Proinsias Ó Conluain in Árainn, 1949

Ceiliúrann blag na míosa seo taispeántas úr atá seolta ag Cartlann RTÉ ina bhfuil ábhar sainiúil luachmhar as Árainn, ábhar a raibh lámh ag Proinsias Ó Conluain (1919-2013) ina bhailiú. Ba craoltóir agus scríbhneoir é Proinsias a bhain leis an Aonad clúiteach Taistil a bhunaigh Raidió Éireann i 1947. Is thar cheann an aonaid sin a thug Proinsias cuairt ar Árainn don chéad uair i mí na Samhna 1949. Seo mar a tharla...

Thograigh beirt léiritheoir de chuid an chainéil raidió BBC Third Programme – an file W.R. Rodgers agus an t-údar David Thomson – ábhar cláir a thaifead in Éirinn agus d’iarr siad cúnamh ó Raidió Éireann. Nuair nach raibh an píobaire cáiliúil Séamus Mac Aonghusa ar fáil, b’é Proinsias Ó Conluain a d’imigh leo ar an gcoinníol go mbeadh ábhar cláir aigesean as an turas. Bhí suim mhór ag Bertie Rodgers ach go háirithe in Árainn mar gheall ar shaothar Synge. Ar Dé Céadaoin 16 Samhain, sheol siad ar bord an Dún Aengus as Gaillimh go hÁrainn áit gur chaith siad seachtain ag taifead. I gcaibidil dar teideal ‘Cín Lae Craoltóra’, rinne Ó Conluain cur síos iontach ar gach a thit amach i rith na seachtaine. Roinnim anseo blaiseadh beag dá chur síos toirtiúil.

 

BBC engineers Ron Partlin & Fred Cooper with father & son Beairtlín Bhaba Ó hIarnáin and Sonny Hernon, Cill Mhuirbhigh 16 November 1949. Photograph by David Thomson, courtesy of Martina Thomson.

Céadaoin 16 Samhain

Cill Rónáin. Teach tábhairne Mhic Dhonncha [Tí Joe Mac]. Daoine an-chineálta liom agus ag brú brandaí orm as siocair mé bheith tinn. ‘Socróidh sé an goile dhuit,’ adeir Paitín Ó Fátharta – agus shocraigh. Ach bhí a laghad sin spéis agam i gcúrsaí an tsaoil seo ar feadh tamaill gur fhág mé mo mhála i mo dhiaidh ar an bhád.

Déardaoin 17 Samhain

Oíche mhór ceoil agus amhránaíochta sa [Man of Aran] ‘cottage’. Ceig phórtair ar chuntas an BBC! Buicéad de i lár urlár na cistine – mé féin á dháileadh amach as crúiscín ar lucht ceoil nó ar dhuine ar bith a bhfuil tart air. Tréan fuisce le fáil sa control room taobh thiar, an áit a bhfuil na ceirníní á ngearradh. Ceol, comhrá, amhráin, agus damhsa go maidin.

Domhnach 20 Samhain

Seachghlórtha eile: curach ag teacht i dtír, maidí rámha ag gíoscarnach sna leapacha iomartha, bristeacha móra, capall Bheartlaidh ar sodar ar an bhóthar, clog an tséipéil ag bualadh...

     Cúpla rothar ar iasacht agam féin agus ag Bertie [Rodgers] ó mhuintir Johnston lenár dtabhairt ar ais go Cill Mhuirbhigh, ach is beag an mhaith anocht iad. An-drochoíche ann – fearthainn agus gaoth mhór – cuirtíní fearthainne crochta ar imeall an domhain.

     Gan focal as ceachtar againn ach sinn ag smaoineamh le tréan trua dúinn féin, ‘Dá bhfeicfeadh Londain nó Baile Átha Cliath anois muid – an cruatan atáimid sásta a fhulaingt ar mhaithe le clár a imeos le haer an tsaoil taobh istigh de leathuair an chloig!’

Luan 21 Samhain

Oíche: céilí sa ‘cottage’. Anois go díreach atáimid ag cur aithne i gceart ar na daoine. Ní hé go raibh siad fuar ná falsa faoi labhairt linn, ná faoi amhrán a chanadh, roimhe seo, ach is cairde anois sinn agus tráchtar go han-oscailte ar an uile ghné de shaol an oileáin.

