Listening To The Land ORFC Éist le fuaim na habhann - singing live song dedication to Manchán Magan

Описание: I had the great honour of being asked to write a song in dedication to Manchán Magan @manchanmagan for the Listening To The Land Day closing ceremony in Oxford last Wednesday.

Manchán was a truly inspirational author, journalist, broadcaster and documentary maker championing the Irish language, and our sacred connection to the land and nature, shining a light into ancient myths and histories of the landscape and Irish cultural heritage. He very sadly died at the spritely age of 55 in October 2025. He has left an incredible legacy of work, in so many different media, but his jovial sprit and wit, and dedication to this work will be deeply missed. My deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

It was an incredible privilege and honour to collaborate on this song with the expertise and wisdom of Bríd Walsh @walshbrid and Mary Barry-Murphy @marybarr_. 🙏💞
I didn’t know Manchán. I’m grateful to have met him briefly a year ago at this same event, and have been a keen follower of his work ever since. I have a tiny bit of Irish heritage, but am not an Irish Gaelic speaker…yet. I’m actually studying Scottish Gaelic and there are many similarities… but Irish keeps weaving its beautiful way into my song collecting, and now song writing.

Contemplating what I knew of Manchán’s energy, positivity and sense of wonder of the world, I did at times ponder if song needed to be a jig. But Mary found us this beautiful Irish séanfhocail (proverb) which felt very fitting, and apparently he knew and liked. I hope he enjoyed listening, if he was tuning in to the conference from wherever his soul now flies free. Thank you Manchan for all you created and the light you shone on the beauty and magic of the world.

Listening To The Land explores how building a reciprocal relationship with nature can support radical food system and land guardianship transformation. It is part of the @Oxfordrealfarmingconference organised by the fantastic @realfarmingtrust

Happy to hear if any of the translation in the captions is wrong…

#irishlanguage #irishsong #sacredsong #listentotheland #singersongwriter