“My Mother Married my Father in Mount Melleray in 1937” is the second track released from Michael D. Higgins debut spoken word collection “Against All Certainty”, releasing Friday 5th September. The collection features 10 original works penned by the President and is underscored beautifully by a stunning musical composition from celebrated musician Myles O’Reilly.
Introducing the poem, Michael D. Higgins says:
“A hundred years ago, my father was spending some time in Hut Number 3 between February 1923 and December 1923. His brother in the national army, was serving in Galway. But I sometimes think back, of my father’s life, which was interrupted so badly by the civil war and the exclusion of those, who were incarcerated in the current elsewhere from full participation or any prospects, in life.”
Commenting on his collaboration with the President on this particular poem, producer Myles noted the fragility and the acknowledgement of love throughout the work:
“I’ve always thought of music as a vessel to preserve, carry, and amplify emotions, to transport them through time. In this case the vessel needed to hold something as complex as love. Love isn’t a single feeling, it carries joy, intimacy, and passion, but also sadness, longing, and even pain. The whole spectrum belongs, and it’s a uniquely different mix for everyone.
With ‘My Mother Married My Father in Mount Melleray in 1937’, I wanted the score to acknowledge love. After a few deep listens to Michael D. reading the poem, a tender frailty emerged in his voice that guided me. I began with an eight-second cassette tape loop of a broken piano, which immediately struck the same emotional chord, a simple fragment, dreamy, beautiful, though somewhat fractured, that set the tone and allowed me to begin subtly layering other sympathetic elements.
For me, the ultimate instrument for emotional resonance is the violin, but the challenge with “heart strings” is always to make them resonate truthfully, and not just rely on default sentimentality. So I sketched parts that Gareth Quinn Redmond performed with his unique, beautiful fiddle style, which gave the music an honesty, fragile and strong at once, all the right shades of feeling.
The music, more melodic than simply ambient, succeeds at accentuating the love story within the poem, the coming together of his parents, while also supporting the emotion in President Higgins’ voice, that delicate tenderness in his breath between words.”
To celebrate the release of Against All Certainty and honouring the President’s profound and enduring contribution to the arts, culture, and society in Ireland, the National Concert Hall will host an extraordinary evening of poetry and music on Friday 5th September – ‘Against All Certainty: A Celebration of Michael D. Higgins’.
Already completely sold-out, the event will be hosted by much-loved presenter Tommy Tiernan. The centrepiece of the evening will showcase live performances of President Higgins’s own poems, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland conducted by David Brophy.
It will also feature an exceptional line-up of Ireland’s most acclaimed artists and musicians including Mary Coughlan, Paul Brady, Imelda May, Andy Irvine & Brían Mac Gloinn (of Ye Vagabonds), master fiddle player Martin Hayes, Professor of Poetry Paula Meehan, prize-winning author Sebastian Barry, rapper God Knows, well-known broadcaster and TV presenter Ryan Tubridy, activist and Drag Queen Panti Bliss and actor and writer Olwen Fouéré.
To date, Michael D. Higgins has published four collections of poetry — The Betrayal; The Season of Fire; An Arid Season; and New and Selected Poems. “Against All Certainty” is the first ever collection of vocal recordings of his works. It will be available in a number of formats including a beautiful CD Hardback – a 60 page hardback book with essays, poetry, forwards and pictures. A coloured vinyl will also be available.
FORMATS
CD Hardback – 60 Page Hardback book with essays, poetry, forwards, pictures and 1CD
Standard 1CD in Digipack with Booklet (containing poems)
Vinyl – Coloured 1LP with Poster and Booklet (containing poems)
Pre-order/Pre-save the collection “Against All Certainty” HERE
Steam/Listen to “My Mother Married my Father in Mount Melleray in 1937” HERE