Diary of a Participant

The 35th Annual International Pan Celtic Festival has just finished in Letterkenny, Donegal. FIONA MACKENZIE offers a few insights into the event and competitions taking place during the week – and also the stresses and joys involved with travelling with young people and very expensive musical instruments!

DAY 1 started early with drive to Glasgow to prepare for flights to Belfast the next day. Car packed with instruments , leads, keyboard stands, cases and CDs. Travelling with ‘Fionnar’, the Gaelic vocal harmony group for young people, is never a light business. The group consists of eight teenagers (sometimes it is even bigger) aged between 13-19 from all over Scotland, but based in the Highlands & Islands, all great singers and musicians.

Thankfully, the clàrsach is travelling by car with Murdo Morrison, Mod Promotions manager, and has been picked up the day before. The group are going to the Festival at the invitation of the Mod, most of the girls being past and present prize winning competitors at the National Mod.

Air travel with a clàrsach is an interesting experience – having just returned from New York for Tartan Week where airport security were convinced the case contained a body, such is its coffinlike shape. Owner Katie Mackenzie faced a worrying flight until the case was safely back in her hands. Early bed after frantic last minute texts to all the girls checking on passports and tickets etc – whatever happened to good old phoning?

DAY 2 and Katie sets off early to Queen St Station to persuade a cab driver to come back to the flat and pick us up with luggage and instruments. An obliging driver, whose sister just happens to live in Letterkenny, duly appears and helps us on.

A great chance for the girls to perform their music and meet some wonderful musicians, swap cultures and look forward to future collaborations

Last minute mantra: passports, permission slips, tickets, phone, money, passports, permission slips, tickets, phone money….. At airport, all eight members duly appear like magic, all smiles and excitement.

Check-in not yet open so time to repeat the mantra few times….. will Easyjet accept the very heavy keyboard alright? And what about the fiddle and pipe cases? At front of check-in queue so thankfully, no problems, fiddles included. Head for refreshment and currency exchange for Euros. Flight on time – lose one member en route but she appears at the gate just in nick of time.

On plane, time to buckle up, look out window – and land again in Belfast. Luggage eventually appears, keyboard intact if a bit battered, and we wander out to try and locate some form of transport which is hopefully booked to take us to Letterkenny. Find a bus filled with other Pan Celtic-goers and eventually get going.

Planning a nice easy evening, with a meal then an intensive rehearsal for the next day – working with a group from all over Scotland is not easy, and trying to arrange necessary rehearsals is very difficult to achieve. Need at least two hours tonight.

Ten miles from Letterkenny, receive text from Murdo informing us that we are expected to perform at the Opening Ceremony tonight, for half an hour. Hasty sing on the bus – work out short programme of old favourites.

Check into Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny, very comfortable, and straight to hall for evening. Tartan sashes gone missing but we have spare, to go with the ‘Fionnar Spring Water’ tee shirts. No sound check available, but we’ll manage. Ali not able to play pipes due to sore throat, but two other pipers from Nairn appear. I have to sing too, accompanied by Katie on clàrsach.

Very colourful ceremony, banners from all six participating Celtic nations – Alba, Isle of Man, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and Brittany. Retire afterwards for hasty meal in bar then bed.

DAY 3 and an early rise for dip in hotel pool. Girls still snoring. Do lengthy interview for BBC World documentary programme – thought it was going to be radio so no make up. Ouch! Street performance in afternoon at the Market Square, lovely dancing from Welsh and Cornish groups. Decide Alba cannot be out done, so we stage an impromptu Strip the Willow – TV cameras appear like magic.

Handy furniture shop obliges with small wooden stools for clàrsach players. Meet up with some Gaels from Skye. Lots of onlookers, no PA system provided, though, so we can’t use keyboards – improvisation, improvisation. Smile. Davina and Amanda sing a lovely duet which is then featured in the National tea time news.

Back to hotel to prepare for the Group International Traditional Singing competition. No time allowed for sound check so we try to sneak ten minutes before start – had to leave after one minute as a competition was supposed to be starting. Oh well, we’ll see.

The girls are the only country to introduce their pieces, in Gaelic of course, as well as English. They sing a waulking song ‘Bheir mi sgriob’ – balance is all wrong on keyboards and I ask sound engineer to equalise them. He shrugs his shoulders. Smile.

Next song is their a capella party piece “Seinn o ho ro Seinn”, written for young people by Mary Ann Kennedy. Goes much better, lovely harmonies, no fuss. Great response from audience. Followed by a fantastic Welsh male voice choir – amazing. They’ll win it. But no, ‘Fionnar’ win it! Unbelievable – against all that fantastic competition. Girls rightfully delighted, and collect their trophy and cheque and are courted by the press.

