Those who are looking for something thoroughly new this Christmas need look no further. In Glór na nAingeal: Christmas Carols in Irish, Angela Ó Floinn has unearthed some of the most exquisite carols you are likely to hear this holiday season and together with the peerless Steve Cooney and Ryan Molloy, has brought them, glittering, into the light. While this is Angela’s debut, it is not the first ground-breaking performance by Steve Cooney. Since arriving in Ireland from Australia, Steve’s solo guitar-playing and his accompaniment of performers such as Séamus Begley, Altan, Clannad and the Chieftains, made him the deserved winner of RTÉ’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2020 and TG4’s Gradam for best composer this year. Here, his guitar-playing combines effortlessly with Angela’s voice to create something truly extraordinary. At the same time, Ryan Molloy shows the full spectrum of talent that has garnered numerous prizes and delighted audiences around the world: from a funky, organ accompaniment in Na Leanaí i mBeithil to the delicate and haunting piano-playing on Don Oíche Úd i mBeithil. “I didn’t just want Irish-language versions of old favourites,” said Angela “and at the same time, I didn’t want change for change’s sake. There are exciting new arrangements but it was important to get the balance just right.” Angela is as good as her word. There are beautiful renderings of favourites such as Oiche Chiúin (Silent Night) and Oíche Bheannaithe (O Holy Night) but most tracks are drawn from that deep well of Irish poetry and music that performers neglect at their peril. In the impeccably-researched and illustrated booklet, with original translations into English by Gabriel Rosenstock, we learn that Fáilte an Linbh Íosa was a favourite Christmas song of Peig Sayers, captured for posterity in a crackly field recording made on the Great Blasket in the last century, before being given a stunning new treatment on the album. Other tracks, like Dia do bheatha, were preserved in various seventeeth-century manuscripts, before Angela’s researches in the Royal Irish Academy prompted her to breathe new life into them. Together with settings of Oíche Nollag, a poem written by the great Máire Mac an tSaoi (only very recently deceased) and Cuireadh do Mhuire by Mairtín Ó Díreáin, a voyage of discovery, or perhaps re-discovery, awaits the listener. “I came to the Irish language as an adult,” Angela explained “and so I wanted to involve my children, who we raised through Irish. They have competed and performed at the highest levels in classical and traditional music. I wanted to harness that, in a small token of gratitude to all those in the Gaeltacht and in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann who were so good to us over the years.” One only needs to hear the family’s exuberant playing and assured backing vocals to see the instant appeal the album will have for all age-groups. If Comhaltas continues to inspire and support achievements like Angela’s, its success is assured. All profits from the sale of the album will go to the Kildare-based charity, Homeless Care, which houses and supports young adults who have been in State care. For those whose school-days left them with little love for Irish, or whose palate is jaded by the endless repetition at Christmas of the same songs, over and over again, this beautiful collection is the ideal antidote. It is a must-have this festive season.
