Storytelling Thrives at Irish Music Festival
Ocean Shores, Washington
The North Coast News of Ocean Shores, Washington, featured ClanDonnell in its preview of the Irish Music Festival, in October, 2014, under the headline “Storytelling thrives at Irish Music Festival”.
The complete article was on the newpaper’s website but, alas, it is no longer. You can read the article, by Angelo Bruscas, at the pdf link below.
The North Coast News featured ClanDonnell again in October, 2016, with an article by Scott Johnston, “Storyteller-historian McDonnell returns to Celtic Music Fest“.
Some of the highlights of the 2014 feature:
Starting its second decade as one of the most eclectic music festivals in the Northwest, the 11th annual Galway Bay Irish Music Festival is not just about the music.
It is as much a cultural celebration, rich in oral history with modern interpretations, while many of the tunes, lyrics, dances and traditions trace back through generations.
In addition to the 30 assembled musical performers appearing for this year’s festival, Irish author David McDonnell will be telling stories as part of a book tour with the theme, “Get in touch with your Irish Roots.”
“Storytelling is an old Celtic custom. It was certainly a major focus on festivals and celebrations when a story teller would come to a village and weave different tales. For a thousand years, it was how people learned of their past and their heroes and history,” McDonnell said in an interview on Friday. “I think that’s a reason why there are such wonderful, wonderful Irish writers.”
The jovial Irishman in his 60s tries to do his part, he says, by just “getting in front of people and telling a story.”
During this week’s festival, McDonnell will be telling stories from his new book, “ClanDonnell: A Storied History of Ireland,” which has received three recent national book awards and accolades from readers and reviewers. The book is a collection of stories of an Irish clan, which McDonnell began to research from his home in northern Michigan, eventually leading him to travels through Ireland.
“I had always collected stories of the clan, and it turned out that I had a book here. The more I researched one story, that led me to another and then another,” he said.
The book, with photos of the sites, follows Celtic Ireland’s McDonnell clan and their descendants into the 20th century: Because the first McDonnells were mercenaries often called to service in all corners of Ireland, the clan’s history is intertwined with the history of the entire island.
“Descendants of these McDonnell mercenaries included nobles and farmers, landlords and peasants, soldiers and poets, coffin ship victims and survivors, Protestants and Catholics, constables and revolutionaries. Some immigrated to North America and others fought in foreign armies. Many were killed or had land confiscated by the English. Still others adapted well to British Ireland. Collectively, the stories of these McDonnells during critical periods in Irish history tell the story of Ireland.