Talos: The story behind 'The Tommy Tiernan Show' tribute to Cork artist Eoin French
The Sounds From a Safe Harbour musicians, with fifth from left, Mary Hickson, after the performance of 'We Didn't Know We Were Ready' on 'The Tommy Tiernan Show'. Picture: Louise Barker
After the passing of Cork musician Eoin French aka Talos at the age of 36 in August last year, the team behind the biennial music festival Sounds from a Safe Harbour (SFSH) wanted to ensure they celebrated his memory — French was a collaborator, doing graphic design for the festival as well as performing.
Last Saturday, at the end of the opening episode of the ninth season of on RTÉ One, they did just that, bringing a host of musicians together for a performance of ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’, a song French had co-written at SFSH 18 months ago.
The clip has been played over 1.5m times on Instagram in the five days since it was uploaded.
It begins with Icelandic musician Olafur Arnolds’s gentle brushstrokes on a piano, cast in silhouette alongside cellist Kate Ellis (Crash Ensemble) and singer-songwriter Niamh Regan before an image of French is projected onto the curtains behind them, his voice echoing around the studio: “In the night we sang to storms, before the peace that breaks at dawn.”
Regan precipitates what is to follow as she steps up to the mic to sing in harmony with French’s vocals: “How did we doubt the evening sun? We didn’t know we were ready.”
As the song continues, musicians emerge onto the stage, including Irish folk duo Ye Vagabonds and pop superstar Dermot Kennedy, British indie folk duo the Staves, and more — most poignant of all, at the centre of the stage is French’s wife, Steph.
‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’ was written during a residency at the River Lee Hotel in Cork in the week leading up to SFSH 2023.
French and Olafur Arnolds had met briefly in Iceland before but had never been in a room together creatively, explains Mary Hickson, the organiser of SFSH who put them together that week.
She says that “something really magical happened between those two and the results of that will be heard in a duo record later this year”.
The song began with French, Arnolds, Regan, and the ambient musician Myles O’Reilly, before Ye Vagabonds aka Diarmuid and Brían Mac Gloinn added a harmony line.
More musicians were added and the following day, all excited, they called Hickson into the room — she decided that 10 minutes later they would perform it in the lobby of the River Lee.
She says: “The reason for doing that, and the reason why we do that at the festival, especially when a song is in an early stage, it’s always interesting to see the choices that are made after they put it in front of an audience.”
A clip of that performance — the musicians wrapped around each other, circling Arnolds on the piano — was shot by videographer Peadar Ó Goill and posted on Talos’s Instagram feed in May 2024.
It seemed to take on extra meaning after his death, as fans sought solace.
Hickson says the song was originally written as a reflection of how they felt about being together in a creative space.
“But now it has a whole other meaning and it’s quite comforting, I think, for all of us, just to lean into the duality of it.
"It still very much represents for me that time, that creative time that Eoin had with all of those people in the room.”
The song was performed at Ye Vagabonds’s Lighthouse Constellations event at Cork Opera House on the closing night of SFSH and then a few weeks later at Olafur Arnolds’s OPIA event in Berlin, with a different cast of singers.
The next time it was played for a crowd was less than a year later, at French’s funeral in Connolly’s of Leap on August 12, 2024.
French left behind a whole suite of music — the Sun Divider EP, made in collaboration with Atli Orvarsson, was released in December, and more releases are planned, including an official release of ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’ on January 31.
While at Marymount Hospice, French planned everything out, including his own funeral at which ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’ would be sung.
The performance on happened in early December.
Louise Barker, a music PR who works with SFSH, had suggested the idea to the guest booker of the show (produced by Power Pictures for RTÉ), and she and Hickson set about trying to make the ambitious plan a reality.
“The most crucial part of it was: Was Olafur free and could he get to Dublin to do it?” says Hickson.
He said he would make it happen and so the team got onto the people who had sung with French at the River Lee and in Berlin.
Everybody dropped everything to take part. They holed up at the historic Windmill Lane Studios earlier in the day to record ‘We Didn’t Know We Were Ready’ — French’s vocals will feature throughout the single — before heading to RTÉ.
Hickson says: “It was the first time we were all together since Eoin passed. So there was a lot of trepidation when we stepped into the room to begin with, and we began straight into the work.
"I remember standing behind everyone going, ‘We need to do something before we sing,’ and it all obviously just fell apart.
"I called everyone together and we had a group hug, and took a minute and acknowledged what we were in the room for.
"So it was really important to just stop for a second and take a breath, because it’s really heavy emotionally for everybody.
"And it was easier — not to say that it was easy — but it was easier then to move into the work.”
She continues: “When we were in RTÉ, I had zero tolerance with sadness. I was like, ‘Chin up, let’s get through this.’
"And anytime someone was wavering, I’d pull them aside and just look them in the eye and go, ‘What would Eoin say to you right now?’
"Everyone’s response was, like, ‘Get your shit together and come on, do it for him’.
"It wasn’t an easy thing to do and I think the emotional intensity is certainly felt in the performance, but it was as heavy as it feels, but also it was really beautiful.
"We were so united in celebrating him.
"It was a gorgeous experience and Power Pictures were so sensitive to what was going on for everybody. They were incredible to work with.”
Having his wife Steph at the centre was intentional, says Hickson.
“The strength of her is immense. So it was beautiful to have her in the centre.”
As for SFSH, which returns to Cork on September 11 to 14. Hickson says there will be a celebration for French.
”It’s gonna be the very first thing we do. We just couldn’t possibly do anything else until we have that done right.
"So the very first event will be for Eoin. Then we can step into the rest of it, but we certainly won’t be programming anything until we celebrate him.”
- Olafur Arnalds
- Niamh Regan
- Ye Vagabonds
- Jofridur Akadottir
- Kate Ellis
- Sandrayati Fay
- Steph French
- Dermot Kennedy
- Laoise Leahy
- Memorial
- The Staves
- Christof van der Ven
