Pavee Song - Pavee Culture

“Pavee Culture - Pavee Song”

A Season of Films and Music, paying Tribute to the Culture and Song Tradition of the Irish Gypsy and Travelling Community.

This short season will comprise of three films 

(i) Dark Horse on the Wind”, a homage to the life and songs of the traditional ballad singer &songwriter Liam Weldon (1933–1995) 

(ii) “Songs Of The Open Road”, a focus on the life of the award-winning Irish Traveller and Traditional Singer, Thomas McCarthy, (winner of the TG4 2019 Gradam Ceoil Award’): 

(iii) Sé Merry Doyle’s “Traveller Tales” winner of the prestigious “2019 Irish Garda Award”.

 Plus A Special Concert by Irish Traveller, Traditional Singer 

Thomas McCarthy 

Film Screening:

Friday November 17th 8pm

“Dark Horse on The Wind” The Life and Songs Of Liam Weldon. 

Directed by Myles O’ Reilly |Ireland 2022 | 93mins

Produced by Lorraine Kennedy.

“Dark Horse on the Wind” looks back at the life and songs of the traditional ballad singer and songwriter Liam Weldon (1933 – 1995). A great admirer of Irish Traveller songs and music and a strong advocate for the aural tradition, Weldon was notoriously wary of self-promotion and so he left behind little in the way of recordings. But his legacy is more alive than ever today and flourishes in a new generation of folk singers.

Weldon was undoubtedly one of the finest Irish singers of any generation. He was also an outstanding songwriter and a champion of the oppressed and of the Irish Traveller community in particular, whose influence on his singing stretched back to his Dublin childhood. Unaccountably, his singing never really received the accolades it deserved, and he remains largely forgotten since his death, 28 years ago.

With newly discovered archive footage, stories from family and friends, and powerful performances of his work by Damien Dempsey, Radie Peat (Lankum), Lisa O’Neill and Daoirí Farrell, the film reveals much about the musician and about the family man, who gave so generously to the community in Ballyfermot (Dublin), where he lived.

Myles O’Reilly, prolific director of music films and himself a composer, celebrates the personal, public and political aspects of Liam Weldon, in this lively and insightful investigation.

Film Screening

Saturday November 18th 7.30pm

“Songs Of The Open Road” – A Focus on the Irish Traditional Singer Thomas McCarthy.

Directed by Pat Collins: 

Followed by a Q&A with Thomas McCarthy.

Preceded by a Film Screening of 

“Traveller Tales” Directed by Sé Merry Doyle.

“Songs Of The Open Road”

“Songs of The Open Road” focuses on the life of the award-winning Irish Traveller and Traditional Singer, Thomas McCarthy. Thomas comes from a long line of singers and musicians who kept the tradition of singing strong within the Irish Traveller community. He now knows over a thousand songs and since 2021 Thomas has set about collating a repertoire of this fabulous part of Traveller heritage.

Filmmaker Pat Collins' evocative documentary, ‘Songs Of The Open Road’ sheds light on the life and prowess of this great storyteller who was named Traditional Singer of the Year in the prestigious ‘Gradam Ceoil Awards’ in 2019. This heart-warming film follows Thomas as he moves from his home in London to perform, sing and speak in various venues, festivals and clubs throughout Ireland and England. 

“Songs Of The Open Road” is Directed by Pat Collins, (he also directed “Songs of Granite”): Produced by Sharon Whooley & Vanessa Gildea

Harvest Films – Ireland 2022. Length 50mins. 

Film Screening

“Traveller Tales” Directed by Sé Merry Doyle. 

The Director Sé Merry Doyle will Introduce this screening

Traveller Tales” is a powerful, inspiring film in which we see four young Traveller boys, Ned Cash, Michael Cash, Jim Cash, Edward Cash, (from County Laois), go on a journey of discovery to seek out stories and songs from their heritage and culture. In the film the boys visit their elders, including their grandmother, Maggie Cash, who tells them tales about the old ways of the Traveller’s life. She tells them about her own life on the road with her husband Ned and their horse drawn caravan and she also tells the boys old riddles which had been handed down to her, from her own mother and grandmothers. These stories inspire the boys to realise that their culture is something to be proud of and that they have the honour of preserving it, so that one day they can pass it onto their own children. 

The film is directed by the acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Sé Merry Doyle and it’s produced by “The Port Project” - a Garda Youth Project which helps young people who are at risk of becoming involved in anti-social behaviour and it’s a project which all of the four boys attend. What emerges is a vital, refreshing and uplifting film, which is full of hope and which honours and celebrates Irish Travellers culture and it also gives voices to young male Travellers, who are far too often ignored or never ever given the space to even be heard. 

