Máiréad's music and performances and what they really mean.

My Dearest Máiréad,

I was very impressed with the first Celtic Woman concert in Dublin, and then after seeing the concert at Slane Castle words could not express how in awe I was of this incredibly talented group. But the concert at Powerscourt was clearly the finest production even though my personal favorite will always be Slane Castle. There are a number of reasons for that and they all boil down to Máiréad Nesbitt.

The reason this is on my mind is because I will be present for the last concert on this tour at Red Rocks. But also because at least once a week I watch all four DVD’s of Celtic Woman. The greatest journey DVD isn’t as smooth in transition as the others primarily due to the fact it is a collection or compilation rather than a homogenous performance. Anyway, I watch them all at least once a week.

Also, I am in the midst of writing a new manuscript about you Máiréad that will be titled simply ‘Máiréad’, as I have mentioned some few times before. This is a new approach for me because I am attempting to put what is basically a sight and sound performance and experience into a written description of what I saw, heard and felt. It isn’t easy, but it is necessary to the story and I have made some serious progress with it.

Back to the incomparable Miss Nesbitt. While watching these tapes I suddenly realized something that should have jumped pout at me the first time I watched the DVDs. For the Dublin concert you were only on stage a total of five times, three solos and two other appearances with the other girls. ‘The Butterfly’ is the first time I saw you perform Máiréad and it was such a lovely thing to watch and hear that I am still smiling over it.

Your classical violin introduction to ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ is one of my favorite performances and what led to the things that have happened to me through your sublime music and rare talent. “My Lagan Love’, well, Celtic music at its best and a very appropriate number for this Irish girl I would think. Anyway I loved it and I loved you playing it. But I have to tell you that ‘Ashoken Farewell’ and ‘The Contradiction’ were clearly signature pieces and the true mark of Máiréad Nesbitt on Celtic Woman. ‘The Contradiction’ also led directly to saving my life, but that story I’ve already shared with you or I hope I have. Anyway I’ve certainly tried to.

‘You Raise Me up’ is also a signature piece, but one for Celtic Woman as a group. The thing is that you had only the three solos and two other appearances during that Dublin concert. Feeling the way I do about you, I always think you are almost constantly on the stage regardless of the concert, but clearly that was not true for the first one. The group did twenty-two numbers during that Dublin concert and you were on stage a total of five times. That is what struck me when I took a much closer and deeper look at that concert.

Now at Slane Castle there were twenty-five numbers but you had three solos and 8 other appearances with the other girls. ‘Granuaile’s Dance’ was an eye opener for me and it was then that I realized just how incredibly talented you are. I’ve heard you say in various interviews that you don’t really call what you do on stage dancing, but I have to tell you that to someone like me who has very little in the way of musical education of any kind, it sure looked like dancing to me, and completely irresistible dancing at that. Through that dance you began to settle down the ghosts I carried for so long, sending them back into the ground and laying them to rest.

‘At The Ceili’ was just pure unadulterated fun and you played the perfect complement to the ladies, another very entertaining and satisfying experience. I could clearly imagine what a real Irish Ceili must be like. The classical beauty of ‘Lascia Ch’io Pianga’ again showed that very real versatility you command. Impressive and touching, a virtuoso performance and truly another side to you Máiréad.

‘Spanish Lady’ was another fun number, that you all clearly enjoyed. But the ladies of Celtic Woman always and without exception enjoy their numbers, but this particular concert was special. In any case, that number set me up for the wonderful experience of Máiréad Nesbitt’s rendition of ‘Shenandoah’. There were tears in your beautiful green eyes as you played it, and the rapt expression on your lovely face communicated directly to my heart how in touch you truly were with this wonderful song of longing.

But this is also the moment when you reached out and touched me in such a way as to stop the bleeding of those many invisible wounds I have carried since Vietnam. But more, after you stopped the bleeding with ‘Shenandoah’, you healed those wounds with ‘The Pacific Slope’. ‘Shenandoah – Pacific Slope’ is also a signature piece for you Máiréad and for me a turning point in my life. I have a great deal to thank you for and perhaps I will be able to do that in person at the Red Rocks concert, I hope and pray that I can.

‘Mo Ghile Mear’ and ‘You Raise Me up’ just set the seal on why I love the Slane Castle concert so much and why it means so much to me. But you also mean so much to me Máiréad, and I owe you a debt of gratitude that I can never repay. Yet there was even more that your violin and your dancing did for me and that was during the concert at Powerscourt. A concert that had just twenty-one numbers but where you had three solos and ten appearances with the other girls. As Celtic Woman matures and grows, it is clear to me Máiréad that you are the signature performer of Celtic woman and the face of the group.

Songs From The Heart was also a very important concert for me as I matured and grew into the man that I should have been for more than forty years but sadly was not. It took a diminutive green eyed blonde from Ireland with a beautiful face, engaging smile and a fire in her soul to reach me so deeply and at the same time on so many different levels. You did all of that my dear Máiréad, as I’m sure you, your music, your dancing and your Irish magic have done for so many others. And will no doubt continue to do for as long as you perform, which hopefully will be for too many years to count.

‘The Coast of Galicia’ set me up for what this concert would do to me and for me. ‘Níl Sé’n Lá’ was an incredible performance by all of you but you still provided the glue that made it work so well and was so entertaining. But ‘the Lost Rose Fantasia’ gave me back my faith in a strange but moving way and then ‘Slumber My Darling’ gave me back my youth in an even stranger way.

That should have been enough, but it wasn’t. When you moved effortlessly and seamlessly into ‘The Mason’s Apron’, another signature piece for you Máiréad, all of my lost spirit and dearly held dreams and hopes sprang back into my conscious mind in full flower taking me back to that time in my life before the horrors of war stripped me of my humanity, my patriotism and my trust in God and country.

It is clear to me that odd bits and pieces of who I was are still coming back through your masterful playing and the elegance and grace you display on stage. You are far more than a fiddler, violinist and dancer Máiréad, and that is the story I am trying to tell through my book. You rise above all expectations, you have so much talent coupled with such a rare gift for loving and projecting that love to your audience, that you stand alone and are in a class all by yourself. You are fiery and energy incarnate on stage, your passionate music reaches out and touches the hardest heart softening it and granting the mercy of forgiveness even where that forgiveness is not merited as in my case.

Thank you Máiréad, you have given me so much more than any man could ask for let alone deserve and I am very grateful. I will experience your magic in person at Red Rocks, and perhaps I will experience your compassion first hand at the meet and greet. I may cry, it isn’t something I’ve ever done very much, but I don’t think I can meet you without tears in my eyes. It’s a heck of a thing for a Marine Corps veteran blooded in war to admit, that a slender bit of an Irish girl can reduce him to tears just by smiling that special smile, but it is no doubt true. You are beautiful Máiréad, and you are loving, your expertise and passion combine to make you the premier performer of your generation and perhaps, no definitely of any other generation. How could I not love you?

Dea-Slán go fóill, Mo bhean Gaeilge milis,
Siúl i tsíocháin agus an grá
Tá tú i mo smaointe agus paidreacha i gcónaí, agus go domhain in mo chroí chomh maith

Bealtaine go léir do bhóithre a mhín ó,
Féadfaidh an siúlóid le Dia maith leat agus tú ag breathnú thar gach lá de do shaol.
Ó mo chroí chun do chroí Máiréad,
Beidh mo ghuí libh i gcónaí
Beidh mo ghrá siúl i gcónaí in aice leat

Allen