Stepping outside daily life at Féile na Laoch

Féile na Laoch, the brainchild of Peadar Ó Riada, invites us to Cúil Aodha to celebrate our cultural heroes and rethink our lives, writes Pet O’Connell

Seven summers ago, as the dawn mist rose from the River Sullane, the commentary of Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh heralded the arrival of a band of sporting heroes, led by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.

They poured down the glen, camáns raised, with red and yellow banners unfurling behind them, along the riverside, and into the midst of a surreal scene. Pucking sliotars and booting footballs, they made their entrance through a crowd of spectators bleary-eyed after an all-night feast of music, literature, dance, and song.

This was the dramatic closing scene in 2011 of an otherworldly ‘aeríocht’ at the inaugural Féile na Laoch. Icons from seven arts disciplines performed in turn on a stage which, from its starting position pointing towards the setting sun, was rotated by degrees until it faced the rising sun as the first rays broke through the clouds to the sound of the haunting horn solo of Seán Ó Riada’s ‘Mise Éire’.

Martin Hayes, Glen Hansard, Christy Moore, Cara O’Sullivan, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Monica Loughman, Micheál O’Rourke, and dozens more had already inspired and enthralled the audience throughout the night. From Tash Bourke’s mesmerising aerial dance, suspended high above the crowd, to the poetry reading in the fading light by soon-to-be President Michael D Higgins, there was a sense of being present at a special moment in time and place.

The brainchild of Ó Riada’s eldest son Peadar, Féile na Laoch was “perhaps the best festival I have ever attended”, enthused Christy Moore, himself something of an expert in the field of festivals. “Only Peadar Ó Riada could dream it up.”

Moore and Hansard, Higgins and Phil Coulter are among the ‘laochra’ already confirmed for this month’s second coming of an event held once every seven years.

Peadar Ó Riada’s dream for the féile, however, stretches far beyond an Irish cultural pop concert.

Seán Ó Riada’s legacy may have been the inspiration for Féile na Laoch, which takes place in two parts, coinciding with the composer’s birthday on August 1 and reprising in the autumn to mark the anniversary of his death.

But by celebrating on stage seven living heroes in each cultural discipline, and honouring 100 more of the Cúil Aodha community’s cultural heroes during the féile, the event, most of it free to the public, has become an opportunity to “step out of the parameters of daily life”, according to Peadar.

If you think that life is like a room or a box and we have in that all the things that we do all the time, Féile na Laoch means stepping out of that box and putting away the boundaries temporarily and examining what we admire in life. The heroes we admire and why we call them heroes.

“It’s a time to think about our life in a way that we don’t do usually, and it’s maybe going to cause us to re-write our mission statement, to think about what we’re doing because life is not a return trip. We don’t have a second chance at it.”

Rewriting the mission statement may necessitate personal, introspective reflection, but Peadar also takes a broader artistic scope, and during the first week of Féile na Laoch he hopes to open discussions on the past, present, and future of iconic Irish musical instruments.

Conventions of both pipers and harpers, under the leadership of Mick O’Brien and Laoise Kelly respectively, will examine the instruments’ place in Irish music.

“It’s a once-every-seven-years look at everything, from how the instrument is played now to 1,000 years ago, in the case of the harp. We’ve moved away very far from the original way it was used; the physical structure of the instrument, whether it is the harp or the pipes, the repertoire, the technique and style of musicians today compared to how they were before,” says Peadar.

Scots and Irish pipers will also take centre stage in a riverside warpipes competition, with a Seán Ó Riada Gold Medal the prize on offer.

The pipers, like the president, the poets, and all the other heroes of sport and the arts set to assemble by the banks of the Sullane, will make their contribution to the collective cultural consciousness that is Féile na Laoch.

Féile na Laoch, Cúil Aodha, July 27 to August 1, and September 28-30. See: feilenalaoch.com

FÉILE NA LAOCH HIGHLIGHTS:

Opening parade and street party, July 27, with a torch lit from the hearth of the Ó Riada home, An Draighean.

Past winners of both the singing and music competitions named in honour of Seán Ó Riada, the Corn Uí Riada and Seán Ó Riada gold medal, perform on the same stage for the first time, in a special concert on July 28 in Cúil Aodha.

A Pilgrimage Day on July 29 begins with 10am Mass broadcast live from Cúil Aodha on Raidió na Gaeltachta. At noon four separate pilgrimages leave the village, to the ‘City’ at Cathair Crobh Dearg, to the holy sites of saints Gobnait and Abán in Baile Mhúirne and Naomh Lachtaín in Cill na Martra, and to Gougane Barra, with talks at each site. A meeting on church music under the direction of Dr John O’Keeffe of Maynooth University will be followed by a religious music Tenebrae, with the lights in Cúil Aodha church quenched one by one, to the singing of Cór Chúil Aodha, Cór Ban Chúil Aodha, and Maynooth choir.

Lá na nÓg on July 30 includes youth competitions in sports, art, music, and chess, with Féile na Laoch medals for winners, the day ending with a céilí.

‘An Mór Aonach’, Tuesday, July 31: A cultural exhibition honouring the 56 heroes of Féile na Laoch, with an oration from President Higgins. Participants and flag-bearers will parade to the field where each discipline of artists will perform on stage for one hour, starting at 9.30pm with recitations and storytelling, and followed by poets, actors, dancers, singers, and musicians. The stage will be rotated between disciplines until sunrise on August 1, when ‘Mise Éire’ will be played by a massed orchestra. At 6.15am seven sporting heroes will emerge over the hills, crossing the river to play a short GAA game.

August 1: Pipes competition, followed by a “homage to the horse and hound”.

The closing segment on September 28-30 focuses on planning for the next seven years until the next féile and includes talks on climate change, the economy, politics, and a closing ceremony and concert.