THE SOUL OF IRELAND

August 23 | 7:30PM

School for Creative & Performing Arts

108 West Central Parkway, 45202

Forget Columbus or the Vikings! The Irish were the first Europeans to make it to North America, or to be more precise, a certain Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484-577) aka Saint Brendan. Who cares if it actually happened! It makes for a darn good story—and some brilliant music by Shaun Davey, which is part of our exploration to answer the question: What defines the soul of Ireland?
The beer drinkers among us will answer this with a resounding Guinness!, tourists will point to and kiss the Blarney Stone, Irish poet William Butler Yates claimed it was to be found in Irish poems and stories, and famed Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (he of Pygmalion fame) thought that the Emerald Isle was “like no other place under heaven, and no man [sic!] can touch its sod or breathe its air without becoming better or worse.”
That about clears it up!
But I digress. So what is the soul of Ireland? Is it the music (from Turlough O’Carolan to Ewan McColl to U2), the Hill of Tara, the Irish dance tradition, or the resilience of its people (the Gael) to thrive in the face of economic hardship, political oppression, and natural disasters? Who knows, but maybe you can discover the soul of Ireland somewhere in tonight's music.
Slán!