Small celebration in bar afterwards – too tired for anything more than a few songs and tunes with the Irish lot in the lounge. Common ground with “Fear a Bhata”

DAY 4 brings more interviews for TV and radio. I go on Program Choinnich for Radio nan Gàidheal with Coinneach MacÌomhair. Have to road test Cheese, bread, carrot marmalade and Paddywack Whiskey. Mmmmm – 9 in the morning?

Girls go shopping, Katie, Lauren and I rehearse for the International Song Contest tonight in the Theatre. Still no word of sound checks – no one knows anything. Organising committee all very nice but trying to locate information is not easy.

I am singing a song I wrote myself, ‘Na Lilidhean’, about the strength evident in the Community in the Hebrides after the terrible storm of January 2005. Eventually am told at 4.30 to get to the theatre by 5 for a sound check. Smile.

Competition is fun – very ‘Eurovision’ like. Six judges, not allowed to vote for their own country. Problems with the sound again. Won by all-female Irish group, but I come away with a beautiful Donegal crystal runners-up trophy. Great fun and some lovely songs.

Attend and perform at the Irish/Scots night at St Eunans Club later, organised by the Mod. Great scones and pancakes, just like home. Some of the older girls cèilidh away the night. Struggle back to hotel with instruments. Taxis are going to do well out of us this week – standard fare of 5 Euro to travel the mile trip. The rest of us are tucked up in bed nice and early. Well, early for the Pan Celtic anyway.

DAY 5 and an early start for Fionnar on Program Choinnich for Radio nan Gaidheal at 8.45. Not surprisingly, some of the faces are less than lively, but at least they all turn up. Tell all their families back home how things are going.

Then we hang about all morning waiting for the Irish Radio company to speak to us and record their songs as previously arranged. Told at midday there is no time left. “Quick, record one song and we’ll play it next week – if there’s time”. Smile.

Afternoon outdoor performance after the Street Parade with banners galore. Gorgeous weather. Gaelic choirs from Skye, Lewis, Argyll and Stirling out in force in the sun, great cèilidh in the square, Strip the Willow, Barn Dance and Gay Gordon’s a-plenty.

Bemused locals get involved. Sound of Gaelic song, Welsh choirs and all spill out of the numerous hostelries throughout the town. Get our first real meal of the week tonight.

DAY 6 is wet and windy. Prepare for Scots Night tonight at the Clanree Hotel. Solo harp and fiddle competitions today. Fionnar were triumphant again. Katie Mackenzie won the Self Accompanied on Clàrsach Song competition, and Mairi Keir won the 12-15 Clàrsach competition.

Catherine Tinney competed in the fiddle class and gained high praise from the judge, and was told she ‘would be a force to be reckoned with next year’. Joy Dunlop from Oban, Katie and I decide at the last minute that Scotland had to be represented in the solo dance class too, so we put together a set of step dance and puirt a beul, in the toilets five minutes before the start.

After seeing some truly wonderful Irish and Welsh dancing in particular, we are shaking in our shoes but Joy effortlessly steps to our strathspeys and reels, sung very fast as Joy is a very fast dancer. The judges are blown away, never having seen step done to song before – Joy wins! We celebrate.

Evening continues with the final Scots concert – choirs, songs, pipes and dance. Fionnar sing again – people genuinely delighted to see young people taking such pride in their songs and culture. A great success. Kilts everywhere. Good music from the Lochaber Ceilidh Band. I take the clàrsach home at 3 am, but return to herd the younger girls back to the hotel. Ceilidh continues in the hotel foyer, together with the Camogie (bit like Shinty) teams who were playing today – then breakfast.

DAY 7 is sunny. Tired but happy faces appear to catch the bus at lunchtime. Will it arrive? Details scanty. It does. Clàrsach loaded into car with Murdo, keyboards etc into bus. Drive to Belfast – is it only four days since we got here?

All checked in fine. Flight on time, beautiful crossing over Arran. Parents arrive to collect tired but chatty young people – now they have to think about school again. Big farewells till next rehearsal. Promises to swap incriminating photos on e-mail.

Taxi back to Glasgow, big detour due to roadworks. Collapse to await lift to Inverness. Chance to have debriefing on weeks events, up the A9. Arrive Dingwall 2 am. Dogs wonder who I am.

Another successful trip, a great chance for the girls to perform their music and meet some wonderful musicians, swap cultures and look forward to future collaborations. Letterkenny will be a quieter place now, but the Pan Celtic will be returning there next year, so no doubt plans are already underway for another Celtic invasion.

Fiona Mackenzie is the Mairi Mhor Gaelic Song Fellow for Highland Council

© Fiona Mackenzie, 2006

Link

• Pan Celtic Festival