Slow Radio BBC Radio 4 'Broadcasting House' (9.10.18)

Tom Odell Performs his song 'Magnetised' at the Olympia Theatre on the 14th of October, 2018.  Recorded from the front row of the Upper Circle using a Tascam DR-05.

Tom Odell - Magnetised

A quick walk around Cork's English Market on a quieter-than-usual Friday Afternoon.

English Market 19.10.18

The Harlem Gospel Choir perform a tribute to Aretha Franklin during their appearance at the Cork Opera House, 20.10.18.  (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman and Respect.

Harlem Gospel Choir - Cork Opera House - 20.10.18

30.10.18 A quiet coffee and a calm moment with a nice cover of Dylan's classic by Helio Sequence played at the Kino on Cork's Washington Street.  Subtle coffee sounds (with my own teaspoon clinking), background traffic through the open door, customers entering near the end.  Recorded on Tascan DR-05.

TASCAM DR-05

Coffee with Mr. Tambourine Man

03.11.18 A coffee and a walk through the English Market on a Bustling Saturday Morning.  Market sounds topped off with some spontaneous tin whistling near the end.

English Market And Tin Whistler 03.11.18

Military Road/Old Youghal Road (Historical Soundscape, snippet)

Setting: Military Road, St. Luke’s, Cork
Time & Date: 6am, 26th of June, 1963

The clinking of milk bottles, the chirps from a nesting group of sparrows, a passing bicycle, the offering of a “morning” from a fellow early riser; all sounds that make up the everyday and familiar of our sonic memories. Juxtaposed with the events of the fanfare that was to visit Military Road just two days later, the sounds of the morning of the 26th of June, 1963 may sound more subdued by comparison, but are no less important and significant for that. 

This soundscapes attempts to represent and encapsulate the morning routine of my grandfather on a particular day in 1963; Wednesday the 26th of June, just two days before the planned arrival of American president John F. Kennedy into Cork, and Collins Barracks. The main research that informed the construction of this piece was an interview I conducted with my mother regarded her memories of what this routine may have sounded like, and what aspects I might concentrate on in its construction. 

The route and story starts with the shutting of a garden gate and the short descent down the hill from the house to the local shop that was run by my grandmother for many decades. A central part of the community, Fleming’s was a place that army personnel and the local residents frequented and depended upon for their daily needs, and for this reason early opening and preparation was essential. After lighting the gas geyser and counting the change for the till inside the shop, our actor starts his journey back up Military Road to collect the morning newspapers from another local business.

During this second exterior stretch of the story, we encounter the sound of a passing subterranean train as it emanates from the railroad chimney in the adjacent area known locally as ‘Clanky Tan’. This distant rumbling gives way the sound of Reveille from Collins Barracks. As we are mere yards from the gates at this stage of the piece, this bugle call as the flag was raised on the main flagpole would have been heard quite distinctly. The footsteps halt for as long as the bugle plays, a mark of respect paid by our protagonist, a former member of the Irish Free State Army. 

The heartbeat of this piece is indeed these footsteps; a very regular sound in this time period. The pronounced gait of individuals who wore quarter iron tips on the heels of their shoes would have been a constant sonic thread on the streets of Cork. As these footsteps fade, we are left with birdsong, and the distant flicking of the Irish flag as it flies at full mast inside the barracks.

Military Road (Historical Soundscape)

Setting: Corner of Military Road and Old Youghal Road, St. Luke’s, Cork

Date: 28th of June, 1963

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the then President of the United States of America, visited Ireland on a three-day tour during his visit to Europe in 1963. During his stay in the country, Kennedy took part in numerous official events in Dublin and also visited the townland of Dunganstown in Wexford, where his great- grandfather had set sail to America from more than a century previous. Not originally part of Kennedy’s agenda for his Irish visit, his brief time spent in Cork City on the morning of June 28th is thought of as one of the most significant moments in Cork’s recent past. 

Kennedy arrived into Cork by helicopter, touching down in Collins Barracks in the north of the city. This soundscape is designed to be experienced from the perspective of someone standing outside the main gates of the barracks as Kennedy arrived. Collins Barracks played a central role in the everyday soundscape of this area of the city at the time, not just on momentous occasions such as Kennedy’s visit, but as part of everyday events such as band practice, marching battalions of soldiers, and the general comings and goings of army personnel.

First-hand accounts mention that “the sound of music, traditional Irish instruments playing Irish airs, followed Kennedy’s tour through Ireland.”  This aspect is represented here by a band of travelling musicians (performed and recorded by me) playing and singing the traditional tune of Kelly the Boy from Killane, which was one of the two tunes played by the pipe bands of the 4th and 12th battalions on the drill square of the barracks on the day in question.  The other tune played was The Boys of Wexford, a song that Kennedy liked so much that on his return home to America, he commissioned noted composer Samuel L. Nestico to arrange a version for the United States Marine Band. The recording of The Boys of Wexford in this soundscape is of that particular arrangement, performed by the Irish Army Brass Band in the Cork’s City Hall on March 1st, 2019. 

The experience of Kennedy’s initial arrival into Cork from the perspective of someone standing outside the barracks depends upon the consumer of this soundscape using their imagination twice. Not only are we as listeners invited to imagine a particular event through sound alone, but the protagonist within is also straining to hear, and also imagining, what the applause, music, and indeed Kennedy himself would have looked like inside the barracks. We are all on the outside, listening in.

JFK Visits Cork (Historical Soundscape)

Location: Kent Station, Cork

Time and Date: 2:20pm, Sunday 26th of June, 1983

This soundscape is a sonic snapshot of a journey through Kent Station to catch the train to Dublin. Starting at the main entrance and moving the main foyer into the main terminal, we pass by other commuters and experience sounds that one would expect to hear in such a setting as a train station. 

For many people, perhaps more then than now, arrival into Cork involved travel by train. More affordable in the 1980s, and before a time when car travel was as cost effective and affordable as it is in the present day, travel by train between Ireland’s towns and cities was the norm, and for this reason memories of train stations are something that many people have connections to. 

Part of the inspiration behind the construction of this piece was my recent discovery of some old family cassette tapes recorded by my parents when my two older sisters were young. Within these tapes exist glimpses of a family life that was taking place before the advent of the video camera, therefore making the capturing of these audio all the more special. Recordings of birthday parties, singalongs, and recordings of my father playing popular tunes of the day, these tapes are priceless artefacts of moments otherwise unrecorded. Snippets from these tapes feature twice in this piece. Firstly, we encounter my mother and sister singing ‘Hello Dolly’ in the ticket concourse before meeting my father in the underpass between Kent’s two main platforms. Singing ‘Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down’, a song thought to have originated in Cork, I have placed my father in this particular part of the journey as a busker, as this would have been a regular aspect of station life at this time. 

As our journey ends, we make our way out of the underpass and back into the open platform where whistles and horns mark the impending departure of the train from Kent, making its way to Heuston. A journey made by many.

Emmet Lyons

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