The unaccompanied Sean-Nós singing tradition of Ireland has its roots deep in antiquity. While many of its less ancient compositions play musically on the dynamics, the capacity for inflection; of the human voice, the trace of more intricate composition is discernible in much of the most ancient repertoire.

We see in these expressions from the past a different society to contemporary Ireland. We see the traces of a society whose laws and customs were extinguished in the upheaval of conquest. A society whose cultural expressions were also repressed but not scrubbed from their place deep in the collective consciousness. These expressions would become the existential conduit of a folk consciousness, a collective identity.

Awareness of our past is the first step in transcending the limits that, caution, fear of tradition, and inertia imposes on artistic expression. Respect for the rich human tapestry of our heritage can inspire us towards a point where meaningful and unique innovation can occur.

From the late 17th century onwards affluent society in Ireland was changing radically and irrevocably. The native expression of art declined in tandem with the extinction of Gaelic society and its patronage of the bardic system of learning. The displacing landed class, keen to supplant the Gaelic system completely, decried the cultural vestiges of the Gaelic society they had upended and abandoned its patronage. The songs remained in the folk tradition through the generations, but even this is not immune to the passage of time or the death knell of neglect.

Many songs have been lost and that trace of another society fades with each song that is lost. In the oral folk tradition, when a song is lost it is lost forever. Being a commentary or reflection of a living, changing society it cannot exist again and the evidence it gave us of our past is extinguished forever.

There are rare exceptions. In 1913 a folklorist song collector, Martin Freeman, recorded a collection of songs from West Cork in transcript form. Freeman was an Englishman who spoke no Irish but he recognised the tentative existence of the oral tradition. He recorded songs in rural domestic settings, writing their notes and recording the sound of the words in English phonetic spelling. He could see there was something special in the music in those tiny botháns and he recognised they might only last as long as the breath remained in his host’s bodies.

When Seán Ó Riada pored over Freeman’s manuscript fifty years later he was struck by the alien beauty of a song that he had never heard before. In fact this song may not have been heard since Freeman recorded it, and no living person knew the words of this magnificent air.

To Freeman this song, in particular the air of the song, must have seemed a reflection of something ancient, possibly even a tangible connection with the past. I share with many the experience being brought back further than that solo voice that sang it in a rural kitchen in 1913. It is like a window on the past, the means of rebirth.

Birth is part of growth and rebirth is not a beginning but an opportunity for discovery, an opportunity for renewal in a meaningful way that links innovation to the roots of tradition. A window on the past allows us to see that tradition evolves and cannot remain rooted in the last generation. This realisation is the catalyst for innovation and dare I say; rediscovery.

Words

M’osna tri luimneach, Connacht, agus Cléir le cumha,
Go Corcaigh na loingeas, agus thar tonnaibh dhá dtéinn de shúil,
Á r gcróbhaire coimthigh, fear ionaid na laoch fuair clú,
Go tearmann luige agus na cruinne go léir san úir
San úir ó

San úir ó cuireadh binn bhuartha agus scéimh na mumhan
Go dubhach gach duine agus gur imigh ár gcléir bunoscionn,
Á r ngúistis coimthigh, ár mbreitheamh a réidheadh ár gcúis
Á r gcaraid, ár gcuspa, ár gcoiste agus ár laoch fuar clú
Clú ó

Clú agus ceannas bhi agat ón ri nglórmhar,
A bhi ar do ghclacaibh I ngan fhios do rí cóige,
Níl tuath ná cathair fé bhrathaibh ag rí seoirse
Ná gur dubhach an teaspa is a mbailte go síor bhrónach
Brónach ó

Is brónach atuirseach ó chreachain go léim lárach
‘ S is buartha banba ó chaiseal go béal béarnais
Tá dúthaigh chairbre ar lasadh gan scéimh áthais
Is mo dhubhach Rath Canna gur cailleadh ár laoch láidir
Láidir ó

Ba laidir coimthigh ár gcuspa is ba leathan lúfar
A mharcaigh na gcumann, go gcritheadh an talamh fútsa
Ni raibh eagla dlithe ná clipeadh ar do bhaile dhúchais
Ach id charaid mar oscar a chuireadh na creacha ar gcúlaibh
Ar gcúl ó

Is dubh dorcha fé scamaillaibh to na spéartha chugainn
‘ S nil easpa ná uireasa ar chnocaibh ná ar sléibhte dubha
Ach ar éagan an rí gur mhinic an t-éirleach súl
Is m’osna trí luimneach tusa go doimhin san úir