Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh will bring her six-piece band to the Irish Cultural Centre in London this weekend, showcasing her distinctive approach to traditional Irish music. She spoke to David Hennessy
Named RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Singer of the Year 2022, Muireann is widely regarded as one of the most important voices in Irish traditional music today.
A former lead singer with Danú, she has collaborated across classical, folk and world genres, continually expanding the expressive possibilities of sean nós song.
Her groundbreaking project Róisín ReImagined, produced by Dónal O’Connor and performed with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, has been hailed for its bold and beautiful reimagining of the sean nós tradition.
For this show Muireann will be joined by acclaimed producer Dónal O’Connor, traditional harper and composer Michael Rooney, renowned Belfast cellist, composer and arranger Neil Martin, Dublin uilleann piper Mick O’Brien and concertina player and sean nos dancer Eimhear Flannery.
Muireann took time to talk to the Irish World about the upcoming show.
Are you looking forward to coming over to London?
“I’m really, really looking forward to coming over.
“I’ve played there (Irish Cultural Centre) before with my trio and we had a fantastic evening.
“You feel like you’re at home in that venue.
“It’s just gorgeous.
“We’re bringing the six piece over this time for the first time, so really excited.
“It will be the first time playing in England with the six piece and I’m kind of raring to go to get it out there and get it travelling, so this is an exciting gig for us.
“I love the venue.
“The people that come really know their stuff as well, they’re music aficionados so a discerning audience.”
You spoke about your six piece there. That is yourself, Dónal O’Connor, Michael Rooney, Neil Martin, Mick O’Brien and Eimhear Flannery. That is a lot of renowned musicians on one stage..
“That’s it.
“With everyone in the group, there’s a kind of a connection there that goes back many, many years which really makes it like a family vibe.
“Mick used to play with my da and my father used to play with Dónal O’Connor’s father.
“Michael and I have been playing together over 20 years on and off and he and Dónal were in college at the same time.
“Then Neil Martin is from Belfast. He used to go on holidays to Wexford at the same time as Mick O’Brien and his family.
“They know each other since they were kids and he (Neil) was kind of an uncle figure to the Dónal growing up.
“And then we usually have Becky Ní Éallaithe who’s a wonderful dancer, singer and concertina player. Her dad and my dad were great pals.
“But she can’t make this one, and so I have a former student of mine, Eimhear Flannery who is just one of these young musicians who can do absolutely everything: Dance, sing, play all the instruments, and she’s studying to be a doctor.
“It’s just insane.
“They just make you feel so inadequate.
“I’m so very proud of her as well and love having her with us for this gig.
“They’re just a fabulous bunch.
“There is no denying they’re all top class musicians.
“They have their own following in their own right, each of them, and I feel very fortunate to have this gathering together to bring over to London.”
Is it hard to get the six together? I can imagine you all being so busy..
“They are busy but if things come in with enough advanced notice, we can make it work.
“We do enjoy getting together so if we get enough notice, I think everyone makes as much of an effort as they can to make it happen.
“The music is so enjoyable I can’t tell you.
“It’s just that vibe of playing with people that you’ve known a very long time with a shared heritage and a shared musical vernacular, shared love of the songs which is really important to me.
“I suppose it would be a song forward gig even though there are instrumental sets as well so it’s important that people have a deep understanding of songs.
“And Dónal, of course, his mother was Eithne Ní Uallacháin, the great traditional singer and Neil used to play with her as well.
“And also we all actually are Irish speakers as well which I suppose is by chance in a way but maybe not given that we all have come out of a similar well.
“That’s very important to me, to bring the Irish language along with the music wherever I go.
“It’s something I’m very proud to do and something I like doing in a very informal and relaxed way, try and showcase its beauty and also its accessibility.
“For many people a lot of the songs we sing are songs that would be deep in their psyche somewhere, in their memories, would have special connections for people in different ways.
“One of the most magical things about the gig actually if I sing Róisín Dubh or something like that, seeing that it resonates with people and what it means to them, that particular piece of music. It’s a real gift to be able to share that with people and to have that shared experience in the room.