Máirt 22 Samhain

Deir Pádraig Ó hEithir gur aithin sé gur stráinséirí a bhí chucu nuair a tháinig muid chun tí aréir a dhéanamh socruithe faoin chór – chuig doras na gaoithe a tháinig muid!

Céadaoin 23 Samhain

Cuimhním ar abairt de chuid Bhertie: “The sea a halter round men’s lives and the land a stone about their feet.”

Ach ní mar adhastar faoi shaol na ndaoine a chímse an fharraige timpeall Árann, ach mar mhachaire mór saoirse agus féiniúlachta, na carraigeacha faoina gcosa á ndaingniú agus á mbuanú sa dúchas.

Proinsias Ó Conluain. “Cín Lae Craoltóra.” In Written on the Wind: Personal Memories of Irish Radio 1926-76, ed. Louis McRedmond, 87-106. Dublin: RTÉ in association with Gill and Macmillan, 1976.

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This month’s blog celebrates the launch of a new online exhibition from the RTÉ Archives featuring unique and valuable material from Aran. Helping to collect this material was Proinsias Ó Conluain (1919-2013), a renowned broadcaster and writer who worked with the famed Mobile Recording Unit that Raidió Éireann set up in 1947. It was on behalf of the MRU that Ó Conluain first visited Aran in November 1949. The story goes that two BBC Third Programme producers – poet W.R. Rodgers and author David Thomson – wanted to record Irish material for broadcast and requested the assistance of Raidió Éireann. As the celebrated piper Séamus Ennis was unavailable, it was Ó Conluain who accompanied the BBC on condition that he too could collect material for broadcast on RÉ. Bertie Rodgers was drawn to Aran in particular because of the works of John Millington Synge. On Wednesday 16 November, they sailed aboard the Dún Aengus from Galway to Aran where they spent a week recording. In a chapter entitled ‘A Broadcaster’s Diary’, Ó Conluain gives a wonderful description of all that happened that week. This blog features just a flavour of his much longer description. I hope my translation does his original Irish justice.

Wednesday 16 November

Cill Rónáin. McDonagh’s pub [Tí Joe Mac]. People very kind to me and persuading me to imbibe brandy as I am sea-sick. ‘That will settle your stomach,’ said Paitín Ó Fátharta – and it did. But I was so disinterested in proceedings around me for a while that I left my bag behind me on the boat.

Thursday 17 November

A big night of music and song in the [Man of Aran] cottage. A keg of porter on the BBC’s tab! A bucket of it in middle of the kitchen floor – me doling it out from a little jug to musicians and anyone who is thirsty. Strong whiskey available in the control room behind, where the records are being cut. Music, talk, songs, and dancing until morning.

Sunday 20 November

More sound effects: a curragh coming ashore, oars squeaking in their oarlocks, great breakers, Beartlaidh’s horse trotting on the road, the church bell ringing…

     Some bikes loaned to Bertie and I by the Johnston family to bring us back to Cill Mhuirbhigh, but they are little good to us tonight. A very bad night – rain and high winds – curtains of squalls hanging at the edge of the world.

     Not a word from either of us as we wallow in self-pity, ‘If London or Dublin saw us now – the hardship we are willing to endure for the sake of a programme that will disappear into the ether within half an hour!’

Monday 21 November

Nightime : céilí in the cottage. It is only now that we are getting to know the people properly. Not that they were cold or false in speaking with us before, or in singing a song, but we are friends now and they speak very openly about every aspect of life on the island.

Tuesday 22 November

Pádraig Ó hEithir said he knew we were strangers arriving to the house last night to make arrangements about the choir – we came to the windward door!

Wednesday 23 November

I remember one of Bertie’s remarks: “The sea a halter round men’s lives and the land a stone about their feet.”

It is not as a halter around men’s lives that I see the sea around Aran, but as a great plain of freedom and identity, the rocks beneath their feet securing them, rooting them to their heritage.

Proinsias Ó Conluain. “Cín Lae Craoltóra.” In Written on the Wind: Personal Memories of Irish Radio 1926-76, ed. Louis McRedmond, 87-106. Dublin: RTÉ in association with Gill and Macmillan, 1976.