Hotpress, Dublin

This Galway-based group takes its name from Amhráin Mhuighe Seola, a collection of songs in Irish assembled by Eibhlín Bean Mhic Choistealbha at the beginning of the last century. Not surprisingly, material from that compendium predominates here, supplemented by a few instrumental numbers (including a wistful little tune composed for the group by Ger Fahy). Singer Bríd Dooley has a warm, emotive style that conveys the content of the songs better than any translation; harpist Áine Sheridan and flute/whistle player Caoimhín Ó Sé also contribute a fine duet on the bilingual ‘Slán agus Beannacht le Buaireamh an tSaoil’, and trade lines with Dooley on ‘Thugamar Féin an Samhradh Linn’. With Patricia Kelly’s violin and viola, Liz Barry’s cello and Jacqueline McCarthy’s concertina rounding out the line-up, the sound leans very much toward the gentler, more ‘classical’ side of trad. Garry Ó Briain was responsible for the superb production and plays guitar on a couple of tracks.

8/10

Sarah McQuaid, Hotpress, Dublin, July 1, 2004.

froots Magazine, UK

and

Irish Music Website: Irish Music Review, England

Amhráin Mhuighe Seola is a collection of songs from Galway and Mayo which were gathered together by a Mrs Costelloe (Bean Uí Choisdealbha) of Tuam and published by Dublin’s Talbot Press in 1923. According to the pianist and composer Carl Hession the collection “was one of the first publications of Irish songs which included the text and the music as well as translations and notes”. Hession’s Aunt Maggie was one of Mrs Costelloe’s contributors and the pianist himself included several songs from the collection, sung by Seosamh Ó Flatharta, on his album Ceol Inné Ceol Inniu.

Now comes one of the most intriguing albums so far released this year, Maigh Seola’s Beyond the Mearing Wall which is almost entirely devoted to material from Amhráin Mhuighe Seola. (By the way, a “mearing wall” is apparently “the boundary marking the divide between two neighbouring lands”.) The band itself is a sextet consisting of singer Bríd Dooley, harper and singer Áine Sheridan, Caoimhín Ó Sé on flute, whistles and vocals, fiddler and viola player Patricia Kelly, cellist Liz Barry and, perhaps the best known, Jacqueline McCarthy on concertina, aided occasionally by the guitar of producer Garry Ó Briain.
Together they create one of the most delightful sounds this reviewer has heard for some time. In part, the reason lies in the sheer quality of the singing on Beyond the Mearing Wall. Bríd Dooley possesses one of those wonderful voices capable of swooping and soaring like a lark while both Caoimhín and Áine are excellent vocalists too, as they amply demonstrate on the macaronic Slán agus Beannacht le Buaireamh an tSaoil. However, it’s Bríd who takes most of the leads and, ultimately, steals the show, particularly on a lively rendition of An Raicín Álainn and a sumptuous version of Brídin Bhéasaigh

These vocal triumphs are supported by utterly gorgeous arrangements while the band demonstrates its instrumental prowess on sets of tunes (obviously not from Amhráin Mhuighe Seola) such as Maigh Seola (composed by the uilleann piper Ger Fahy) and a set of jigs, The Shady Groves of Piedmont/The Humours of Ennistymon drawn from the Clare Concertinas album by Bernard O’Sullivan and Tommy McMahon – the last-named tune was a favourite of Jacqueline’s late father, Tommy McCarthy. The combination of cello, harp and viola sometimes gives the album a Baroque flavour, as on the introduction to the love song Go dTagfaidh an Nollaig, and this simply adds to the atmosphere of a splendidly successful album.

That success is also the product of clear as a mountain stream engineering and production by, respectively, Kenny Ralph and Garry Ó Briain, but also by the band’s and Ó Briain’s consummate arrangements. If there is a criticism, and it is only a slight one, it is that Bríd Dooley’s rendition of the closing track, Moll Dubh an Ghleanna, is a little too florid and sails rather too close to Cathy Jordan territory, but that, after all, is only a personal view and Bríd certainly more than makes up for it elsewhere.

Interestingly, the album has been sponsored by not only Galway Rural Development and Galway County Council, but by local businesses and individuals too. You’d be well-advised to support their excellent judgment.

Geoff Wallis , Irish Music Review ( www.irishmusicreview.com ), May 19, 2004 & froots Magazine, November 2004.

