A nation on the march for St Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Festival’s I Love My City cultural programme is in its third year this weekend. It’s programme of 17 events concludes today, with, arguably, its highlight. When pushed to single out a not-to-be-missed item from the schedule, the festival’s creative director, Susanna Lagan, mentions Solo Space, a night of music and song at the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle.
“For me it would be Solo Space,” she says, “because it has what I would consider three of the most amazing performers in the country at the moment — Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Iarla Ó Lionáird and Seán Mac Erlaine. They’re performing together for this. Iarla and Caoimhín are both part of The Gloaming together, and Caoimhín and Seán Mac Erlaine and others would be in other groups like This Is How We Fly, but the three of them are coming together for this event.
“Caoimhín is a fiddle player. He plays contemporary music. Also his background would be influenced very much by traditional Irish music. Seán Mac Erlaine is a jazz clarinet player. Iarla Ó Lionáird is a vocalist. Iarla was one of the leading members of The Afro Celt Sound System. He has a phenomenal voice. On the night, they will all play individual pieces, probably reflecting their own music tastes, and they will play together as well towards the end of the event, a mix of traditional and contemporary music.
“Also the venue is out of this world. It’s in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle, and it’s the old chapel in there. It re-opened in November just gone. It’s an absolutely stunning space. It only holds 85 people. There will be two performances — one in the late afternoon and one in the evening. It’s going to be really, really magical.”
Irish traditional music, fittingly, given the day, will also be the main course on the menu across town at the Kevin Barry Room in the National Concert Hall. The piper Philip Browne will team up with Phil Callery on vocals and fiddle and Gerry Harrington, also on fiddle, as part of the Trad Trio. Callery, of course, is known for being one of the members of the vaunted singing group, The Voice Squad. The evening promises to be a mix of the-blood-is-up slides and polkas from Kerry together with a few slower, haunting airs on the uileann pipes.
Early birds who are in the mood for it should trot along to the City Assembly House on South William Street, which opens its doors at 10 o’clock in the morning. It has a fascinating exhibition of the best works from the Dublin Painting and Sketching Club, whose backlog of work stretches to the 1760s, and gives a vivid picture of life and fashion in Dublin over the last 250 years. Its Society artists of yesteryear include Walter Osborne, Sarah Purser and John Singer Sargent. Their paintings will be on display together with more modern selections.
Eamonn Doyle captures a different view of Dublin with his stunning, eclectic collection of portraitures of Dublin people, photographs that have been taken over the last two decades around the city’s streets, and which are culled from his limited edition book “I”. The snapshots of Dubliners as you mightn’t know them, will be on display from 11 o’clock in the morning at The Library Project in Temple Bar.
For a relaxing saunter through Ireland’s history Pat Liddy, the Dublin historian and author, will take a group around the byways and ancient sites of Dublin in the afternoon. He’ll recount some interesting tales, taking in the city’s two formidable medieval cathedrals, Christ Church and, appropriately enough, St Patrick’s, and will debunk a myth or two along the way about Ireland’s pre-Viking past. It leaves from the converted church that the Discover Ireland Centre is billeted in, on Suffolk Street at 2.30pm.
Other festival highlights today include an Irish craft beer and food market inside the IFSC building along the docks and for the kids, there will be a Funfair set up for spins at Merrion Square and Custom House Quay.
Limerick, which is Ireland’s first National City of Culture, boasts the largest ever St Patrick’s Day parade with over 4,000 participants. It will kick off from Punches Cross at noon. More than 70,000 people are expected to line the city’s streets to cheer on its passing bands, community groups and floats. The Hunt Museum will also open its doors on the bank holiday for free, Irish-themed events, crafts and music.
Music will play a key part in the celebrations in Cork, as the Kilfenora Céilí Band brings their incomparable céilí sound to the Cork Opera House. The guests tonight will include Michael Donnellan and Kickin Crew, as they bring audience members on an aural trip back to the twelfth century.
Cork’s parade has enlisted some inspiring street performers, Johan and the Whale by SPRAOI, among them, as well as The Phoenix by Bui Bolg and the Tractor Factor with Dowtcha puppets, who have been on the go for more than a decade since Cliff Dolliver and Mick Lynch first began creating their oversized puppets, pioneered by Mick, the man among the mountains, and his 372-year-old buddy, The Hangeraun. The parade will start its meandering journey through the city from the South Mall at 1pm.
The Sea is the theme chosen for this year’s 111th staging of Galway’s parade captured in a video project by Kamil Krolak, who created a stir with his last film project, Galway is Also Happy, sentiments which will hopefully recur on St Patrick’s Day.
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