from Aoife Nic Cormaic Compositions
Caitlín Maude was a poet and singer from Connemara who died in 1982. She, her husband Cathal and their son Caomhán lived near us in Tallaght, Co Dublin and when I was a baby she ran a small Irish language playgroup from our front room. Growing up I heard lots of stories about her and about her singing and her poetry. Later, when I began to play myself I was fascinated by her. I didn’t know any professional musicians, especially women musicians and she was a very inspiring figure. I think as well, as a child, I found it difficult to understand the tragedy of her death at such a young age and I remember looking at her image on the cover of the album she made for ‘Gael Linn’, almost hoping to find answers there. In 2005 I directed and wrote a documentary for TG4 called ‘Concerto Chaitlín Maude’. The programme was divided into musical movements and I wrote music for each one. ‘Bainis Chaitlín’ was one of the tunes written for that project. It’s a light, happy tune and I associate it with Caitlín as a young woman, so full of energy and vitality.
