A Captain Unafraid Soundtrack!

Anyone that has been reading this blog the last few years will know that "A Captain Unafraid" is a Cuban Irish-American documentary film I've been working on. Off on one I've been-hacking away diligently through the overgrowth of a Cuban jungle in search of Irish islands, circling back by Manhattan's East River, down again to San Juan, Cienfuegos. For the great unwashed, come into the fold brethren, our movie concerns 19th century adventurer "Dynamite" Johnny O' Brien. Our ramblings and discoveries have had musical accompaniment-drones, ullagones, guitars, banjos-all have helped us on our mad merry way as we learned more about the man they call "A Captain Unafraid." Myself and William Kemp created the sounds which accompany this historical tale. The film itself was completed last December, and the soundtrack is now being released on Cd and digital download.

The album was woven together by myself and William Kemp, over a long winter we scraped banjos, flaked guitars, belted basses, took bows to bikes-aiming our arrows at resurrecting something of the ghost of Dynamite John. What you are hearing is the emotions that came through us as we attempted to sail, miles in land, on an ocean of sound with Captain Dynamite. The album was recorded in Trouble or Fortune Studios-a small room in the middle of Killarney town. Many songs were made up and recorded on the spot, others were honed over weeks and months....

Here is a selection of full songs from the album on Soundcloud....

Charlie O' Brien · "A Captain Unafraid" Soundtrack Selection (2016)

You can buy the Cd from the film's website...

https://www.acaptainunafraid.com/soundtrack

Óglaigh Chill Airne

There was a book launch this evening in Gaelscoil Faithleann-an Irish speaking primary school in Killarney. The book "Óglaigh Chill Airne" by Tomás B O' Luanaigh concerns the setup of the Kerry branch of the Irish Volunteers, their involvement in the 1916 rising, and the subsequent interment of some of their members in the prison camp of Frongoch in Wales. Cheannaigh mé cóip, táimse ag tnú go mór leis an leabhair a léamh! 

the author himself an tAthair Tomás B O' Luanaigh

Just glancing through the book many gems appear, such as this short poem written by one of the internees at Frongoch, he recalls his participation in the rising in Dublin-

A thought immediately after surrender in Moore St.

Doomed to strive for all things 

to achieve none,

All attacking, nothing gaining,

Battles without fruit,

Laurels without triumph,

Fame without success.

signed, 

Denis Daly,

Main St. 

Cahersiveen

Frongoch Internment Camp, 

1st Nov. 1916

An Gal Gréine at Gaelscoil Faithleann

The book also tells how An Seabhac (the hawk) Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha on friday the 28th of November 1913 gave an Irish class as he usually did for Conradh na Gaeilge in Killarney. What made this class different was the enlistment of fifty members into the Irish Volunteers during the lessons. An Dún, where the meeting occurred, was an old disused Methodist Church that, incidentally, was situated right next to the apartment where I live here on High Street! This new branch of the volunteers was only the second in the country and many members went on to fight in the 1916 rising in Dublin.

New Street, Killarney, Irish Volunteers, 1914

In July 1914, the Oireachtas occurred in Killarney. It was on this November in Killarney too! 

During the 1914 festivities, 2500 members of the Irish Volunteers marched through the town with rifles and in full military regalia. The Royal Irish Constabulary who looked on were, needless to say, worried.