The musicians in
question, Steve Sweeney, Meaití Jó Shéamuis, Nóra Geraghty and
Sandra Johnson, known locally for playing tunes in Spiddal pubs and
at musical events throughout the known universe, are now world-famous
in the UK, where the documentary was aired.
 |
| Meaití Jó Shéamuis: Last bastion of the resistance against the Roman Empire – the People's Front of Spiddal! |
The episode in question
is the third in a series of three documentaries entitled: The Celts:
Blood, Iron And Sacrifice, with Alice Roberts And Neil Oliver. The
intrepid documentarians find themselves on the edge of the Roman
Empire at the very end of the last documentary in the series, where
they conclude that whatever the Romans may or may not have done
for us, they didn’t, apparently, invade us. Instead they left us
free to carry on the traditions and way of life of the Celtic
peoples.
They caught us on a fine day during the Annual Traid Phicnic in July and filmed us extensively as we engaged in our traditional ceremonial playing of tunes in the outdoors. They also caught Steve Sweeney down at the Sean Ceibh, speaking in his traditional language with others who also remained visibly unravaged, unmoved and unconcerned by the forces of Rome.
The appearance of Spiddal’s troubadors is brief, but nonetheless has already been spreading ripples which will lap the shores of all the lands where Celtic peoples congregate. If any of you Celtic peoples out there would care to join us for a tune, we’d be delighted to welcome you to our spot perched precariously on the Altantic shelf. Too windy and wet for the Roman’s I’d say!
They caught us on a fine day during the Annual Traid Phicnic in July and filmed us extensively as we engaged in our traditional ceremonial playing of tunes in the outdoors. They also caught Steve Sweeney down at the Sean Ceibh, speaking in his traditional language with others who also remained visibly unravaged, unmoved and unconcerned by the forces of Rome.
 |
| Steve Sweeney: "We were all set to throw lit turf at the Romans when they came, but they were nice really. They just wanted to play a few tunes and they didn't try to conquer anybody." |
The appearance of Spiddal’s troubadors is brief, but nonetheless has already been spreading ripples which will lap the shores of all the lands where Celtic peoples congregate. If any of you Celtic peoples out there would care to join us for a tune, we’d be delighted to welcome you to our spot perched precariously on the Altantic shelf. Too windy and wet for the Roman’s I’d say!
The Traid Phicnic event takes place in Spiddal every July. Keep watching this blog for more information about that and other fascinating topics! Traid Phicnic on Facebook
Hey! That's my cousin Meaití Jó Shéamuis at 55:30 or so! Cool!
ReplyDeleteHey! That's my cousin Meaití Jó Shéamuis at 55:30 or so! Cool!
ReplyDelete