Launch of Leabhar Mòr Song CD
24 October 2006
A new CD of classic Irish and Scottish Gaelic songs was launched at the Royal National Mod in Dunoon on Thursday 19th October last week. The songs all come from the hugely successful Leabhar Mòr, or Great Book of Gaelic, and are sung by some of the greatest tradition bearers and singers in Gaelic Scotland and Ireland.
‘An Leabhar Mòr – Na h-Òrain/The Songs’ was launched in the Park Hotel in Dunoon on Thursday night of the Mod where Kenna Campbell and Art Cormack, who both feature on the CD, sang some of the 19 songs on the CD. Each of the songs is sung by a different Gaelic singer and the Scottish singers include Flora MacNeill, Ishbel MacAskill, Christine Primrose, Anne Lorne Gillies, Margaret Stewart, Rachel Walker, Mary Smith, Finlay MacNeill and Donnie Murdo Macleod. Ireland is represented by Nicolas Toibin, Peadar Ó Ceannabháin, Albert Fry, Gearoidin Breathnach, Roisin Elsafty, Eilis Kennedy, Aine Meirbhic and Padraighín Ní Ullacháin. Listen to some clips from the CD.
The CD is published by Colmcille and Pròiseact nan Ealan (PNE): the Gaelic arts agencies behind the Leabhar Mòr project.
PNE Director Calum MacLean said: “Some of the best and most respected exponents of Gaelic song in Ireland and Scotland have contributed to the CD and the songs they sing are all classics from the traditions of both countries. This latest evolution of the Leabhar Mòr project vividly brings to life, in another medium, the deep cultural and linguistic links between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland.
“The poems, artworks and calligraphy of the original Leabhar Mòr exhibition and book continue to inspire interest in the Gaelic arts from all over the world. The exhibition has now been touring for four years and has several more years of touring confirmed. It has been seen by more than a million people in Scotland, Ireland, France, the USA and Australia and exhibited in thirty locations in Ireland alone. It has generated more than 100 associated events and more than 100 schools visits with numerous schools going on to produce their own Leabhar Beag, or Wee Book of Gaelic, with student artwork and poetry. This new song CD can only add to this success.”
