The ABAIR programme is back for 2024!
ABAIR is St. Patrick’s Festival’s flagship traditional arts strand, sponsored by the Arts Council Traditional Arts fund, which explores the Irish traditions of storytelling, song, and oral history and traces their links around the world.
Curated by traditional singer Macdara Yeates, and now in its 6th year, the multi-format programme offers a wide array of concerts, pop-ups and storytelling sessions that examine the relationship between the sung and spoken word in Ireland and abroad (the Irish word ‘Abair’ translates roughly as both ‘to say’ and ‘to sing’).
ABAIR is part of the One City Programme.
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Abair | Garvey’s Ghost
An evening of folk song, poetry and discussion, tracing the history of Marcus Garvey, the Harlem civil rights activist who took inspiration from the 1916 Rising.
Friday 15 March 2024, 8:30pm. Tickets: €20
TU Dublin Grangegorman Concert Hall
Presented by Irish-Nigerian author and political commentator Emma Dabiri and featuring Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Cedric Watson (USA), Niamh Bury, Dagogo Hart, Prof. Christine Kinealy, Leni Sloan (USA) and Macdara Yeates, Garvey’s Ghost, is an evening of folk music, poetry and discussion exploring the complicated history of Black-Irish solidarity from the Famine to the Ulster Civil Rights Movement.
Taking inspiration from Marcus Garvey, the Harlem-based Civil Rights activist who became enamoured with the 1916 Rising, the event journeys through the music, words and social history of two peoples and examines the deep cultural links between them.
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Abair | Bothy/Bothán
An Evening of Songs and Stories from Ireland and Scotland
Saturday 16 March 2024, 7:30pm. Tickets: €10
Blackbox Theatre, TU Dublin Grangegorman
Bothy/Bothán is an international collaboration of music and shared history, co-curated by folk singers Macdara Yeates and Steve Byrne. Using the work songs of both countries as a central theme, the event brings together artists from Scotland and Ireland to explore shared traditions and folk customs, covering everything from songs of migrant farm labourers in the North East of Scotland to the centuries-old ballads of emigrant Irish workers on the neighbouring isle.
Featuring:
Landless (Ire)
Choras (Sco)
Len Graham (Ire)
Scott Gardiner (Sco)
Steve Byrne (Sco)
and Macdara Yeates (Ire)
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Abair | Holyhead
An Evening of Songs and Stories from Ireland and Scotland
Sunday 17 March 2024, 7:30pm. Tickets: €10
Blackbox Theatre, TU Dublin Grangegorman
Holyhead is an international collaboration of music and shared history, co-curated by folk singers Macdara Yeates and Gwilym Bowen Rhys.
Using the Dublin-Holyhead sailing route as a central theme, the event brings together artists from Wales and Ireland to explore shared traditions and folk customs, covering everything from the Welsh and Irish harping traditions to the rich vein of emigration songs in which Holyhead port plays a central role.
Featuring:
Cerys Hafana (Wal)
Fergus Russell (Ire)
Linda Griffiths (Wal)
Micheál Ó Catháin (Ire)
Gwilym Bowen Rhys (Wal)
Macdara Yeates (Ire)
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Abair | The Phoeno
A Musical Walking Tour of the Phoenix Park
Saturday 16 March 2024, 3pm and 5pm. Tickets: €10
Phoenix Park, Parkgate Street Entrance.
To accompany the new publication ‘The Lamplighters of Phoenix Park,’ historian Donal Fallon (Three Castles Burning) leads tourists on a journey of two-hundred years of Dublin history, from the Phoenix Park assassinations to the foundation of the Zoological gardens, illuminated by a series of musical acts along the way.
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Abair | Storytelling Sessions
16 – 17 March 2024, 2pm. Tickets: Free
ABAIR’s Storytelling Sessions is curated by veteran storyteller Jack Lynch, one of Ireland’s foremost voices in the world of folk tales and mythology.
Saturday 16th will feature Patrick Ryan and Colum Sands.
Sunday 17th will feature Len Graham and Simone Schuemmelfeder.
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Full programme of events
Grandstand tickets
Mother – Cultúr Club Tickets
St. Patrick’s Festival is made possible through the continued support of the Government of Ireland, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, Dublin City Council, and many generous partners and funders.
BUY TICKETS Events & Parade | St. Patrick’s Festival | 15 – 18 March 2024 (stpatricksfestival.ie)
