This trilingual film highlights the enduring significance of Irish famine memory in Québec. It is an hommage to Québécois-Irish historian, Georges Kavanagh, whose Irish-speaking ancestors survived the wreck of the Carricks in the Gulf of St-Lawrence in May 1847. Filmed in the Gaspé in northeastern Québec and in Sligo, Ireland, the film allows Kavanagh to tell his own story, as it follows him to the landmarks and seamarks of the tragedy and on his journey home to find his ancestral village in Ireland. The documentary will be followed by a discussion on the making of the film and the various research techniques used.
Biography:
Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin is an award-winning musician, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker and cultural historian. Director of the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University Montreal, he held the Jefferson Smurfit Chair of Irish Studies and was Professor of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis from 2000-2009. He was the inaugural holder of the bilingual Johnson Chair in Québec and Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia from 2009-2021. His recordings include Traditional Music from Clare and Beyond (1996), Tracin’ (1999), and The Independence Suite (2004). His Short History of Irish Traditional Music published by O’Brien Press has been a best seller since 1998. His monograph Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape, a study of traditional soundscapes in the West of Ireland, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. His recent work includes a collaboration with Canadian composer, Seán Ferguson for his suite Fataí Bána, Carraig Dubh, composed for uilleann pipes and live electronics, and a bilingual film Lost Children of the Carricks, written and directed by Ó hAllmhuráin, which was selected to represent Ireland at the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris in 2022.
Biographie :
Le professeur Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin est directeur de l’École des études irlandaises à l’Université Concordia, à Montréal. Musicien irlandais, cinéaste, ethnomusicologue et historien, il a été titulaire de la Chaire Jefferson Smurfit en études irlandaises et professeur de musique à l’Université du Missouri-St. Louis (2000-2009), et le premier titulaire de la Chaire Johnson en études canado-irlandaises au Québec à Concordia (2009-2021). Son ouvrage phare Flowing Tides : History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape a été publié par Oxford University Press en 2016. Membre du célèbre ensemble le Kilfenora Céilí Band dans les années 1990, il a fondé l’ensemble écossais-irlandais-québécois Trílangue avec Kate Bevan-Baker et Martine Billette. En tant que musicien professionnel, il a fait de nombreuses tournées musicales en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.