{"id":338867,"date":"2026-03-10T14:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/338867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T14:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:08:12","slug":"cork-choir-to-sing-out-in-memory-of-beloved-comrade-sean-o-se","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/338867\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork choir to sing out in memory of beloved comrade Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week before his death<\/a>, Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9 was making plans for this weekend\u2019s National Concert Hall performance by Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann and C\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha.<\/p>\n

The Cork tenor, who first sang with Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada\u2019s Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann in 1962, when he recorded An Poc ar Buile told \u00d3 Riada\u2019s son Peadar he hoped to be able to perform with the band again under Peadar\u2019s stewardship this Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u00d3 S\u00e9 was also to receive a TradFest lifetime achievement award from President Catherine Connolly in January, but could not travel to Dublin for the ceremony, passing away on January 13, three days before his 90th birthday.<\/p>\n

Peadar, himself undergoing treatment for bone-marrow cancer, said although \u00d3 S\u00e9 knew he would not get to the capital to accept the award in person, he was keen to get back on stage for the concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was looking forward to it and even the last day I was talking to him, the week before he died, he said \u2018whatever about Dublin next week, we\u2019ll definitely do the Concert Hall anyway\u2019. \u201c\u2018Dublin next week\u2019 was when he was given the award, but he didn\u2019t make it,\u201d said Peadar.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s concert will now open with a poignant tribute to \u00d3 S\u00e9 and other deceased members of Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann and C\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha, both founded by composer Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada, who died aged 40 in 1971.<\/p>\n

\"S\u00e9anS\u00e9an \u00d3 S\u00e9 and C\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha performing at Shane MacGowan’s funeral in Nenagh in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those nights to remember that won\u2019t be repeated very easily,\u201d said Peadar, whose friendship with \u00d3 S\u00e9 spanned six decades. \u201cConsidering that Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9 and myself started out thinking we\u2019d have a whale of a night and now half of [the duo] is gone, with the other one kind of \u2018dodge\u2019 \u2014 I\u2019m alright, thank God \u2014 you know there\u2019s no guarantee that it\u2019ll be repeated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019ve lost Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9, in a nod of respect to him we\u2019ve taken his songs and married them to different individual singers in the choir who\u2019d be able to carry his huge [vocal] range.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019ll do all the numbers that people know, like Mo Ghile Mear, which I started off doing first in 71 and which many people have imitated since. We\u2019ll be doing Do Bh\u00ed Bean Uasal, In\u00edon an Phailit\u00ednigh, and Im\u2019 Aonar Seal,\u201d and in \u00d3 S\u00e9\u2019s honour, \u201c The Banks, of course\u201d.<\/p>\n

Peadar says the concert will start with a little tribute to all the deceased members of the band and the choir. “I\u2019ll play Aisling Gheal like my father did, the last piece he played, and we\u2019ll show pictures of the deceased members, finishing with Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9, as a nod of respect to them. There\u2019s going to be an awful lot of nostalgia for people going to that concert who have grown up listening to \u00d3 Riada sa Gaiety,\u201d he added. \u201cIt will take them back to the ’60s and ”70s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Michael Tubridy the only surviving member of Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada\u2019s lineup, the band is now in its third regeneration, with 1970s’ recruits Peadar \u00d3 Riada, John Kelly, and \u00c9amon McGivney joined by Sorcha Costello, Louise Mulcahy, Jillian O\u2019Malley, \u00c9imhear Flannery, Conor Connolly, and Tommy Hayes.<\/p>\n

Though Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann, some of whose original members went on to form the Chieftains, has undergone personnel changes, it retains its sound, said Peadar, author in 2024 of Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann: The Band that Changed the Course of Irish Music. \u201cIt\u2019s the arrangements that make the music. They sound like the old band and it will be very emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann share the stage with C\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha, founded by Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Riada and an tAthair Donnacha \u00d3 Concubhair in 1963-64 and under Peadar\u2019s direction since his father\u2019s death. The male choir also spans family generations, Peadar being among the few remaining original members, the likes of Danny Maidhc\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00failleabh\u00e1in and P\u00e1id\u00ed \u00d3 Lion\u00e1ird now singing alongside grandsons of former comrades.<\/p>\n

\"C\u00f3rC\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha and Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann with Peadar \u00d3 Riada.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve some very young boys in the choir who will be marching out on stage and singing out,\u201d Peadar said. \u201cFamily connections are there all the time \u2014 that\u2019s the thing about the choir, they bring their kids in and they grow up in the choir, like my grandson, who is nipping in and out, and my grand-nephew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the most wonderful experience at Christmastime, when Murchadh Morgan\u2019s [Mac Suibhne] grandson young Murchadh came up to me and said \u2018An bhfuil cead agam teacht isteach\u2019 and he\u2019s all of six or seven and I said \u2018t\u00e1, gan dabht\u2019 and he\u2019s manfully singing away ever since and he\u2019ll be soloing up in the National Concert Hall.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Songs including Tuirneamh Mhic Fin\u00edn Dhuibh and Abha an tSul\u00e1in have been reintroduced to the repertoire, added Peadar. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone back again to the 60s for some of the numbers the choir are doing, to try and span the whole 60 years, so between Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann and the choir it will be a very rich concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe night is in tribute to the generations that are gone. It\u2019s called M\u00fascailt [awakening\/stirring] because we have the young generations coming after \u2014 we\u2019re not dying out, we\u2019re there forevermore and a day \u2014 just with personnel changes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

M\u00fascailt, Ceolt\u00f3ir\u00ed Chualann agus C\u00f3r C\u00fail Aodha, NCH, Dublin March 14, 7.30pm. Tickets via National Concert Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A week before his death, Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9 was making plans for this weekend\u2019s National Concert Hall performance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,6405],"class_list":["post-338867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music-movies-reviews-munster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}