~ E S S A Y S ~ D I A R Y ~ S T U D I E S ~ C O M M E N T A R I E S ~ L E C T U R E S ~ R E V I E W S ~ I N T E R V I E W S ~ T R I B U T E S

Commentary
When the score is a cacophony, we must face the music!
by Maireid Sullivan
2024
On rights and responsibilities of citizenship— political accountability,
public health, and economic justice:
Investigative Journalists, Whistleblowers, and Citizen Journalists champion egalitarian political principles by bringing corrupt individuals to justice and by holding to account those who would undermine public interests.
Who will receive credit for contributions to public accountability and transparency? >>>continue

Commentary
From Mabo to a Voice
by Maireid Sullivan
2023
The October 2023 referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
was an appeal by First Nations Australians to 'enact' legal inclusion under the Australian constitution: "making reparations" on formal isolation by Crown Rule under the "Native Title Act" of 1993. >>>continue

Public Lecture
Cultural Resilience: Catastrophes as turning points in the arts.
Mairéid Sullivan
2017
1st Global Irish Diaspora Congress
15-19 August, 2017, University College Dublin
(An extended version of this 'talk' was presented to the Bantry Historical Society, West Cork, on 28 August, 2017.)
Summary
Art made us as a human species: the “neurochemicals of happiness”, endorphins, dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, make us feel good. From the late 1980s, Irish government Cultural Tourism initiatives promoted that win-win vision, leading to an unprecedented flourishing of music, song, dance, and, of particular interest here, led to the emergence of many professional women musicians who inspired great international cross-genre collaborations. Many women musicians performing within the Celtic genre, including myself, enjoyed significant commercial success and made distinctive contributions as performing and recording artists with well-established profiles. During the ‘90s it seemed that there was a continuing place for these artists and the Celtic genre on the world stage, and both would take a strong role in defining the nature of an increasingly multicultural interest in music. However, something completely unforeseen unfolded with the happenings of 9/11. Amidst the horror and disruption that occurred on that day, lasting societal ramifications that are deeper than that which could have possibly been predicted have emerged. To summarise, nobody was paying attention when the Kondratieff Wave hit Ireland, drowning the Celtic Tiger in the “Double Irish” conundrum. Australian economist Phillip J. Anderson, author of “The Secret Life of Banking and Real Estate” (2009) [6], believes "The current financial crisis proves the neo-classical economy is working - not failing. The present crash is NOT a market failure: it is actually proof that the monopoly capitalist system is working, and working well.” 
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Study
This is Gougane Barra 
2017
by Maireid Sullivan
The hermitage of Gougane Barra is set between the village of Kealkill,
and the gaeltacht village of Ballingeary, West Cork, Ireland. (My extended family attended Kealkill National School). This is the source of The River Lee, in Gaelic, An Laoi, translated: "ford at the mouth of The Gearagh." . . . This is the site of a 6th century circular monastery founded by Finn Barr aka St. Finbarr. The ruins we see today were erected around a 1000 years later by Rev. Denis O'Mahony, as a Catholic safe-haven, following the English Penal Laws suppressing Catholics during the 1700s. People travelled on "Mass Paths" from miles around to hear Mass there. The oratory is a more recent building, funded by an Irish American philanthropist.
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Lecture
Why do we hear so little about Michael Davitt’s place in Irish history?
2017
by Maireid Sullivan
Michael Davitt, (1846-1906), Co. Mayo: "Father of the Irish National Land League", Irish History Circle, Melbourne Celtic Club, 15th May, 2017, 7.30pm
Summary
When Davitt returned to the country of his birth he was a force to be reckoned with–as one of the most influential leaders of Ireland’s independence movement, and especially when it has been said that Davitt represented a much greater idea than Parnell.
“Our people have bowed to might, but they never have acknowledged the right of making land private property. In the old tongue they have cherished the old truth, and now in the providence of God the time has come for that faith to be asserted. ..."
Whilst in prison, Davitt came to his oft quoted conclusion that, “the land question can be definitely settled only by making the cultivators of the soil proprietors.” With that as the ultimate aim, the ‘Three F’s’ (Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure, and Free Sale), became the foundation of The Land League.
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Review
‘Convicted on a Comma’, explained perfectly
by Maireid Sullivan
2016
Haunted by the scale of barbaric atrocities unleashed by imperialist colonisation in the Congo and later in the Putumayo, Colombia, Casement aligned with the Irish ‘freedom fighters’ who believed the Irish could achieve freedom from the scourge of British colonialism.
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Review
Reflections on Poems of the Rising
by Maireid Sullivan
2016
A response to social justice issues raised by the poetry reading,
A Terrible Beauty is Born-Poetry of the Easter Rising.
The readings of poems by those immediately caught up in the Rising attempted to penetrate the emotional dimensions around ‘what really happened’ that fateful Easter 1916 in Dublin. The feelings expressed by the poets of the time brought home the anguish that drove these young men.
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Review
A ‘Virtual Reality’ Tour Of Ancient Ireland
by Maireid Sullivan
2016
Lora O’Brien: A Practical Guide to Irish Spirituality
Wolfpack Publishers (2012)
Beauty and personal sovereignty -every moment spent in acknowledging beauty is an act of liberation: It is the act of breaking down the walls that separate us from beauty that truly releases us to experience freedom.
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Commentary
Will humanity rise to the challenge?
By Maireid Sullivan
2015
(Updated October, 2019)
Excerpt:
Putting trust in informed common sense can be a positive survival strategy.
. . . It is rather embarrassing that we're still debating the pros and cons around the benefits of 'sustainability'. And to all those people who are only now accepting that global climate might really be 'changing' - to our detriment: It's NOT your fault. You were/are the target of decades-long multi-billion dollar propaganda campaigns funded by Big Oil and Big Coal, Big Pharma, etc. Being 'taken in' is not your fault.

