Creative Writing

Creative Writing A woman with many strings to her bow

Eileen Casey meets composer Fiona Linnane

Fiona Linnane at the Mid West School for the Deaf

Fiona Linnane Photos: Claire O'Rorke

A typical morning in Fiona Linnane’s home is very similar to lots of other families with young children. “It starts around 7am when my six years old son wakes up”. While her husband heads out to his own work, Fiona and son “hang out and chat until 8am.” Just like any mother and son on any normal day.

They are lucky enough to be able to walk the distance to school for 9am and if this vibrant young woman is working from home, “I will take the dog for a walk and be back at my desk for around 9.30 am.” For a consistently in-demand composer, the day then diverts from domestic matters. Having achieved an MA in Music Technology (University of Limerick, 2000), she reckons the morning is the best time for tabling ‘brain work’ . Light administration takes place in the evening when emails, phone calls can be done without too much disruption to the rhythms of family life. However, because of her work schedule, days at home are rare enough. A working composer, she’s often in schools on artists’ residencies. It is literally a constant whirl. Performances. Rehearsals. Among the many strings to her bow is that she is conductor for a women’s community choir in Ennis and an accompanist for the National Concert Hall Health and Harmony Programme (NCHH&HP), among other portfolios. In truth, and she’s the first to agree, as being an artist is essentially a solitary occupation, “this kind of work, being out in the world of music, is a tremendous antidote.”

I’m already catching my breath. The range of Fiona’s accomplishments are many and varied. It brings her lots of joy however, as evidenced by the bright gleam in her blue eyes, a perfect partnership with her red hair. This is a woman not to be taken lightly. I’m aware of an individual very much at home in her own skin. Intelligence is written on her expressive face and she’s genuinely interested in the lives and well-being of others. In the NCHH&HP, for example, Fiona works with “a lovely singersoprano Eve Stafford and we deliver fortnightly concerts in care homes.”

So how did it all begin for this composer originally from Cratloe, a small village in County Clare? She calls becoming a composer, “a calculated choice.” Music was clearly on her horizon from her early twenties when she was writing a lot of singer/songwriter style repertoire. Encouragement came from her parents, both open minded about Fiona’s and indeed her siblings chosen professions. With her mother being a creative thinker, “life at home was always quite unpredictable and exciting.” And even if her parents found their daughter’s career choices perplexing

Fiona Linnane conducting Limerick New Music Ensemble. Photo: Claire O'Rorke

sometimes, now that she is enjoying success, they “worry less about the life of an artist.” Fiona’s smile positively lights up the room as she recollects her musical journey. She was never content to sit back and wait for things to happen. Working in the famous Bunratty and Knappogue Castles, as a singer, she met many wonderful friends who had the same passion for music. “This included my friend, contralto Sarah Ellen Murphy – who has always been a great partner in crime for our many musical adventures.” Together they founded COMA (now Limerick New Music Ensemble) in 2008 – an ensemble playing music by living composers. Sarah Ellen was also the original singer for Fiona’s first four songs from a song cycle inspired by the work of Limerick writer Kate O’Brien. From those beginnings, these two friends are now involved with Opera Workshop, “a dynamic opera company founded by Director Shirley Keane, in 2017.” As there isn’t already proof of such an enduring friendship, Fiona laughs and tells me that aside from the friendship, Sarah Ellen is a real “yes” woman (clearly after her own heart). “Sarah gets things done, up for anything. Last night we were at a solo Hurdy Gurdy concert in a Georgian house. There are only certain friends you could invite to that!” I’m guessing that the delights of such a gathering are beyond my ken so I’m happy to move on!

Like coals to Newcastle, I’m thinking that around Fiona’s home, famous composers are sleeved in album covers, taped in the car, loud speakered outinto relaxing hours. Surprisingly, she tells me she doesn’t listen to a lot of music – “unless it’s a concert.” She either finds it hard to focus and finds her mind wandering or, on the flip side, it distracts her. So what does she listen to? Surprisingly, it’s the ordinariness of “talk radio or pop music.” Just as I register surprise, this talented woman quickly assures me that she loves “to hear live music – folk music from other countries, early music, opera, opera and more opera! In case I’ve forgotten to mention, Fiona specialises in Opera and Vocal Music. She’s also recently joined a choir who sing, exclusively, Finnish music – “it has been a real joy to rediscover the delight of being in the choir rather than conducting or composing for the choir.”

