Bunclody traditional song project
DO you have the words of a poem, recitation or song about Bunclody or the surrounding areas? Traditional singer Aileen Lambert, with the support of Bunclody Festivals and Wexford County Council’s Creative Communities Scheme, is gathering a collection of local songs for a project which aims to preserve and promote local songs and traditional singing in the Bunclody area.
Aileen has already gathered a collection of songs to be featured in a songbook entitled ‘Were I at the Mosshouse – Songs of Bunclody and Beyond’. The title is the first line of the famous song ‘Bunclody’ or ‘The Streams of Bunclody’. She is now looking for your help to provide her with any others which she has not yet collected. Even a poem or recitation is of great interest to her as they have the potential to become songs by pairing them with an old traditional air or even a newly composed air in the traditional style.
The project is also looking for people to become involved in researching the songs, providing photos of scenes and subjects the songs and most importantly it needs singers! Do you sing or do you know a singer who would sing one of these songs? The intention is to meet with a group regularly over a number of weeks in the autumn in order to pass on these songs to singers so that the songs are alive and sung within the community.
Please get in touch with Aileen if you would like to get involved yourself or would like to suggest someone.
To get in touch with Aileen you can email her on aileenlambert@ gmail.com, phone 087 7552593 and check out the Facebook page ‘Songs of Bunclody’.
An earlier project undertaken in St Mary’s Daycare Centre in Bunclody in 2017 where Aileen visited regularly to sing with those attending the Centre has provided a great footing for this project, as she compiled much of her local song list during this time with their assistance.
This project culminated in the production of a booklet for everyone in the centre featuring local songs and other favourite traditional songs.
Since then Aileen has worked with two communities, Kilmuckridge and Blackwater, all with the support of local communities and the Creative Communities Scheme to produce songbooks of local songs, accompanied by a DVD of singers performing the songs in Kilmuckridge and in the case of Blackwater a double CD.