Fortunately, innovative solutions are emerging in support of the enormous cleanup task we are faced with. We need to be aware that vested interests will continue to lobby and campaign to prevent the loss of their profit sources, without admitting moral or legal culpability.

Humanity can rise to this challenge.
In the West, our troubles go back to the origins of Land Speculation – the enclosure of the European commons due to the formulation of laws that allowed privatisation of commonly owned lands "in perpetuity" - when entire populations were forced to leave their traditional lands and, in order to find employment, people were forced to move in and around medieval monasteries, which grew to become large cities.
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Commentary
Why I joined Facebook
by Maireid Sullivan
2013
I finally took the plunge and joined Facebook last night! Ben's enjoyment of Facebook over the last six months or so has convinced me: ...
Look where we have come since the 70s, in terms of being more informed and more interconnected. How far we have moved in seeing ourselves as an intrinsic element of the living organism of Mother Earth.
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Tribute
A TRIBUTE to the music of Gráinne Yeats (1925-2013)
By Maireid Sullivan
2013
Legendary Irish harper, singer, and historian Gráinne Yeats passed away on April 18, 2013. The Irish Times published her death notice here.

Gráinne Yeats was the first professional musician to revive and record the ancient Irish wire-strung harp. Her beloved husband Michael Yeats (son of W.B. Yeats) died in January 2007. Their daughter Síle, journalist and producer at RTÉ, died in September 2007.  She is survived by 2 daughters, Catriona and Siobhán, her son Pádriag, and grandchildren.

I had the great honour of conducting extended interviews with Gráinne on two occasions. First in March 1999, for my book Celtic Women in Music (1999). She was in her mid 70s when I interviewed her again at her home, in Dundalk, Ireland, in October 2000. To read the interview and watch the YouTube video excerpt from the October 2000 interview.
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Commentary
"My property, the truth"
By Maireid Sullivan
2012
Truth is not always based upon commonly accepted beliefs:
Visionary Classical Greek sophists (‘one who exercises wisdom or learning’) developed the skill of rhetoric in 'the art of persuasion' as an essential political element of an artistic "Good Life" free from the elitism of commercial 'vested interests’. Plato's philosophical “dialectic” encompasses all aspects of socio-political life: In Gorgias (380 BCE), he interpreted Socrates' view that truth can be distorted when it is misaligned from public opinion:
"You don't compel me; instead you produce many false witnesses against me and try to banish me from my property, the truth."
Plato's student, Aristotle, in Politics (Nicomachean Ethics, 384-322 BCE), defines 'the purpose of the city' as the highest form of community based on the virtuous public life of a happy citizen who knew how to rule and be ruled. >>>continue...

