phrase, and should you be in a Gaeltacht area you may hear conversations in Irish as well. These days, conversations in other languages, neither Irish or English, are equally common. Listen to the rhythm of speech, and perhaps, strike up a conversation if you will. Many Irish people are good and generous listeners as well as talkers.

*To the music, which you will find in pubs, and clubs, dance halls and concert halls, at festivals, in churches, along the street from buskers, in people’s homes, and on the radio. Not all of it will be traditional Irish music. In fact, quite a bit of it will not be. Trad lives a vibrant life alongside chart hits of all genres, though, and that’s a fine thing.

*To the sound of the waters, and the sound of the landscape. Those are part of the music, the people, and the history.

Ireland will speak to you through all these if you let it, and none of them costs a thing.

you may also wish to see


fine ideas for no cost ways to explore while you travel from Doctor Jessica Voigts at Wandering Educators, along with great pictures from the west of Ireland and other places, as well


for ideas about frugal and sustainable living, check out the patchwork living blogging bee, a project from Kris Bordessa of Attainable Sustainable and Melanie McMinn of Frugal Kiwi.

These ideas work well when traveling on your own and with others. For additional thoughts about traveling with a group, visit More Time to Travel's article and blog carnival on great experiences traveling with friends and family
and for music to go along

Music Road: holiday gift list: Irish music
Music Road: ceol chairlinn: sharing music in winter
Music Road: music and hope: Derry

-->Your support for the work,here at Music Road is welcome and needed.
Here is one way to offer that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.