Photo Credit: Anna McGrane
Two of Ireland’s most distinctive and versatile musicians, Aoife Ní Bhriain and Cormac McCarthy, have just released ‘Cailleach’ – an interpretation of the traditional Irish song “Cailleach an Airgid”, and the final single ahead of their upcoming collaborative album ‘Cosán Casta‘, due 7 November 2025.
“’Sí do mhaimeo í, ‘sí do mhaimeo í
‘Sí do mhaimeo í, ‘sí cailleach an airgid”
“She’s your grandmother, she’s your grandmother,
She’s your grandmother, the hag with the money;”
Joe Heaney, the great Sean-Nos singer from Connemara, swore that “Cailleach an Airgid” was his great grandmother – a woman named Máire Ní Cháthasaigh from Muigh-Inis, an island near Carna. He says he learned it from his father, and that the song was known by everybody in the village.
The song was ever present in Aoife and Cormac’s upbringing, “I don’t think either of us remember a time where we did not know this song and its melody. We grew up listening to different versions of the lyrics, instrumental versions of the tune, as well as singing it in school and learning it on our instruments as a jig.” says Aoife.
For them, revisiting Cailleach is both a return and a reinvention. As they describe it, their version is “a trip down memory lane where the tune presents itself in fragments – preserving the tradition we grew up with while morphing it into something new and bringing it into a new soundworld for the listener.”
The process, they add, is about “deconstructing and reconstructing the way we view this part of our traditional upbringing and childhood.”
Blending deep roots in Irish traditional music with classical, jazz, and contemporary influences, Ní Bhriain and McCarthy chart a compelling sonic path through a shared musical heritage, transformed through their own creative lens. The album title, ‘Cosán Casta‘, derives from the Irish words for “twisted path”, reflecting a journey both intricate and organic, rooted and exploratory.
Listen to Cailleach here:
LIVE DATES:
November 6 – DUBLIN, The Complex Arts Centre
Tickets on sale soon, + more to be announced…
ABOUT THE ALBUM
Cosán Casta is a deeply considered and intimate work that reimagines Irish traditional music through original compositions, reinterpretations of archival tunes, and a fusion of classical and jazz idioms. The record pays homage to the music Aoife and Cormac grew up with, the musical language they heard and spoke in their family homes.
For both Aoife & Cormac, music is deeply tied to confidence, a sense of place, and a feeling of authority. To play their own music, to have trust not only in the notes but the nuances, the quirks of stylistic ornamentation, and the interpretation of the manuscripts collected before their time, has brought them on a path of discovery, helping them find their voice and bring to life their own interpretation of tradition to life.
Having both left Ireland to further study music, to discover, develop and explore their practice within the worlds of jazz and classical genres, “it became apparent very quickly that the musical accent of our own traditional music was one that cannot be disguised or gotten rid of easily,” says the pair.
“This accent defines how we approach music of all genres but also how we express the truest version of ourselves.”
A mix of the old and new, the album tells “the stories of who we are and where we come from but also the story of the journey our music has taken us on throughout our careers.
The paths we have taken have been no means straightforward and the twists and turns on our musical journeys have always directed us back home – to where the music started.
‘Is fada an bóthar nach bhfuil casadh ann.’
‘It’s a long road that has no turning.’