Commentary
What Has Happened to Ireland’s Sovereignty?
By Maireid Sullivan
2012
The campaign to redirect the M3 tolled motorway away from the Hill of Tara, in Ireland, marked the beginning of my understanding of land banking and the speculative developers' boom-bust business model.

From the beginning of the Celtic Tiger era, the Irish Diaspora has
witnessed speculation-driven economic corruption and political self-aggrandizement on levels beyond imagining.

Community concerns have been vindicated by the Mahon Tribunal Report.
After 15 years of hearings (1997 to 2012), The Tribunal of Inquiry Into Certain Planning Matters & Payments has uncovered corruption affecting 'every level of Irish political life'. The Tribunal brings to prominence the litany of corrupt practices and crooked dealings that characterised the relationship between ‘certain developers and numerous prominent public representatives’. (Details published on Wikipedia)
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Tribute
United In Grief
to honour Jill Meagher
by Maireid Sullivan
2012
Unparalleled heart-felt community outpouring in response to the tragic death of Jill Meagher has led to an exceptional sense of community cohesion.
…
In her role as an ABC 774 Radio unit coordinator, Jill Meagher was a much loved member of Melbourne’s ABC family. ABC broadcaster Jon Faine said Jill’s death has ‘touched a very raw nerve right across the nation. … Jill was an innocent victim, a young, vibrant woman with her whole life in front of her.
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Review
Joe Creighton Inhabits Van the Man
Reviewed by Maireid Sullivan
February 2012
Belfast-born, Melbourne-based musician Joe Creighton is taking his tribute to Van Morrison "Into the Mystic" on the road,... with arrangements that are bold, exciting, provocative and totally refreshing. Listening to the performance, I was amazed at how Joe could completely transform his musical persona - yet retain what made Van’s music so great in the first place. If you closed your eyes - you'd swear that was 'Van the Man' performing in front of you. To quote Brian Wise, music journalist and radio DJ, "Joe Creighton gives one of the best readings of a Van Morrison song that I have heard." High praise from a man who is an ardent Van Morrison fan and who has seen Van performing live many times. >>> continue...

Review
Japan on My Mind
by Maireid Sullivan
2011
The shakuhachi is Anne Norman’s voice. She ‘sings’ the pure voice of the shakuhachi with the sense of freedom and sheer ecstasy of a gifted singer! I don't remember ever hearing any instrument play such pure voice-like tones!

The shakuhachi first came to Japan during the Nara period (710-794) from Tang China, more than 1,000 years ago. Many different approaches to playing the shakuhachi have evolved through highly refined musical styles and bear the names of the founders of respective schools.

Meian-ryu is the oldest school of shakuhachi playing and is inseparable from the original doctrine of ‘blowing Zen'. Zen-Buddhism practitioners often prefer to play the shakuhachi, rather than reading sutras, to achieve Enlightenment (satori). ‘Itton Jobutsu' -Buddha is hidden in one sound -is a saying of Fuke monks. Anne's style is natural, looking for a quality and purity of sound in each and every note.
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Review
Encyclopedic Study
by Maireid Sullivan
2011
Muireann Ní Bhrolchain: An Introduction to Early Irish Literature
Four Courts Press, Dublin (2009)
In An Introduction to Early Irish Literature, medievalist Dr. Muireann Ní Bhrolchain shares her extensive command of Irish history, and includes a guide to what has been written on the subject by other scholars, with specific focus on the Old and Middle Irish periods, 600--1200. This examination of Ireland’s rich written heritage will appeal to readers seeking a single condensed resource on Irish stories.
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Review
Ancient Text Restored
by Maireid Sullivan
2010
Book review, published in Tintean, the quarterly journal of the Australian Irish Heritage Network
The Natural History of Ireland, 1625
by Philip O’Sullivan Beare (translated by Denis C. O’Sullivan)
Cork University Press (2009)
In 1625, Don Philip O’Sullivan Beare wrote Zoilomastix in an effort to refute Giraldus Cambrensis’ derogatory report on Ireland, Topographia Hiberniae (1188). This translation of Zoilomastix, Book One, takes us on a highly colloquial and entertaining journey into the Irish environment, region-by-region, a survey of landscapes, birds and bees, beasts and man -offering a whole new slant on life in pre-modern Ireland.
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Review
Part 1
Chieftains and San Patricios
by Maireid Sullivan
2010
Alternate Music Press
The Chieftains' new album San Patricio is a brilliant artistic conception -especially musically, when we hear how Irish traditional root melodies have evolved to become South-Western and Mexican songs -Tex-Mex, Nortino music.