“I think it’s my favourite thing in the whole world, that feeling.
“It’s the unspoken language of it, that shared experience.”
Does this show in some way come from Roisin Reimagined, your project with the Irish Chamber Orchestra?
“Yeah, it did a little bit because it’s very hard to bring an orchestra with you all the time,” Muireann laughs.
“What I wanted to do was bring together elements of all the different kinds of gigs I’ve been doing over the years be that with Danú or with the three piece and then later on with the Irish Chamber Orchestra so there are elements of Roisin Reimagined absolutely.
“Then there are times where it’s foot to the floor tunes.
“There’s more West Kerry style stuff as well.
“What you will get, I suppose, is a journey.
“There will be highs and there will be lows.
“When you have a six piece, it’s very easy to just throw the kitchen sink at it and we’re all playing all the time which is great in the sense that there’s a power there but I really wanted there to be an awful lot of space within the show as well.
“You will hear each instrument individually or maybe in pairs or trios so that it’s not all of us all the time, so there’s a lot of light, a lot of shade.
“In a way it’s kind of like the sessions I grew up with where there was an equal emphasis on the songs and the tunes and dance and even on chat. It’s kind of trying to bring that vibe to the stage where people don’t feel as much at a remove from it but rather that we invite them in and make them feel at home and they make us feel at home hopefully.”
You learned your trade as a young person getting in such sessions and learning from the best, isn’t that right?
“It was a very privileged upbringing.
“At the time you don’t know how lucky you are but I certainly do now.
“I’m actually looking out the window and I’m looking down the fields at a pub called Tig Bhric where my father used to play every Friday night with local musicians.
“I joined him there from the age of- frowned upon now but probaly the age of nine or 10.
“Sometimes there wasn’t even a seat for me and I would be on a bag of coal with my tin whistle learning tunes.
“And actually this coming Friday they’re having a special event down there as part of a festival called Feile na Bealtaine, they’re having a special evening in honour of my dad.
“He passed away about two and a half years ago so all his old music pals and family and friends are coming and we’ll have a session in his honour.
“I am right here at the heart of it, we’ll have that evening and I’m sure the kind of evening like I had growing up and that’s what I feel I have to share with people around the world.
“That’s what I try and share.
“Even though it was only across the field for me, I realised that it’s not something that other people get to experience every day.”
You say your father passed away a couple of years back. Of course in your part of the world you also lost Séamus Begley in the same time period..
“Yeah, I’ve had a rough old time.
“Séamus died January 2023 and then dad died at the very end of 2023, at Christmas time and then a year later, I got diagnosed with breast cancer and that went on for the bones of a year so I am literally coming out of a fog of a couple of years of just awfulness.
“But through all of it, I was playing and the music was there and got me through.
“In all these performances I’m doing, I’m singing the songs I learned from Séamus and tunes I learned from dad.
“It’s a way of remembering them and feeling like they’re close and honouring them but also something that was very important to both of them.
“I suppose they have been the two most influential people in my life musically speaking and probably on a personal level as well.
“They wanted the music to be carried on.
“Séamus was always afraid the songs would be lost.
“Dad was a big Irish language activist and someone who cared an awful lot about supporting young musicians and keeping the tradition going.
“I feel like there’s been a changing of the guard in the last few years.
“We’ve lost Dolores Keane and we’ve lost Moya Brennan and all of that is very, very much to the fore of my mind.
“I feel like I have a role and it’s very, very important to me and it gives me a purpose as well and carries me forward.
“As much as people might enjoy coming out to a show, it’s equally as important, probably more important, for me to be to be doing them and I’m grateful to have it.”
You have been open about your cancer journey and I hope all is well now..
“I’m out of active treatment.
“It’s just one of those things and very, very common unfortunately but science is amazing and I got loads of support.
“It puts you in touch with your mortality.
“A lot of people make big, big life changes.
