THE SHOW
With Jean-Michel Veillon, Calum Stewart, Fred Bouley and many other specialists in Irish music, this show is intended to be accessible, historical and accuate.
The core of the project is a 50-minute musical composition for Irish instruments and orchestra, presenting the main stages of Irish history and the issues at stake, past, present and future, internally and externally.
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Beyond the attractive and convivial nature of music, this orchestral composition aims to give the audience some keys to better understand the cultural, social, political and economic significance of these multifaceted Irish celebrations.
Recently, the situation in Ireland has been one of the main challenges of Brexit, mentioned almost daily in the news: these questions and challenges will undoubtedly resurface in 2022 on the occasion of these celebrations. And they probably require some explanations for non-specialists to understand the historical process and the debates and differing views that have arisen.
Nantes, Brady's Pub, May 11, 2021 (photo EFP)
THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION
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The Irish case is one of the great successes of the European Union, for two reasons: for the Republic of Ireland, after 50 years of voluntary isolation, the recognition of the mistakes of the past was a sign of confidence in the future and in Europe, with full membership in 1973 and the economic and social progress that followed.
It was also a success for Northern Ireland: under the aegis of the EU, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom worked together in 1998 to reach the Good Friday Agreement which ended 30 years of political, economic and social turmoil.
The 1922 partition was a major event in European history. Its centenary is sometimes a controversial celebration, especially in the context of Brexit: it should be an occasion of mutual goodwill and understanding, representative of the EU's values for a plural, cosmopolitan, welcoming and tolerant society in the 21st century.
Ireland's future is therefore not as simple as it might seem: in the context of the Brexit negotiations, several paramilitary unionist organisations in Northern Ireland declared in March 2021 that they no longer supported the 1998 agreement.
The extreme political difficulties that have arisen over the past century from the partition of Ireland suggest that a reunited Ireland could solve many challenges in the decades to come, while respecting all communities and identities, whatever they may be.