Posted 02/03/2016

The Road to Rebellion Concerts

Free Concerts in each of Co. Kildare’s Municipal Districts

One of the key events of the Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee 1916-2016 Programme.

1916 Commemorative Concerts

Philip Scott explores the music of the period, with readings by Liam Quinlivan. Special guests, Sophie O’Carroll (soprano) and Donal Hennessy (pianist).

The concert will be held on separate nights in each of Co. Kildare’s Municipal Districts to commemorate the 1916 Rising through the poetry, prose and songs of the period, including; Danny Boy, The Foggy Dew, The Minstrel Boy and The Soldier’s Song.  Other songs that will feature are The Old Bog Road by Teresa Brayton, and the poems of William A. Byrne and Tom Behan set to music for the first time.

Concert Dates and Locations

  Riverbank Arts Centre - Main Street - Newbridge
26th March 2016 - 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Carton House - Maynooth - Maynooth
28th March 2016  - 3:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Athy Community Arts Centre
- Woodstock Street - Athy
2nd April 2016 - 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Castletown House - Main Street - Celbridge
23rd April 2016 - 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Naas Town Hall - North Main Street - Naas
24th April 2016 - 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Bookings

 All concerts are free of charge, however, booking is essential.

Tickets can be booked through the Riverbank box office and through the Riverbank website at the following address: www.riverbank.ie/the-road-to-rebellion-tour/

Commemorative CD

 

Kildare Decade of Commemorations Committee will shortly publish a CD, Road to Rebellion: songs that roused a nation, sung by Kildare Tenor, Philip Scott

The CD's will be available for purchase on the night as a unique memento of the County Kildare Commemorative programme.

The CD includes a new musical piece, based on the poem The Calico Shack written by Thomas Behan from Rathangan who was interned after the 1916 Rising, again during the War of Independence, and later executed during the Civil War.

Teresa Brayton, worked selflessly in the background, raising money and support in the U.S.A for the 1916 Rising. She is famously remembered for her poem The Old Bog Road, which, though previously set to music, has been rejuvenated on this CD. The men and women in the G.P.O. sang songs to raise their spirits and calm their fears. They sang The Soldier's Song, which, at that time, had not been translated into the Irish language and was not yet the anthem of a nation. It is rendered here in both English and Irish.

All songs are performed in the popular style of the tenors of the period; The Foggy Dew, for many the quintessential 'Rising' song, was written in 1919; The Minstrel Boy, was as famous on the Civil War battlefields of America as it was in Ireland; Boolavogue specially written for the 100th anniversary of the 1798 Rebellion and many more to bring us back in time to the drawing rooms, parlours, music halls, town halls and picture palaces of an Ireland rising from the ashes to claim its identity among the nations of the world.

The music has been used for a number of key projects.

Concerts: Music, Philip Scott, Sophie O’Carroll, and Donal Hennessy; narration, Liam Quinlivan; Script, Mario Corrigan. Exhibition: Éamonn Ó Modhráin, 1881-1954, A Revolutionary Journey. Play: A Terrible Beauty - Exposed! The trial of General Sir John Maxwell and Pádraig Pearse, written by Mario Corrigan and directed by Lianne O'Shea. This CD is part of the resource pack issued to schools in Co. Kildare to accompany the play.

The development of five concerts, one within each of Co. Kildare’s Municipal Districts, and the recording of music contemporary to 1916 is part of the commemorative programme and a legacy for future generations.