All Together for the Seventh Chapter
- Dermot Keyes
- Aug 5
- 7 min read
“We're all together now,” a buoyant Christy Moore declared at the end of a joyous set at Curraghmore on Saturday afternoon last. And do you know what? Those of us who took in the entirety of his wonderful set genuinely were.
The 81-year-old delivered his greatest hits with warmth, charm and gusto inside the heaving 'Something Kind Of Wonderful' tent.
The venue's title couldn’t have been more apt given the vast, happy crowds Moore drew both inside and outside the venue, given the impact of his first festival performance for 14 years. And it was genuinely heartwarming to see the man himself in such cracking form.
With a tune, a story and a guitar, and in the notable absence of any glitzy production or extravagant lighting, Moore’s songs of protest, poignancy and time-honoured good humour, gripped an audience of all ages.
Aided by the addition of a big screen and a speaker outside the tent’s main entrance/exit (a new and welcome innovation this year), several hundred other festivalgoers got to fully enjoy and embrace the gig.
Indeed, most were treated to better sound quality from outside the tent than to those who were positioned inside its flanks given that the interior speakers were centrally located.
As shared experiences go, given the longevity of Moore’s career and his enduring ability to weave a story in an earthy, heartfelt tone, one suspects his performance will be the one that many will still speak of years, indeed, decades from now.
Be it his Spanish Civil War-inspired ‘Viva La Quinta Brigada’, the enduringly powerful ‘Ride On’, his tributes to both the late Glen Hansard (an acapella rendition of ‘The Auld Triangle’) and Veronica Guerin (‘Veronica’), Moore commanded Curraghmore.
His sparkling set didn’t lack for levity either, with ‘Delirium Tremens (14 pints of stout)’, ‘Joxer Goes to Stuttgart’ and ‘Lisdoonvarna’ all wowing a crowd palpable grateful to have witnessed the great man in action.
The folk/traditional revival of recent years clearly shows no signs of decelerating and was handsomely evidenced during the seventh chapter of a festival now firmly embedded into the entertainment calendar.
Be it Kneecap’s unique, Irish language infused hip-hop set which thrilled their fans on Saturday night (with many travelling south to hear them) to The Mary Wallopers who performed before them, differing cultural interpretations are clearly resonating.
Damien Dempsey and his finely tuned band produced a stirring set on Sunday evening, with the afternoon rains already a distant memory by then. “A great day in the Déise,” he declared, wearing as wide a grin as anyone did inside the estate walls over another incredible weekend.
And in a performance which underlined how powerful a legacy Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann has embedded into the current generation, Biird – the 11-strong, all-female traditional group – with their traditional airs and contemporary beats, stole the entire weekend for many.
On an altogether different performance plane, Pulp proved a superb closing act on the Main Stage on Friday night.
Under a moon which hung over the Clodiagh and Suir Valleys like an expertly positioned prop, the Sheffield supergroup sounded as polished and primed as they were during their mid-90s, Mercury Prize-winning peak.
Frontman and current Booker Prize judge Jarvis Cocker, whose waif-like frame doesn’t inhibit his ability to command a vast and superbly lit stage, sparkled under the Curraghmore skies.
He told the 20,000-plus crowd before him that he’d been instructed to deliver a simple two-word statement which truly spoke for the national moment: “Up Mayo”. And how we agreeably roared!
On a weekend when the green and red was endemic, with many delivering that same greeting upon spotting anyone in the All-Ireland football champions’ colours, Cocker’s timely wording got the set off to a flying start – and what a gig they delivered.
While giving us the tunes that entered the mainstream – ‘Disco 2000’ and a raucous, interactive version of ‘Common People’, Pulp dipped into their back catalogue and kept the crowd locked in their tractor beam.
As he zig-zagged across the stage in what felt like exclusively right angles more than once, Cocker whimsically shared a story about the band’s first Irish gig in 1993 at Temple Bar’s Rock Garden.
That infamous night, they played before a crowd that didn’t break the 100 mark, just 24 hours after half their amplification equipment had been stolen following a gig in London.
Promoter Jeff Brennan had booked them into what Cocker described as “Dublin’s cheapest hotel – a ten buck a night bed-and-breakfast up on Gardiner Street”. Brennan’s follow-up has long since entered the annals of Britpop history: “Sorry about the gear – but I’m sure the rest of it will be robbed on ye tonight!”
