Sean-nós singer Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin has won accolades for her performances since the first time she appeared on stage, aged nine at a festival held in  Carna in honour of her late, renowned granduncle Joe Heaney. Bríd, who has won the prestigious Corn Uí Riada competition for the maximum of three times, has now launched a solo album which is rooted in her own area. She tells JUDY MURPHY about it.

“I’m probably the last generation to have been brought up learning the songs at home,” says Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin of her childhood in Ard Mór, Carna, where singing was passed on in the traditional way, by listening to her mother Bairbre and their neighbours in an area where singing and music are cherished.

Singing became central to Bríd’s life too and she’s won the prestigious Corn Uí Riada sean-nós competition three times – in 2002, 2015 and 2022. Three is maximum number of times a person can win it and she’s just one of a tiny number to have achieved that honour.

Now she’s released her debut album Anáil an Dúchais: Traditional Songs from Connemara, a collection of 24 songs, mostly Irish but with four in English too, all with a common thread of storytelling.

“It’s always been at the back of my mind to do an album,” says Bríd, of the release which is on the Cló Iar-Chonnacht label.

“How lucky I was to be brought up in this area with such a rich tradition of singing and storytelling, and a great richness in the songs,” she says, explaining how her journey into singing began at home.

“I got the songs from my mam Bairbre who was Joe Heaney’s niece,” she says referring to renowned singer (Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) who was born locally in 1919.

Joe Heaney lived in England for some years, and played a key role in the folk scene there. After performing at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, he moved to America, performing and teaching there, gaining major recognition for his craft.

Joe Heaney died in Seattle in 1984, when Bríd was very young, but while she didn’t know him, she grew up listening to his songs, including his Gael Linn recordings which she heard at home. In addition, local man Mícheál Ó Cuaig, himself a fine sean-nós singer, ensured Joe’s archives were brought back to Carna for future generations.

“They had a huge influence on me,” says Bríd of that legacy. Her grandfather, Máirtín, Joe’s brother also had a rich store of song and stories.

Mícheál Ó Cuaig, meanwhile, was a founder of Féile Joe hÉinniú/Joe Heaney Festival, first held in Carna in 1986. It’s still going strong and Bríd is now involved.

Mícheál, as well as Dara Bán Mac Donnchadha, Mícheál Mháire an Gabha Ó Ceannabháin and Josie Sheáin Jeac Mac Donncha are among the singers who influenced her as a child.

Several had recorded their songs, and this keen young singer was advised to “listen to the old recordings and the older singers”. She did.

“Things have to change and develop to survive,” Bríd observes now, “but it’s also important for people to know where it started and that we keep that.”

Having studied primary teaching at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Bríd returned home in 1998 to teach in Scoil na hAirde, the school she had attended from 1982-1990.

For a “real homebird” that was a dream come true.

Now, she’s doing her part to ensure the songs are passed on.

While Anáil an Dúchais is her first solo album, in 2004 Bríd guested on a recording made by harpist Siobhán Armstrong, singing songs by composers like Turlough Ó Carolan, chosen by Siobhán. Those came from the old Gaelic chieftain tradition, unlike the unaccompanied songs she had learned in her own place.

Anáil an Dúchais draws on her own tradition and with songs like Úna Bhán, Caoineadh na dTrí Muire, Amhrán Rinn Mhaoile and Lord Gregory, it adds to the trove of recordings made by those older singers who inspired her.

She recorded it at home. Jack Talty, who recorded, mixed and mastered the album, visited Bríd’s house on two separate occasions and they captured many of the songs in one take.

For that, she needed to be in good voice.

Pictured: Bríd Ní Mhaoilchiaráin pictured near her home for the cover of Anáil an Dúchais. PHOTO SEÁN Ó MAINÍN.