Isle of the Eagle

’Isle Of The Eagle’ is a song from Achill, the largest of the isles off Ireland’s west coast, written by the governess of the Pike Estate, Glendarary, in the 1800s. Musician and Achill islander Graham Sweeney was introduced to the song by fellow islander – and one of its storytellers – John McNamara, which set Sweeney off on a search for more songs and stories from Achill, a journey which resulted in this album.

The plethora of players herein, creating airs and atmospheres as beguiling as sailing out to Achill itself, have all felt the gravity of the island’s pull over the years (as have film-makers, novelists and painters). Together, in shifting combinations across 19 tracks, these 18 players, singers and storytellers weave a magic of beauty and drama, a succession of musical microclimates featuring pipes, fiddles, cello, harp, bouzouki, bodhrán, concertina and accordion.

The likes of ‘Skibbereen’, a powerful and affecting song of famine and forced migration, is set beside a haunting fairy-led pipe tune, ‘Si Beag Si Mor’ (Small Fairy Mound, Big Fairy Mound), and it’s this dramatic story-telling and poetic juxtaposition of tune, song and story that makes this journey in sound to Achill Island such a fulfilling and rewarding venture.