New Gort group take to the stage

FIVE long-time friends, including two sets of sisters, performed on one of South Galway’s biggest stages recently as Gort’s newest musical harmony group, Kilbrencah.

Vocalists, Olivia Killeen, Lourda Killeen and Renee Brennan, as well as musicians, Karina Cahill (flute, piano and accordion) and Nicola Cahill (harp, concertina and piano) have performed in local groups and at weddings in various combinations but a church fundraiser a year and a half ago prompted the five local women to form Kilbrencah.
“The name, Kilbrencah, is made up of each of our names,” Nicola explained. “Killeen, Brennan and Cahill – Kilbrencah. That is how we came up with the name. At first, it seems a bit unusual but most people get it as soon as they realise who is involved. At the concert, Lourda and Olivia’s brother, Stephen, performed with us but he is also a Killeen so that worked out alright,” Nicola continued.
Indeed, Kilbrencah’s first public performance on the Lady Gregory stage recently proved a success, not just for the women involved or the guest artists on the night but also for the local charities that will benefit from the concert.
Harpist Nicola is the group’s musical director. “We are all from Gort and would know each other quite well. After our initial performance together 18 months ago, everyone was asking when we would have our own concert because what we do is so different. Karina and myself would have played at a lot of things before and the Killeens and Renee would have been singing too, so people would have been familiar with us,” she explained.
“After that initial performance, we just got together and combined our talents and we just had so much fun. There was lots of laughing and cups of tea. Since we were enjoying it so much, we decided to continue together and to go ahead with a performance on our own. It was risky to put on the show ourselves but it was packed out,” Nicola continued.
Singer Renee outlined how Kilbrencah’s debut brought in the region of 300 people to the local venue. “It was amazing to fill the main hall in the Lady Gregory, especially since we hadn’t done any real publicity for the concert beforehand. It was wonderful that so many people came out to support us and, hopefully, enjoyed themselves.”
According to Renee, great credit is due to Nicola “who not only played harp, concertina and piano but who also composed the beautiful harmonies for songs such as Steal Away, Siúil a Rúin, Skye Boat Song and many more”.
Any artist will admit that preparing for a performance is tough work and it was no different for the constituent women of Kilbrencah.
“We were meeting every two weeks to start with, then that became weekly and then twice a week when we moved closer to the concert. Each of these practices would last a couple of hours. We had 20 songs on the night so it was a lot of work,” Nicola recalled.
However, the women are undeterred by this and hope to hold another concert later this year.
“We are hoping to have one in autumn. It will be in September or October and it will be a themed one so we are hoping to get harvest songs,” she outlined.
“We really did this because we enjoyed it so much but if we can provide enjoyment for others and raise money for local charities, I think we will keep going. This is not a big business for us but if there is demand and things move in a different direction, we will try that too,” Nicola concluded.