[Eoghan vocalizing] ["Donal a Phumpa"] - [Announcer] This week on "TradFest: The Dubin Castle Sessions," we have David Kitt with Conchur White, Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Mark Redmond plus Eoghan O Ceannabhain and Ultan O'Brien.

[Eoghan vocalizing] ["Donal a Phumpa"] [bagpipes music] "TradFest: The Dublin Castle Sessions" are funded in part by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.

[bagpipes music] [Eoghan vocalizing] ["Donal a Phumpa"] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] [Eoghan vocalizing continues] ["Donal a Phumpa" continues] - We're here in St. Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle.

This is an incredible room and I'm thrilled and excited to be joined by piper extraordinaire, maestro Mark Redmond and also by Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, who are, I have to say for me, are two of the most important figures in Irish music, Irish traditional music, Irish singing, and it's a real, real pleasure to see you all here today.

- Thank you so much.

- Maighread, I'm gonna come to you first.

You're gonna sing a song for us.

Will you tell us a bit- - We're gonna sing...

It's a song called "Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo," a [indistinct] song, one of the songs that we got from our, the famous Aunt Nellie.

And it's a song I knew years ago and recently, Triona and I kind of looked at it again and realized what a beautiful song it was.

- And Mark's gonna join you.

- Mark is going to join us.

- Mark's going to join us.

- Fantastic.

No better man.

- Okay.

["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo"] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo" continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo"] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo" continues] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo" continues] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo" continues] ["Cailin Deas Cuiseach Na mBo" continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] [Maighread and Triona singing in foreign language continues] - Wow.

All in there, beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful.

God, that was gorgeous.

When did you both start playing and singing together?

Like at a very young age?

- We have a recording of Maighread singing on Mommy's knee and she's three.

- No way.

- And just singing songs one after another and- - Amazing.

Yeah.

- I never made it as a musician in any level.

The local nun said she might as well have been teaching the piano, the wood in the piano.

[Maighread laughing] - She would touch the keys on the piano and sing the note.

- Right.

- And expect it to be sung.

- Okay.

It's as if the piano was meant to sing to you.

- Oh, it was meant to.

- Yes, yeah.

- So that's how it kinda happened.

Triona then just played along and I sang along.

- Right.

- And we then discovered Triona's harmonies and...

But our mother was a great singer and music was around us all the time.

- Yeah.

Mark, when did it all start for you?

- I didn't exactly come from a strong musical family like Maighread and Triona.

I don't know what it was about the pipes but I kept hearing 'em on the radio at home.

I remember one time I saw them for the first time and I said, all right that's this mad sound I keep hearing, you know?

And it was a primary school teacher at home had them.

I went up and I asked him could I try them.

You know, 'cause I was learning to whistle in the school at the time and he's kind of joking, saying, "No, you can't, they're too expensive."

They werer something like 200 pound at the time or something, you know?

- Yeah.

- Considering what they cost now.

- Yeah.

- I remember I went home then and to try and explain to my father what I saw, I got two water bottles under my arm and a broken leg of a stool and I was sitting there trying to explain [all laughing] what the pipes were but- - Do you remember who it was you heard first?

- The first official recording was...

I think it was Davy Spillane.

- Was it?

- Absolutely blew me away.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And it still does, you know?

I still listen to it from time to time.

It's absolutely brilliant.

He really was fantastic.

You know?

- Yeah, yeah.

- So yeah, and then the first live piper, as I say, he was my fifth class school teacher, who was John O'Brien, combination of the two and that was it.

You know, I was bugged.

- You were hooked.

Yeah, yeah.

So what are you gonna play for us?

- So, I'll play a tune that I learned from a recording, Séamus Ennis, called "The Trip We Took Over the Mountain" which is a song that he learned from his grandfather.

And then I'm gonna follow that with a tune that I only learned, I think, during lockdown.

Simply because of the title.

And the title is "Redmond's Frolics."

- "Redmond's Frolics."

- And it's a tune that I found in O'Neill's "Waifs and Strays" from 1922.

- Okay.