“I have made some changes absolutely but there are other things I’m realising, ‘Oh no, this is exactly what I need to do. I’m doing what I love to do’.
“Some people go, ‘I don’t want this job anymore’, and I’m like, ‘I couldn’t live without this job’ so that was good, life affirming I guess.”
You just mentioned Dolores and Moya, two greats we have recently lost..
“Yeah, there are people out there like Séamus Begley and Moya and then living people and wonderfully vibrant, energetic living people like Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh as well.
“I think a lot of the really good musicians understand it’s not about them, they’re torch bearers.
“They’re a link in the chain.
“They pass it on.
“They share it.
“When we sing, we’re singing songs that have been sung by people for hundreds of years and there are echoes of all those singers in the way we sing the songs and the people we heard them from.
“It is our job to pass it on just as it was passed on to us so it’s not about the singer, it’s about the song.”
You have long been an advocate of the Irish language, you must be overwhelmed to see the resurgence of it in recent years..
“Yeah, it’s exciting to see.
“I’m delighted and I always encourage people to learn more about the language and speak it.
“I suppose my only fear would be that it’s a bit of a trend right now and I wonder, will that last?
“We’ve always been here speaking it, sometimes encouraged and sometimes discouraged, and I’m really happy that people are showing an interest in it but I don’t want it to be associated with a fleeting moment in time because it’s cool on Instagram now or whatever.
“The fact remains that as a language in the Gaeltacht areas, it’s completely in free fall so even though there are more people interested in it but maybe not as a daily 24/7 spoken language.
“There are more people learning about it and learning the language and that is wonderful and to be commended but in terms of fluent native speakers, we’re losing them at a rate of knots so there’s a dichotomy there and it’s important not to kind of whitewash it by saying, ‘Oh, everyone is so interested in it now, it’s great’.
“At the root, at the heart of it, we still need people to actually do the heavy lifting and it’s hard.
“My husband has moved here to West Kerry from Limerick and made the decision, even though he wasn’t a native speaker at all, to improve his Irish so that we could raise our family through Irish.
“And that’s the kind of work that has to be done, not just by individuals but at a government level as well.
“I do fear that it might be too late.
“Seeing young people interested in the language and if they find something cool on TikTok that then makes them explore it more, that’s fantastic.
“I just hope it continues so I would say cautiously optimistic.
“The Kneecap lads are friends of ours and I’m actually blown away by Belfast and what an exciting, culturally vibrant, creatively just mind blowing place it is right now.
“I think probably if people were to be really realistic, maybe the future of the language is in the cities because we’ve had such an emptying out of the rural areas.
“Hopefully it will continue and there will be always Irish spoken here but I think we need to look at urban areas where an awful lot of work has been done and where there are new communities starting to speak the language and hopefully together we can all keep it going.”
You had your time with Danú. You have also won the RTE Radio 1 Folk Singer of the Year award. What leaps out as a highlight of your career?
“All those things obviously leap out absolutely.
“Some of the amazing places I’ve been able to see.
“With Danú we went to India with a state visit.
“It’s always a big moment for me to feel like I’m representing my country so when you get asked to do things like that, it’s a great source of pride for me.
“But to be honest when I talk about highlights, they’re more personal.
“It’s when you meet your heroes and they become your friends and you get to sing with them.
“I have friends now all over the world, traditional singers from all different countries who have shared their music with me.
“My dad used to say, ‘If you can play, you’ll never be lonely and you’ll never be hungry’.
“And I think that is really the highlight of what I do now: Everywhere we play, everywhere I go, it’s like a shortcut to becoming a member of the community for an evening.
“You’re let in in a way that maybe a tourist wouldn’t be.
“It’s a great window on life and it’s a privilege.
“When you do visit anywhere with music, it just opens a lot of doors for you and you meet so many incredible people.
“I have to say, overall, that’s what’s most special for me about it.”
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh Band play The Irish Cultural Centre on Saturday 30 May. For more information and to book, click here.
For more information about Muireann, click here.
