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Concert

Concert

Their Memory will Endure: Civil War in Kerry

This concert brings to life the songs of the Civil War period, amplified with poetry, letters, drama, dance and audio-visual material. A distinguished cast from County Kerry will bring you through the events of this time, through personal accounts of loss and sacrifice, and will explore the human capacity to overcome the pain of war in order to usher in a time of peace in Ireland.

We hope you will join us for this event.

Saturday 25 February 2023
Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, at 8pm

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Their memory will endure concert

Rehearsal

Karen Trench & Roisin Ryan
Karen Trench
Matt Griffin & Matt Dean
Micheal O'Shea
Roisin Ryan & Matt Griffin
Susan Motherway

Roisin Dubh (Matt Dean)

O'Connor Scarteen (Roisin Ryan)

A Mother's Lament (Karen Trench)

The Summit of Mount Falvey (Micheal O Se)

Members of 'Their Memory Will Endure' concert team
Members of Their Memory Will Endure concert team, front l-r: Susan Motherway (MTU), Gabriel Fitzmaurice (writer and poet). Back l-r: Tadhg O'Shea (MTU), Karen Trench (singer), and Muiris O Laoire (MTU)
Rosie Healy
Rosie Healy

The Team

Susan Motherway

Susan H. Motherway
Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Gabriel Fitzmaurice
Róisín Ryan

Róisín Ryan
Karen Trench

Karen Trench
Mícheál Ó Sé

Mícheál Ó Sé

Dr. Fiona Brennan

Susan H. Motherway

Susan H. Motherway is an ethnomusicologist from Co. Kerry who lectures at the Munster Technological University. Her PhD, ‘Mediating the Divide: The globalisation of Irish traditional song performance’, was published by Ashgate Publishers. She recently co-edited Staged Folklore: The National Folk Theatre of Ireland 1968-1998 for Cork University Press, with Professor John M. O’Connell. She is a recipient of many awards, including the ICUF Riverdance Award, and is a founding member of ICTM Ireland.

Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Gabriel Fitzmaurice is a retired school principal and author of over sixty books, including collections of poetry (in English and Irish), as well as collections for children. His interest in music has led him to compose, translate and publish collections of songs and ballads. Some of this work has been recorded by Brian Kennedy and performed by the RTÉ Cór na nÓg with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. An Honorary Member of the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts in Hungary, he is a recipient of the Listowel Writers’ Week John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award. He frequently broadcasts on radio and television on culture and the arts.

Róisín Ryan

Róisín Ryan is a native of Dromid, Waterville, in South Kerry. She won the All-Ireland Senior Sean Nós title in 2010. After completing her BA in Folk Theatre Studies with a 1st class honours degree, Róisín took up a year-long internship with Siamsa Tíre in Tralee, Co Kerry.  From there, she went on to tour extensively with groups like Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, Bruce Guthro of Runrig and Celtic Steps, to name a few. Róisín has performed with Celtic Steps for the past eleven years and teaches singing and music around the South Kerry region and at the Killarney School of Music. 

Karen Trench

Karen Trench grew up in the Lyreacrompane district of North Kerry where she was exposed to the local traditional singing culture. She has competed at Fleadhanna Cheoil all around the country, winning All-Ireland titles in both English singing and amhránaíocht. Karen is the traditional singing representative on the Coiste Ceoil of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. She enjoys participating in the singing club and rambling house sessions.

Mícheál Ó Sé

Mícheál Ó Sé is a traditional singer from Castlemaine, Co. Kerry. An All-Ireland champion, he has travelled to singing clubs and festivals throughout Ireland and abroad, to both perform and collect traditional Irish songs. In 2018, he completed an MA in local history and he is particularly interested in how cultures and communities record their stories in music, song and dance.

Dr. Fiona Brennan

Theatre historian and archivist, Dr. Fiona Brennan, a native of Killorglin, Co. Kerry, graduated with a PhD in Drama and Theatre Studies in 2011. She is author of George Fitzmaurice “Wild in His Own Way”: Biography of an Abbey Playwright with an introduction by Fintan O’Toole (Carysfort Press, 2005) and co-editor of The Drama and Ideology of Terence MacSwiney: Caught in the living flame, (Cork University Press, 2022). Fiona is a Committee Member of Killorglin Archive Society and she worked with the Killorglin drama group to premiere Hunger Strike, in March 2022. The play, written by Killorglin native, Máirín Cregan, was first published in 1927, and is based on her real-life experience and that of her husband, Dr. James Ryan, who spent thirty-six days on hunger strike in November 1923. Extracts from the play will be performed as part of this concert and the production will tour in 2023.

The Killorglin Drama Group

The Killorglin Drama Group

The Band

Matt Griffin (guitar)

Matt Griffin (guitar)
Matt Dean (flute and whistle)

Matt Dean (flute and whistle)
Bryan O’Leary (accordion)

Bryan O’Leary (accordion)

Matt Griffin (guitar)

Matt Dean (flute and whistle)

Bryan O’Leary (accordion)

The Animation Team

The Animation Team

The animation team includes voice actors Aisling Sharkey, Muiris Ó Laoire and Tadhg O’Shea; readers Paul Pierce and Brian ‘Briansey’ Sheehy; dancers from the Kilcummin Over 35s Set Dancing Group; tech support from Janna Hurley and MTU Kerry Music Technology students Ella McCaffrey, Niall Malone and Kimaya Tegtmeyer.   

The team also recognises the support of Cara Trant of the Seanchaí Centre in Listowel, and the help  of Peter and Rosaleen Mullarkey of the Binneas Archive, Cahirciveen.

Kerry Civil War Conference

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Kerry Civil War Conference
  • Siamsa Tíre Theatre, Tralee, Co. Kerry : 23/24/25 February 2023