They concluded their set with a beautiful, calming rendition of ‘A Sunset’, a track taken from last year’s album, suitably titled ‘More’ and couldn’t have sent punters off to the bar in better humour.
For a band formed just before Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland, Pulp remain in full working order – and long may they reign.
The explosion of stages in open spaces, along with those tucked beneath the native trees and laurels provided treats aplenty, be it superstar in waiting Muireann Bradley, Derry duo Tessio or the exceptional TBL8 Brass at the Schweppes stand.
Drifting between acts, be it David Kitt rolling back the years at the revamped ‘Road To Nowhere’ stage or the soulful disco/funk of Brooklyn trio She She She as Saturday careered into Sunday, the powers of bilocation would have been welcomed.
No festival attendee ever sees all that they intend to take in having negotiated the dusty roads and stuck the tent up: that’s why so many of us keep coming back.
Yet the joy of festival-going, in a great many instances, lies in the new sounds and surprises they deliver each and every years.
Take the 22-piece brass and percussion band Boolaboom as a prime example, fully populating the Global Roots stage late on Saturday night and then threatening to take its wooden roofing off thanks to their high-tempo, samba-inspired sounds.
Take your pick: be it the dancehall reggae of Barrington Levy, the dynamism of Dublin indie band Ciúnas or the delightful interpretations provided by the Trinity Orchestra, ATN offered something for everyone.
The spoken word offerings provided through interviews with ‘Love/Hate’ creator Stuart Carolan, actor Aidan Gillen and Booker Prize nominee Djamel White (author of ‘All Them Dogs’) to the fun of football reminisces with Brian Kerr provided time-out from the festival’s more amped-up content.
White, in conversation with Brianna Parkins, was a delight to listen to. Slightly awed by the Booker Prize nod and clearly gratified by it, gave some insight into his writing method.
"It's peaks and valleys," he said. "For a lot of ('All Them Dogs'), there was a thousand words a day in the morning before I even got out of bed...
"I would have a self-pouring kettle beside the bed, a mug of instant coffee which had already been scooped in so it was nice and sticky! Then I'd read a chapter of a book I was reading and then after that chapter was done, I would get to work and I'd crank out a thousand words...I was pushing it out a bit with the goal of fixing it later."
Amongst the surprise visitors to ‘ATN’, environmental activist Greta Thunberg took to The Temporary Bandstand on Saturday afternoon where she delivered her take on a troubled world.
“Maybe because I’m autistic, I cannot pretend to be hopeful, to feel hope in this world, when I’m too heartbroken about the state of the world, everything is falling apart,” she said.
The sight of nearby Coumshingaun ablaze on Friday night, with Slievenamon still smouldering, was difficult to shake off when considering the thrust of Thunberg’s message.
The 23-year-old Swede feels there are “no longer words in any language to describe the slaughtering of our fellow humans, of other species of the biosphere we depend on to survive.
“And there are no words to describe the war criminals who are causing this, and we know who these people are. I am all about peace and love, trust me.”
While younger festivalgoers enjoyed fun and games beneath Curraghmore House and with all manner of wellness catered for on the house lawn (including a pop-up Waterford Library service), All Together Now well and truly delivered again.
Granted, there were significant traffic tailbacks for those accessing the site on Friday afternoon, similarly for many departing on Monday morning - and there were more than a few punters who looked suspiciously under 21.
Yet there was no great surpirse in any of that; policing such a vast crowd is no picnic and the narrow roads leading to and from Curraghmore were not conceived with universally prompt getaways in mind. Festivals remain imperfect fun, with some corners slightly less sanded than others. It has always been thus - but it's probably best to focus on the fun.
Just a few fields away, Belted Galloways and sheep happily grazed throughout the festival's four days, their worlds unaffected by the wild and wonderful theatrics staged north of the tranquil, shallow Clodiagh.
Soon, the accoutrements of ATN will be disassembled for use elsewhere, and Curraghmore’s livestock shall once again reign as monarchs “of banks and stones and every blooming thing” inside these centuries-old walls. Let's do it all again next year.
With thanks to Stef Edwards and the Culture Pop! Team for another great weekend!
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