I’m a procrastinator and tend to leave aside the more tedious, administrative part of my week’s work until Friday.
Although it can be a bit overwhelming, I generally plod through my Fridays using my weekend projects as the carrot, ensuring a reasonably clean slate for the following Monday.
I felt particularly submerged this Friday, but instead of trying a few minutes of mindfulness, I foraged my personal emails, looking for friend/family comfort amid the plethora of unwanted marketing emails.
I clicked on a mail from singer Liv Monaghan, which included a link to her new video for her song "Alltar" from her second and recent album "First Light."
It was the first time Monaghan had shot a video in her native Ireland with a fellow Irish creative, and the love and energy they both put into it overflow.
Tim Shearwood shot the video in Glendalough, Co Wicklow, and Liv, a Corkonian based in Paris, said, “It was a joy to work with an Irish person.” Her previous videos were shot in Paris.
I have never seen a more hauntingly beautiful, creative clip since Kate Bush’s "Wuthering Heights." With Liv’s amazing voice singing magical bilingual English/Irish lyrics a Capella, the stunning landscape, and Tim Shearwood’s creative black and white visuals and technical skills, I felt resourced and floated, surprisingly efficiently, through the rest of the day.
The video and vocal agility was a powerful intravenous hit, peeling back layer after layer, right back to the Tuatha Dé Danann, bathing me in a sense of ‘home’ that no quick Temple Bar or Wild Atlantic Way weekend trip could match.
I believe Irish people, wherever they find themselves, can find their way ‘home’ through music that touches their very soul, and "Alltar" proved more mindful for my own mindset and backlog than any deep breathing!
By early Friday PM, I had an empty inbox and in-tray, and everything was in tip-top shape, in contrast with my usual scurrying to an end by 5:55 PM before running out the door. On the metro, I reflected on the first time I had heard Liv's "Alltar" and the tremendous effect it had on me, and I love hearing others’ reactions to the song.
A comment by a woman called Karen on Liv’s Facebook page encapsulated the effect of Liv’s voice in the video: “For me, listening to your tones and colour and sheer depth of emotion is like hearing the soulful wind wrapping around well-loved rocks within the sea. The people and land seem as one."
Liv explained: "The song and video are a tribute to the richness of the Irish language and its deep ties to the land; it's a song I wrote with displaced people in mind and how the spirit of everything is eternal."
In a recent interview with RTÉ, she spoke about "Alltar:" “There is a lot here, stringing a necklace of experiences and spirits together and having them make sense through the honesty in the sound.”
She explained that "Alltar" “is influenced by the Sean Nós tradition and draws inspiration from the book 'Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape' by Manchán Magan.”
As the book title says, the Irish language incredibly has 32 words for the word field, and the richness of a language closely tied to the natural landscape offered our ancestors a more magical way of seeing the world.
Liv captures that magic with her voice and the ghostly lyrics she penned for "Alltar" – the word Alltar itself is an old Irish word meaning the veil between worlds. She “often feels between worlds, and that's also where the poetry comes from. In English, an altar can be a place of worship - or a place on which sacrifices are made.”
Lyrics to "Alltar" by Liv Monaghan
Tiocfaidh an aisling beidh an fhirinne i réim
Tiocfaidh an aisling, beidh an fhirinne i réim (translation:The dream will come The truth will prevail)
Are we lost inside a dream
Are we deep inside its seams
But listen softly, listen deeply
Hear us as we mean
Oh the clashing colours no they don’t mean much
Oh the clashing words no they don’t mean much
As for longing for our homes
What of longing for our souls
But hear us singing, watch us moving
Long beyond the drone
Oh the marble buckles
Though you’ve made it walls
Oh the oceans call though you’ve
Claimed them yours
Know we’re high up in the hills
Know we’re deep down in the seas
You’ll know us high, you’ll strike us low
You’ll meet us in your dreams
Tiocfaidh an aisling beidh an fhirinne i réim
Tiocfaidh an aisling, beidh an fhirinne i réim
Tá cúmha ar mo chroí (There is sadness in my heart)
Tá cúmha ar mo chroí (There is sadness in my heart)
Cathrin a thitfidh an mothú uaighneas seo? (When will this feeling of loneliness fall away?)
Oh the clashing colours no they don’t mean much
Tiocfaidh an aisling, beidh an fhirinne i réim
You can learn more about Liv Monaghan on her BandCamp, website, and Instagram.
This article was submitted to the IrishCentral contributors network by a member of the global Irish community. To become an IrishCentral contributor click here.
Comments