In the Kilcreevanty of my youth practically all the Irish Speakers had vanished.  Sometimes when my Grandfather told a joke the punch line came in Irish with a translation. When I was a teenager I discovered my Grandfather was a native speaker but had been subjected to the Bata Scóir in School in the 1880’s. It seemed to have left him with the feeling that it was better not to speak it. In the Kilcreevanty of the 1930’s there are at least 4 families still speaking Irish. Very often we blame the British for the destruction of the Language but in reality the teacher in adopting such violent strategy was reflecting the wish of progressive parents in the Community who felt that when it came to making a living out there in the Empire on which the Sun never set or in far away Amerikay, Ní fiú cac madaí an Ghaeilge. I learned all my Irish from John Mullen, my National School teacher from Knocknagur, who is the last man alive in our community who learned his Irish with in his family. John is now in his nineties. My early teens saw me seduced by the transatlantic culture and the unspoken and indeed arrogant feeling that there was little of merit in the songs and traditions of my own place. I have in years that passed been drawn back to the view that what was lost had merit, thanks to people like the Keanes of Caherlistrane and the immensely gifted Brendan Burke (nach maireann). 
All this by way of introduction to a performance in the Town Hall on Saturday March 13th by local group Maigh Seola. They have based their recent CD “Beyond the Mearing Wall” principally but not exclusively on the collection of local songs collected in and around Tuam and published under the title Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla by Eileen Bean Ní Choistealbha in 1930. Their first CD is titled Maigh Seola. Maigh Seola being the old Irish title for that sweep of country that one can view from the summit of Knockma. That was the country where Eileen Bean Ní Choistealbha gathered the songs that remained from the disappearing Irish speakers. This extraordinary Gaelisised English woman managed to preserve the remnants of a culture that might otherwise have died without an epitaph.
Maigh Seola have taken these songs off the dry page and made them live again. They do so with a wealth of musical talent and a real feeling for the material. To hear Liz Barry’s cello echoing sonorously round the top floor of the refurbished Town Hall as the group played their specially commissioned signature tune, “Maigh Seola”, a slow air composed specially for them by the piper Ger Fahy of Ballinakill was to feel the hair stand on the back of the neck.  When Bríd Dooley, the principal vocalist, performed Suantrai, a lullalby, which she first heard sung by her own father, Jimmy, in Belclare, it evoked a silent cry of triumph that such art had survived. Her rendition of the fragmentary “Go dTagfaidh an Nollaig” creates an ineffable sense of loss and despair and evokes echoes of one of Luke Kelly’s loveliest Ballads “The Unquiet Grave”. “Thugamar Féin an Samradh Linn” changes from that old National School staple into what it was originally was, a collective work song. Caoimhín Ó Sé and Áine Sheridan perform the English/Irish song “Slán agus Beannacht le Buaireamh an tSaoil”/ “Hardship Goodbye” in a way that highlights the innate diabhlaíocht (devilment) of that song and I will not be convinced that the Martin Burke from Tuam from whom the song was collected was not an antecedent of Brendan. The combination of flute, harp, cello and violin, (the concertina player Jacqueline McCarthy was in China on the night), although not a traditional ensemble,  showcased these Gaelic songs beautifully.
It is heartening to see that the business community in both Tuam and Miltown have contributed to the production costs of this of this C.D. and the group are generous in their sleeve notes in acknowledging the support and help of other people in the area who assisted them.
Buy “Beyond the Mearing wall” to glimpse the world that our forebears inhabited two and three generations ago. Buy it to explain to your children the land from whence they sprung.  If you have relations who grew up in another country do not try to explain the old country to them. Send them the CD. If you want to savour a world class performance that grows out of this area of North Galway and reflects credit on all that we once were buy “Beyond the Mearing Wall.” If you fall into that minority group too disadvantaged to afford the €17.79 steal the CD. No home with a CD player in sight of Castlhackett should be without it. If you are in contact with anyone who left the area (or their descendants) in the last 100 years send them this CD with a feeling of pride and gaiscíocht. If you get an opportunity to hear this group live, go sell the pig and cow a ghrá, if necessary. There are very few people who will interpret life in north Galway in the last 100 years for our descendants: The writings of JJ Malloy and Tom Murphy, the recordings of the Keanes and the Saw Doctors, The Herald Archive. Maigh Seola have joined this select group.
Pat O Hora, Old Tuam Society, The Tuam Herald, April 22, 2004

