I’m delighted to announce the going live of a performance called “The Bright Girl Laughing at The Sea”, six brand new songs commissioned in May 2020 as part of the Art’s Council Covid-19 Crisis Response Award.

The song cycle is based around the idea of forced migration, an attempt to capture the mix of emotions felt by us when we are forced to leave our home because of trouble, war and strife, hunger, famine , injustice or any of all the myriad reasons people have been forced to flee in past and present times. The common thread of migration joins all the human race together as victims and perpetrators in one way or another, for better or for worse. Attempting to understand struggle surely helps us to grow as a race of people with the same basic needs, or at least potentially does?

I hope you might enjoy the songs ‘The Bright Girl Laughing at The Sea’, ‘The Lonely River’,’When You come back home again’,’The Child of Hearts’, ‘I turn to see your lovely Face’, and ‘Who is this that appears like the dawn’.I had great help with the recording and editing from Amhlaíobh Mc Sweeney, my co-conspirator through much of these strange Covid times.
The video was shot in West Cork, mostly on ‘The Long Strand’ near Rosscarbery, and  the lake scenes in  Ballinacarriga, near Dunmanway, on two bright wintery days. Please feel free to share the film and the music. Ger