THE POWER OF KíLA’S CEOL WITH SOUL... It’s a real force... in any language

After 30 years on the road, Kíla are considered one of the best live acts in the country. Their sound is a raucous mix of music and rhythms from around the world. They sing in Irish, they sing in English, sometimes they sound like they’re speaking in tongues. You go on a musical journey with them that can veer off down any boreen or desert track. If you keep listening and keep dancing, a night out at a Kíla gig is like a workout for the soul, the mind and especially the body.

Brothers Rónán, Rossa and Colm Ó Snodaigh are the backbone of the band that met and formed in Coláiste Eoin, the Irish language secondary school in Dublin in 1987.

Rónán agrees that like the audience, being on stage at a Kíla show is like a night spent plugged into the national grid. ‘You feel so high on stage that It can be hard to come down afterwards,’ he says.

‘I, personally, come offstage talking really loudly. That can lead to rows, people think I’m acting aggressively but it’s because I’m pumped with adrenaline. I know I’m intense on stage, I’m maybe overfocused; sometimes, I might not look out at the crowd at all.

‘Actually, we did a few shows at Christmas where I did look at the crowd and just seeing how much they were into it is incredibly special. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was great!’

Kíla play at Leopardstown Racecourse next Sunday as part of the Dublin Racing Festival (Delorentos play the evening before). If you haven’t been to a Kíla show before, that’s your earliest opportunity. You could also listen to their last release, Kíla – Alive Beo, a live album that is like a series of snapshots of shows from 2017.

‘Doing that live album bought us a little time in terms of when me might

Rónán Ó Snodaigh – Kíla

need to release a new studio album,’ Rónán says. ‘The songs on it weren’t typical of a live album in that they were fresh out of the oven anyway; they were mostly new tracks at that time. Nobody wants to start work on a new album more than us.’

The band has had many different line-up changes over the years. Early members Colm Mac Con Iomaire and David and Karl Odlum went on to help form The Frames with Glen Hansard and enjoy solo success; the latter two are also renowned producers. Kíla, Rónán admits, can be an unwieldy beast, which often has found its con-

stituent parts engaged in side projects throughout their career. It is not only to keep things fresh but just to pay the bills. ‘I always want to hear what everybody else has been up to. I’m hungry to hear all the new developments now,’ he says.

‘We air new tunes to each other at gigs. That might sound like a funny way to go but you are adapting tunes in your mind to how they sound to you and how an audience is reacting to what you’re playing. We listen to each other, we truly play with and for each other.’

Rónán is also a passionate advocate for the Irish language. Though Ireland is now a melting pot of languages and cultures that few could have imagined only a few years ago, he feels our native tongue is flourishing.

‘Compared to when I was small it is flying,’ he says.

‘There is a huge growth in the number of Gaelscoileanna in the past few years. We went to an Irish-speaking school, but growing up in Dublin, speaking as Gaeilge was frowned upon.

‘I didn’t speak English until I was about five. We spoke Gaeilge at home. I don’t have a magic wand but if everyone could speak the language then nobody would have an issue with it.’

Rónán, who is a brother of Sinn Féin TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, agrees that some tried to equate a love of Irish with a support for Irish republican forces. ‘Yes, maybe so. But even that was horses **** and you can print that,’ he says. It is pathetic that people were duped into feeling embarrassed about their language and national identity. But it could happen again. I speak Irish to my kids, I speak it on the bus, I try to get other people speaking it.

‘You don’t get people looking back at you now in a disparaging way. Years ago, you might have got people shouting “Provo!” at you. Those were weird, weird times.’

Kíla play the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown Racecourse on February 3.

‘I know I’m intense on stage, I’m maybe overfocused; I might not look out at the crowd at all’