‘In The Smoke’: Words, Music, Song and Images
Two of Ireland’s Greatest Writers, Patrick McCabe & Timothy O'Grady + Three of Ireland’s Greatest Musicians, Michael McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly & Cathy Jordan + Whistler Larry Beau
ICC Proudly Presents The World Premiere Of ‘In The Smoke’ : A Night Of Words, Music, Song and Images
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Publication of Timothy O’Grady’s Acclaimed Book “I Could Read The Sky”, Featuring The Photographs Of Steve Pyke. Also Celebrating the Publication of Patrick McCabe’s New Book, “Poguemahone”
Timothy O’Grady & Patrick McCabe will be joined by Three of Ireland’s Greatest Traditional Musicians: Michael McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly and Cathy Jordan. Plus Singer-Songwriter, Minstrel, Whistler, Larry Beau.
Writers Patrick McCabe and Timothy O’Grady go on the road with this music / spoken word event based on their novels Poguemanhone and I Could Read the Sky with some of Ireland’s top musicians, Michael McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly, Cathy Jordan and Larry Beau.
Memory swings, drifts, soars, lies, weeps, haunts, embellishes, laughs, sings and dances. Few things stir memory quite like emigration. Memories of lost land, people, events. Memories of the new place’s challenges. Poguemahone and I Could Read the Sky, published twenty-five years apart, unite in their renderings of the acts of an emigrant’s memory. Memories of pig killing, kitchen dances, London squats, ghosts, fairground boxing, psychedelia, Soho drinking clubs, trenches, leaps from windows and music both melancholy and ecstatic.
Both writers have toured Ireland and Britain with unique music-spoken word events and now they come together for the first time in this show featuring some of the most authentic and innovative musical talents from Ireland.
Doors: 7.30pm; Starts: 8pm
Tickets: £20/£18
This show will be a lament and a celebration of the history of the Irish in London…
Timothy O’Grady – I Could Read the Sky
To mark the 25th Anniversary of it’s publication, Timothy O’Grady will read from his magnificent novel I Could Read the Sky, in which an old man from the West of Ireland lies in bed and remembers his life – a rapturously remembered childhood, years of wandering as a migrant in the potato fields and building sites of England, the camaraderie of bars and boxing booths, and finally the music he played and the woman he loved. This is an emigrant’s story of innocence defeated, of loss and madness and redemption through music and memory and love. O’Grady’s reading will be merged with music, song and spellbinding photographs by Steve Pyke.
Patrick McCabe – Poguemahone
In this unique show, one of modern Ireland’s greatest writers, Patrick McCabe will read from his shape-shifting epic, new novel ‘Poguemahone’ which is a wild, free-verse monologue, steeped in music and folklore, crammed with characters, both real and imagined, on a scale Patrick McCabe has never attempted before. McCabe’s reading will be merged with music, song, whistling and vibrant and mesmerising imagery.
McCabe & O’Grady will do a Book-Signing following the event.
Both books are published by ‘Unbound’.
About The Writers
Timothy O’Grady
Timothy O’Grady was born in Chicago. When he was twenty-two he migrated to an island off the north-west coast of Ireland. Since then he’s lived in Dublin, London, Valencia, Spain and Torun, Poland, the city of Copernicus. His novel Motherland won the David Higham award for the best first novel in 1989. I Could Read the Sky, a collaboration with photographer Steve Pyke, won the Encore Award for best second novel of 1997. It was filmed and also travelled as a stage show with several of Ireland’s most celebrated musicians.
His novel Light was published in 2004. His non-fiction books are Curious Journey: An Oral History of Ireland’s Unfinished Revolution, On Golf and Divine Magnetic Lands (2008). His book Children of Las Vegas, based on interviews with people who grew up in the city, was published by Unbound in 2016. He has written for many newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, Esquire, The Sunday Times, the TLS, CondeNast Traveller and The Irish Times. He has written and presented series for the B.B.C. His new novel Monaghan will be published by Unbound in 2023.
Patrick McCabe
Pat McCabe photographed in Idelwild Dublin 03/03/2018
Pat McCabe was born in Clones, County Monaghan, Ireland in 1955. He has been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize and winner of The Irish Times Fiction Award for his novel The Butcher Boy; his other novels include The Dead School, Breakfast On Pluto, Hello Mr Bones, and Winterwood. He has also written for radio, stage and screen. Pat is married with two grown-up children. His most recent novel is Poguemahone, an old-time fireside song conducted by Nosferatu. He is a member of Aosdana.
Photographer Steve Pyke
Steve Pyke MBE, HonFRPS is a renowned photographer known for his intimate and intense black and white portraits of extraordinary thinkers, creators, and artists of our time. He has spent the last 40 years seeing the world through a creative lens. Born in Leicester, UK and residing in London and NYC for many years. Steve now lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. His astounding photographs of Irish immigrants are featured in the book “I Could Read The Sky’.