- And I saw this title and I said, "If ever there's a tune I need to learn, "that's it there."

- Brilliant.

["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain"] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["The Trip We Took Over The Mountain" continues] ["Redmond's Frolics"] ["Redmond's Frolics" continues] ["Redmond's Frolics" continues] ["Redmond's Frolics" continues] ["Redmond's Frolics" continues] - Wow.

Mark, that was amazing.

- [Triona] Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

- Magic, those fingers and those pipes.

Amazing.

It's such an extraordinary voice in Irish music.

- Yeah.

- It's unique in so many ways.

- They're brilliant.

They're still a lovely sound.

And you know, as I say, when you hear them, there's something about them that just...

I love hearing a new track that I haven't heard before on a set of pipes.

Every time, it just gets me, you know?

So I'm not sure what it is.

- Yeah.

- It's some kind of a disease worse than COVID-19, I think.

[all laughing] - Triona, I was watching you listening there and I got a strong sense you were enjoying that a lot.

- Oh, absolutely.

Gorgeous.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely and beautiful harmonics.

I love the sound of the pipes and it's just something, sends shivers down your spine.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- You know?

When I hear it and... [Triona speaking foreign language] Yeah.

- Triona, you're going to do a song in Breton for us now, I believe.

- Yeah.

- What's it called?

- It's called "Kousket."

[Triona speaking foreign language] - And where did you come across it?

- I came across it the first time I landed in Brittany as an au pair with this family.

And when I couldn't understand a word.

I thought I had great French until I- - Oh, they spoke Breton at home, did they?

- Well, they did but that evening, I was looking through their 45s, their record collection.

- Yeah.

- And I saw this one.

And just a singer and she was singing at this Breton lullaby.

And it just stayed with me for long time and resurrected it about 30 years later.

- Amazing.

- And wrote to a friend who was a Breton singer over there and he sent me the words.

So it's a lullaby about the servant girl is kind of rocking the cradle.

And the mother and father are out somewhere and she's singing to the little one.

So "Kousket."

- "Kousket," great.

["Kousket"] ["Kousket" continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] ["Kousket"] ["Kousket" continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] ["Kousket"] ["Kousket" continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] [Triona and Maighread singing in foreign language continues] I'll tell you something, if I was the child in that cradle, I won't be going to sleep listening to that.

I'd be wanting to hear more.

[all laughing] Triona and Maighread, that was gorgeous, gorgeous, great, great.

Well, listen, it's an absolute delight to have all three of you here... - Thank you.

- Today and really, really enjoyed the music and the chat.

So, Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill, Mark Redmond, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.

["Another Love Song"] ["Another Love Song" continues] ♪ I can't ♪ Pass the day ♪ Without thinking ♪ About you ♪ I can't ♪ Pass the day ♪ Without thinking ♪ About you ♪ When everyone else is sleeping ♪ ♪ There are things that i have to do ♪ ♪ When everyone else is sleeping ♪ ♪ I can't ♪ I just think of you ♪ I hope you want me to ♪ I can't ♪ Fall in love ♪ If it's a danger ♪ To my health ♪ I can't ♪ Fall in love ♪ If it's a danger ♪ To my health ♪ When every one else is sleeping ♪ ♪ There are things that I have to do ♪ ♪ When everyone else is sleeping ♪ ♪ I can't ♪ I just think of you ♪ I hope you want me to ♪ And these are the words ♪ That the silence ♪ Brings to me ♪ And these are the words ♪ That the silence ♪ Brings to me ♪ To me ♪ I can't ♪ Pass the day ♪ Without thinking ♪ About you ♪ I can't ♪ Pass the day ♪ Without thinking ♪ About you ♪ When every one else is sleeping ♪ ♪ There are things that I have to do ♪ ♪ When every one else is sleeping ♪ ♪ I can't ♪ I just think of you ♪ I hope you want me to ["Another Love Song"] ["Another Love Song" continues] ["Another Love Song" continues] [bagpipes music] - [Announcer] "TradFest: The Dublin Castle Sessions" are funded in part by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media.

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