“Traveller Tales” won the prestigious “2019 Garda Award”. 

Directed by Sé Merry Doyle: 

Produced by Shauna Williams & Lillian Ashe.  

A Loopline Film copyright 2020. Length 35 mins

Sunday November 19th   Starts 7.30pm 

Award-Winning Irish Traditional Singer 

Thomas McCarthy In Concert

Thomas McCarthy (the subject of the film “Songs Of The Open Road”) is one of the most exciting and moving voices in traditional singing today - ‘you would stand in the snow to listen to Thomas McCarthy sing’. 

Thomas comes from a well-known musical Irish Traveller family who kept the tradition of singing strong. He is the grandson of a renowned ‘seanachie’ and grew up surrounded by the singing of his late mother, her father and aunts and uncles. McCarthy is also a passionate activist on behalf of his people and is an ambassador for Traveller singing and Traveller song.
Thomas has a unique ability to connect with his audience and is described by Gradam Cheoil as captivating; “This singer has a voice of great strength, tone, character and sublime beauty’.

His technique is a joy to listen to. His art is particularly illustrative of the power of storytelling through song, beyond simply singing the song. His style of presentation, of narrative and history before and around the song, is captivating. He has a unique ability to connect with his audience. On top of that, he carries with him that distinctive style of singing – a movement in the longer notes – known as ‘the warble’.

In 2019, McCarthy won “The Gradam Ceoil Award - Traditional Singer of the Year”, The Gradam Ceoil is  awarded by the TV Station TG4 and it is considered to be the most prestigious award for Traditional music and song in Ireland.  Thomas McCarthy has collected more than 1,200 songs and  is committed to preserving this powerful and beautiful part of Irish Traveller culture. 

What The Press Are Saying….

“Tom has an outstanding voice, he sings from the heart, as if he were living the story”  - The actual quality of Thomas’s voice stops you in your tracks rather and holds you spellbound thereafter.”  David Kidman: Living Tradition, 

“One can see exactly what it is that makes him such an extra ordinary singer” Rod Stradling in Musical Traditions magazine, 

“A warm and engaging character, he is a fine though modest ambassador for his Community and Country.” Hector Gilchrist in his Sidmouth Festival.

Thursday Nov 16th – Saturday Nov 25th

Exhibition of Photography 

“The Travellers” by Donovan Wylie

For a short period only

Belfast born Donovan Wylie’s interest in photography started at the age of 11. He left school in 1987 and a year later, at the age of just 17, he’d already had exhibitions in Belfast, Dublin, New York and in London, where his collection of photographs ‘The Travellers’ was shown as part of the renowned Irish Arts Festival “A Sense of Ireland 1988”.

Donovan captured these photographs of “The Travellers” at a Gypsy-sites across Ireland, in Belfast, Dublin, Dundalk, Kerry and Cork. Donovan took the pictures on a very old second-hand twin-lens reflex camera, on which, as Donovan said “pressing the shutter was an uncertain business; sometimes it would work, sometimes it would open and close, only how and when it felt like it”.  At the time of the exhibition in London Donovan said “The Travellers lead a very different lifestyle, but they are an important part of Ireland’s culture. With the help of my exhibition maybe people will realise this fact”.

Following his London exhibition of “The Travellers”, Donovan was commissioned by  the publisher Seker and Warburg to produce the book ‘32 Counties’, after which many more book publications and exhibitions followed. 

This showing of “The Travellers” as part of The Irish Cultural Centre’s  Season, “Pavee Song, Parvee Culture” gives you a very rare glimpse of Wylie’s very early works, captured at the age of just 17. Since then, throughout the past three decades, Donovan fast became a world  leading photographer and one of the finest photographers of his generation. 

 In 1992 Wylie was invited to become a nominee of the prestigious international Magnum Photos and in 1998 he became a full member. Much of his work, often described as ‘Archaeologies’, has stemmed primarily to date from the political and social landscape of Northern Ireland. His book The Maze was published to international acclaim in 2004, as was British Watchtowers in 2007. In 2001 he won a BAFTA for his film The Train, and he has had solo exhibitions at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, PhotoEspana, Madrid, and the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television, Bradford, England. He has participated in numerous group shows held at, among other venues, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. His work from Afghanistan was published by Steidl in 2012 and in 2013 the Imperial War Museum mounted a major exhibition of his work on contemporary conflict. 

To find out more about Donovan Wylie go to https://www.donovanwylie.studio/  

“The Travellers”  Thursday November 16th – Saturday November 25th Monday to Saturday from 9.30am - 5.30pm daily.