Local artist to play new song inspired by Decade of Centenaries on Culture Night

A new song inspired by the Decade of Centenaries which was recently written by local man Eoghan Burke will be officially launched on Culture Night this weekend.

The song written, composed and recorded by Eoghan covers events relating to local history in South Westmeath during the Decade of Centenaries which spans the tumultuous years leading from the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912, both to the formation of an independent Irish State in 1922 and the separation of Northern Ireland.

Eoghan lives outside Moate, near Drumraney and recently received an art bursary from the Heritage Section of Westmeath County Council to write a song about Westmeath during the Civil War.

Speaking about the song which is entitled, 'When the Carnival Returns,' Eoghan said: “There's been a couple of papers put up on the council's website regarding Westmeath during the Civil War, which I read and just gathered information from the stories and the nuances of what was going on there. I just kind put a song together so it's not songs about the specific part of the Civil War, but it's connected with a lot of the stuff that I would've read from papers on the website.”

The title of the track is in reference to a paper written by Westmeath County Council's Historian in Residence Dr Ian Kenneally. Eoghan said that the paper focused on the possibility of the Carnival returning to Athlone either during or after the Civil War and that people were expecting the return of the great singer John McCormack and for life to return to normality.

Eoghan explained that he has always had an interest in history, saying: “I heard stories from Westmeath which involve a fellow called Richard Bertles who was actually from Drumraney which is just up the road from where I live at the moment so I love having that connection with the locality.” Richard was shot and fatally wounded in Ballymore on January 22, 1923. He was an officer in the anti-Treaty IRA and a prominent figure in the locality during the War of Independence.

Eoghan explained: “I was thinking about the everyday people as opposed to the people directly involved in the conflict and how they were just hoping that normality would return. That's where the idea for the song comes from really but I think the people who were fighting in the war in the Civil War were also everyday people too that just got involved for whatever reason.”

He said the period was characterised by intense activity, with incident happening thick and fast, including the executions of the prisoners in the barracks in Mullingar and Athlone and the shooting of Richard Bertles by Free State soldiers.

Eoghan said the idea of performing the song on Culture Night arose during discussions with Westmeath Heritage Officer Melanie McQuade. “I was telling her how much I wanted to play the song live to an audience as opposed to just put it online, but I didn't want to just book a venue and turn up and hope that people would come."

Eoghan continued: “When Culture Night came along and she was mentioning a few events I jumped at the chance then because it was obviously Culture Night organising it and I can just turn up and do it and have an audience there waiting for me.”

The Kildare native added that in Ireland history is all around us and through the imagery in the song he attempted to portray local places and mention specific names and locations.

Eoghan stated: “As soon as you mention a place or a name it kind of brings people back to where this happened.

“I mentioned the Royal Canal and I mentioned town lands and villages like Ballymore and Drumraney and obviously Athlone and stuff like that just brings it back. I'd like people to reflect on the fact that this all happened in their locality a few years ago and they could well be related to the people that we're singing about.”

Eoghan said that his performance will be a “little bit different” as the song is more rock influenced which is a big change from his usual folk sound. “I think the rock genre lends itself to the militaristic kind of atmosphere.” He also enjoyed the freedom to experiment with the new song.

Eoghan will also be performing the song solo as opposed to with a band as is the case on the recorded version of the track. “With Culture Night, I'll be performing the song on my own so it'll be a little slight different sound, but I think the same energy will be there as the recording.

“It was really good fun to do a project that's not just me writing songs. It's about a specific part of Irish history and it's just a very freeing kind of a feeling, writing songs outside of yourself about stuff that happened years ago.”

After writing the song, Eoghan brought band together and they managed to record it in just one day. “At the moment we're just putting the video together first, which will kind of mix the archive footage on the Civil War and the footage of us playing the song.”

Eoghan is looking forward to doing a tour around Europe for two months working on a theatre show which focuses on the story of The Dubliners. “When I'm home, I'll look at the possibilities of recording a new album. I like the sound that we created in the studio with this project so I'd like to develop that further,” concluded the Kildare-born singer.

Eoghan has been based in Westmeath for the past four years and splits his creative pursuits between music, acting, storytelling and writing. He spent time as Reader in Residence in Westmeath Libraries and hosted the first of a music video series made by the Siamsaíocht group in Athlone broadcast on Athlone Family Resource Centre social media channels.

Eoghan will perform 'When the Carnival Returns' at Culture Night this Friday evening. The song will soon be released on all streaming platforms.