The annual evening concert of the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival was held at 8:00 p.m. on June 16th at the Sheraton in Athlone. Danielle Allison and Mary Dillon got the room set up and managed the door. Chas Moore and the SAI musicians played before and between stories. Liz Weir and Eddie Lenihan were the featured tellers, and I was the emcee.
Chas and the musicians started the evening with “Tell Me Ma”, and “The Sally Gardens”. Liz Weir got the storytelling going. She told six stories, listed below along with their place in the overall count for the term.
1. (64) The story of the fairy’s war shirts that explains why Glen Dun in Co. Antrim is brown.
2. (65) Sheila Quigley’s story of the leannáin sídhe. The young man who locks eyes with her is doomed.
3. (66) The Fiat Worse than Death. Another of my favorites about a very talented horse.
4. (67) The Boy with Knowledge, set in Altenagh in Co. Tyrone. Includes a line about young, adulterous lovers, “She was bein’ powerful good to him”.
5. (68) The story about the librarian with the weakness for Mel Gibson.
6. Crawford Howard’s poem “St. Patrick and the Snakes”.
When Liz finished her set, Chas and the musicians came up and did a fun Arizona version of “La Cucaracha”. I introduced Eddie Lenihan who came up and told us two long stories that were securely nested in a wealth of folklore from Co. Clare having primarily to do with the power of priests.
7. (69) A story about a priest who puts a curse on a field that three drunkards use as a shortcut to the pub.
8. (70) A story about a man who shows a kindness to a woman in need. He is told by the priest that he will have help in his hour of need. Sure enough, on the day he needs to get seven fields mowed, supernatural mowers that no one else can see arrive to do the job.
Following a break, Chas and the musicians performed “Hard Times Come Again No More” by Stephen Foster.
9. (71) I told Dee Strickland Johnson’s great poem “Tomboy”. I then invited Eddie up for another story.
10. (72) Eddie told a funny story about two priests – the old one could not preach and the young one could. Things get interesting when the young priest explains that his secret is a good belt of whiskey before he goes to the pulpit.
11. (73) Liz Weir closed with her beautiful story of the baby who is rescued and nursed by the seal.
Finally, yes, there were three Lizzes at the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival Annual Concert. Liz Weir and I are both Elizabeth Ann. Lizzy Murphy is Elizabeth Marie Cecilia. Here’s the cool part: her parents named her Cecilia, who in her saintly guise is the patroness of musicians, before they knew Lizzy was gifted musically. Brain Jagiello, who took the picture of us, is the one who dubbed it the Triple Liz Throw-down.
Below are Chas and his musicians: Chris Gurule, Rachel Young, Lizzy Murphy, Clarissa Villa, and Ashley Sanders.
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