Something For The Weekend: Pat Collins' Cultural Picks

Pat Collins is the Cork-born filmmaker and documentarian behind a number of celebrated works, from acclaimed features like Silence, Song Of Granite and Henry Glassie: Field Work; his films to date have explored an array of subjects, from actor Gabriel Byrne and cartographer Tim Robinson to life on Tory Island and the 1916 Rising. His latest project is The Dance, which documents the creation of a new dance show by choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan, and opens in selected cinemas nationwide on February 11th.

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We asked Pat for his choice cultural picks...

MUSIC

Recently I've been listening to music by Mal Waldron. I heard a track called Warm Canto on Mystery Train a few weeks ago. He reminds me a little of Alice Coltrane who I also like. Closer to home, Strange Boy from Limerick - his track Waiting and the accompanying video is powerful stuff.

I’ve been listening again to Sean Tyrrell’s album Cry of Dreamer from 1994 which is a beautiful collection of songs, so full of feeling. Sean was one of the great singers and he’s a huge loss. In the early ‘90s in Galway he had a residency in Monroe’s Tavern, which we never missed. Sean set three of John Boyle O’Reilly poems to music on Cry of a Dreamer and wrote a cracking version of Louis McNeice’s poem No-Go.

He also set The 12th of July by John Fraser, a call for peace between the two traditions, to music: "And let the orange Lily be/your badge my patriot brother/The everlasting green for me/and we for one another". Fraser was a cabinet maker from Birr, born around 1800.

Another great man from Birr is Thomas McCarthy, who has graciously allowed me to make a documentary about him. So I’ve been listening to dozens and dozens of his songs. Thomas is an incredible singer and an amazing man. He has songs that no one else has – and he sings them like no one else. If you were to record all the songs he knows, the film would be over 80 hours long! He’s been living in London since he was 10 and he also has a great knowledge of old Studio One reggae music.

BOOK

Over Christmas I read John Burnside’s The Music of Time – a great series of essays on poetry in the 20th century. I’m hoping to write a re-imagining of Patrick Kavangh’s walk to Dublin in 1931 for radio sometime in the future so I’ve read a lot around Kavanagh recently, including The Mystical Imagination of Patrick Kavanagh by Una Agnew which is terrific, and a lovely book A Poet in the House: a memoir by Elizabeth O'Toole. His book Tarry Flynn is just brilliant.

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I also admired Martina Evans' poetry collection American Mules and poetry books by the American poets Denis Johnson and Larry Levis. Someone wrote of Levis that "he manages to wear his wisdom like a shrug" which is a lovely description of any work. I’m also looking forward to reading the Cork poet Thomas McCarthy’s diaries Poetry, Memory and the Party.

FILM

I’ve always felt that film in Ireland is rarely seen as an art form. People read Ulysses and go to plays by Tom Murphy and Marina Carr but they watch film merely as entertainment - which is frustrating. I miss the debate around film that used to exist. I remember writing a review of an Irish film in the ‘90s in Film West magazine and the filmmakers took me to task for two hours in a bar at the Cork Film Festival. Personally, I don’t particularly miss that level of engagement, but it shows how seriously film was taken.

TV was such an important part of my life growing up. There was just one channel but we watched absolutely everything. I still miss Olivia O’Leary, Brian Farrell and Questions and Answers! Now, I mostly watch RTÉ One and TG4 and some BBC. I still watch TV to learn – rather than just entertainment. But if it’s entertainment, the whole family watched the entire series of The American Office last year, and TV is brilliant for sport - I watch GAA (men and womens) and soccer and American football, a lot of sport. Recently I loved the Beatles film Get Back and the Aretha Franklin doc Amazing Grace and Last Dance. I also loved all of Heimat and the last two seasons of The Sopranos. And recently Succession which I fell out of love with by the end.

GIG

I had a great weekend at Hedge School Doolin in the Doolin Hotel at the end of January. It was a great pleasure to be listening to live music, with Little John, Branwen, Willzee, Peter Broderick, Donal Dineen and many more. It was very diverse. There was an incredible performance of a live improvised score for Man of Aran by APO-33. No doubt about it, it’s the best Irish film ever made – especially with their music accompanying it. It was just exhilarating. I’m looking forward to seeing more gigs in the coming months and we are lucky in West Cork to have venues like Connollys, Levis and deBarras and I’m looking forward to the Baltimore Fiddle Fair in May.

THEATRE

The work of Michael Keegan Dolan and Teac Damsa is what I respond to best in terms of theatre. I feel I could go to see their shows numerous times and find something new each time. When I first saw Rian I thought it was so beautiful and moving, like it was trying to communicate something ancient. So I’m looking forward to when they tour again later in the year.

When I was in my early 20s I read The Theatre and its Double and it must have had an impact on me because I always felt somewhat distanced from conventional theatre. But I’ve found a way back to theatre - oddly enough, through amateur theatre, the atmosphere of it, the lack of pressure - and I have gone to many shows in Baltimore, Skibbereen and Rossmore over the years. Maybe it’s that I’m rooting for them rather than analysing. The West Cork Fit-Up festival is really unique. It’s lovely to hop out to Sherkin Island, see a play, go to the pub and head back on the last ferry.

ART

I saw two exhibitions recently - Tommy Weir’s collection of photographs Cillín at Uillinn, Skibbereen, which I thought was powerful, and then I went to the Jack B. Yeats exhibition Painting and Memory in the National Gallery. I wasn’t expecting to like the Yeats paintings as much as I did, but my wife Sharon loved it and encouraged me to go. His paintings are like little gems of unmade films. In fact you could take the themes of all his paintings and make them into one great Fellini-esque film.

Jack B. Yeats, Fair Day, Co. Mayo (1925)

RADIO/PODCAST

Looking back, I’d have to say live radio has been a big part of my life. And I still love it – but in the evenings mostly now. I just have a strong sense that there is too much talk, everywhere. But I do listen to RnaG and it helps me pick up some words here and there. I love John Creedon in the evenings – the requests as well as the music. I listen to The South Wind Blows and I really like Kevin Brew’s work on radio. And Marty In The Morning sometimes, and Bernard Clarke, and Olivia O’Leary’s poetry programme. Generally I don’t listen to podcasts. I’m happy with what comes along of its own accord.

TECH

I have a phone. And it’s certainly useful – especially for photographs and filming. And for WhatsApp– you can’t be involved in any sporting organisation without WhatsApp – it’s a nightmare in disguise. But generally I am the least technically minded person I know.

THE NEXT BIG THING...

Lent. No sugar or sweets.

The Dance is in cinemas nationwide from November 11th. Pat Collins and Michael Keegan-Dolan will discuss The Dance with RTÉ Culture editor Derek O'Connor after a screening of the film at the Irish Film Institute, Dublin on Thursday, September 10th at 6 pm - find out more here.

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