The group Maigh Seola takes its name from a district of that name which, the CD notes tell us, is situated "between Loch Riach and Áth Cinn (Headford); nearly co-extensive with the barony of Claregalway: stretching from Clarinbridge to the northern boundary of the parish of Donaghpatrick: the district around Cnoc Meádha Seola (Castlehackett Hill): a district bounded by Lough Mask and Lough Corrib on the West." The group's name also derives from the famous collection, Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla (Songs of Maigh Seola), that Mrs. Costello made almost a hundred years ago and not surprisingly, several numbers from that remarkable compilation are featured in the recording.
The songs in Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla were collected by Mrs. Costello from around the hinterland of Tuam, Co. Galway and Mayo, between 1908 & 1913. There were many contributors to the book, but the most prominent of these was Mrs. Maggie Hession from Bailedóite, Belclare near Tuam. This area was known for its singing and was a fairly strong Irish-speaking area at the time. The group asked musician and composer, Carl Hession, Maggie Hession's nephew, to write a foreword to the CD notes, and what a happy thought on their part to have done so. Carl says that he remembers seeing a copy of the great book in the possession of his Aunt Eileen, and that it was looked upon as gospel. "It bore the signature of another aunt, Maggie Hession, whose versions of the songs feature so strongly in the material collected by Mrs. Costello at the beginning of the last century."
The musicians on this CD are: Bríd Dooley who does most of the lead singing, and what a warm and expressive voice she has, too; Áine Sheridan, harp and vocals; Caoimhín Ó Sé, flute, whistles, vocals; Patricia Kelly, violin and viola; Liz Barry, cello; and Jacqueline McCarthy, concertina. The group members provide their own arrangements, with the CD's producer, Garry Ó Briain, collaborating here and there, and also lending a hand with his excellent guitar accompaniment.
Mrs. Costello's collection is a remarkable testament to a remarkable woman who as she put it herself "discovered a rich field of song, practically untouched but in imminent danger of being lost through indifference and neglect." Maigh Seola, the group, are deserving of great credit themselves for suppling us some songs from the collection, and presenting them in a fashion altogether pleasing and enjoyable.
Aidan O'Hara, Irish Music Magazine, March 2004.

Song collections are coming fast and furious these days, whether defined by their shared geography, history or politics. The far west counties of Mayo and Galway buoy this gathering of songs, anchored by the work of one of the few female collectors from the turn of the century, Eileen Costello. Maigh Seola is a stately, considered affair, its pace set by a beautifully sympathetic pairing of cello and violin. Lead singer Bríd Dooley soars high, her vocals confidently embracing the medieval setting of Taobh Thall De Chlaí an Teorainn as cosily as the playful The Green Autumn Stubble. Their rich orchestration, melding flute, harp and concertina with strings, delivers a collection that'd be as much at home in Carolan's front room as in the nearest whiskey joint.
Siobhán Long, The Irish Times, 15 January, 2004.

Bailiúchán breá d'amhráin Mhaigh Seola ag an ngrúpa den teideal céanna. Cóirithe go hálainn ag Maigh Seola féin in éineacht le Garry Ó Briain. I measc na n-amhrán tá an Raicín Álainn, Brídín Bhéasaigh agus Moll Dubh an Ghleanna. Bua an cheoil gan aon dabht ag baill an ghrúpa seo chomh maith le amhránaíocht chaoin Chaoimhín Uí Shé agus Áine Sheridan.
Sorcha Ní Chéilleachair, Foinse, Irish-language Newspaper, 4 January, 2004.

12 tracks, 43 mins, highly recommended. A lovely collection of traditional songs from Galway and Mayo performed by this splendid new group. The songs are drawn from the Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla collection of songs which were collected in the early years of the twentieth century and many are recorded here for the first time. The group features the lovely lead vocals of Bríd Dooley with sensitive accompaniments on harp, flute, whistles, violin, cello and concertina by the other members of the group. A couple of songs are sung in English with the rest being in Gaelic. (FS)
Suíomh Idirlín Roots&Rhythms sna Stáit Aontaithe.
(Beyond the Mearing Wall is available in the US at Roots&Rhythm.Com.)

BEYOND THE Mearing Wall is the title of a new album from Maigh Seola, a group of six musicians dedicated to the revival of the most famous collection of folk song in the Galway region Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla.

Maigh Seola is the district around Cnoc Meadha Seola or Castlehackett Hill, five miles west of Tuam, an area bounded by Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. A hundred years ago when these songs were collected Irish was the spoken tongue in the region. However Eibhlín Bean Mhic Choisdealbha, author of this collection realised that as parents were no longer speaking the language to their children, there was every possibility these songs would be lost.

Costello was an Englishwoman who settled in Tuam in 1903 and married a local man Dr Thomas Costello. It was while accompanying him on his rounds that she became aware of the wealth of tradition in the region and so she began her collection. While many of the songs remain popular in the region and beyond, there are many we are unlikely to hear day to day.

Two singers from the area, Áine Sheridan from Milltown and Bríd Dooley from Corofin both were interested in reviving this great archive and when they met five years ago, Maigh Seola was born.

