Collaboration

Bringing people together through festivals, Irish language radio and cross-border fundraising swims.

Musical

Tírdhreacha agus Fuaimdhreacha

Spanning over four seasons in the four provinces of Ireland, alongside four different collaborators, ‘Tírdreacha Agus Fuaimdreacha’ (Landscapes & Soundscapes) is a musical journey featuring renowned Folk & Traditional musicians, Susan O’Neill, Steve Cooney with Tommy Sands, Brídín and Liam Ó Maonlaí.

Taking inspiration from the landscapes and soundscapes of our unique island, Sands and her collaborators followed their roots and their sprawl, navigating through uncharted territories where Irish and English languages, Traditional, Folk and Contemporary musics meet.

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Musical

Gormacha

For her EP Gormacha, Belfast-based musician Clare Sands travelled to Ireland’s four most extreme geographical locations to write, record and create music videos inspired by each place. Collaborating with musicians I Have a Tribe, Brian Finnegan, Aisling Urwin and Niamh Regan, Sands has created a body of work that incorporates indie, folk and blues with traditional music and pulls in influences from the Irish landscape, mythology and language.

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Musical

Hothouse Flowers feat Clare Sands

Sraith cheoil ina mbuaileann Dáithí Ó Sé le cuid de bhannaí agus teaghlaigh ceolmhara na tíre. Beidh comhrá agus ceol den chéad scoth ar an tsraith seo. Labhraíonn na ceoltóirí le Dáithí Ó Sé faoin saol sa mbanna ar an gclár. Seo iad an banna Hothouse Flowers ag ceol an t-amhrán Don't Go ar an cúigiú clár sa tsraith seo. Liam Ó Maonlaí (pianó, guth), Fiachna Ó Braonáin (giotár, guth) & Clare Sands (fidil, guth).

Music series where Dáithí Ó Sé meets with some of Ireland's musical bands and families. There will be plenty of chat, and of course top class music in each programme. This is a clip of the band Hothouse Flowers performing the song Don't Go on the fifth episode from this musical series.

Musical

Loch Léinn

'Lasair Lasta Fós' & 'Keep the Flame Burning' from Loch Léinn, County Westmeath. Inspired by Manchán's beautiful project 'Sea Tamagotchi' and his love for language and land.

We will keep the flame burning. Go dtí an céad turas eile a Mhancháin

Musical

The Space in Between

The musician Susan O'Neill came up with the most gorgeous idea during Covid. She paired up artists of different disciplines and asked them to stare into each others eyes for at least 5 minutes before collaborating on a piece of work (ideally without having practised it before).

The result was a wonderful series of encounters documented as The Space Between on TG4TV. She invited me and Clare Sands to work together in the banqueting hall of Bunratty Castle & Folk Park I talked about some Sanskrit and Arabic words with Irish resonances and Clare extemporised. Irish, being an Indo-European language has many similar words to Sanskrit, but not to Arabic.

Musical

Huartan

West Belfast collective Huartan have been breathing new life into ancient words and melodies. Through bold reinterpretations of at-risk Irish language songs, Huartan’s mission is to connect contemporary audiences with the oral singing tradition and native language of Ulster.

Clare has had the honour of playing along side the core of the ensemble are three Irish traditional musicians — Catriona Ní Ghribín, Múlú, and Stiofán Ó Luachráin.

More about Huartan

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Artistic

Collaboration is at the heart of my artistic practice. Alongside my work with musicians, I have built creative partnerships with visual artists, designers, filmmakers, photographers, storytellers and other practitioners, allowing different artistic disciplines to intersect and shape my work. My practice is rooted in connection — between generations, traditional and contemporary culture, and people and place. Working across disciplines is a natural extension of this, creating space for different artistic languages to meet, influence one another and evolve into something truly special.