Music is a language we know and often connect with mathematics . I wonder if Fiona can add the solving of such problems to her skillset. It turns out that schooldays proved “tricky” for her. “I could not concentrate. I was labelled as lazy or ‘having potential’. In the 90s girls with ADHD weren’t diagnosed and as it presents differently with boys, “it was assumed girls didn’t have it.” But things improved when Fiona went to college. Studying music, some of it being practical, was a wise choice. But she still struggles with anything that involves learning off or reading a lot of “boring text.” Her brain obviously took to music as the proverbial duck to water. Interestingly enough, what is way beyond the capabilities of others (myself included), in her schooldays, Fiona loved the “challenge of sight singing and sight reading” (she still does). She professes to having an interest always in musical structures – how pieces are put together. I ask her for a memory from those early years. She readily obliges;

“One of my earliest recollections was my piano teacher telling me smallest space between two notes is a semitone (e.g. a black note to the white note on a piano).” Although only 7 or 8, she knew this couldn’t be right – “it is the closest interval on the piano but on violin, for example, there are lots of tiny intervals between these two notes.” That night, she lay in bed trying to sing ‘between’ the notes. “My dad popped his head in the door and with a very quizzical look, asked me if I was singing my… plainchant?” Again, laughter bubbles up, in truth it’s never far beneath the surface.

Fiona is a believer in holding onto treasures from the past. Always close to her great aunt Terry (who herself was “a wonderful musical companion”), she still has her aunt’s piano in her music room. In 2014, Fiona’s choral work ‘Spirestone’ (lyrics by poet Mary Coll) was dedicated to aunt Terry and also to Mary’s aunt, both ladies founding members of the Limerick Choral Union. What also made that work special was that aunt Terry was able to attend the premiere, before subsequently becoming unwell and passing away, a few short months later. Also that year, Fiona travelled to Nova Scotia for a programme called ‘Opera from Scratch’. There, she composed a short opera about the high tidal ranges of the Bay of Fundy. This opera proved to be her first successful foray into the genre – “it opened a few doors and has been performed several times by three different sopranos – which is no mean feat in contemporary music.” It is in Canada that Fiona realised how her music fit in so well with the North American sound rather than the European sound. Before that, she held doubts that she was “ doing it wrong “– her music has a folk/pop/jazz sensibility but no, of course it’s not wrong, “ it’s just my sound which I now embrace as uniquely being my own”

Despite such international travel opportunities, Fiona admits to being a home bird, liking the west of Ireland and feeling very lucky to be able to find the type of work she wants here. She feels very connected to the Irish landscape in general, “our natural heritage.” She is always looking for ways to work it into her music. Choral music seems a natural

Fiona Linnane Bats of Curraghchase workshop 2022. Photo: Claire O'Rorke

Fiona Linnane holding the scores of two Eileen Casey bog poems, 'BogWish'/'Peat'. Both pieces have been scored for choir, piano and string orchestra and were performed in St Mary's Cathedral on 15th December.

home for singing about nature - “so I had a piece in mind for Ancór Chamber Choir in Limerick that showed two facets of the natural world – one to be fiery (volcanos, waves crashing against rocks, lightning and thunder) and one majestic (huge mountains, icebergs, vast plains, ancient oak trees).” Luckily, earlier this year, Fiona came across my poetry collection (Bog Treasure, Arlen House/ Syracuse University Press), two poems in particular caught her ‘ear’…’Bog Wish’ and ‘Peat’. A line from ‘Peat’ leaped out, giving her a refrain to build upon, ‘Firesmoke. Firesmell’. “Those two words immediately came to me fully formed as a choral setting. ‘Bog Wish’, proved equally yielding. “ It has the earthy, but also ethereal atmosphere that I knew would work as a partner piece.” It’s a huge honour for me, as it would for any poet, to work in such company as Fiona and her partners. But Limerick itself is a special landscape for her. In 2009 she bought an old cottage in a village in County Limerick – a tiny, just about liveable space. Fiona’s mother dubbed it ‘the flat in the field’. “It was just enough room for me, my piano and my cat!” Since then, Fiona’s household expanded to include a child, a partner, a dog, a new cat and two more pianos - “we built an extension onto to the back of the cottage. My little cottage living room then became my music room.” The sense of being in her own space never diminishes. Having a place to live and work means that she can leave everything and return to it, knowing it will all be as she left it. Asked what her favourite instrument is, Fiona has no hesitation in declaring for the human voice. ‘It’s the Queen. There is something about the sound of the voice that connects and engages like no other.”