Both women attended the Presentation school in Tuam where they came in contact with the legendary Sr Fursa who was a most interesting and influential character. She was always teaching songs to the children in school and when she realised a child had an interest at all or was capable of playing an instrument she fed into that interest. She taught many of the songs from the collection and so instilled a love for them and an inquisitive interest in them.

"MJ Molloy the playwright used to visit our house," says Sheridan , "and he alerted me to the fact that there was a song in the book about a relation of mine - I asked my parents to get me a copy of it for my 21st birthday- they got a first edition in Kenny's and I was delighted - I always loved the collection."

Dooley's interest was fuelled by her father Jimmy who was always singing songs from the collection.

Beyond The Mearing Wall features 10 songs from the collection - love songs, songs of sorrow, and humorous songs. Bríd is the main singer in the group but all the members of the group can sing and they show off in great style on 'Thugamar Féin an Samhraidh Linn'. Sheridan plays harp, Jacqueline McCarthy plays concertina, Liz Barry, cello, Patricia Kelly plays violin and viola, and Caoimhín Ó Sé plays flute and whistles. The instrumentation and careful arrangement of the songs by the group ensures an authentic and sympathetic recreation of the musical landscape of a hundred and more years ago.

Maigh Seola are well on the way to achieving what they set out to do - to return these songs to the people and revive their performance. The group hope to perform these songs around the country and abroad and are already thinking about a second CD as well as an educational package for use by teachers in school. Fulfilling a dream, carrying on a heritage, and all the time enjoying and savouring the deep well of folk song that is waiting to be reawakened in us all - you can see Maigh Seola in Sheridan's in Milltown on November 8.
Ita Kelly, The Galway Advertiser, 30.10.2003

Claddagh Records, Dublin

BEYOND THE MEARING WALL. Maigh Seola. SEOCD 01. This record is based on
'Amhrain Mhuighe Seola', a collection of songs from East Galway by Eibhlin
Bean Ui Choisdealbha in the early twentieth century. Played and sung by a
group of excellent musicians from the locality, it performs a service in
allowing us to hear songs that in many cases have been confined to the
written page for almost a century.
Claddagh Records, November 2003

Galway Life

Irish Music Magazine - Feature Article

Maigh Seola - songs of another time
“There is nothing better than singing” says Áine Sheridan of the group Maigh Seola who recently released their first album ‘Beyond the Mearing Wall’. “A hundred years ago everybody sang a song a day. Now it has to be a planned sort of thing and people leave it to others saying ‘I can’t sing’ – sure there’s no such thing as a person who can’t sing!” With this philosophy, Maigh Seola, a new six piece ensemble came about as a forum to preserve and  reacquaint the people of north Galway with the singing from their heritage of a hundred years ago. Áine who sings and plays harp formed the group along with another singer Bríd Dooley to recreate this time of a hundred years ago and to re-awaken interest in one of the great collections of folksong, Amhráin Mhuighe Seóla. The collection was made by Eibhlín Bean Mhic Coisdealbha early in the last century and published in book form in 1923. In 1990 Cló Iar Chonnachta republished the volume. Maigh Seola is the district around Cnoc Meadha Seola or Castlehackett Hill, five miles west of Tuam, Co. Galway, an area bounded by Lough Mask and Lough Corrib and the collection was made in and around that area stretching into Mayo and as far as Galway itself and on to Tawin in Oranmore.  A hundred years ago when these songs were collected, Irish was the spoken tongue in the region, it was a Gaeltacht area.

Mrs Costello came to Tuam from England in 1903, and married a local man Dr. Thomas Costello. It was while accompanying him on his rounds and attending local feiseanna that she became aware of the wealth of tradition in the region and so she began her collection. She was also acutely aware that while Irish was the spoken language at the time, parents were speaking English to their children and so the language, folklore and songs were likely to be lost in this transition. The remnants of the Irish language and Irish speakers are still to be found in areas like Cnoc Meadh and its surrounds but it is only a fragment of the tradition that was there a century ago.

The collection has 80 songs in total, many of them traditional. Different versions of some songs are also given as are notes and translations in English which in themselves stand alone so well that the poet Austin Clarke once recommended to Mrs Costello that she should publish them as a separate volume.

All of this history and folklore has come down in families in the region and beyond and both Áine and Bríd had first hand experience of the collection both at home and at school. “I was always very interested in the collection” says Áine. “There’s a song in it about my own family ‘Antaine Dubh’ which I sing in concert. The playwright M.J. Molloy used to visit our home in Milltown and he alerted me to the song. I asked my parents if I could have it for my 21^st birthday, a copy of the first edition,  and they got it in Kenny’s Bookshop for me.”

