On the songs collected by Alan Martin Freeman, in particular one of Seán Ó Riada's favourites, Aisling Gheal (followed by tape of the author himself as a child, singing the song) - for Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Bright Vision, by Iarla Ó Lionáird above.
In the winter of 1964, the year of my own birth, in a house in Muirneach Bheag, Cuil Aodha, a raggle-taggle group of singers gathered in the small sitting room facing the keys of a modified Steck pianola.
The hands on the keys on this inauspicious occasion were those of composer Sean O'Riada.
This would be the first of many such evenings that would transform the musical landscape of this area; for some present, it marked the beginning of a seven-year quest that would transform their musical world...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