Fiona’s work with deaf children is lauded and has received awards. She has three residencies at the deaf school in Limerick. Two were with “a wonderful teacher partner Jacintha Mullins. We worked with children aged 9-12.” This year Fiona completed a third residency, through the BLAST (Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers) residency, with the junior end of the school, including their early intervention programme for 3 – 5 year olds. So how does she work with children who are essentially soundless or have very little hearing. “Working in this school is always a lovely experience – a challenge as I have to reassess how I experience sound as well as their exposure to it, but it’s always rewarding.” Some of the children are profoundly deaf or use cochlear implants or hearing aids so Fiona uses techniques such as the placing of their hands on the back of a violin so they can feel the vibration of the sound board as she plays. She sums it up by saying “there were some truly magical moments.” I’ve no doubt that Fiona Linnane will be creating lots of such moments in the future.

On a seasonal note, Fiona is a big fan of New Years’ resolutions and the New Year in general. “I frequently go to bed early on New Year’s Eve rather than staying up until midnight – it’s all about the new day ahead for me. A few years ago we got up at 6am and drove to the dolmen near Ballyvaughan to see the sun coming up.” Any thoughts on the ageing process? As I secretly concluded, she embraces the ageing process – “especially as a woman. I have a real issue with the anti-ageing industry. I see it as a construct of the patriarchy aimed at making women feel shame for the completely natural process of ageing.” Fiona reaches her 45th birthday in January and her outlook is one of positivity and growth. Being a mother to one, has made her re-evaluate how she wants to spend her time. “So, while I love my job and career, any work I take on is going to be time away from my little boy when is still young – so it needs to be something I really want to do.” Fiona is a woman with music in her soul but with her feet firmly on the ground. I for one, together with many of her admirers, look forward to the next stage in her journey.

By Debbie Orme Notes

British and Irish schools involvement in First World War

4th Battalion Tyrone Regiment UVF, which was made up of students from the Royal School Dungannon World War 1 memorial board commemorating students from the school who died in service to their country

Despite the fact that it ended more than one hundred years ago, interest in the First World War shows no sign of fading anytime soon.

Belfast man, Michael McGuiggan, has completed his research into the contribution of the schools on the island of Ireland to the British and Irish war effort of 1914-18.

‘I’ve always been fascinated by the First World War,’ Michael told Northern Notes, ‘but when I decided to undertake an MA in Britain and the First World War, I knew I needed a subject that hadn’t been considered before. As I began to research the subject, I found the contribution of the secondary schools on the island of Ireland of particular interest.

‘What I discovered very quickly in my research was an elite group of schools that could be fairly described as ‘Irish public schools’. It was also a group that included both sides of the ‘religious divide’: Clongowes Wood college and St Columba’s College from outside Dublin; Campbell College in Belfast; Portora Royal in Enniskillen, The Royal School Dungannon and The Royal School Armagh. being educated at secondary level in Ireland than Protestants. The political ramifications of this were clear. This elite Catholic middle class mostly favoured the constitutional nationalism of John Redmond’s Home Rule party, as they embraced the advantages that a good education would provide in terms of joining the professions, civil service, business and the army.

‘What particularly surprised me was that, having analysed archival material from at least fifteen of the leading schools on the island of Ireland, it’s easy to see that all Irish schools – Catholic and Protestant – positively embraced Ireland’s entry into the First World War despite, or because of, their religious and political affiliations. All schools published ‘rolls of honour’ and biographies of the fallen throughout the war years and all found practical ways to support the war effort.‘The headmaster of the King’s Hospital School in Dublin, the Reverend T P Richards, was described as a ‘British patriot who fostered enthusiasm for the war and encouraged recruitment, while Methodist College Belfast also operated a comforts fund and actively engaged pupils and teachers from 1915 in munitions work at Workman & Clark, making shells three evenings a week. forces in the First World War. These men came from 24 elite schools in Ireland – twelve from each of the north and the south. Overall, 1417 were killed during the war. Enlistment from the elite schools in Ireland represented a very significant proportion (17%) of the total secondary school population. ‘What is interesting is the fact that these men were very much influenced by the school ethose at the time. Prize day speeches during the war years emphasised duty, patriotism and unselfishness and reinforced those attributes among schoolboy audiences.

‘Ireland actually had a very long history of service with the British Army. In fact, by 1839, Irishmen made up 42.2% of the regular army. During the Boer War, about 30,000 Irishmen are thought to have served against the Boers, suffering 3000 casualties. At Irish schools – North and South – former pupils, who had distinguished themselves in the British military, were lauded at leading Catholic and Protestant schools.

‘There’s no doubt that the First World War had an immense impact on Ireland and its schools. Despite the widening political differences between the predominantly Protestant north and Catholic south on the island, its elite schools of both religions were united in their support