Musical gesture hits a perfect note
Lifestyle - Top musicians flock to An Spidéal every July for the annual Féile Thraidphicnic, a community event which has a ‘pay-what-you-can’ ethos for audiences. But it’s going online this year due to Covid-19. Except for last Sunday when Traidphicnic, the Cogar Céilí Band and Lally Coaches volunteered their services to perform for residents in three local nursing homes, with all safety regulations in place. JUDY MURPHY went along.
“If you haven’t music, you might as well be dead,” remarks Tomás Seoighe as he sits contentedly in the courtyard of Áras Mihc Dara nursing home in An Cheathrú Rua, admiring the playing and presentation of the Cogar Céilí Band, while sipping a Guinness.
Tomás explains he’s recovering after an accident and is a temporary resident of the HSE run nursing home. He sits on a bench, at a safe distance from visitors, while other frailer residents listen to the music from inside the building, through the open double doors and windows. And there’s no doubting their happiness as they clap and sway to the selection of reels and jigs. Before the session ends, several sprightly people have made their way to the enclosed outdoor space and are dancing to the Tennessee Waltz, joined by staff members.
Several of the audience are sipping Bailey’s, Guinness, beer or cider, with non-alcoholic versions of beers and cider available too.
It’s 2pm on Sunday and the 11-strong Cogar Céilí Band are visiting Áras Mhic Dara as part of the Féile Traidphicnic, which normally takes place in and around An Spidéal in early July every year.
However, Covid-19 forced Traidphicnic to redirect most of its concerts and exhibitions online this year, explains Bridge Barker of the voluntary organising committee. That’s fine, but they were concerned that some older people might not be in a position to engage.
They also felt residents and staff of nursing homes deserved to be especially remembered during what has been a strange and difficult time for them.
So, in the last few weeks, as the four-strong committee of Traidphicnic were working on putting their concerts and community events online, Bridge contacted nursing homes in An Spidéal, An Cheathrú Rua and Cárna offering to have a live music event in each place, with some of the county’s finest traditional musicians playing for half an hour in each place.
“We’d been planning it since at least the middle of May,” she explains. “But insurance problems meant we couldn’t confirm it until Friday morning.”
That’s because they were travelling by coach and had originally hoped to use Lally’s double-decker bus, which normally carries people to Ros a’ Mhíl for the Aran Island ferries, as a stage. Lallys were happy to donate the bus, but insurance was an issue. Instead, the local tour company supplied a regular coach, with Máirtín Óg Lally giving his service for free. Traidphicnic’s insurance company came good on Friday morning, which meant the bus could carry the band and festival members – other helpers travelled by car.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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