Irish music reduces the gulf between Ireland and the US

The Gulf Stream current creates a transatlantic bridge that connects Ireland to the Gulf Coast and the Gulf Coast to Ireland.

The current originates in the Gulf of Mexico, where I am writing this.

I catch my breath after a run along the island city coastline of Galveston. Every time I roam this golden coast, I always reflect on my hometown of Bundoran, Co Donegal – these warm, eddying waters that travel swiftly more than 6,000km across the Atlantic Ocean – keeping the west coast of Ireland warmer than the east coast.

Another transatlantic bridge that weds the Gulf Coast waters to Ireland’s waters is the traditional Irish music festival of the Gulf Coast Cruinniú on the US’s Third Coast (a colloquialism here used to describe coastal areas distinct from the east and west coast). The Cruinniú just celebrated its fifth anniversary in Houston, Texas.

Cruinniú is an Irish word that means “to gather, assemble or draw together”. The Gulf Coast Cruinniú lives up to its name, because the annual live music event is a gathering of incredible Irish musicians from the US, Ireland and around the world for “classes, culture, sessions and craic”.

During the day, workshops and journeys are taught at the University of St Thomas by well-versed traditional Irish arts performers and instructors. In the evening, musicians gather at the local Irish music session hosted at the Penny Whistle Pub, in the eclectic Houston neighbourhood of Montrose.

The inspiration for the Cruinniú was, according to Irish fiddler Katie Geringer, when “a group of musician friends in the Houston area wanted to increase the opportunities for Irish musicians throughout Texas, our neighbouring states, and beyond to study with top-level performers and teachers of Irish music. After lots of brainstorming, the Gulf Coast Cruinniú was born.”

It is supported by the Irish Government’s Emigrant Support Programme and is a branch of the Irish School of Music. Artist Amy Bogard was asked to produce artwork. One of the pictures she sent back was an armadillo with a banjo slung over its back. The Cruinniú Criú fell in love with it, nicknamed him Banjodilly, and he became the mascot for the Gulf Coast Cruinniú.

Houston is the most diverse city in the US, and because of this diversity, the Irish musicians of Cruinniú are from all walks of life, but they gather together because of their love and passion for Irish music.

After speaking with Katie, I started to imagine how I could personify the relationship between the Gulf Coast and Ireland. As the waters lapped up against Galveston’s Historic Pleasure Pier, I looked at a map of Ireland on my laptop. As some Texan fishers cast out their lines, I noticed the shape of the Irish coastline. I imagined that Ireland’s topography embodied the Ancient Irish Mother-Goddess, Banba, sitting down with her body facing America.

As I sat with my body facing Ireland, I heard waves of Cruinniú’s music echo – I wrote in my journal: “Fáilte greets Banba – welcoming the Gulf Stream current – her emerald island-body gracefully poised to listen to the musical waters of the Atlantic coast that channel her rhythm, melody and harmony”.

Banba’s Crown bows to the swelling current reaching Malin Head in Donegal – she feels the current billowing between her hands around the Mayo and Galway shore.

She leans her body against her strumming harp by the river Shannon’s estuary, and her outstretched feet tap to the resonant current along the Cork and Kerry coastline.

Banba’s emerald island-body offers warm thanks to her children playing her golden songs, echoing across these musical waters – a transatlantic bridge, a mighty sea session airing through this streaming coastal current – “she listens to the Irish music and sings with the Gulf Coast Cruinniú”.

• Éamon Ó Caoineachán is from Rathmore, between Bundoran and Ballyshannon, in Co Donegal. He emigrated to Texas in 2007. A writer and poet, he studied for his Master’s in Irish Studies at the University of St Thomas, Houston, Texas. He is currently a PhD student at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.
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