Around Town: Golden City goes green

The evening was touted as bringing a taste of Ireland to Prague, and both the spirit and spirits of the Emerald Isle were in ample supply.

Alongside cultural and culinary treasures, another of the country's best-known exports - a potent Gaelic wit - was in full bloom.

Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney "colluded" with musician Liam O'Flynn in a performance at the "venerable" Strahov Monastery. "The Poet and The Piper" act began as impromptu social sessions in Heaney's farmhouse, and has since gone on to include recorded albums and regular international performances. It oscillates between songs from O'Flynn's alternately haunting and jaunting Uilleann pipes and verse read by the famed Nobel laureate.

The 12th-century cloister contributed its own ambience with a pastel ceiling depicting angels at the Heaven's Gate, juxtaposed with solemn paintings of assorted bishops on the walls. The contrast was matched by O'Flynn's jump between upbeat jig tunes and darker, droning songs.

"The pipes seem very happy with the situation," O'Flynn noted, amidst the show.

The Uilleann pipes are the Irish version of their cousins, the Scottish Highland bagpipes. The Irish incarnation is played without blowing, with bellows strapped to the arms and waist drawing in air. Uilean literally means "elbow" in the Irish language.

Their importance to the national narrative cannot be left in question after Heaney compared them to "samurai swords," and it seems that the occasional over-exuberant jig is capable of claiming a soul now and again.

While some of the "tunes" dated from the "pre-Christian Bronze Age," as Heaney noted, the performance was firmly rooted in Ireland's "post-Celtic Tiger, post-Christian" phase. The occasional monologues by Heaney between poems gave the ancient ritual a distinctly modern air with repeated references to the role of intellectuals in remaking the world. Heaney, in fact, made a point of dedicating the performance to the "philosopher-president" Václav Havel.

The Irish Embassy and Ambassador Richard Ryan were the gracious hosts, and invited an eclectic group of guests, ranging from scraggly dressed writers and academics to the unmistakable and impeccibly coiffed members of the diplomatic corps.

As the performance approached the two-hour mark, Heaney paraphrased famed Irish author Flann O'Brien, before adding a twist admittedly inspired by his wife, Marie.

"There is no such thing as a large whiskey," he said. "And there is no such thing as a short poetry reading."

And thereafter, at the accompanying reception, more than one journalist was seen doing their best to make sure both maxims held true.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com