Band making amends for ‘800 years of oppression’

Leitrim group Garadice who play Monroe’s Live next Tuesday, July 23, as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, are on a mission.

“The music is our way of trying to make up for 800 years of oppression,” jokes guitarist John McCartin.  The foursome are called after a lake in this small county, one of whose earlier inhabitants had a massive impact on Irish history.

In 1153, Dervorgilla, the wife of Leitrim chieftain Tiernan O’Rourke was abducted by the King of Leinster Diarmuid MacMurrough as part of an ongoing feud between the men. It escalated a serious clan warfare in Ireland and led to MacMurrough being exiled. In a bid to restore his kingdom, he invited the Norman leader, Strongbow, to invade Ireland. The rest, as they say is history.

John lives right beside Lake Garadice, so he’s very familiar with this history. And, as he and fellow band members, Eleanor Shanley, Pádraig McGovern and Dave Sheridan explain, the lake’s name suited the group for several reasons.

“The Shannon and Erne were the highways of the West and North-West, and Garadice lake was the waterway that marries those two rivers,” says John, adding that in an era before roadways, this was the major trading and social channel, because people travelled mostly by water.

Pádraig McGovern, who plays pipes and whistles with the group, explains that the Irish name for the lake is Loch Guth Árd Deas or Lake of the lovely high voice – Garadice is a bastardised English translation.

The lovely voice is provided by Eleanor Shanley who is best known for her work with Galway group, de Danann as well as with Ronnie Drew and, more latterly, her solo career.

Garadice grew out of an initiative set up by Leitrim County Council called the Leitrim Equation to aid the development of professional musicians in Leitrim.  Galway-based band Lúnasa were the first band in residence in 2006, followed over the years by Sligo group Dervish and then by Dónal Lunny, John Carty and Séamus Begley.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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