About The Musicians
Michael McGoldrick
Manchester born Mike McGoldrick, (flute, whistles, Uilleann pipes, bodhran, clarinet, congas..) is currently regarded as one of the greatest Irish musicians in the globe. Twice winner of the ‘BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year Award’, he was a founding member of the celtic rock band ‘Toss The Feathers’, a founding member of the Irish Supergroups ‘Flook’ and ‘Lúnasa’ and he’s a current member of ‘Capercaillie’ and ‘Ushers Island’; He has performed around the globe with Dire Straits legend Mark Knopfler, and he has toured with Bob Dylan and he regularly plays with ‘The Afro Celt Sound System’. From 1996 until now, Michael has recorded five solo albums. Along with fellow musicians John McCusker and John Doyle he has toured the globe and he’s regularly appeared on the T.V series ‘The Transatlantic Sessions’
Dezi Donnelly
Fellow Mancunian, Dezi Donnelly, (who grew up with Mike McGoldrick) is currently regarded as one of the greatest Irish fiddlers to be found. Having played fiddle since the age of seven, Dezi was the ‘All Britain Fiddle Champion’ by the age of 9 and amazingly, by the age of 15, he’d won the ‘All Ireland Champion’ title five times! A runner-up in the “BBC 2 Young Traditional Musician Of The Year Award” (1997), Dezi went onto scoop the “All Ireland Young Traditional Musician Of The Year” (1998). A close musical associate of McGoldrick he has performed on many of McGoldrick’s albums and in 1999 he released his own debut album “Familiar Footsteps’ which won rave reviews and is recognised as one of the greatest traditional fiddle albums of all time. As an interpreter of traditional music, Dezi stands apart from other fiddlers of his generation; his live, high-energy playing never fails to astound audiences and he is regarded as the unpredictable wonder-boy of fiddle improvisation and one of the greatest. Irish fiddlers in the word today.
Cathy Jordan
Roscommon born Cathy Jordan has been a professional singer with traditional group Dervish for nearly 30 years. She is a self-taught guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán and bones player.
She has led Dervish as front woman through thousands of concerts around the globe and has 16 albums under her belt. As a songwriter, she has written songs with internationally renowned Brendan Graham, best known for the most successful song of the twentieth century, You Raise Me Up. In 2014, she took up the role of presenter of Fleadh TV with TG4. Cathy and Dervish have been invited to accompany Presidents and Taoisigh’s of Ireland as cultural ambassadors to China, Latvia and Lithuania. Dervish’s most recent album, The Great Irish Songbook, was released in 2019 and features duets with Vince Gill, Steve Earle, Imelda May, David Gray and more. Cathy has picked up many awards for her contribution to traditional Irish music including BBC Lifetime Achievement Award 2019, Sligo Cultural Ambassador 2018, Annie McNulty Award 2014 and The Freedom of The City of Sligo in 2010. Cathy has a deep understanding of the Irish tradition and is regarded as one of the finest traditional singers in Ireland
Larry Beau
Larry Beau is a contemporary Irish singer songwriter and a folk musical artist. His forthcoming album “Dust and Daydreams” is a collection of Journeyman songs written over the past 10 years around Ireland Europe and the USA. His songs and dramatic vocal approach have garnered comparisons to Kate Bush, David Bowie and John Lennon. He’s had his lyrics published in the literary magazine ‘The Stinging Fly’ and his songs have been performed on RTE Radio 1. Collaborative projects include folk operative compositions with visual ats curator Vaari Claffey, and with the award-winning actress Olwen Fouéré
What the Press say about the show “I Could Read the Sky”
‘I Could Read the Sky’ is more than a concert, more than a show, and more than an experience, it is the truth, and all human life is here.” – Irish Music Magazine
“…an amazing concert…and the audience responded with standing ovations and tears of sadness and pride.” – The Examiner
“Tonight was quite something. Billed as a night of words and music, it instead blossomed into a communion of performers and punters.” – Hot Press
What the Press say about the book ‘I Could Read The Sky’
There is a rare, fragile species of novel that draws its beauty as much from what it leaves out as from what it puts in. This is one of those: a stark heartbreaking story of an Irish labourer’s life in England. “It has been made in the dark,” says John Berger in his preface, lit from within by a cloudy, uncertain glow. Steve Pyke’s arresting black-and-white photographs of Irish faces and scenes are scattered throughout, as haunting a record of lives lived under the yoke of time as the novel itself. – Carrie O’Grady, Guardian
I can think of no collaborative work that feels so organic. Through a single character, Timothy O’Grady does not just respond to Steve Pyke’s stark, beautiful photographs: he gives voice to thousands. A writer of exceptional talent, empathy, and restraint. – Louise Kennedy
For me, as somebody who has personally lived the life of an immigrant, “I Could Read The Sky” is a beautiful and poignant description of this complex emotional experience. It’s the story of countless Irish people who vanished into the building sites and bed sits of England carrying with them little more than the stories, music and memories of their homeland. This sensitively told story is filled with humor, sadness and musical memory. – Martin Hayes
What the Press say about “Poguemahone”
‘If you’re looking for this century’s Ulysses, look no further … a stunningly lyrical novel’ – Alex Preston, Observer
‘Patrick McCabe’s hippie satire is like Flann O’Brien on drugs’ – Sean O’Brien, The Telegraph
‘McCabe may be right when he claims that Poguemahone is his best book: it is startlingly original, moving, funny, frightening and beautiful’ **** – The Guardian
‘“Poguemahone,” living up to its author’s reputation, is daring, studded with brilliance, raucous and exhausting. It might overstay its welcome, but you’ll remember its visit’ – The New York Times
‘I warn you, like all good books, Poguemahone is a mind-altering drug’ – BBC 4 Front Row
‘There are plenty of outrageous stories, all delivered with unflagging flair, but prospective readers are advised to equip themselves like that cornered pub-goer: with a tall glass of whiskey at hand’ – Wall Street Journal
‘Poguemahone is a stunning novel, one of those exceedingly rare books that deserve to be described as a masterpiece’ – Locus Magazine
With it’s haunting strangeness and blazing originality, Poguemahone deserves far more than a cult following’ – Times Literary Supplement
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