Bríd, from Corofin near Tuam, heard the songs from her father Jim who sang several of them and in school with the Presentation sisters in Tuam she came in contact with Sr. Fursa – a legendary woman who was passionate about music and songs. Áine went to school there too and recalls Sr. Fursa calling her in from the corridor to listen to a song. “She was in her late 80s that time and she could sing verses and verses and remember every single word .” In particular Sr. Fursa sang and taught the songs from Amhráin Mhuighe Seola and instilled a love of them in all the students who passed through her hands. Although Bríd and Áine were both in the same school, a few years separated them and they only met when a mutual friend, the songwriter Pádraig Stevens introduced them to one another. Pádraig was aware that both had an interest in doing something with the collection and so set the wheels in motion.

Liz Barry, a cellist from Cork now living in Galway, came on board through her friendship with Áine, they both sing with Cór Cois Cladaigh. Jacqueline McCarthy, another musical friend  plays concertina adding an old plaintive sound,  just right for the ensemble. The fiddle was considered another essential instrument since many of the travelling bards of the time played it. Patricia Kelly a well known violinist in Galway takes that role along with playing viola, and Caoimhín Ó Sé from Kerry now living in Barna adds vocals, flute and whistle. Liz Barry describes the pleasure of playing with the group;  “There’s nothing better than sitting with people who instinctively know how it should be done. We all have a nice rapport between us and it’s very democratic in the group. We’re all of us at this part time, we all work full time and it’s very different to get together because its always enriching when  we do.”

 ‘Beyond the Mearing Wall’ has 10 songs from the Amhráin Mhuighe Seola collection and two instrumental tracks – at their live performances the group pepper the songs with the odd set of tunes. ‘Maigh Seola’ is a beautiful slow piece composed by the piper Ger Fahy which has become an anthem for the group. Two jigs from Kilmihil in west Clare home of Jacqueline McCarthy’s father, Tommy, make up the second instrumental. While some of the songs Maigh Seola perform and have recorded on this album are ones many would be familiar with, there are many others that haven’t been recorded before or haven’t been sung for many years. “Suantraí” is a lullaby Bríd learnt from her father, the air is a common lullaby but the words are unique, written by an tOllamh O Ceallaigh. ‘Taobh Thall de chlaí an Teorann’ translates as ‘Beyond the Mearing Wall’ from which the album title comes. A ‘mearing’ wall is a boundary wall marking the divide between two neighbouring lands. Áine relates that at home you still hear people using the word ‘mearing’ pronounced ‘mayren’ in everyday speech.  It’s another one not recorded before. ‘Moll Dubh an Ghleanna’ sung by Bríd is well known and is one she learnt from her father. Her aunt won a prize for singing ‘Go dTagfaidh an Nollag’, a poignant love song, at a feis ceoil in the 1930s. ‘Slán agus Beannacht le Buaireamh an tsaoil’ is the only macaronic song in the collection and is sung by  Caoimhín and Áine. Reaftaraigh’s exquisite love song ‘Brídín Bhéasaigh’ is also here.

The group naturally have far more in their repertoire than the songs on the CD. Choosing material from such an extensive collection was not an easy job – but they started with Bríd and Áine’s own favourites and then built on their repertoire from there. “Originally it started with the personal association Bríd and I had with the songs” says Áine, “then when it came to performance we needed to vary the songs so we went back to the collection. We needed to have not only love songs but serious and sad ones, and working songs. We wanted to be able to portray to the audience the whole picture of the different type of songs in the collection. The collection is unique in that it’s a very rounded document.”

Just as the collection is a document, ‘Beyond the Mearing Wall’ is also a document, with notes carefully researched and put together, like Maigh Seola’s performance where Áine and Bríd maintain the context of the songs through stories, history and their own personal anecdotes.

 ‘Beyond the Mearing Wall’ was produced by Garry O Briain who added guitar and some arrangements. “He added another dimension” says Liz appreciatively, about his contribution. Maigh Seola have been performing for the last five years and launched their album in Galway in October. They performed a number of concerts since then including in  Áine’s home town of Milltown. Their plan is to play as much as possible and they would like to return to Germany, to Straubing a town twinned with Tuam, and to France. They’d also love to perform in Milwaukee at the Irish fest there.

Maigh Seola aren’t interested in the commercial aspect of music – it’s more about a love for the songs and a desire to bring them back to the people and to the children. They hope on foot of this album to be able to record a second and plan to put together a package suitable for schools so these songs could be taught to children again, particularly in the Maigh Seola area thus bringing them back to the people from whence they came.