The Rann na Feirste community is celebrating its musical tradition and culture with a new CD to benefit the local national school and community centre.
The CD, Ceol Cheann Dubhrann, will be launched at Tábhairne Leo, Mín na Leice, at 8pm on Saturday, December 12. The CD will be available in shops in Gaoth Dobhair and the Rosses from Saturday and a free copy of the CD will also be provided to each ho
usehold in the townland of Rann na Feirste.
Donnchadh Ó Baoill, chairperson of the local committee behind the disc, praised the local singers who performed on the CD.
“Without them we wouldn’t have this recording,” he said. “They contributed very generously.” All but two songs on the 19-track disc are performed by local singers and artists with strong family links to the area.
Some of the leading voices in Irish song appear on the disc, including Máire Brennan of Clannad and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh of Altan, as well as Mairéad and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill of Skara Brae. Mánus and Dónall Lunny arranged and performed on a number of tracks and Mánus also played a key role in the CD's production.
The idea for the CD originated with the local Committee Ceol Cheann Dubhrann – Donnchadh, Pádraig Ó Baoighill, and Tony Mac Ruairí – who wanted Rann na Feirste's contribution to traditional music and song preserved and celebrated.
When they began discussing their idea with arts offices and agencies, they learned that the county council's Public Art Office, in partnership with the Regional Cultural Centre, was considering a project in the Rann na Feirste area with Mánus Lunny. The Public Art Office commissioned Mánus to source and record Rann na Feirste singers, and the Arts Council sponsored a production of a CD based on his local knowledge.
The new CD celebrates "the past and living traditions of song in Rann na Feirste," said Donnchadh, committee chairperson. "Some of them are sung very traditionally, unaccompanied, and some are interpreted in a new, modern, contemporary manner."
The CD takes its name from Ceann Dubhrann, or dark peninsula, which was a literary name that poets and authors gave Rann na Feirste. On the cover is a photograph of the gaoth, the channel that separates Rann na Feirste from Gaoth Dobhair and a source of inspiration for many of the songs on the disc.
This marks the second recording of Rann na Feirste music and song. Gael Linn made the first in 1972, a compilation called Rann Na Feirste, Ceol agus Amhráin. Four Rann na Feirste artists perform on both discs.
Proceeds from the CD and any associated concerts will go to Scoil Náisiúnta Rann na Feirste and to Áislann Rann na Feirste, a community and enterprise centre that will provide the area for the first time with social, cultural and economic workspace for local people. More information is available at the web site, www.aislannrannnafeirste.ie. The centre is expected to open in 2010.
The project has been supported by Údarás na Gaeltachta, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, The Arts Council, The Regional Cultural Centre, The Arts Office of Donegal County Council, Tionscnamh Lugh and Donegal County Council's Public Arts Office.
