FEATURE:
Mná na hÉireann and Other Gems
PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Dent/Redferns
Kate Bush and Her Gift of Interpretation
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I missed its twenty-fifth anniversary…
back in May, but the compilation, Common Ground: Voices of Modern Irish Music, is a worthy album that is important. The concept of this album, assembled by producer Donal Lunny, was to gather over a dozen Celtic and Rock musicians with Irish ancestry to perform Irish traditional music, or original compositions with an Irish traditional flavour. The album contains tracks by Maire Brennan, Paul Brady, Andy Irvine, Christy Moore, Elvis Costello and Kate Bush. Bush recorded an interpretation of the poem, Mná na hÉireann. 1996 was a relatively quiet one in terms of Bush’s career. It was three years after The Red Shoes came out. Few people realised at that point that it would be 2005 when we next got a studio album from her (Aerial). There is an excellent new book, Finding Kate, that visualises her songs. There are illustrations that accompany a selection of he tracks. I have been communicating with its author, Michael Byrne, about some of the songs he selected for inclusion. The subject of Mná na hÉireann came up. Byrne is Irish. I was interested hearing his insights into Bush and Mná na hÉireann. Bush’s mother was Irish, and she had a great familial connection to the country. I am going to go a little into detail about how Bush interprets other people’s songs, standards and poems. I have talked about her covering tracks and that gift for interpretation before. I have been thinking about Mná na hÉireann a lot.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush perform on the set of French T.V. show, Formule 1, on 16th March, 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Jean-Jacques Bernier
Bush has sung in different languages before. Whether it is French (on Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers or the French-language version of her single, The Infant Kiss (Un Baiser d'Enfant)) or adopting on Australian accent in The Dreaming’s title track, Bush’s command of other languages and dialects is supreme! It is no surprise that she sings in Gaelic so convincingly. The truth is that Bush worked hard to sing phonetically, though her love and attachment to Ireland meant she inhabited the song and language easier than most. Even though the reaction to her rendition of Mná na hÉireann was split, I really love the song. It is one of her non-album tracks that more people should hear. The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia provide more detail and depth:
“Poem written by Ulster poet Peadar Ó Doirnín (1704–1796). It is most famous as a song, and especially set to an air composed by Seán Ó Riada (1931–1971). As a modern song, 'Mná na hÉireann' is usually placed in the category of Irish rebel music; as an eighteenth-century poem it belongs to the genre (related to the aisling) which imagines Ireland as a generous, beautiful woman suffering the depredations of an English master on her land, her cattle, or her self, and which demands Irishmen to defend her, or ponders why they fail to. The poem also seems to favor Ulster above the other Irish provinces.
Kate Bush recorded her rendition in 1995 for the 1996 compilation album Common Ground - Voices of Modern Irish Music. According to Donal Lunny, who contacted her for this contribution, 'She was very excited with the idea of singing the Irish in a way that Irish speakers would understand, and of conveying the meaning of the song through the sounds of the words. I helped as much as I could. She had Seán Ó Sé’s recording of Mná na hÉireann as reference. She was as faithful to the pronunciations as she could possibly be. It was with characteristic care and attention that she approached it. She did not stint one bit. Of course you’ll get people saying, `Oh, you’d know she doesn’t talk Irish straight off’. You wouldn’t know it straight off. I would defend her efforts as being totally sincere. No matter how perfect she gets it, she’s not an Irish speaker. This may rankle with some people.'
Critical reception
The track was reviewed as 'impressive' by Hot Press, saying that Kate’s 'fiery interpretation….may well prove to be among the most controversial cuts on Common Ground'. Indeed the Irish Times review of Common Ground singled out Kate as 'fumbling her way through' the song. NME was more positive about the track: "Since Lunny made a significant mark on her 'Sensual World' album, she repays him with a swooning version of 'Mná na hÉireann' (Women Of Ireland) that’s as good as anything she’s done this decade."
Kate about 'Mná na hÉireann'
It was fun and very challenging …..I will eagerly await comments from all Irish-speaking listeners in particular. I’m sure Ma gave me a helping hand! (Kate Bush Club Newsletter, December 1995)
Donal Lunny about 'Mná na hÉirann'
Not being an Irish speaker, she had to learn the words phonetically and took enormous pains over that. We exchanged, at the time I think it was faxes, of phonetic versions of it and spoke over the phone, went over the pronunciations, and eventually she got it pretty well. (Kate Bush sings as Gaeilge - Donal Lunny on working with a legend, RTÉ Radio 1 (Ireland), 4 September 2020)”.
Kate Bush has a gift for taking lesser-heard song and standards and making them her own. Whether she tackled Donavon’s Lord of the Reedy River, My Lagan Love (a song to a traditional Irish air collected in 1903 in northern Donegal) or her splendid version of George and Ira Gershwin’s The Man I Love, she could inhabit so many diverse landscapes and excel! A 21019 collection, The Other Sides, collates some of those lesser-known songs (Mná na hÉireann is on that album). In a career where Bush has recorded so many intriguing songs, I think Mná na hÉirann is among the absolute best and most beautiful. Her stunning rendition shows that there is…
NO end to her talent!