Geraldine’s latest album inspired by island home

It’s only a couple of months since Inishbofin singer Geraldine King and fellow members of the folk group Green Garters had reunited after a three-decade break, full of plans for gigs and touring for the remainder of 2020.

Those plans aren’t likely to come to fruition any time soon, says Geraldine with a rueful laugh.

She’s currently at home on Bofin, enjoying her daily walks on pristine beaches, although when the rain returns, cabin fever might set in, she remarks with a chuckle.

Normally Geraldine, who has retired from her job as a teacher at Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes), divides her time between Galway City and the Connemara island. But right now, there are few safer or more idyllic places in the country than Bofin, so she’s content.

Geraldine recently launched a new album, Home from the Sea, a collection of songs focusing mostly on the sea, emigration and lost love: “songs I’ve been singing all my life,” she says.

It’s just her second ever solo CD – the first, Traditional Old-Time Irish was released a quarter of a century ago.

But this is the one she’s always wanted to make, she says of an album on which friends and family feature large. Her nephew Liam King recorded it on his mobile studio and the musicians include the late Alec Finn on guitar and bouzouki, Carl Hession on piano, Tommy Keane on uilleann pipes and whistle, Séamus Shannon on accordion, Nollaig Casey on fiddle, Béibhinn O’Connor on cello and Paul McLure on bodhrán. Geraldine’s son Iarla Fox is on drums and her sister Pauline King is on backing vocals: “her first time ever in a recording studio,” says Geraldine.

The result is a gorgeous mix of mostly old songs, with the title track being Phil Coulter’s composition, Home from the Sea, which he wrote for the RNLI after his brother had drowned.

Geraldine had been thinking of making a new album for a while when her friend, the artist Leonie King (Alec Finn’s wife) stirred her into action by pointing out that she wasn’t getting any younger and needed to get a move on!

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app

The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.