A new book of essays celebrating the life, contribution and influence of the late composer and educator Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin has been launched at the World Academy at the University of Limerick tonight.
Edited by his wife Helen Phelan, Marie McCarthy and Nicholas Carolan, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin: A Life in Music is a collection of essays, reflections and poems inspired by his musical life.
It has contributions from musicians, dancers, artists, academics, students, poets and media personalities, as the book explores the multi-faceted life of one of Ireland's best-known musicians.
The contributions range from the scholarly and personal, to the anecdotal and the poetic, and bring together a rich illustration of his life by those who knew him and worked with him to capture his wide-ranging influence as a performer, composer, educator and cultural personality.
Ó Súilleabháin was in the public eye since his first media appearances in the 1970s.
Thousands of students in Irish universities were influenced by him over four decades, especially through his pioneering work in Irish traditional music and the performing arts.
His multi-album recording career made compositions such as Woodbrook and Oíche Nollag / Christmas Eve household favourites.
The publication was launched this evening by Dr Iarla Ó Lionáird, director of the World Academy and sean-nós singer with the group The Gloaming, who regularly collaborated with Ó Súilleabháin and whose essay is featured in the book.
It also has articles from poets Paul Muldoon, Moya Cannon and Paula Meehan as well as novelist Joseph O' Connor, conductor David Brophy, broadcaster Philip King and musicians including Martin Hayes, Lillis Ó Laoire and Paddy Glackin.
Dr Ó Lionáird said: "These competing energies of the local and the global as they might be perceived were, I feel, the source of Mícheál’s particular strength - being possessed of a radical belief in the value of our native culture and having equally a confidence in its ability to transfigure and translate beyond its purported origins.
Composer David Brophy wrote: "To make music with Mícheál was to acquaint oneself with the inner workings of the man himself, as much as the composer. Faced with such openness and honesty of expression, there was little option but to give of yourself, wholly, to his way, and I was more than willing to sacrifice everything and anything I held dear as I pursued an understanding of his musical vernacular. Mícheál cajoled me to ask questions of myself, simply by playing the piano."
The book published by Cork University Press is out on 31 October.
