Macahar enchant crowd for National Heritage Week

Síofra Grant

Macahar is a combination of the Irish words for Son and Father, Mac and Athair. It is a fitting name for musical duo Caoimhín Ó Mórdha and Naosán Ó Mórdha who, as you may have guessed, are father and son.

The two performed at the Mullingar Tourist Information Centre as a part of National Heritage Week to an eager lunchtime crowd on Thursday.

The room was filled to bursting and as the two men prepared to begin they could be seen chatting with members of the audience.

Before the concert began, Caoimhín and Naosán told the story of how Macahar came about.

“I’m a writer of Irish and English poetry and Naosán is a writer of music and a composer, so we have combined our poetry and music.

“We have a book and a new CD coming out shortly and Naosán has written 12 music pieces to accompany my 12 bilingual poems.”

When Caoimhín recites his work, the room is completely silent, there is no trace of the chatter or movement that was there as the crowd entered. The work harks back to the days of old Ireland, when storytellers would hold the attention of the crowd.

Macahar really only started this year, he explained, “This is gig number five. So far we’ve played twice in Mullingar for the Literary Festival and in Áras an Mhuilinn and we’ve done two gigs in the Gaeltacht in Donegal.”

The Irish language is precious to Caoimhín especially. He grew up in Belfast during the Troubles and his family moved to Cavan in an effort to escape the conflict, but he has lived all over the country.

“Naosán was born and bred in Mullingar and I’m 35 years here so we’ve put this together.

“He came home from London last night for this and we’re looking forward to it. Naosán is used to this, he’s performed in Mullingar, he’s a singer songwriter, used to the stage.”

For their upcoming book, the duo worked with a friend of Naosán from Sweden, a producer who had been living in London until recently.

“Naosán has written music since he was a teenager so I’ve had the idea for years that it would be nice if we combined the written and spoken word with music.

“Naosán does indie pop as well as contemporary classical stuff and we thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to combine them?’.”

Naosán explained how the two first got in contact with the producer. “He’s a guy I met when I did a music course in 2021, I met him over there and he was in the same music college as me and we became friends, he’s actually one of my best friends now.

“He’s very good, he’s back to Sweden now – he lived in London for a few years now but has gone back home, so any of the work, he’s done an awesome job.”

A lot of Caoimhín’s poems are inspired by his own life. His experience of the Troubles, and moving south, his mother, his father, his children’s swing, and old friends. He also writes about the rain, about grief, about the fairies and mythology of Ireland.

The event went well, extra chairs were brought in and people stood outside the door.

A Ukrainian woman, Olena Kryzhanovska has been living in Mullingar for a while and works as a cleaner in the centre. She arrived at the gig with two bunches of flowers for the men and presented them to Macahar at the end.

“Mullingar is a beautiful town” she said. “I came here from Ukraine and I live in Mullingar now, I work here as a cleaner. They said there was music and poetry going on today, and I like that kind of thing, I like this place.”

During an interval Naosán entertained the crowd with two original songs of his as well as one by another Mullingar local, Niall Horan.

When they finished, they received a standing ovation, and no doubt the claps could be heard by people outside on the Market Square.

The Macahar performance was just one of many events for National Heritage week, each offering a look into the different aspects of the area’s history, and culture.