from Compositions by Christy McNamara
The landscape in and around Cappafean in Crusheen, County Clare is an ancient one. It was carved out and shaped by the last ice age. This is drumlin country with rocks bigger than houses to be seen everywhere, carried by glaciers into the valleys from higher ground and left there long after the ice had melted. This is a remote and wild place, off the beaten-track, untamed. Life began here and remained unchanged for centuries.
Molly O’Brien, my grandmother, was born here in 1900 and lived to be 102. She married John McMahon and they raised a family of eight and worked the land. It was a tight-knit farming community of small holdings and big families living in humble thatched houses.
During the War of Independence 1919 to 1921 they, along with their neighbours opened up their homes, gave food, shelter and refuge to the volunteers who were on-the-run and living in the wilds.
‘The House Under the Hill’ is a musical tribute and a celebration of the role that families and communities (like my own) gave in the struggle for independence.
