Gaelic games

John Spillane and Louis de Paor have been mates since school, collaborating on their first epic poem in fifth year when they should have been paying attention to their Physics teacher. “Yes, we’ve worked together on a lot of projects since then,” Spillane explains, “and some of the songs on the album came out of those projects, such as ‘The Tale of The Mermaid’s Daughter’ which we originally wrote for a Karan Casey project. But I wanted to make myself huge as a songwriter in English first and then do this!”

The duo collaborate in the legendary manner of Elton John and Bernie Taupin: de Paor kicks off with some lyrics in Irish and Spillane tries to find a musical pattern. They knock it back and forth until both are satisfied with the finished track.
While admitting that the number of people who speak Irish is very small and that, except for pockets like Galway, you’re more likely to hear Lithuanian or Polish on Irish streets, Spillane says, “Irish is cooler now that it ever was. People don’t hate it as much as they used to. TG4 has been a great boost, but Louis is more optimistic about it than I am. He claims that Ireland is ready for Irish now, but we lost the Battle of Kinsale, and I’m not so sure about its future.”
He also plays tribute to producer John Reynolds for the way the album turned out. “John was brilliant. It was his idea to get Natacha Atlas to sing on a two tracks ‘Inghean’ and ‘Bata is Bothar’. Her voice gives the tracks a very haunting Middle Eastern feel that I believe you often get in Irish music too.”
He’s a bit sceptical about how Irish works with rock music. “Generally I don’t think Irish works with rock 'n' roll,” he says. “That music originates with African-Americans and when I’ve heard rock songs translated into Irish they just don’t work. The Gaelic Hit Factory only makes it work because we use the music to support the lyrics, rather than just forcing the lyrics where they don’t fit. It’s more based in Irish traditional music with other influences brought in.”
That would explain how tracks like ‘Eist Do Bheal’ and 'Buille mo Chroi’ work so effectively and so naturally. Both men are passionate fans of Rory Gallagher. Spillane had ‘A Song For Rory Gallagher’ on his album Hey Dreamer and de Paor has written a poem about him.
“He was a huge influence on both of us,” Spillane admits. “I did Rory covers in early bands I was in. Not many people know this, but Rory was a fluent Irish speaker; Louis’ father was Rory’s dentist and we used to meet him a lot back then with his long hair. He was always such a genuinely nice guy, apart from his enormous talent.”
Will Spillane be playing tracks from the album on his Raidio na Gaeltachta programme? “Absolutely not. We would call that ‘doing a Tom Dunne’. I think it’s a dubious thing to do, playing your own records on your own radio show.”
It’s not hard to detect his delight with the way the album turned out.
“I reckon it’s the best album in Irish since O Riada Sa Gaiety in 1969,” he declares.
Few will argue with that.