The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
TO mark the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra’s 30th anniversary performance of the Brendan Voyage on March 15, explorer and historian Tim Severin made a visit back to the Brendan at Craggaunowen.
Joining him were composers Liam O’Flynn, Shaun Davey and the 35-strong school band from Ennis CBS Primary School, including Dingle-born teacher Tom Lynch who remembers the boat departing Brandon Creek in Kerry back in 1976.
Shaun Davey said he was delighted to see the Brendan. “This is a high point of my year – not only am I going to see the Brendan boat for the first time, Tim Severin has also asked me to work as his assistant in re-rigging the vessel with a new suit of sails-soft shoes, wool grease, the lot. What a privilege to work for an hour with the man who himself created a legend.”
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra marketing and communications manager Assumpta Lawless said, “The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra is proud to be associated with this very special meeting at Craggaunowen ahead of the orchestra’s 30th anniversary celebration of the Brendan Voyage. The uilleann pipes are created from the same materials as The Brendan boat-wood and leather-and in the music the voice of the pipes is the voice of the boat.”
According to Irish legend, St Brendan, with a band of fellow missionaries, embarked in a fragile currach to reach what many scholars claim was the New World. Severin set out to test the legend, constructing his boat, The Brendan, in the ancient way and setting sail from Brandon Creek in May of 1976.
Shaun Davey’s The Brendan Voyage was first performed in Rennes, France in 1982, and again the same year in Lorient. Its Irish premiere took place the following year at the National Concert Hall. The RTÉ National Sympathy Orchestra will mark the 30th anniversary of the Irish premiere with its performance in the National Concert Hall on March 15.
