O`Riada Sa Gaiety was a live recording of one of the most celebrated gigs ever in Ireland; playing to a packed and expectant house, O’Riada’s trademark harpsichord brings a prophetic European flavour to Ceoltoiri Cualann’s zestful playing, as they take us on a journey through the rich depth of Ireland’s musical heritage.
You can catch the martial stirrings in the cavalry tune ‘Marchshlua Ui Neill’, which Horslips and Jack Charlton later borrowed for ‘Dearg Doom’. By way of contrast, you’re unlikely to find a slow air played as delicately as they do ‘Marbhna Luimnigh’. ‘The Whinny Hills of Leitrim’ even has them dancing in the aisles. What this historic recording might lack in state-of-the-art pyrotechnics, it more than makes up for in the warmth of a magnificent performance that opened doors to a richer world. For a lot of us, it was a last glance over the shoulder at the moribund and tight-lipped Ireland of yore. A harbinger of better days.