Imagining Ireland, world music review: Jewels of the Emerald Isle

In the presence of Irish president Michael Higgins, this concert mirrored one that took place in Dublin to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising against British rule. Almost 500 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting. The British executed 15 so-called ringleaders and hastened the calls for independence.

There were powerful songs about the events, but the overall tone was a celebration of Irish musicality, featuring leading musicians from Britain and Ireland. There was Cait O’Riordan of The Pogues, Kevin Rowland and Sean Read of Dexys Midnight Runners, Martin Carthy, the father of English folk, and pianist Barry Douglas, who opened the show quietly with skilful variations on two Irish folksongs.

The problem was that it was careering between genres, trying to please too many people, despite an impressive seven-piece band including two sons of Ewan MacColl on guitars. An Irish Londoner friend of mine felt it touched his heart too rarely.

It was the stripped down moments that were the most memorable: Paul Brady singing Shamrock Shore, about emigration after the Act of Union; Andy Irvine singing about James Connolly, one of the executed leaders; and a stunning instrumental set by fiddler Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill. McAlpine’s Fusiliers, celebrating the Irish who came to build the roads in Britain was a rousing and appropriate finish — even more so in London than in Dublin.

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