Samhain 2005 -- Reenascreena style!

Written by Ted Coakley

Saturday, 12 November 2005

Ayodele Scott in Reenascreena

The Halloween/Samhain of 2005 in Reenascreena will be remembered for a long time. Over the weekend, Radio Eireann broadcast the play “The Ghost of the Reenascreena Lighthouse”, written by Roger Gregg; everyone who heard it had a different opinion but those who missed it were disappointed. But the completely unexpected event was the arrival of a team of drummers led by a man from Sierra Leone, named Ayodele Scott.

Our place became the capital of percussion as they brought us beautiful noise, novel experiences, late night singing , new ways of dancing, a variety of workshops and venison curry. Could any place ask for more?

This event, called Samhain 2005, was the work of Vic and Deb, who live in the nearby townland of Glounbrack and who operate West Cork Intercultural Events. It certainly lived up to all expectations! One patron declared: “there seems to be something otherworldly about the whole thing” -a very suitable comment considering the time of year.

African drums in the village hall

On the Friday,Saturday,Sunday and Monday, workshops were held in the local hall during the afternoon and culminated in a parade through Clonakilty town on Monday evening. This was followed by a big bonfire held down near Fax Bridge – complete with roasted pig and other fiery endeavours.

Dancing 'til late...

But the real “craic” was in Reenascreena Village where, joined by locals, Ayodele and his many helpers played and sang songs and tunes from “I’ll take you home again, Kathleen”, rhythms of Ali Farka Toure, Beatles melodies and back to “The Galway Shawl”. Late on the Monday night the main performance took place near the Steeple in the village -complete with African-style dancing and there was also a parade down to the Co-op store. It went on until early Tuesday morning , probably due to the quality of the porter, the richness of the barm bracks and, after all, this was Reenascreena.

Everyone hopes that this kind of event will happen again in our village as this is surely art and culture of the highest order. Dates are not yet announced but one could do worse than to pencil in Bealtaine 2006.