Fostering early music in Ireland is frustrating. Several early music festivals have come and gone, and there is a disgraceful lack of official support for a field which, in most of western Europe is innovative and self-sustaining.
The Sligo Early Music Festival like the festivals in Lismore (now defunct) and Galway, featured a mix of professional and amateur concerts, lectures and workshops. It included some top-flight professionals based in Ireland - Malcolm Proud (harpsichord), Maya Homburger (violin), Eleanor Dawson (flute), Siobhan Armstrong (harp) and John Elwes (tenor). As the festival's instigator, Rod Alston, explained, educational aims are shown in schools' visits by the Limerick School of Music Early Music Ensemble, and lectures and workshops.
I was in Sligo on Friday, and heard an excellent lecture on the Gaelic brass-wire harp. Siobhan Armstrong explained the instrument's origins and repertoire and was willing to prick popular misconceptions. This was a stimulating demonstration of how scholarship can support performance.
Friday evening's concert epitomised the challenges. It was the debut of the Dublinbased group Parsley, led by Eleanor Dawson and includes Rachel Talbot, Elizabeth Richards, Anne Robinson and Lucy Robinson. They played flutes, recorders and viols, and sang, in a programme of 16th and early 17th century music. Having members of mixed ability and experience, Parsley gave patchy performances.