Declan O’Rourke Declan’s FAMINE is over
In gestation for at least 13 years, Declan O’Rourke’s latest opus may yet eclipse the divine Galileo
Declan O’Rourke is among Ireland’s most popular singer-songwriters. His song Galileo has been covered by a raft of artists, including Josh Groban and been praised by the likes of Paul Weller as one of his favourite songs. However, after releasing six albums, his latest 14-song collection could come to define the Dublin man’s career. Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine is necessarily a work of gravitas and importance.
He confesses to have been working on songs exploring the subject even before the release of his debut album Since Kyabram back in 2004. His personal interest was initially piqued by hearing a little-known fact about his grandfather and encountering a book by Kerry author John O’Connor.
‘The first song was triggered by a book I read called The Workhouses of Ireland,’ the 41-year-old says.
‘I had found out shortly beforehand, that my granddad was born in a workhouse in 1916. Then this book just popped up in front of me randomly in Easons one day. I didn’t realise that workhouses and their proliferation was all connected to the famine.
‘I started reading this story about a man who carried his wife for miles from the workhouse to their old home. They were discovered the next morning dead. He was found holding his wife’s feet to his chest as if he was trying to warm them. I was instantly gripped.’
O’Rourke says that his artistic faculty was also triggered by that and the other many shocking stories that he read. ‘I had the information at hand but it took me two years to write the first song which became Poor Boy’s Shoes,’ he says. ‘While I was reading the book, found myself underlining words, paragraphs, marking pages, thinking there could be another song and thinking “look… that would make a great song title” and so on. Then, I just realised that there was a collection of songs in it. I maybe ended up reading 25 books over the years on the famine.
‘I planned to write maybe 20 songs and pick the best 10, but I ended up writing 14 songs and the words of a couple of poems but that was it. I finished them all and I was happy with all of them so that became the album.’
He carried on ‘chipping away’ at the collection in the down-time on worldwide tours and while writing songs for other platinumselling albums such as Big Bad Beautiful World and Mag Pai Zai. Though the process was arduous, O’Rourke says he knew that if the album came to fruition, he couldn’t risk the possibility of not doing justice to such an important event. ‘Absolutely that,’ he says.
‘I knew because of the nature of it, that it would be scrutinised heavily, even on an academic level, though it’s an artistic rendering. I had to thoroughly research it and back everything up and that’s why it took as long as it did.’
Though informed by traditional music, the album has many changes in tempo and doesn’t settle into one tone or mood. It isn’t the musical equivalent of a misery memoir. Songs about the villainous character Curry Shaw stand alongside tracks about the realities of living on Indian Meal. Rattle My Bones is almost darkly comic in its evocation of the expectation of being transported by a rickety cart to the ultimate resting place.
Many people feel that though the potato crop undoubtedly failed, it was British government policies which caused the famine; did he have an opinion on that?
‘I’m as confused about that as anybody but I don’t think it was my job to decide where, or if, blame could be apportioned or not,’ he says.
‘Being angry is like swallowing poison and hoping the other person will die.’
I wondered if Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine is subsequently considered to be Declan O’Rourke’s magnum opus, where does he go next as an artist?
‘I have no fear of it at all. In fact, I have the next album written already,’ he reveals.
‘I remember Mike Scott of the Waterboys saying to me “did you ever fear you would never better Galileo?” I said, “No not all”. He said: “Great, never fear the millstone.”’ ÷Declan O’Rourke – Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine is out now on Warner Music. Declan O’Rourke will be on tour in December. See www.declanorourke.com for details.