Category Archives: music

The Bogus Pogues – Jiggery Poguery Launch

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Cover of Jiggery Poguery

The Bogus Pogues launched their new CD Jiggery Poguery with a live show in the Roisin Dubh on Saturday night. The CD contains 6 Pogue’s tracks; Streams of whiskey, A Pair of Brown Eyes, Body of an American, Whiskey Your’e The Devil, If I Should Fall From Grace with God and Rainy Night in Soho.

The Bogus Pogues (Photograph by Sarah Connolly)

The Bogus Pogues are a Galway based tribute band composed of fantastic traditional musicians. Band members are Val Broderick (pipes/whistles), Jonathan Fahy (drums), Ollie fahy (accordion), Brian Horrigan (guitar/banjo), Ollie O’Neill (bass guitar/banjo) and Labhras Sammin (vocals). With such an array of instruments at their disposal the band creates a huge sound on stage and like the Pogues themselves always develop a party atmosphere.

Labhras Sammin (Photograph by Sarah Connolly)

Saturday’s gig on the main stage in the Roisin Dubh saw the band in fine form and Labhras Sammin, the lead vocalist, led them through a stream of Pogues classics. It is impossible not to be drawn into the energy of the music and by the time they finished with a rousing rendition of fiesta the large crowd were all up dancing and jigging. This was live music at its best and everybody went home happy, sweaty and with a complimentary copy of Jiggery Poguery tucked under their oxter, you couldn’t say fairer then that.

The songs on the CD are available for preview on the Bogus Pogues audioBoo channel and the band are hoping the CD will act as a calling card. The band would love to bring their rousing live show to festivals and events throughout Ireland and further afield.
Here is Rainy Night in Soho from the new CD.

An Interview with Julie Feeney

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Julie Feeney and Mark Duley in St Nicholas cathedral at the launch of the new Schola Cantorum.

I had the pleasure of catching up with Julie Feeney after last nights launch of the Schola Cantorum in St Nicholas Church in Galway. Julie had just landed back in Ireland after a very successful stint performing in New York at the Irish Arts Center. The New York Times gave her a rave review and she seems to have really loved the energy in the city. Julie also tells a wonderful story about how she ended up playing a couple of shows in Canada and having in her own words ‘the best week of her life’. This accomplished composer singer and producer has a lot on her plate over the coming months and is presently  composing an opera and also has a  tour of Ireland to prepare and organise in November. In the middle of all this activity she has also just recorded her third album which is due out at the end of the year.

Launch of the St Nicholas Schola Cantorum

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The Parish Choir, singer, Julie Feeney and the Mayor of Galway Cllr.Hildegarde Naughton

A new Schola Cantorum was launched last night in St Nicholas Collegiate Church. The new musical school reestablishes the ancient college of singing priests which was first established in the church in 1486 to sing the daily services and to educate boy choirsters to sing with them. The three aims of the Schola Cantorum are to enrich worship, educate singers and promote the arts. I was alerted to the launch by the following tweet from Julie Feeney who was heading to St Nicholas for the launch having just returned home after a hugely successful two week run in the Irish Arts Center in New York.

The St Nicholas Parish Choir perform at the launch

St Nicholas Parish choir led by Mark Duley the Director of the Schola Cantorum, organist of St Nicholas and well know choral director started proceedings by singing two wonderful liturgical pieces.

The dean of Arts, NUIG, Dr. Edward Herring, Singer, Julie Feeney, Director of the Schola Cantorum, Mark Duley, Rector of St Nicholas, Archdeacon Gary Hastings and Mayor of Galway Cllr. Hildegarde Naughton.

The Rector of St Nicholas Church Archdeacon Gary Hastings then welcomed the invited guests to the launch and introduced The Mayor of Galway Hildegard Naughton who bestowed best wishes on the new school on behalf of the people of Galway. Mark Duley then gave an overview of what exactly the Schola Cantorum will be and what he and the steering group hope to achieve. The aims of the project will be fulfilled through four ensembles; three new ensembles and the existing parish choir. They will all be based in the church but will reach out to all the people of Galway through education programmes and most importantly through their music. The new ensembles will include Choristers, made up of children between the ages of 8 – 14 drawn from St Nicholas Parochial School and the wider community, a 20 strong group of Choral Scholars from NUIG and the St Nicholas Singers a large all comers group drawn from the city and county.

There will be a new link with NUIG through the establishment of the Choral Scholars and the Dean of Arts Dr. Edward Herring gave a short explanation of this link and explained how delighted the college was to play a part in the new initiative. The college are striving to strengthen links with the wider Galway community and to give students the opportunity to achieve an all round education. The establishment of the Choral Scholars is a new and welcome element of that plan.

Julie Feeney was then welcomed by Mark Duley and invited to perform and to say a few words. Julie wowed the assembled crowd with an unaccompanied, unplugged version of her beautiful song ‘Impossibly Beautiful’ which sounded spectacular as she walked through the crowd and the special acoustics of St Nicholas embellished the wonderful performance. Julie as a Galway native and someone with an impressive choral background was delighted to show her support for the launch of this great new initiative which will continue to place St Nicholas Church at the heart of the spiritual and cultural life of Galway.

Julie Feeney and Mark Duley

I had the pleasure of chatting with Julie Feeney and Mark Duley after the launch. Julie explains why she was there and is so supportive of the initiative and Mark explained his vision of what the new Schola Cantorum will offer.

Some more photos from the launch are available over on Flickr

To support the new initiative you can become a Companion of the St Nicholas Schola Cantorum by filling out a donation form on the back of the promotional leaflets which are available in the church.