Liz Weir hosts a session every Saturday night in the bottom floor of the new addition to the barn.The addition was completed about 18 months ago. It has an apartment on the top floor, and an open space for workshops or sessions on the ground floor. The downstairs has a toilet and a small kitchen with beautiful cabinets made by Martin O'Kane, carpenter and musician, who comes every Saturday night and keeps it going when Liz is out of town.
The session last Saturday night was very well attended, twenty-six in total. We got started about 8:00, had a tea break at one point, and it didn't break up until about 11:30 p.m. There were the regulars plus a couple of guests that Liz had invited specially, Wilson Logan from Larne and Declan Forde from Omagh. I'll follow up with separate posts about each of them.
It was a wonderful night. I heard poems and songs that I'd never heard before. Alec Fyfe, who brought his banjo-mandolin, sang two songs written by one of his uncles. One was a very engaging, funny song about the man-in-the-moon that I'd love to have the lyrics for. Another was about a man "who had drink taken," as they say around here, and the obstacles he encountered trying to get home and into bed. Here's the refrain:
"I couldn’t, no I couldn’t, no I’ll not tell you a lie.
I couldn’t that’s a fact and so the truth I’ll not deny.
It’s no use me deceiving you. Upon my soul I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t get the latchkey in, I couldn’t, no I couldn’t."
Jonnie Mitchell on guitar and Diane Wilson on saw did several songs. Their version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was memorable and haunting. Diane taught herself to play the saw and the sound she gets out of it is just remarkable.
Bernadette Crawley sang in both English and Irish, and each time she sang she transported us to a better place for a few moments. She was there with her uncle, Charlie McDonnell, who I've met before and who also sang. Several people, including Eileen McIlwaine, Hugh Speer and I, recited poems. Liz Weir asked me to recite "Tomboy" by Dee Strickland Johnson, and later I recited "The Giveaway" by Phyllis McGinley, a humorous poem about St. Brigid. Liz Weir did the "The Three Bears Rap" and Roald Dahl's "The Three Little Pigs," which you can read here.
I was so sorry that Mark wasn't there; he would have loved it. Martin O'Kane sang "The Errant Apprentice,"which is one of his favorites. Plus, I kept thinking, "Oh, if Mark were here we'd have so many great pictures of all this." Actually, I think that almost every day, but I guess we'll just have to make do with the ones I've been taking.
If you are ever in Cushendall on a Saturday night, come up to Ballyeamon Barn for the session at 8:00 p.m. You will be very glad you did.
Liz Weir took the first two pictures. The first shows the kitchen side of the room and several of the participants, including Pat Mulkeen from Derry, second from the left, and Eileen McIlwaine in the white scarf. The second shows Martin O'Kane and Alec Fyfe. Diane and Jonnie are next, and below are three young Americans, Sarah Williams, JImmie and Megan. Sarah and Megan are both here pursuing college related projects.
Leave a Reply