Women of Ireland: 4 Musicians to Discover

It is Patrick season, the weeks and months centered around Saint Patrick’s day on 17 March.

At Patrick season and across the year, Ireland’s stories are told, its landscapes and history explored, as vividly through music as through written narrative, drama, poetry, dance.

forest path louth ireland women in music

It is also a time of year when the contributions of women to history are especially marked.

This year, the theme of Women’s History Month is Women Who Tell Our Stories.

At this Patrick season and beyond, learn about the creativity of four women who tell Ireland’s stories through song.

They are based, as it happens, in varied parts of Ireland. Each brings unique perspectives to her storytelling in music.

Each tells her stories through drawing on songs from tradition and heritage, by writing her own songs, and by bringing forward songs by other writers as well.

Karan Casey is based in Ireland’s south, near Cork.

As she grew up she found herself dawn to jazz as well as traditional music.

Moving to New York to continue jazz studies begun in Ireland, she found connection in the Irish traditional music community there. She became a member of the Irish American band Solas, and recorded several albums with them before deciding to return to Ireland and begin a solo career.

That has led to well received albums, tours across the world, collaborative projects, work in theater, and involvement in social justice activities, especially those related to women’s rights.

karan casey Ireland women music

Casey’s most recent album is called Nine Apples of Gold. The title track, an original song, was inspired by an ancient legend.

You will also find songs of solidarity and of lament concerning women’s issues and women’s history, a thoughtful version of the traditional song Rocks of Bawn, songs celebrating love, and songs celebrating wilderness.

Cathie Ryan is based in Louth in Ireland’s Ancient East.

Cathie Ryan Irish women in song

Louth is often called the land of legends. it has connections to Ireland’s stories from The Tain and other ancient tales.

That landscape suits Ryan well as she often teaches workshops and courses on Irish myth and legend, and incorporates those elements when she teaches sean-nos (old style) and other sorts of traditional Irish singing and leads tours of Ireland, as well.

Ryan’s parents emigrated to the United States. Ryan grew up in Michigan, spending summers in Ireland with her grandparents. Motown and country music played parts in her musical history along with songs from Irish tradition.

For eight years Ryan was lead singer with the top Irish American band Cherish the Ladies with whom she toured the world before beginning her solo career.

Ryan’s stories in song often draw musically and in lyric on all these connections in her musical heritage. You can explore this on each of her recordings; good places to begin include her albums The Farthest Wave and Through Wind & Rain.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is based in the west of County Kerry. She grew up in the Gaeltacht area there where Irsh is often the first language spoken.

After university, Nic Amhlaoibh was invited to join the band Danu, with whom she toured the world for more than a dozen years. Returning to West Kerry to raise her family, she was not sure how her music career would continue as she left Danu.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh Ireland women in song

That’s worked out well, as it turns out, with solo albums as well as work as a broadcast presenter for radio and television in English and in Irish.

English and Irish song and flute playing feature in her her albums. Recently, she and producer Donal O’Connor collaborated with six contemporary Irish composers and the Irish Chamber Orchestra to create settings for some of Ireland’s ‘big songs’ well known and well loved music from sean-nos singing tradition.

The recording of this is called Roisin Re-Imagined.

This music makes a fine place to experience Nic Amhloaibh’s work. As with each of the women included here. all her albums are well worth the listening. Another i’d point you too is Thar Toinn/Seaborne, which features music related to the sea.

Cara Dillon comes from Dungiven in County Derry in Northern Ireland.
She enjoyed music growing up and before long was asked to join the group Equation. Recording contracts with a major label as a duo with Sam Lakeman came along too. That turned out not to be a good fit, though. The major label deal that is, not the duo — Cara and Sam married, and set out on their own with their music.

That has resulted in well respected albums with, over the years, increasing focus on Cara’s traditional background.

Cara Dillon Irish Women in song

Along the way there have been unexpected happenings, among themg the discovery that Cara has a strong fan base in China, in part because her album A Thousand Hearts has been used as part of the English language curriculum in that country.

The recording Live at Cooper Hall, made during lockdown near where the pair live in Somerset in England is a fine way to experience the range of Cara’s work, and Sam’s playing on guitar and piano.

Another Cara Dillon album I’d point out to you y is called Wanderer.

Ireland’s stories told through song, stories told by women which encompass and draw on history, legend, connection, family, landscape, language, and imagination: they make a good fit for this Patrick season and this time of exploring stories told by women.

For Patrick season and beyond, may the music of these n artists be good companion for your travels, whether those be through geography or imagination.

northern ireland rostrevor landscape

There are many more fine Irish women artists to discover, and much to discover about Ireland through stories told in its music as well. You may wish to explore these stories:

Fiddle, Flute, Guitar: 3 Ways to Explore Ireland
Harps in Ireland: 3 Musicians to Discover
Northern Ireland: 4 Songs to Help You Understand
Soundtrack for Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way

All photographs by Kerry Dexter.

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