Laura LAIR / Carry Me Home
March 17, 2022 § Leave a comment
Although it’s called St.Patrick’s Day- or Paddy’s Day if you’re Irish (*never* Patty’s Day American friends!!)- I personally don’t see March 17th as a day for Patrick but instead a day for all facets of Irish life to be celebrated- our incredible authors, musicians, artists; our beautiful language- ár theanga, Gaeilge, our rich culture and history- a history that despite what is so often projected, equally includes Herstory. And the treatment of Irish women and girls by our systems have quite often been brutal…
‘Carry Me Home’ is a piece I’ve written as a tribute to all those women who left and never got to come home to Ireland- those women who were expelled from Irish life both literally and metaphorically. As I wrote it, I remembered especially the women and babies in Tuam and around our country, who had their lives ripped apart by the Catholic church and the barbaric mother and baby homes. All those women who died subjugated by a cruel system. I wish them peace and I send them love. Suaimhneas síoraí dá n-anam.
A day that the state dedicates to a British man who perceived the native people, in his own words, as “barbarous” and who is credited with bringing the patriarchal system of Christianity to our country feels a great day to release a piece dedicated to and for the women of Ireland.
Ní Saoirse go Saoirse na mBan
LAIR / The Department of Energy
February 1, 2020 § Leave a comment
I’m honoured to be part of this mix tape celebrating Imbolc, created by The Department of Energy
“The first release from The Department of Energy is inspired by the tributaries and tribulations of Cork’s Lee Valley. This Landscape Mixtape contains potcheen anecdotes, airborne survey planes, archive material, drowned houses, hard ambience, alluvial oak woods, unidentified flying objects, a lost mp3, a broken wav, 1980’s radio, 2020 visions, fast eddies, sloe meanders, preliminary research, semi-state bodies, statements of intent, folklore, feathered friends and the knowledge of salmon.
In the 1950’s the ESB flooded parts of the Lee Valley, when they built two hydroelectric dams to power Cork city. Gerry O’Riordan’s memories of this event (interviewed by Dr Richard Scriven for his Cork Is The Lee podcast) form part of the mixtape, alongside layers of local field recordings made by the Department of Energy over the past 12 months and extracts from some 39 year old cassettes. Have you ever noticed how a fast flowing stream sounds like environmental tape hiss?
Recently resurfaced tracks by DOE members (Mercury.mp3 & Borderland.wav) sit next to newer arrangements by Local Gods, all counterpointed by two fathoms-deep meditations from LAIR“
“The Department of Energy was inspired by a GAA pitch, a white quartz standing stone, an electrical station and a stream. That was February last year and since then we’ve made recordings, taken photographs and just sat and listened, all over the Lee Valley.
That raw material has been shaped into a Landscape Mixtape for your listening pleasure. It will be publicly streaming this Saturday – Brigid’s day. We’ll have our first physical release on the first of May. And something to mark every Celtic festival thereafter.”
Laura Kilty 