Kate O'Callaghan

Small Behaviours – New Album Release

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‘Small Behaviours’ is the 2nd song-cycle, following ‘The Girl with the Beret’, in a series called ‘Songs from A Witness Statement’. A fusion of alternative folk, popular ballad and classical strings, the album was recorded live at the Balor Arts Centre, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal in collaboration with Seamus Devenny and Donegal Camerata String Quintet.
Comprised of a series of songs and spoken word tracks, which flow seamlessly from one into the other, Kate O’Callaghan weaves the story of her great-grand aunt Catherine Rooney (known as Katie Byrne before she got married) and her involvement in the War of Independence, after the events of the Rising in 1916. Inspired by first-hand accounts in her Witness Statement, logged with the Bureau of Military History, the aim of this project was to delve into the more personal and intimate details of her report, to imagine her experiences and pay tribute to the vital roles played by so many women and girls at that time, which ultimately shaped the social position of women today.

“Here are songs that expound on experience, create commonality, telling those big and small stories, simultaneously historical and personal, that are the gift of a music which carries the load of paying attention by sharing the world with us in new and unexpected ways” – Anti-Heroine Chic (New York, USA)
“Haunting melody…beautiful lyrics, made all the more so knowing the story is real…a powerful collection, tinged with sadness, admiration, and love” – Irish America (USA)
“A beautiful recording, a concept album in the best sense. It combines family memories, historic events and movingly personal
reflections. It is impossible not to love this album” – Fatea (UK)

Available on Bandcamp and all major streaming sites – Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer

Small Behaviours – Songs from a Witness Statement at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny – 6th Feb 2023

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Small Behaviours – Songs from a Witness Statement.

Written by Kate O’Callaghan.  Arranged by Seamus Devenny and Kate O’Callaghan, in collaboration with Donegal Camerata.
Performed by Kate O’Callaghan, Seamus Devenny and the Donegal Camerata String Quintet at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny on February 6th 2023

*Note* The time of this concert has been changed to 7pm

Small Behaviours is the second song cycle inspired by Kate O’Callaghan’s great-grand aunt and her involvement in the 1916 Rising and War of Independence. The first song-cycle, The Girl with The Beret, was a highlight of the 2016 Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival. It drew from the personal stories of Catherine Rooney (nee Byrne), as detailed in her witness statement to the Irish government’s Bureau of Military History.

This current work, Small Behaviours, explores Catherine’s experiences following the Rising in Dublin, including gun-running from Scotland, encounters with British Army troops heading off to war, prison breaks, ambushes and the burning of love letters in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday.

Working with creative facilitator, Seamus Devenny, and the Donegal Camerata String Quintet directed by Victor Yelamo, this has been a wonderful opportunity for Kate O’Callaghan to engage in a process that has been both personal and commemorative.  The work is very much a reflection on the seemingly ‘small behaviours’ of ordinary women, which ultimately affected far-reaching social change over time.

The Donegal Camerata String Quartet is led by cellist Victor Yelamo, a longtime member of the award-winning Concerto Malaga orchestra and Director of the annual Donegal Chamber Music Festival. The Camerata also includes violinists Orsolya Szabó-Yelamo (also of Concerto Malaga) and Maureen McGranaghan, with Robert Peoples on viola and Micheal McGinty on double bass.