Declan O’Rourke and harpist Floriane Blancke came on Arena for a Studio 8 Session. Afterwards, Declan sat down with Sean Rocks to tell him about his new album, Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine, which features stories from the time of the Famine.
Declan told Sean that a book called The Workhouses of Ireland by John O’Connor provided the inspiration for this project. He wanted to tell the story of his grandfather, a man with a “mysterious past”. Declan’s family did some digging into his grandfather’s background and their research revealed that he had been born in a workhouse.
“Everybody was intrigued with that of course…I was determined to find out more.”
Part of the reason Declan wanted to tell these stories is that he feels they are often lost in a sea of statistics and “lithographs” in history books.
“It puts distance. It makes it seem very far away but it’s not that far away. It’s only a few generations ago. And I think when you read something like that, it just completely brought it to life.”
Declan and Floriane performed the tracks “Laissez Faire” and “Mary Kate”. Listen back to the full show here.