Galway cellist Naomi Berrill told David Hennessy about her latest album inspired by the islands of Inishark and Inishbofin and the Irish pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley.
Naomi Berrill, the internationally acclaimed cellist, composer, and singer from County Galway, now based in Florence, is touring across Ireland.
The tour celebrates the release of her latest album, Inish, a collection inspired by the islands of Inishark and Inishbofin off Ireland’s west coast.
Naomi Berrill is known for breaking boundaries between musical genres.
From Headford in Co. Galway, she has performed internationally, collaborating with renowned cellists Giovanni Sollima and Mario Brunello and composers such as Bill Whelan.
In 2023, Naomi was awarded the prestigious Villa Vogel Cultural Prize for her artistic contributions.
Naomi also recently released a video for her song Best Alone, offering an intimate glimpse into the haunting beauty and stories behind her music.
The song Best Alone reflects on the last 23 inhabitants of Inishark, who were evacuated in October 1960 after years of isolation and hardship.
The accompanying video, shot by Buúlabosca Films, features aerial views of the desolate Inishark, where nature has reclaimed the land.
It was filmed during Naomi’s brief yet profound visit to Inishark, where she and producer Lorenzo Pellegrini recorded soundscapes for the album, incorporating seascapes, birdsong, and the voices of local islanders.
Naomi says: “Inish is my ode to the islands of Inishark and Inishbofin. It tells the stories of the people who lived there—their courage, their struggles, and their deep connection to the land and sea. Through this music, I hope to bring these stories to life, sharing the beauty and extremes of island existence with audiences.”
Inish is Naomi Berrill’s fourth album and has been featured on RTÉ Radio 1’s recommended listening list.
What moved you to make an album inspired by these two islands, Inishbofin and Inishark?
“I’m based in Italy now for quite some time so when I come home, it’s always something special for me, and especially during 2020/2021, when it was harder to get home, I appreciated even more.
“On one of those trips home to Ireland, I was out on Inishbofin which is well known for being very alive musically still.
“Visiting the island and playing in a session, I just realised the specialness of island life and how it has, in a way, extreme beauty but also extreme hardship.
“Everything is heightened another level.
“The difficulties are more difficult but the communities are stronger because of that.
“There’s something almost kind of magical.
“When I was on Inishbofin, I was brought over by some islanders to Inishark, the nearby island which had been abandoned.
“It just gave me a lot of inspiration, a place that had been also alive like its fellow Island. There had been a good community there and musicians and fishermen, and then the island having to be abandoned.
“I just thought all this was very much food for thought for a series of songs, and also the famous Grace O’Malley, the Irish pirate queen, had also left her mark on that area of Ireland.
“That was my starting point so I took different ideas from these thoughts and that became kind of the nutshell of the album, Inish.”
Let’s talk about the song, Best Alone.
That is concerned with the evacuation of Inishark that, as you say, has been abandoned…
“There I’m personifying the island.
“I’m imagining her as a lady and she’s, of course, nostalgic for the magical atmosphere, the music sessions and the liveliness that was when she was inhabited, but there’s something also very beautiful about her state now.
“She’s been taken over by nature.
“All that’s left are a few stone ruins of the houses.
“There’s no other physical man made destruction or pollution.
“Just to see what’s left and nature slowly taking over and the plants growing over what’s left of the island, there was something nostalgic because of the different hardships that had happened on the island, fishing tragedies and things like that.
“I just wanted to personify and capture these emotions in the song.”
Do you think there’s something special about islands, a different mentality maybe?
“I think there’s definitely- this Irish word- meitheal- which kind of means community and how one helps the other.
“This is definitely stronger because of, as people now know, when the storms set in, it’s not always possible to get to the mainland.
“People are more inclined to live as a real community and help out and be there for each other.
“I think sometimes maybe you’re living in big cities this kind of human way of being and helping out your neighbour isn’t always present and it’s something very beautiful akin to small communities in Ireland.
“And I see it every time I come home.
“I think the islands but also Ireland as an island has this community spirit still very much in the communities, and it is something special and to be proud of because it’s not everywhere.”
Were you always fascinated by these islands that are very close to your native Galway?
“I think when you’re from an area, you have to maybe move away and then when you come back, you appreciate it a lot more.
“I think when you grow up in a place, the beauty of that place and maybe the speciality or the things that make it magical for someone coming in and seeing it for the first time with fresh eyes and fresh sensations, isn’t apparent to you.
“I think it’s good to go away and come back and so I think all the beauty and the elements that I have taken for inspiration in this album have come to me more because I’ve lived abroad for so long.
“After school, I moved to Scotland to study and then on to Italy and Switzerland, and so I’ve been away from home for quite a long time so this has strengthened my vision of the specialty and special things linked with Ireland and the West Coast.”
Do you feel being away from home helps you write about it in a way that you couldn’t if you were still in Galway?
“Yeah, I think it definitely gives you a different perspective.”
Is Grace O’Malley a real fascination for you also?
“The main single from this album is called Sea Warrior and it’s dedicated to Grace O’Malley.
“It was the very first song off the album that I wrote.
“I’d done a little bit of research about her.
“She’s a very fascinating character and I think her strengths are very relevant.
“She was very brave and she really managed to achieve a lot at that time for being a woman and very brave.
“She was so determined that she wanted to go out to sea and be a seafarer and a sea warrior.
“The struggle she had to do this.
