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about

Set 1: The Three Sisters.
This set of three melodically-related tunes follows a trajectory which began in the enabling environment of a Varuna Writers’ Centre residency at Katoomba, close to The Three Sisters peaks of the Blue Mountains of New South Wales in October, 2013. Sponsored by the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, Co. Monaghan, this exchange gave me contemplative time in the garden study of the centre’s mentor, writer Eleanor Dark ,who had donated the house as an arts resource. The first tune, `An grianán feasa’ (‘The wise cheerful one’), came together there, a re-working of the song ‘Bold Doherty’ which was collected from Mary Ann Carolan in Co. Louth by Sean Corcoran. ‘Grianán’ indicates ‘a person of sunny disposition’, and ‘feasa’ depth of knowing. Together, these terms seem to express the feel of the tune for the self-belief and commitment which have passionately been put into society-changing endeavours by idealists, dreamers and activists of the past in music, writing, poetry, painting, drama, film, sport and politics. In the foreground amongst the many of these who added much to my own life experience are Muiris Ó Rócháin of Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy, the prisoners’ rights pioneer Margaret Gaj, Na Píobairí Uilleann’s founder Breandán Breathnach, Máire Comerford, a First Dáil secretary, piper Sean Reid and indeed my own father James, Irish pole-vault champion, athletics promoter, and apple grower. ’Merrijig Creek’ is a jig development out of that air, named for what is an Aboriginal term said to mean something similar to the Irish ‘Grand!’. It is the name of a dry creek in Gippsland, south of Melbourne, marked by a lone sign on the Great Ocean Road, and it is also a one-time gold town close to where the film of Banjo Paterson’s recitation ‘The man from Snowy river’ was shot. ‘The Clonakilla’ leads the theme further astray and back to an Irish connection, working it into 4/4 time on a tune named after the famous winery near Yass, New South Wales, started by Seán Ó Riada’s Lisdoonvarna-connected cousin, fiddle-player and scientist John Kirk, who pioneered wine production in that region of Australia.

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from Merrijig Creek, track released January 1, 2021
Played by Fintan, Sheena & Caoimhín.

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Fintan Vallely image

Fintan Vallely Dublin, Ireland

Performer on flute, Ireland and world-wide since 1967
Workshop teacher on flute - Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy since 1986, Cruinniú na Bhfliúit Ballyvourney, and Tocane, France; and Friday Harbor, Minneapolis and Catskills, USA.
• Five CD albums of solo and group music
• Written /edited 16 books
• Hundreds of reviews
• Three major conferences organised
• Scores of conference papers and articles ... more

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