A new composition for wind orchestra, For the Promised Land

Recently, I received an E-mail from a lady who belongs to a non-professional wind band in Kanto region, main land of Japan. In astonishment, the message contains an amazing fact : a new composition for the winds titled For the Promised Land( duration : 10 min. ), composed by Mr Masahiro Sakata, a renowned Japanese composer / conductor / music teacher.
For now I have not earned a privilege of attending at any performances of such a wonderful work dedicated to Saint Brendan and his Voyage, but I do believe this must be an epoc-making landmark in music, for both of the Irish nationals and ours, with all oceans separating us.
I express my deepest and sincerest thankness for the lady informant and Mr Sakata.

Mr Sakata's official Website is HERE.

'Brendan Voyage' again!

Created on May 16th, 2011.

My respected 'navigator' for this humble site, Dr Breándan Ó'Cíobháin himself planned a newly research expedition called Iomramh Bhréanainn, Brendan's Voyage, tracking the presumed wake of Irish seafaring monks, mainly represented in and attributed to Brendan. Mr Paddy Barry is the skipper for this expedition, and Dr Ó'Cíobháin himself embarks as a crew member ; the departure point is set on one of the places associated with Saint Brendan, the Skellig Michael Isles, and its date set on the Saint's Day, May 16th 2011(now perhaps they have set sail!). Their itinerary includes the Hebrides(Iona or Holy Isles included), St Kilda, the Orkneys and Shetlands, and then the Faroes finally reaching Iceland(Papey, Vestmannaeyjar and Heimaey Isles included) : then return to Corr na Ron, Co. Galway, Ireland, on July 8th, according to their voyage schedule. The total miles to be covered will be about 2,300 n.m. My spirit will be with the expedition crew on board and only praying for the fruitful, safe voyage ; bon voyage!
And one of the aims of this voyage is to research a newly discovered cave at Seljaland, located along the south coast of Iceland. Mr Kristjan Ahronson discovered this cave, dated by tephra to c. 800 AD, wherein he identified the typical 'cross' patterns on the interior walls, indicating a sign of some Irish seafaring clerics lived there. If this proved true, I must say this would be a fantastic, wonderful discovery in decades!

Here is the related link

Report from Dingle News site.

The schedule & concept of this memorable voyage are available from this article.

Here are the updates from Dr Ó'Cíobháin :

May16 A very rough sea, and entering Clifden Bay. Dinner at midnight.

May17 At anchor off Inishkea North Co. Mayo. Sail at 5 am tomorrow for Inishglora(Ir. Inis Glóire).

May 26 Storm-bound at Ailt an Chorrain (Burtonport), a Gaeltacht region, in Co. Donegal. Scheduled to set sail for Colonsay Isle (Colbhasa), the Inner Hebrides.

Brest 2008 hosts Irish curraghs

Created on August 3rd, 2008

The Brest maritime festival is one of the largest, most popular festival of sailing vessels; the latest event for the first time invited a flotilla of the Irish curraghs and the crewmen from Clew Bay, County Mayo, along the northwetern coast of the Republic of Ireland. The Clew Bay curraghs are on display at a quay on July 13th, at Brest 2008, showing the spectators their unique internal hull structures. Meanwhile, the curragh crew was demonstrating various manoeuvres of their curraghs from two to three hours a day, and also offering the visitors a workshop, video shows about curraghs and Ireland in general during the festival.

The Brest 2008 related page.

The historical discovery from a bog

Created on August 8th, 2006 ; revised on August 10th, 2006.

Last month(July 20th), a hawk-eyed bulldozer driver and the two shrewd land owners unearthed an Irish Early Christian Psalter, written on vellum manuscript(called 'a codex')in Faddan More bogland, Co. Tipperary by pure chance. When they caught a glimpse of it, soon they covered it with the damp soil again, to save it from further damage by being exposed to the open air, and then quickly reported their discovery to the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. The following day the codex was soon transported into the Museum 's conservation laboratory. The researchers recovered more fragments of vellum from the same bog in the further excavation during the next week.

Initial impressions placed the composition date of the codex at about AD 800, a time of Viking raids in Ireland. A fled monk might have dropped or hidden it in the bog, speculates the scholars from the Museum.

The Museum hopes they will restore this manuscript 'of such staggering importance(Dr Pat Wallace, the Museum's director)' in a couple of years and then display it in its 'Early Christian' gallery.

External links :