“This wasn’t typical for the girls of the time.
“They say that she shaved her hair off and hid on her father’s boat and that’s how she managed to finally head out to sea.
“So just great, great courage.
“I thought she would just be a nice figure to highlight and to speak about.
“I perform a lot here in Italy as well so it’s very nice to tell people of these figures from the past, from Ireland that are maybe not so well known.
“We had a great fun altogether with a Galwegian film maker, Buúlabosca, who I’ve worked with quite a lot.
“He actually came over here and we created a special video with some contemporary dancers here in Florence and at the coast just bringing her story to life. Her story can be something very fascinating and inspiring for the younger generations.
“That message comes through very much in the video and we use a lot of female characters who are here part of my everyday life.
“They all have something special.
“They approach life in a way that Grace O’Malley did.
“They’re warriors of today, shall we say and I just wanted to really use Grace’s story and her character to bring that message through.”
Tell us about your time in Scotland and how you liked it..
“I was based in Scotland for five years.
“I studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and that was very interesting especially because the first year of my studies there was the very first year that they had introduced a Scottish music degree so there was a whole set of Scottish folk musicians for the first time being able to take a degree in Scottish folk music.
“For me Glasgow was a great melting pot.
“I was on the classical music course so classical musicians and folk musicians.
“There was a good jazz scene.
“I often sang with a jazz band there and the music college also had a drama and contemporary theatre and opera department.
“I think it’s very important looking outside of the box and not just being in your own musical world and taking inspiration from other musical worlds.
“That’s always been very important to me, so I really enjoyed my time in Scotland because of this.”
You have been based in Italy for a long time now, is it home away from home now?
“Sometimes people think I’m an Italian now.
“And I do feel more comfortable speaking Italian on stage between my songs because Italian is my more everyday language now.
“I really feel like there is a lot of similarities between Italian and Irish: Their openness, their friendliness.
“I definitely do feel just as at home here in Italy as I do in Ireland.
“It has a very strong community feel.
“No complaints.”
Where did your love of music grow from?
“My parents both play music and are music teachers.
“They ran a local music school, still do and so my friends would have been coming. Our house was the base for all these music lessons.
“Music from a very young age was something I associated with playing with friends, being with friends, playing music with friends.
“And then alongside this more classical music world, there was also the folk music gatherings where we would have played at the weekends in the local pubs and stuff.
“It was very nice to grow up and get a taster of both the classical music and traditional folk music world.”
When did you know the cello was your instrument?
“Actually my first year in college was an arts degree because I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I wanted to do.
“I’d always been playing different instruments.
“The cello was, of course, the main instrument but I think it took that year, maybe having a slight different focus, that made me realise I really do want to focus on the cello.
“So after my first year of my arts degree in Glasgow, I changed over from the Glasgow University to the music college and there really concentrated all my energies on cello and all its possibilities.”
Is there something special about that instrument for you?
“I think so.
“They say the cello is one of the instruments that’s most similar to the human voice and I can really feel that.
“I love, of course, the more standard setting, the cello is usually used as a melodic instrument playing melodies or bass lines, but I really like using the cello in a more unusual way, maybe as a double bass would be played or as a guitar so as an accompanying instrument for the voice.
“I enjoy experimenting and trying out things that maybe are not standard and seeing how a cello can maybe seem to have another role.”
Naomi will be joined on tour by Italian multi-instrumentalists Lorenzo Pellegrini and Andrea Beninati.
Together, the trio’s performances blend folk, classical, and jazz influences, creating a contemporary sound.
Inish represents the start of the collaboration.
“I’m very pleased to bring over these two Italian musicians one of whom is also a cellist, but he’s a very special cellist because he’s also a jazz drummer so we have great fun in the live performances because during one song, he will move from the cello to the drum kit, and he also uses the cello in a very percussive way.
“We have great fun arranging the songs for the live set which I’ll be very happy to present.
“Andrea Beninati is the cellist and drummer and then the other member of my trio that I’ll be bringing over, Lorenzo Pellegrini, actually produced the album so he came over to Inishbofin and Inihark with me and recorded sample soundscapes and then we used these in the making of the album.
“That was very special and in the live performance, he plays keyboards, guitar and backing vocals so yeah, a good team of multitasking men behind me.”
You looking forward to your tour? You get St Patrick’s Day in Ireland..
“Yeah, it just fell very nicely that St Patrick’s Day would be our day off so two members of my trio will get a taster of an Irish St Patrick’s Day.
“That will be nice.
Have you had any reaction to the songs from the island folk themselves?
“Obviously when you’re writing songs about events which have taken place not so long ago, you have to have a subtlety and delicacy and, obviously, respect.
“I tried my best to do that telling the stories of beauty but also of hardship.
“Some of the songs are based on true events and true happenings and other ones are more imagined situations regarding the difficulties and the beauty of island life.
“But I think any of the islanders should be very proud of what we made.
“Also we have three different videos which represent this album and the islands.
“In a way I think it’s bringing out the beauty and magic of those islands.”
Inish is out now.
Naomi Berrill tours Ireland.
She plays Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo on 13 March, Levis Corner House, Ballydehob, Co. Cork on 14 March, Roisin Dubh, Galway on 15 March, Whale Theatre, Greystones, Co. Wicklow on 16 March, Record Room, Limerick on 18 March, Campbells Tavern, Co. Galways on 19 March and Queens University, Belfast on 20 March.
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