Rossa playing the ‘Emptied-out Book Box’ – who needs goatskin?
I was absolutely delighted to get an original score by the extraordinary Rossa O Snodaigh in the can last week for my upcoming radio doco on Newstalk “Coosheen’s Forgotten Seanchai and Son” – with sound supervisor supremo Neil Kavanagh. As you can see there was lots of appropriately vernacular magic afoot with Rossa’s bag of tricks including slates!, bones (actual ribs), a mug, actual human whistling (lips & lungs), tin whistle, low whistle, mandolin, little wire brush, plastic bucket, Jews Harp (incredible head resonations), plastic flute with cello tape, emptied out book box, and more! 
What can you call this? Human body music? It was awesome to witness, and to be part of! The session included the creation of a beautiful original tune entitled “Caoineadh Chuaisin” especially for Coosheen village, and tracks later labeled “random banging” and “mandolin musings” (see below). I am so grateful to these two genius collaborators, and am now on the edge of my seat to hear what comes out the other side…
Well – that was a productive few hours! Go raibh mille maith agaibh Rossa Ó Snodaigh agus Neil Kavanagh 
“Coosheen’s Forgotten Seanchai and Son” funded by Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Sound and Vision Scheme will be broadcast on Newstalk next month, all going according to plan. Nearly there!
Rossa playing the Plastic Bucket
‘Mandolin Ramblings’, and ‘Random Bangings’ captured on Neil Kavanagh’s screen
Rossa creating “Caoineadh Chuaisin” for Coosheen’s Forgotten Seanchai and Son
Sound supervisor Neil Kavanagh capturing Rossa’s creations
COOSHEEN’S FORGOTTEN SEANCHAI & SON
Forget Google Maps. Today we are off the grid in West Clare. On the Doonbeg road 2km North of well known ‘Victorian seaside resort’ Kilkee the road-sign on a bare, ascending left turn announces “L2024”. L2024? You’d never guess that just over the brow of this hill, descending into the mighty Atlantic towards infinity, this humble boreen leads to what not so long ago was a thriving Irish language village of fisher folk, kelp collectors, and an award-winning storyteller with connections to Walt Disney.
Preferring anonymity, “Coosheen”, now mostly a combination of holiday homes and ruins, with its magnificent Atlantic vista North towards the Aran Islands, boasts no sign at all, let alone the Iar Ghaeltacht sign to which it is entitled, trumpeting its heritage on the “Wild Atlantic Way”. Join producer Deirdre Mulrooney who was lucky enough to spend her childhood summers in this remote spot, in her BAI-funded feature radio documentary “Coosheen’s Forgotten Seanchai and Son”, as she discovers a 1950 National Folklore Collection recording of the forgotten Oireachtas winning Seanchai even they never knew about – Padraig “Croaker” Ó Briain – who was born in 1873 and lived on the site where her parents built a traditional cottage in the 1980s.
Padraig (Croaker) O Briain and Mrs. Anne (nee Quinn) O Briain outside their erstwhile thatched cottage in June 1950. Photo by Kevin Danaher courtesy of www.duchas.ie
Enlisting the help of young Irish scholar Ailbe Van der Heide, Professor Angela Bourke (Voices Underfoot; The Burning of Bridgie Cleary; Maeve Brennan: Homeless at the New Yorker) and actor Pat Laffan (Father Ted; The Snapper; Barry Lyndon; The Queen; Abbey Theatre Company), together they decipher and unravel the magic of Croaker’s idiosyncratic and site-specific, yet universal fairytales.
The Poet’s Cottage ca. 1980. Photo by Paud Mulrooney
Charting the transition from Clare Irish speaking Seanchai father to English language poet and memoirist son Paddy O’Brien (1920 – 1977), Aonghus Óg McNally (whose own grandfather Ray McNally, creator of Hugh in Brian Friel’s 1980 play ‘Translations’, had a house in Coosheen village), sings the poet’s Coosheen memoir and witty lyrics back to life. Val Geary, last indigenous child in Coosheen village, and Anne Daly, great-grand-daughter of the Seanchai, reminisce on Paddy “The Poet” O’Brien’s mischievous and unforgettable character, and his drive to immortalise his beloved, but disappearing Coosheen village in verse; while Margaret Kelleher, Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama at UCD (The Maamtrasna Murders), puts this intimate family story into the wider context of seismic language shift in Ireland.
Featuring “Caoineadh Chuaisin”, an original score by Rossa Ó Snodaigh of Kila, Irish language activist, author of several books ás gaeilge, and convenor of ‘Mindfield: An Puball Gaeilge’ at the Electric Picnic.
Featuring:
Anne Daly, great-grand-daughter of Padraig “Croaker” Ó Briain, fisherman and forgotten Seanchai of Coosheen
Val Geary, last indigenous child of Coosheen Village
Professor Angela Bourke, Author of “Voices Underfoot”, Famine Folio; The Burning of Bridgie Cleary; Maeve Brennan: Homeless at the New Yorker
Margaret Kelleher, Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature & Drama at UCD, Author of The Maamtrasna Murders (UCD Press: 2018).
Aonghus Óg McNally (whose grandfather Ray McNally had a house in Coosheen), performs song/poems and Coosheen Memoir by Paddy “The Poet” O’Brien
Pat Laffan (Barry Lyndon; Father Ted; The Snapper; The Queen; Abbey Theatre Company) as Padraig “Croaker” Ó Briain
1950 recording of Pádraig Ó Briain by Tadhg Ó Murchadha courtesy of National Folklore Collection UCD
1950 Clare Irish recording of Croaker Ó Briain by National Folklore Commission, translated by Ailbe Van der Heide (UCD)
Original score by Rossa Ó Snodaigh of Kila (Irish language activist, author of several books in Irish)
Sound Supervision by Neil Kavanagh, Newstalk
Produced and narrated by Deirdre Mulrooney