Dónal Lunny embarks on his epic journey following the Celtic Songlines to Donegal where he meets Altan’s Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and learns about the close musical ties between Ireland and Scotland. In Miltown Malbay he meets old friend Paddy Glackin and takes a trip to Spanish Point, while in Galway Dónal meets Simon O’Dwyer who demonstrates some of Ireland’s oldest musical instruments. Back in Dublin Dónal visits the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the RTÉ archives where Nicholas Carolan and Jim Lockhart explain why music collectors have been so important for the survival of traditional Irish music while Dr Éamon Ó Ciosáin from Maynooth University places Irish music in the context of the wider Celtic world. Before leaving for Scotland Dónal takes a trip to the Grouse Lodge recording studios in Westmeath where he is joined by some of Ireland’s best traditional musicians including Máirtín O’ Connor, John McSherry, Graham Henderson, Éamonn de Barra, Cormac de Barra and Zoe Conway. Here they record a number of tunes that Dónal will take with him on his travels to be added to by musicians he meets along the way.
Dónal Lunny follows the Celtic Songlines to Scotland. In Glasgow with Donald Shaw he discovers how new musical connections are being forged between the Celtic nations at the Celtic Connections festival. At the city’s Royal Conservatoire, home to one of the UK’s leading traditional music schools he finds that young musicians from right across the Celtic nations, like Tom & Isla Callister from the Isle of Man are carrying their native traditions forward with passion and conviction. Next Dónal travels to the beautiful and remote Isle of Canna in the Small Isles, home to Canna House and the most amazing collection of Gaelic music and folklore assembled by the late John Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw. On the isle of Skye Dónal finds out just why ‘the pipes’ have been so important to the music of the Celtic nations and why they may provide a link between them all. Here he meets Scots Gaelic singer Christine Primrose and members of the Peatbog Faeries who prove that the tradition is alive and well on the Isle of Skye.
This week, Dónal travels to the Isle of Man, Wales and Cornwall.
Dónal follows the Celtic Songlines to mainland Europe, to Brittany and Galicia.