In one of The Chieftains’ most unique projects ever, the ancient connections between the Spanish and the Irish, and the musical souls of two modern nations, Ireland and Mexico, are movingly brought to life.
~ Who inspired the formation of The Chieftains?
Irish composer Seán Ó Riada (1931-1971) is remembered as the most influential figure in the renaissance of traditional Irish music, and the founder, in 1960, of the group Ceoltóirí Chualann, which included Paddy Moloney (who later founded The Chieftains) on uilleann pipes and tin whistle, Sean Potts (still with The Chieftains) on tin whistle, John Kelly on flute, and Sonny Brogan on accordion.

Seán Ó Riada was the first composer to arrange harmonies in keeping with Irish musical tradition, using traditional instruments: harpsichord, bodhran, piano, fiddle, accordions, flute, pipes and whistles.
~ Who were the San Patricios?
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Part 2,
Chieftains and San Patricios
'Manifest Destiny' and The San Patricios
by Maireid Sullivan
2010
Alternate Music Press
Part 2 review of The Chieftains' 2010 recording, San Patricio.
By the end of the 1840s, the Irish Famine was in full force: While the English exported abundant crops, millions of native Irish men, women and children died due to starvation, and millions more immigrated as refugees.
In America, the San Patricio Battalion was formed by legendary Fighting Irish refugees who joined the army upon arrival in the USA when they couldn't find employment where "No Irish need apply!", which, according to historian Richard Jensen, was “a myth of victimization”. 
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Review & Synopsis
Ireland: Serfs not citizens
Chapter 8, 'Who owns the world?' By Kevin Cahill, 2006
Synopsis by Maireid Sullivan
2009
The following two-part article is an edited extract of Chapter 8 “Ireland: Serfs not citizens” from the book ‘Who owns the world’ by Kevin Cahill.
(See the accompanying review ‘Reinvigorating old ideas: Who Owns the World?’ by Maireid Sullivan

Quia Emptores Act, 1290 AD
...The law that denied land ownership to the Irish, the Quia Emptores Act of 1290 AD, is still on the Irish statute book.

It is this basic feudal law, restated, which placed the actual ownership of all physical land in the hands of the Crown. Subsequently this law was placed in the hands of the Irish Free State, thus making all ‘land owners’ in Ireland tenants of the State, having to pay rent in contradiction of their alleged status as ‘freeholders’. The underlying principle in Quia Emptores also underlaid the Acts of Settlement which evicted the native Irish ‘landowners’ and substituted English and Scottish settler landowners in the 17th and 18th Century. The basic argument in law was that the Irish ‘landowners’ were mere tenants of the Crown, and the Crown could dismiss and evict its tenants, legally, as indeed it could, under Quia Emptores and associated laws. ....

