Lughnasa – Smock Alley – Review

1 + 2 Aug 2025 – 7pm – Boys’ School, Smock Alley

Lughnasa is the Irish word for August, a month that marks the start of the harvest season in the Irish Calendar. It was a time of celebration, and so it is quite fitting that this night of poetry, spoken word and music used the name. The performance was produced by TeoChroí in association with Poetry Ireland.

The performance started with a short introduction by Úna Ní Nualláin, who acted as the host (and director) for the evening. After that, we got a series of readings from the different poets/ writers with occasional musical interludes. The poets showed the diversity in a modern Irish society. Shanaia Kapoor was one of the most hardest-hitting performers, despite her pleasant demeanour. Her story of everyday, casual racism by a bus driver on her morning commute made you consider how difficult life can be.  Róisín Nic Ghearilt discussed our difficult relationship with the Irish language. She performed mainly in Irish and showed that we can understand more of the language than we would expect. David Kirby talked of rural life in Ireland, and Christeen Obasi explored nature and plant life through her work.

The first musical interlude was performed by Emily Healy, who sang two songs with her guitar at the end of the first half of the performance. The evening ended on a high note with a FILIDH, a five-piece trad/ folk group based in Dublin, featuring fiddle, banjo, flute, bodhrán and guitar, along with vocals. They will soon release their first single and are a name to watch out for, if you have an interest in the Irish Trad scene.

The production delivered a lively evening of music and poetry. It was an interesting decision to incorporate the more cerebral elements of the text and poetry with the musical elements, so the night catered for everyone. The performances by the different poets were short, sharp bursts that allowed us to see a large number of different perspectives throughout the evening and introduced many new names to the audience.

DIRECTED BY Úna Ní Nualláin
PRODUCED BY Olivia Walsh
LIGHTING DESIGN BY Liam Schmidt
SOUND DESIGN BY Ultan de Stáinleigh

MUSIC BY FILIDH (Caty Clery, Neil Dignam, Declan Coles, Ellen O’Brien, Tama de Búrca)
PERFORMANCES BY Róisín Nic Ghearilt, Stephen Brock, Christeen Obasi, Caroline Morris, Emily Healy, David Kirby, Shanaia Kapoor, Úna Ní Nualláin