September-October 2015

​It’s been a busy two months since my last blog.

September involved a BBC 2 NI shoot with Nova Collective; a trip to Scotland for my brother’s incredible wedding festivities; singing on Jimmy McCarthy’s latest single; an collaborative recording by ANÚNA on the Mediaeval Music of Irish Saints with Dr Ann Buckley; performing on a moving bus for Culture Night Dublin; and singing at the An Góilín Frank Harte Festival.

Not to mention The Ideas Collective Showcase, where participants got the opportunity to present our projects to a roomful of invitees. It was a valuable process, and a useful deadline – it marked the end of the 100-day SUAS-coordinated programme. Now we’re out on our own. Well, not exactly. What’s happening now is the so-called alumni have continued to work together to support each other’s project. For instance, by attending and promoting events such as the screening of Meaghan Carmody’s important documentary “No Snowflake” (which was recently shown at the SUAS 8x8 Festival) and Eoghan and Alan’s “Dev, Meet Tech” events.

October was hectic too. ANÚNA hit the Top 20 iTunes singles charts and simultaneously held #1, #2 and #3 in the iTunes World Music Charts in Ireland; I sang at Éigse Oirialla in Omeath, a wonderful festival exploring traditional songs and tunes from the Oriel; I was brought on board to assist with the High Hopes Choir; ANÚNA performed at the Echo Festival in the European Capital of Culture, Mons; Nova Collective is writing four new songs ahead of our EP recording next month; Tourist Walk finalised the London Walk videos – which will be released any day now; and last night, ANÚNA filmed a Christmas Day Japanese TV special on the music of Ireland.

It was an interesting day when I attended the Government Culture 2025 policy consultation at IMMA in Kilmainham. In a room brimming with arts practitioners and cultural ambassadors, we were set to task on coming up with normative values, goals and methods for a National Cultural Policy for 2016-2025. A big ask. There were lots of opinions floating around and I found it absolutely fascinating. I hope to publish my submission to the consultation process on the website soon.

Over the next month, I'll continue to develop VOCALISM, create a specific website and move forward with marketing. I aim to set up a steady flow of workshops in the New Year. Things to flag at this stage are a VOCALISM event at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Festival 2015, which should be very interesting... For more info on this, get in touch. I also have a few VOCALISM workshops lined up. Otherwise, I’ll be ANÚNA’s Tour Manager for our December tour to the Netherlands, which takes me right up to Christmas.

Thanks for your support and I’ll keep posting as and when I can.