To be a citizen is to have the innate right to obtain and own land.
There is a direct connection between the first human right, the right to life, and the right to land, which is seldom raised, especially by lawyers. To make the right to life functional, three other attached and inseparable rights have to be considered. The right to life itself has no meaning if not accompanied by a right to water, to food and to shelter. It is this last attendant right, the right to shelter, which brings us to the connection between basic human rights and land. Shelter, to be meaningful, has to be secure. A bunch of branches that provides cover for a few days serves no meaningful purpose in lives that are meant to endure for decades. The securest form of shelter is a hard built home, owned outright by the person or family living in it. The right to secure shelter accompanies the other two attendant rights to the right to life and is inseparable from them because in most practical situations, water and food will not keep you long alive, if you have no shelter.
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Commentary
On Collaborative Independence
Maireid Sullivan
2009, GlobalArtsCollective.org
Years ago, I heard the great British zoologist Desmond Morris explain
WHY 99% of people want to live in peace. He said it is an 'instinct' evolved from the animal kingdom: The lion won't casually pick a fight because he knows that while he may win the fight he could die from his wounds. Canadian poet Margaret Atwood famously said, "War is what happens when language fails."
Fortunately, we're 'growing up' in the Information and Communication Ages. We will grow more fluent!
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Review
Reinvigorating old ideas: Who Owns the World
by Maireid Sullivan
2009
Who Owns the World (UK 2006--US 2009) by Kevin Cahill, is the first survey of landownership in each of the world’s 197 states or countries and 66 major territories. Kevin Cahill explains, 'The purpose of all the feudal land laws, derived from the fundamental principle of the feudal system, … was to prevent the population owning land.'
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eBook
Water for Food – The Wicking Worm Bed revolution
by Maireid Sullivan
(2009) Revised and expanded 2012
A 20-page fully-illustrated DIY eBooklet
Download this FREE eBook here

Grow veggies at home, with less time spent watering.
Learn how to construct your own garden Wicking Worm Beds.
Water once a week in summer and much less during the rest of the year.

Detailed information, including exact measurements and lists of materials needed for constructing timber-framed Wicking Worm Beds, plus, everything you need to know about adding compost worms to the wicking beds.
Or, you can use 100 Litre tubs.
Water doesn't evaporate in the reservoir under wicking beds. Instead, the water 'wicks' up to the roots, and the top soil remains 'soft' under the mulch. Since water will wick up only 300mm to the plant roots, the soil depth should be no more than 320mm deep (about one foot deep).
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Commentary
Letter from an Emigrant
by Maireid Sullivan
2009
Celebrating the centenary of Kealkill National School, Co Cork.
Excerpt:
Kealkill National School has a great tradition of serving the people of Kealkill and its surrounding townlands so well over the last hundred years. I am happy to be a past pupil of such a wonderful school. ...I remember the high ceilings and tall narrow windows, and the rows of desks, a row for each class. ...When I think back, I believe the early training in maintaining focus and concentration on whatever project we were working on was the most important skill we developed. The other skill I most value, practiced especially in the higher classes, is rote learning. We learned songs, poems, and prayers or catechism, spelling, and arithmetic by rote. And we learned to speak ‘Irish’. We learned our history in the form of adventure stories. We also learned step-dancing. All of these skills, --memorizing movement, words and melodies, strengthened our capacity to concentrate over long periods.
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Over the past decade, we’ve all much too slowly become aware of the considerable controversy regarding construction of the M3 Motorway along the valley between the Hill of Tara and the Hill of Skryne in County Meath. This ancient landscape is over 7000 years old and considered the cradle of Irish civilization. Yet the construction of the M3 tolled motorway has unrelentingly cut through it, with the proposed opening date set for July 2010.
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Commentary
Cry 'Save Tara'
by Maireid Sullivan
2008
Time is not on Ireland's side! In the St.Pat's Day issue, the Irish Echo published an article titled "Critics of Tara Road 'misled': Dempsey", in which the visiting Irish Transport Minister Noel Dempsey's "dig" at Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney revealed a lack of reverence for Irish heritage. In response to Professor Heaney's statement that the development of the M3 through the Tara Skryne Valley is a "ruthless desecration", Dempsey said, "I've never known Seamus to be an expert in the planning process."

