World Championships Day 1

Around 5 a.m. Ellie woke me up not feeling great. We sent Jay in to sleep with Gwen and Ellie got into bed with me and we decided to take the morning off from the “wrap up” classes at Scoil Eigse and rest.

It was actually nice that we ended up not rushing out the door in the morning because Gwen got to take a walk with Nana and had plenty of time to warm up her voice and get ready for her singing events.

Gwen’s 2 singing competitions were scheduled at EXACTLY the same time in buildings across town from each other. And the city centre is totally shut down to vehicle traffic during the Fleadh. Eimear told us that we should start with lilting because it’s a quicker moving competition. So that meant we had to drop off a conflict form at her English songs venue, then go to her Lilting venue and compete, then go back to English songs to compete.

Luckily the traffic wasn’t terrible and we made it all happen smoothly! Gwen sang SO well at both events! I had no idea how competitive our girls would be here in Ireland because the numbers at our Regional in the US are so much smaller than the numbers at the Regionals here in Ireland.

There are 7 Regional events around the world that qualify students to attend the World Championships. You must receive Gold or Silver at a Regional event in order to qualify for the All-Ireland (World Championship) Fleadh We have 2 Regionals in the United States—Midwest (ours) and the Mid-Atlantic out on the East coast. Competition at the US Regionals isn’t nearly as fierce as in Ireland. In Ireland they have qualifying events that students have to go through in order to even get to Regionals.

We did notice a difference in the fact that Gwen doesn’t have an Irish accent so her singing of her English songs definitely has a bit of a different character than the Irish competitors. I’m not sure how likely it is that a singer without the accent would ever place in the singing competition.

I was so impressed with the quality of the singers. I’ve

adjudicated a fair number of singing competitions back in the States. I’m not entirely sure why the singers in a traditional singing competition are such a higher quality than I’m used to. . .is it because it’s unaccompanied singing? Is it that they hear it more—from parents, friends, teachers? Is the culture here that much more of a singing culture than ours back in the States? It’s definitely something I need to mull over and figure out so that I can prepare my students for their competitions as well as these students are prepared here.

After Gwen finished her English songs, we headed home for dinner. If you stay until the end of a competition, the judges will make some remarks and announce live who the top 3 winners are. We didn’t stay because we needed to get back to eat and drop Ellie and me off. If you don’t stay, you can watch for the official results to be posted on the Fleadh Facebook page. On the way home I scared EVERYONE in the car when I shouted “OH MY GOD” as I saw Gwen’s name pop up on the list as the 3rd place winner in the ages 12-15 division for Lilting!!!

It is a huge honor to receive a medal at the World Championship Fleadh. It’s pretty much like the Olympics for Irish music. The girls understand that they are representing

not only themselves, their family, and St. Louis Irish Arts, but they are representing the United States of America by being here. Competition is what brought us on this adventure. . .but we all agree that competition is not a true indicator of someone’s worth or talent. Its value, to me, lies in getting up in front of a room full of people—with multiple learned people who are specifically there to JUDGE you—and doing your thing. Competition teaches (among other things) composure, how to cope with pressure, and always, first and foremost as a musician, how to share your gifts and talents with others no matter the circumstances.

But earning a medal for it and being told that a couple of very knowledgeable humans think you are one of the best in the world at doing something is pretty darn cool.

Gwen was rather chill about it. She thinks it’s neat that she won the medal but she said she is valuing this whole experience more than the medal.

Totally random—for dinner we had chicken goujons. . .which are basically what we call chicken tenders or strips at home. “Goujons” sounds more like something Cajun to me for some reason, not Irish.

After dinner, Mom, Gwen, Chapin, and Jay used the free tickets we scored at Scoil Eigse to attend the National Folk Orchestra concert at St. Paul’s Church. They LOVED the concert and raved about it the next morning.

Ellie, Dad, and I had a quiet evening. Ellie and I took a walk and cuddled on the couch—resting up for Ellie’s big day of competition tomorrow.