Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin: Between Worlds

Boston College Libraries and the BC Irish Studies Program will celebrate the international premiere of a documentary on the life and legacy of Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, a groundbreaking Irish composer, musician, and academic who was a key architect of BC’s acclaimed Irish music programs.

As a complement to the December 3 screening of “Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin: Between Worlds” at West Newton Cinema—presented by BC Libraries and Irish Studies in partnership with the Eire Society of Boston—BC will be the setting on December 4 for a retrospective on Ó Súilleabháin that will include personal and professional reflections from his family, a talk by the filmmaker Maggie Breathnach, and an appreciation of his contributions to Boston College. The event will be held in Devlin 101 at 6:30 p.m.

Ó Súilleabháin, who died in 2018, was notable for his exploration of the connections between classical and traditional Irish music, as a pianist, arranger, and composer. He developed a distinctive keyboard interpretation of Irish tunes that blended with his own compositions, which contained traditional Irish idioms and encompassed jazz and classical influences. He recorded 12 full-length albums and his collaborators included the Irish Chamber Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, and Van Morrison. Ó Súilleabháin established the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, which offered highly innovative postgraduate and undergraduate degree programs in areas such as music therapy, contemporary dance performance, Irish traditional music performance, ethnomusicology, and ritual chant and song.

In 1990, Ó Súilleabháin—then a member of the University College Cork faculty—came to BC as a visiting professor in ethnomusicology, along with his then-wife, singer Nóirín Ní Riain. During his semester at BC, he organized a major Irish fiddle festival and inspired the creation of Burns Library’s Irish Music Archives.

“Between Worlds” features footage shot in Boston and around the BC campus, including interviews with several BC faculty and staff members.

“From the early days of Irish Studies at BC, co-founders Adele Dalsimer and Kevin O’Neill sought ways to add music to the program,” said Irish Music Librarian Elizabeth Sweeney. “In the spring of 1990, through collaboration between Irish Studies and the Music Department, Mícheál taught courses in Irish music, brought guest artists to the classroom, and organized a landmark fiddle festival in Gasson Hall. From the audio tapes of the festival’s final concert he produced a critically-acclaimed CD, ‘My Love is in America,’ and he helped establish an archive of Irish music. The momentum that he created during just six months at BC would continue to inspire future programs, courses, and archiving projects.”

“Since Mícheál laid the foundations for our Irish Music Archives in Burns Library, as well as the Gaelic Roots concert series—which we record and preserve—we are very proud to host the international premiere of this wonderful documentary film on his life and legacy in partnership with the Eire Society of Boston,” said Burns Librarian Christian Dupont, who along with Sweeney was among the BC faculty and staff interviewed for the film.

Both the December 3 screening at West Newton Cinema and the December 4 event at BC are free and open to the public. While tickets are not required for the screening, those who register in advance will receive event reminders and additional details.