A growing number of published reports reveal that Minister Dempsey's expertise in planning is failing the risk-management test -- through not only a general lack of planning expertise, and planning for urgent climate change compliance, but in maintaining due process of Irish law. For example, "The "Gateway to Meath" industrial park plan has been knocked back on grounds of illegal process and pressure by lobbyists, while Meath Co. Council's approval for 745 houses to be built on the site of the Battle of the Boyne, very near Newgrange, is currently being appealed.
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Tribute
The Power of "Soul Friendship" 
2008 
by Maireid Sullivan
John O'Donohue, from County Clare, Ireland, was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher whose post-doctoral work was on the 13th century mystic, Meister Eckhart. His exploration of the history of the melding of ancient Irish spiritual traditions with pre-Augustinian Christian precepts in Celtic Christianity led to his discovery of the concept of Anam Chara, "Soul Friend" in Gaelic, where we enable each other to recover from past relationship disappointments by resolving to strengthen our spiritual insight through truthfulness. 
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Review
Rachael Kohn's Curious Obsessions - in the History of Science and Spirituality
2007 
Reviewed by Mairéid Sullivan
As Rachael Kohn explains in the introduction, throughout history our leading "thinkers" in both science and religion may go beyond reasoned argument to make assertions, and "declarations" that have often been accepted on faith. 
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Project Synopsis
Traditions and Beliefs about Water

Part 1
A Selected World Survey
by Maireid Sullivan
2006

Water can create life or destroy it.
Water is magical and mercurial.
Water is the earth’s ‘shapeshifter’.

Every culture on earth relates a legend of a deluge or great flood, along with beliefs that life came from water. And, although the world's earliest civilizations had deep respect for this precious resource and lionized it in creation myths, contemporary Western industrial nations seem to take water for granted and view it as disposable.
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Part 2
Project Synopsis: Liquid Light - The Power of Water
by Maireid Sullivan
2007
It is predicted that by 2025, nearly three billion people worldwide will face an acute scarcity of clean, fresh water, and billions more will experience shortages and soaring costs for water. Many parts of the world, including North and South America, India, Africa, China and Australia, will not be able to escape the pressures of an increasing population and a finite supply of water. And, researchers in oceanography, marine biology, fisheries science, glaciology, and meteorology are revealing that our oceans and waterways are changing in every way we can measure. Our growing demand for water threatens the world's development and security. This is a topic that affects all living organisms on the planet, and needs to be addressed immediately. It is the story of the whole human race, for we are made up of approximately 75% water. Between 50% and 90% of the weight of any living organism is water. The documentary film Liquid Light -The Power of Water will take us on a journey into exotic parts of the world, on six continents. Hand in hand with local people, we will explore traditional stories that interweave beliefs and legends, rituals and symbols relating to the power of water.
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Project Synopsis
Bliss - Making the Invisible Visible
Bridging the wisdom of our past with the science, healing and peace of our future.
by Maireid Sullivan
2006
A film about the empowerment we can feel when 'accessing' ancient sacred images. This project has a simple and powerful metaphor for the enduring search for peace and harmony for humanity.
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Review
An Inconvenient Truth 
by Maireid Sullivan
September 2006
The Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth (2006) brings home with inescapable truth the ultimate horror humanity will face if global warning goes unchecked. . . There is so much wisdom in this movie, supported by beautiful imagery showing what will undoubtedly be lost unless we collectively muster-up the resolve to cease our destructive modes of living. He made the observation that people tend to move from "doubt to despair without stopping to do something to make a change" - or words to that effect. And he then set about showing what we can do to save our planet, culminating in the knowledge that we must deal with this if we are to avoid disastrous alternative consequences.
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Tribute
Memorial for our brother
Daniel Joseph Sullivan, 18 April 1955 - 30 December 2005
2006
In our hearts you live on in loving memory.
Daniel filled our lives with abundant kindness, laughter, and music. ...
Daniel lived in Cork City, Ireland, where he died in a tragic accident on December 30, 2005. He was a poet, and a wonderful jazz musician - alto and soprano saxaphone, clarinet, percussion - in the John Coltraine and Miles Davis "free avant garde jazz' style - and a teacher in Cork University Schools Programmes. >>> continue...

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Synopsis
The award-winning film Time after Time
by Maireid Sullivan
2005
Time after Time celebrates the great heritage of ancient Celtic, American and Australian peoples. The film has been described as a "cinematic poem" compared with the classic Ron Fricke film, Baraka.
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Study
How did the Celts, Americans and Australians get their names?
by Maireid Sullivan
2005
All three cultures received their current names within the last 500 years: read a brief history of each culture.
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Study
Who Were The Celts?
by Mairéid Sullivan
2004
The name “Celtic” was first given to the peoples of the British Isles in the 1700s, by a Welshman, Edward Lhwyd.

