Earlier this year West Co. Sligo native, BRÍDÍN, made quite a splash with her EP Ocean of Stars. While it was noted she was carrying on the traditions of her family, she is the fourth generation of her family to play Irish music, she did so with a unique contemporary twist. As well as the harp, she also plays flute, piano, and dances sean nós. It was no real surprise then that she was nominated in the ‘Best Emerging Artist’ category at the recent RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards.
In a story all too familiar, the launch of her EP, released in February, was delayed. But with no task too small for Brídín she not only arranged for a virtual EP launch she did it all in the cockpit of the Boeing 767 aeroplane in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo that her father brought from Shannon Airport, along the west coast of Ireland to Sligo by tug and barge.
You’re not likely to hear another story like this. Brídín explains:
“Dad came up with the idea of having this transport themed glamping village in Enniscrone, which then escalated to him buying the decommissioned airplane. He had to bring it from Shannon Airport up along the west coast of Ireland to Sligo by tug and barge. Thanks to an amazing team of engineers and his determination, the mission was successful and more importantly, he put Sligo on a global platform. I wanted to make the most of our unique venue and decided I wanted to launch my debut EP from the cockpit of this special Boeing 767. This launch is officially the first ever event to take place on our site, which makes us so excited for what’s to come.
It took some time to clean it up and get it ready for the launch, with Ray Forde from EAV Ireland as sound and light engineer, filmed and edited by Ciarán Harte and Stephen Hallinan and my family and friends helping out, it looked really cool and so surreal. We actually would like to use it as a venue again as the sound was so good! My amazing band that performed my set with me on the night; Clare Sands on fiddle, Brian Dillon on keys and Paul Leonard on Drums.
Myself and Clare were writing a track the week before doing up the plane (Iontach a Bheith Beo – Good to be Alive), so she hung around to help me, and she was such a great help scrubbing it up. I was taking videos the whole time we were doing up the plane, just for memories, but decided to include them in ‘Airplane Mode’ for people to really understand the work that was put into this launch and to get a close up look at our amazing stage.
My mam (Aileen), dad (David), Martina, Clare, Eoghan, Matty Tuffy and Sandra Beardshall helped me pull it all together, Matty Tuffy made sure we had electricity in the plane and Ray made it look and feel like a real gig.
My mam is such a talented dress maker, she made me my ‘fairy princess’ jumpsuit that I wore on the night, which will always be so special to me.”
To mark the launch, Brídín has printed a limited number of CD’s of ‘Ocean of Stars’ EP, available to purchase on Bandcamp: https://bridin.bandcamp.com/album/ocean-of-stars-ep
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