RANGANNA AMHRÁNAÍOCHTA

Seán’s singing classes

In terms of passing on and preserving the Irish language, Seán had his own approach. He gifted the subtleties of the language to learners through songs and singing, and was of the belief that, if a learner, or anyone for that matter, could learn a song by heart, that they’d acquire vocabulary and pronunciation without realising, or thinking too much about it. As Seán says himself, in one of the recordings:

‘I still say now what I’ve always said to any class – if you learn a song or piece of poetry in any language, you’ll have acquired more knowledge in that language than you had done until that point – regardless whether or not you understand that which you’ve learned off.’

In another of the recordings, Seán is asked the question, “Is it necessary to be able to sing”? Seán replies, laughing as he says,

‘Have you ever heard us? The thing is, anyone can sing a song…anyone can recite a song, or, anyone can enjoy the songs themselves. Personally speaking, it makes no odds to me how good someone is, or how bad they are.’

Outlining perfectly, that becoming an accomplished, or pitch perfect singer was not the objective of his classes.  

Seán’s family would especially like to thank Liz Curtis, who had the foresight to record Seán’s classes, and who donated those collection of tapes to the family to cherish and enjoy.