”...a pioneering linguist, the Welshman Edward Lhwyd, who demonstrated that Scots and Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and related languages were also related to the extinct tongue of the ancient Gauls. He chose to call this family of dead and living languages "Celtic". Soon it was being used as an ethnic label for living peoples, and was applied to ancient monuments too.”
- Simon James, 1999. 
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Essay
Peace with Honesty
Visionary vs Analytical thought:
On finding 'holistic' solutions to our evolutionary needs.
by Mairéid Sullivan
2003
Change never comes easily, but the impending holocaust the world now faces is helping to raise collective consciousness regarding the alarming rate of destruction caused to the world ecosystem, as well as to the human immune system. It is a matter of our survival as a species.
Nationalistic borders are obsolete, as people all over the world become aware of the need to focus constructively on issues of economic justice and the environment. ... Many great contemporary thinkers remind us that nurturing qualities must go hand in hand with intellectual integrity if we are to manifest peace on earth because there can be no true democracy without honesty.
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Essay
America -- a Golden Age for the Human Spirit
by Maireid Sullivan
2002
From Hugh Downs' book "My America" (2002)
The Golden Age of the American spirit began as a unique experiment for humanity: the first truly multi-cultural country, populated by people of every nation and tribe. America represents the first society in human history founded upon diverse cultures living together as one people - Americans.
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Essay - Preface
Electronic Music Pioneers
by Maireid Sullivan
2002
Musicians are sounding out the harmonics of a full life through the use of adventurous new technologies available to them. New music technology makes it possible, as never before, to capture a sense of "the music of the spheres": Music is a kind of truth our bodies know, expressing rhythms and reflections of what we feel.
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Interview
Afro Celt Sound System: Iarla O'Lionaird and James McNally 
by Maireid Sullivan
2001
The Afro Celts sublimely illustrate how to mix African and European music with dub/trance and ambient music without destroying the essence of the traditional music. 
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Interview
Quartetto Gelato: 
prima bello Peter De Sotto, and composer George Meanwell
by Maireid Sullivan
2001
During the end of May 2001, in the midst of a busy international spring-summer tour, two members of Quartetto Gelato, Peter De Sotto and George Meanwell took a break to talk to Maireid Sullivan about their music, sharing insights on the life of this brilliant quartet. With their breathtaking virtuosity, irrepressible energy and charming wit, Quartetto Gelato has won the hearts of audiences around the world, across their native Canada and the U.S. since their remarkable 1994 debut season. Their 2000-2001 season includes recitals and workshops throughout the US and Canada, as well as in Korea, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Taiwan, China and Macao. The following interviews took place while the group was touring upstate New York, just before leaving for Juneau, Alaska.
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Diary
Retreat in the California High Desert
by Maireid Sullivan
2001
Joshua Tree National Park is in the high desert, where the low Colorado Desert and the high Mojave Desert meet, in Southern California. ... on the ground was a 'dreamcatcher' in perfect condition, made of pale green suede with lovely slender soft feathers and pale beads. In native tradition, a dreamcatcher is hung near the sleeping area in the lodge. It is believed to sort dreams.
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Diary
The Great Stone Circle of Grange
by Maireid Sullivan
2000
I am longing to see the day when all people will embrace their heritage of joy!
-celebrating the innate spiritual impulse that thrives in our heritage of joy
-bringing elusive dreams and ancient memories of the global commons into focus -reminding us that love is liberating.
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Diary
Filming Celtic Women in Music in Ireland
by Maireid Sullivan
2000
Diary: The making of a documentary film in Ireland
View short interview clips with 7 of the 14 interviewees on our YouTube Lyrebird Channel
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Interview
With Morgan Llywelyn
by Maireid Sullivan
2000
Toward the end of our adventure in Ireland, in October 2000, Ben and I took time out for another separate adventure. We drove about an hour north of Dublin, near Sherries, Co. Meath, to the home of Irish novelist and historian Morgan Llywelyn.
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Commentary
Contemporary Celtic Music, Poetry, ... and Peace in Ireland
by Maireid Sullivan
1998
When Southern Ireland became a Republic in 1949 she began to throw off the shackles of the imagination that had oppressed her for so long. Suddenly, it seems, there has been a breakthrough and now it is time for the Irish to celebrate their freedom and success.  . . . The North needs to be shepherded now, politically, to rediscover its identity and to take care of its hierarchy of needs; food, shelter, self esteem and self love. In truth, it needn’t take long to achieve a restoration of peace and prosperity, as the situation in the North is not really as terrible as the world believes.
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Essay
Happiness & Joy
by Maireid Sullivan
1997
Happiness and Joy are always present, waiting for recognition. When they are recognized, they respond by manifesting like beings who take one's hand and show one along wondrous paths of discovery in infinite spheres of reality.
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Essay
Dance as Metaphor
by Maireid Sullivan
1997
On “egalitarianism" and "personal sovereignty":
Begulied by the promise of personal empowerment to be gained through understanding traditional 'root' meanings associated with concepts so contrary to modern social philosophy can be enlivening. 
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Essay
The Hidden People: the spirit of communication and 'The Craic'
by Maireid Sullivan
1996
Free Will/Free Speech! Egalitarianism, personal sovereignty, free expression through language—laughter, voice, speech—are fundamental healing principles in Celtic philosophy. So, what did the Celtic philosopher, Pelagius (354-420 AD) have to say about this?
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Essay
Music is a Gift!
Personal Message
by Maireid Sullivan
1995
My journey as an independent artist is a testament to personal healing, and learning to follow intuition about my purpose. Over a lifetime spent coming to understand world history’s power in shaping our lives, I know that our choices shape our future world. We have the tools at our fingertips! Every person has a duty to ‘act”, and we are empowered when we find creative ways to show the love and gratitude we all keep hidden - in abundance - even from ourselves?
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Commentary
Celtic Music for a New World Paradigm
by Maireid Sullivan
1995
Music has the means to offer a major contribution to the shifting paradigm of our new era. The international launch of Cultural Tourism policies during the mid-1980s led to an unprecidented rise in the popularity of Celtic influenced music as an emerging form of "world music" which dares to express an unfolding of inner feeling as an antidote for our unbalanced world. This feeling is contributing to a change in emphasis in current music industry trends.
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Essay
Personal Note
by Maireid Sullivan
1993
My journey as an independent artist is a testament to personal healing, and learning to follow intuition: Music heals!

