Tom MacSweeny column: Carrigaline to host Maritime Folk Fest

Shanties are primarily the working songs of the old days aboard tall ships and will reverberate around Carrigaline this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the first Carrigaline International Maritime Folk Festival, which starts on Friday night.

While there has never been a tall ship sailing up the Owenabue River as far as the town, it will become a mecca for the maritime sound of the songs which crews sang as they worked those great ships around the seas of the world.

“Shantymen set the work pace in song and the crew responded in chorus to maximise effort and motivate sailors as they worked,” says festival director Pat Sheridan, who is well-known internationally for his promotion of the songs of the sea.

He has been developing interest in ‘shanty capella singing’ as a recreational and bobby activity in Carrigaline and decided to stage the first festival. More than 70 musicians from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Poland, Britany, USA, Australia, are due to perform.

“We’ve taken a real challenge for our first festival, because we want it to be a success, as we intend to make it an annual event. We have performers coming from far and wide. I know them personally and meet them every year at one festival or another."

“They have a fantastic collection of traditional songs, stories and tunes, love their songs and the history that goes with them, from a wide background of maritime and land-based traditions.”

It should be a marvellous occasion with free performances planned daily outdoor at the town’s bandstand and car park and in the pubs and two ticketed events – at the Inkwell Theatre at Tracton on Saturday night and the main concert at Carrigaline Court Hotel on Sunday night with the queen of folk rock, Maddy Prior, who has spent a lifetime singing, largely traditional songs.

“All are planned for sea songs, work songs and the songs the sailors sang when they were not on their watch, whaling, drinking, broken, token ballads, battles at sea, occasionally baudy, as one might expect,” says Sheridan, “and of course, there are also the songs from the fishing trade. The other songs you can expect at the festival are the songs of the land, mining, historic, mid-winter and other seasonal songs, including songs from rural traditions, piracy, love, railway songs, prison songs and many more traditions.”

Details of venues are on the festival website https://carrigalineinternationalmaritimeandfolkfestival.ie.

HONOUR FOR CROSSHAVEN LIFEBOATMAN

The annual general meeting of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in London honoured Ian Venner of Crosshaven by appointing him as an honorary life governor.

This was in recognition of his 10 years’ service as a member of the Irish Council of the RNLI.

Ian Venner is well-known in Cork harbour and national maritime and sailing circles. He is a member of the Crosshaven RNLI station team and was one of those who advocated the importance of establishing it because of the high level of recreational marine activity in the harbour.

Ian was appointed to his new position when his 10-year fixed term of office concluded at the AGM. As well as serving on the Irish Council he had also been a member of other RNLI committees.

WORK STARTS ON CAPE

Work has commenced on ‘Inis,’ a new indoor all-weather visitor attraction on Cape Clear Island intended “to bring to life the island’s unique history, culture and maritime heritage.”

The project is being carried out in a partnership between Fáilte Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta, in collaboration with Comharchumann Chléire Teo, the not-for-profit development company run by the island community.

Inis is intended to “offer a year-round visitor experience designed to extend the island’s tourism season, enhance the visitor experience, and deliver significant economic and cultural benefits to local businesses and communities.

The experience will bring together the island’s ancient past, its maritime heritage and the lived experiences of its people, while also telling the iconic story of the Fastnet Lighthouse,” according to the three partners in the development.

“The name ‘Inis,’ draws on the Irish word for island, also reflecting the telling of stories and sharing ‘lived’ experience. It captures the essence of place, memory and community and positions the centre as a gateway to understanding the island now and into the future.”

• Seascapers monthly podcast: This month – Securing Ireland’s Food From The Sea. Podcast on: tommacsweeney seascapes.ie or wherever you get Podcasts.
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