Voices of the Naomhóg
Voices of the Naomhóg is the integration of Cape Breton, Western Ireland & Scotland through boat building, music and language.
During the months of September and October 2018, artists and musicians from Nova Scotia, Ireland and Scotland will come together in the small village of Baddeck, Cape Breton to build two traditional Irish rowing boats called Naomhógs. True ambassadors of their culture and craft they will bring their history and experiences to unite and reunite the Gaelic, Irish and Scottish music, dance and storytelling of the people and their homelands.
Featuring: Rosie MacKenzie, Brendan Begley, Conchubhair Begley, Liam Holden, Brendan Moriarty, Kathleen MacInnes, Kenneth MacKenzie, Mary Jane Lamond, Troy MacGillivray, Paidrag O’ Duinnin, including four father/son duos.
This is the beginning of a project and collaboration that reaches into our cultural past to awaken the tradition of boat building, music and dance in Cape Breton. A boat has not been built in the historic village of Baddeck in years and years. This eclectic group of Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton musicians will stitch together their cultures while creating original music and dance through the building of the Naomhógs, a 4-person rowing and sailing boat. At one time, men took these simple boats to sea to explore the rugged coast of Ireland and Scotland, and for a brave few sailed beyond to Iceland and Newfoundland.
The music will be featured at the 2018 International Celtic Colours Festival. This will include traditional music, Gaelic song, and dance from both sides of the Atlantic. The idea is to celebrate age-old crafts and forge new traditions and expand on Irish and Cape Breton Gaelic tradition, shared alongside the wisdom, culture and music of our indigenous neighbors.
Rosie MacKenzie has spent the past three years on the western side of Ireland, a strong-hold of the Irish Gaeltacht area. Here she came to know Brendan Begley and the other men who made an epic 2,500km sea journey from Ireland to Santiago de Compostela in a Naomhóg. The journey was the subject of an award-winning documentary film entitled THE CAMINO VOYAGE that premiered at the Dublin Film Festival in March 2018. http://www.anupictures.com/project/camino/
Celtic Colours has embraced Voices of the Naomhóg. The boats will be rowed to the concert halls by the men and women who built them. The story of their building, and the reuniting of their cultures will be shared with thousands through the original music, dance and storytelling that will have been created during the project.
We want to document the first of its kind connection between Cape Breton and Ireland. It is the beginning of a rowing tradition in Cape Breton with a boat that connects the people, music and language through hundreds of years.
We hope to be able to share and televise our project internationally through CBC and RTÉ.
To watch a preview of what we have been working on click on link below. Filmed by Scope Digital Media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ePIYHJsEVk
(Cover photo by Dónal O'Ceilleachair, Anú Pictures)