Over a lifetime spent in slowly coming to understand the impacts of historical 'turning points' in shaping our lives, I know that our choices shape our future reality:
"Growing up" is about acknowledging the importance of exercising Free Will - and we will always have the 'tools' at our fingertips!

Every person has a choice and a duty to take truthful 'action' and we are empowered when we find creative ways to express the love and gratitude we all tend to keep hidden - in abundance - even from ourselves.

"I am one person and one person can make a difference."

Over my lifetime, I have been blessed with many opportunities to speak up and sing out before great and small gatherings of people. I feel 'charged' with sharing the evocative feeling and beauty of ancient cultural concepts and traditional songs -- along with my own expressions of poetry and song.

Because I see myself foremost as an artist and communicator, the themes in my essays, poetry, and songs reflect on contemporary issues. Every learning experience is a treasure. To paraphrase a Sufi saying, there are as many ways to reunite with the spiritual source as there are breaths of individuals. I strive to retain my independence while working consistently to 'contribute' to nurturing empowerment for everyone!

Every day I see 'magic' happen before my eyes. I experience time as a constantly interweaving web of relationships.

See a longer 1995 Personal Message HERE


Australian Concert Press Releases

1st Press Release: Melbourne
Celtic Roots in Australia
Maireid Sullivan
July 1992
The launch of Mairéid's music ensemble, with performances at eight of Melbourne's leading venues: September 1992

There is reputed to be a 30% Celtic heritage in the Australian population. There is a very strong Irish/Scottish/English folk music tradition which has revived and stereotyped, even fossilised, the traditional music instead of letting it evolve as a source for creative progression. . .
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