SOME OF Ireland’s leading music bloggers met with the Irish Music Rights Organisation (Imro) this week, following its moves to make bloggers pay for a licence to post music online.
Award-winning blogger Nialler9 posted about the meeting, saying it had been useful and that none of the bloggers was against the idea of paying a licence. He added, though, that Imro had agreed to look into some of the bloggers’ concerns, including a licence that would cover non-commercial blogs and also the possibility of an opt-out for Imro members who want to use their music as promotional material.
The popularity of his blog has allowed Nialler9 to turn it into a small-scale commercial venture, but the other blogs represented at the meeting – Asleep on the Compost Heap and The Torture Garden – are non-commercial. Collectively, though, blogs have done an enormous amount to champion and publicise Irish music in recent years and Nialler9 ended his post with a message to the musicians who comprise Imro’s membership.
“If you are not happy that you need Imro’s permission to upload tracks and give blogs and sites Mp3s for promotional purposes (and, technically, you would have to pay this licence too), then this is your issue,” he wrote. “Imro are reasonable people whose ultimate goal is to protect the copyright of your work and have their members’ interests at heart. Talk to them. See what can be done. You might actually get somewhere.”
** PLAYOGRAPHY na Gaeilge, a formative database of Irish language theatre, was launched by the Irish Theatre Institute last week, writes Sara Keating. The culmination of several years of ongoing research by the ITI, the project has been delayed several times over the last few years because of "an excess of material rather than economic conditions", as Jen Coppinger, information and events manager at the ITI, happily commented.
The study, which lists comprehensive details for all Irish-language premieres on the island between 1974 and 2009, presents a surprising glimpse of the vitality of the Irish-language theatre tradition in Ireland, which has primarily received bad press since the days of compulsory gramadoíreacht (pantomimes) at the Abbey Theatre during the 1950s.
The database lists a total of 256 new Irish-language productions and their synopses, including vital details of lost performance histories with full cast and crew lists, and links for accessing play-scripts. The research is available free online at irishplayography.com.
However, the statistics also suggest some of the difficulties facing Irish-language theatre in the 21st century. Fifty-five per cent of all works produced were adaptations rather than original works, while the somewhat controversial inclusion of bilingual works such as Manchán Magan's Broken Croí/Heart Bristewill surely offend gaeilgeoirí purists. The inclusion of Aisteorí Bulfin, the amateur drama movement active throughout the 1980s and 1990s, whose 14 included productions comprise 5.4 per cent of the total work included in the playography, may also be slightly controversial, firing up the ongoing debate about where to draw the line between professional and amateur theatre practice.
Of less surprise, however, is the distribution of the productions in the nationwide study, which are predictably concentrated in Galway, where An Taibhdearc contribute 44.2 per cent of all productions, and Dublin, where the Abbey Theatre is the major contributor. Neither is there much surprise at the seeming paucity of productions when the statistics are placed side by side with the equivalent English-language period (146 original Irish-language plays versus 1,282 English language premieres).
Yet there are some movements towards a resurgence of Irish-language theatre in the last few years amidst young companies such as Salamander and Branar. Go n’eirí an t-ádh linn.
** AS BEFITS its new-found accreditation as a prestigious Assitej International Festival (Association International du Theatre pour l’Enfance et la Jeunesse), the 13th Belfast Children’s Festival is bidding welcome to its supporters in an unprecedented number of artistic languages.
The thoughtfully-crafted programme, which runs from May 21st to 30th, promises almost as much for adult chaperones as it does for its target audience. The title of this year’s theme is Perspectives, allowing young imaginations a glimpse into other worlds, other human situations, other lives.
Minor Mattersis a challenging play from the German company Junges Ensemble Stuttgart. Its focus is a homeless beggar, who narrates the breakdown of his life and his thoughts on what it really takes to be happy. From Croatia comes the puppet show The Story About the Cloud, an enchanting journey across deserts, rain forests, meadows, mountains, rivers and seas.
From Italy comes the quirky Il Lupo e la Capra, about a vegetarian goat and a carnivorous wolf, and The Seasons of Pallina, the life story of a little red ball. Mickey and Lionelis the world premiere of a play about friendship by Belfast's Replay company and the adorable Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Playis sure to have tiny tots as well as enraptured teenagers queuing around the block.
belfastchildrensfestival.com
