Sounds from a Safe Harbour Pays Tribute to Eoin French (Talos) on The Tommy Tiernan Show with Special Live Performance
Featuring Ólafur Arnalds, Niamh Regan, Ye Vagabonds, Dermot Kennedy, The Staves, and More
On the weekend’s episode of The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTÉ, a deeply emotional tribute was paid to the late Eoin French, known for his musical project Talos, by a community of friends and collaborators. Closing out the show was a live performance of “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready,” a song originally written and performed at the 2023 Sounds from a Safe Harbour (SFSH) festival in Cork. Since it’s broadcast, the clip has clocked more than 1.2 million views on Instagram alone, and support and love is pouring in from across the globe.
The song written was originally written by French along with Ólafur Arnalds, Niamh Regan, and Ye Vagabonds, who opened the performance, and were then joined by Jófríður Ákadóttir (JFDR), Kate Ellis (cello), Sandrayati Fay, Steph French, Dermot Kennedy, Laoise Leahy, Memorial, The Staves, and Christof van der Ven, backed by a striking portrait of French by photographer Niall O’Brien.
A close friend and collaborator of Eoin, and Director of SFSH, Mary Hickson says: “Eoin French has been a vital part of SFSH. We will need to figure out how to do all this without him now. At the residency at SFSH, we provide space and time for artists to collaborate together. We are only beginning to feel the fruits of what happened in the room for Eoin during this week. “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready” was written during this time and when I was invited to hear it I knew they had created something incredibly important and powerful. The reaction when it was performed in the lobby of the River Lee Hotel and at the finale event of the festival, ‘Lighthouse Constellations’ which was hosted by Ye Vagabonds, was immense. Creating space like this for artists to collaborate and flourish is at the heart of SFSH, it’s why we do it. At that time it felt like Eoin was unstoppable, little did we know what was to come. It certainly makes us all feel incredibly grateful for the time we had with him and to continue to represent his legacy where possible. He will be missed and loved forever by all at SFSH.”
The performance, which was broadcast live on The Tommy Tiernan Show, is available to watch here:
Youtube: https://youtu.be/vREl36k1eGs?feature=shared
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEa99cxCD2U/?igsh=MXAwbWN6c2U3aXAxdg==
You can also watch the original performance of the song from SFSH in the lobby at River Lee Hotel, Cork, featuring Eoin French, here: https://youtu.be/Vi8gbIblfsY?feature=shared
RTE PERFORMANCE CREDITS:
A Tribute to Talos – We Didn’t Know We Were Ready
A song by Talos, Ólafur Arnalds, Niamh Regan and Ye Vagabonds
Featuring: Jófríður Ákadóttir, Kate Ellis, Sandrayati Fay, Steph French, Dermot Kennedy, Laoise Leahy, Memorial, The Staves, Christof van der Ven
Courtesy of: Sounds From a Safe Harbour & OPIA
Sounds from a Safe Harbour (SFSH) returns to Cork from September 11th to 14th, 2025. https://soundsfromasafeharbour.com/
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