Mary O'Hara - Australian Tour 1986 (concert brochure)

Clifford Hocking, David Vigo and Marc Wilkinson proudly present

IN CONCERT AUSTRALIA 1986 Presented in association with

Mary O'Hara was born in Sligo, in the west of Ireland. After boarding school in Dublin she began, at age 16, to sing on Irish Radio. Before she was 21 she had her own programme on BBC TV and was singing concerts throughout the British Isles, including outstanding successes at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival.

Mary met and married a young American poet and Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and went to live in the United States. She recorded a number of albums and appeared in concert in the U.S., where the folk boom of the sixties was just beginning. Joan Baez acknowledges Mary as her earliest model and inspiration.

After fifteen months of marriage, Mary's husband died of cancer. For four years she travelled the globe giving concerts and appearing on radio and TV. Critics were unanimous in their praise but despite her public success she felt the call to the monastic life.

Eventually she entered a closed Benedictine monastery in England, where she remained for twelve years.

In November 1977 her "comeback" concert at London's Royal Festival Hall before a capacity crowd triumphantly renewed her career. An album of that concert earned her a silver disc for sales in the United Kingdom.

There followed specials on British TV and concert tours of England, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She filled London's Royal Albert Hall as well as Carnegie Hall, New York and Australia's Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Concert Hall on her last tour in 1983.

Mary has recorded 19 albums and her latest on Festival Records is 'Mary O'Hara Live at Carnegie Hair. This year Mary's third book 'In Celebration of Love' was published and is already in reprint for Hodder & Stoughton. Her autobiography 'The Scent of the Roses' has sold over a quarter of a million copies.

This is Mary O'Hara's fourth tour of Australia.

MARY'S NEW BOOK "CELEBRATION OF LOVE" AND HER LATEST ALBUM AVAILABLE IN AUSTRALIA "LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL" ARE ON SALE IN THE FOYER DURING THE INTERMISSION AND AFTER THE PERFORMANCE WHILE STOCKS LAST.

The Celtic Harp The small Celtic harp, sometimes called the Folk Harp, has been associated with Ireland for centuries. As a rule, it was played only by men and was used for accompanying recitations and the telling of stories by the travelling story tellers. Poets and musicians - and story tellers - enjoyed an honoured place in the old Celtic cultural tradition of Ireland, and they had considerable influence among the ordinary people of the island.

The tradition of story telling continued long after Ireland ceased to run its own affairs and, not surprisingly, many stories took on an aura of resistance and hostility towards foreign rule. Successive governments who wished to be rid of Celtic culture banned harpers; and state officials had orders to destroy the harps wherever they were found.

The old harps were all wire-strung and the harper plucked at them with very long nails. A particular punishment for harpers was to order their nails cut. Nowadays, most harp strings are made of gut or nylon and are plucked with the finger tips instead of with the nails.

Also, unlike in the old days, harp playing is no longer the exclusive preserve of the men of Ireland, nor is it any longer considered, thank Heaven, a treasonable offence to play the harp. Instead, the harp has finally achieved the proper recognition it has long deserved.

Ironically, it was an English monarch who first established that respectable symbolic connection between Ireland and the harp.

Henry VIII in the 16th century used the harp as a symbol of Ireland, and towards the end of that century his daughter, Elizabeth I, had the harp minted on the coins of Ireland. The custom of representing Ireland with the harp design gradually gained acceptance thereafter and in the 17th and 18th centuries many of the Irish armies abroad used the harp as their distinguishing badge. At the turn of the 18th century the poet Thomas Moore popularized the harp, perpetuating it as a symbol of resurgent Irish nationalism.

Today, the harp is the most widely recognized symbol of modern Ireland. It appears on all official state documents, as well as on the presidential flag and on the coins of the country. For the small Celtic harp the road has been sometimes rocky, but it has survived all the trials and tribulations and mellowed quite well.

PROGRAMME OF SONGS IN TONIGHT'S SELECTION Ms. O'HARA PRESENTS SOME OF HER FAVOURITE MUSIC RANGING FROM 10th CENTURY GAELIC LOVE SONGS TO A 20th CENTURY GOD-SONG BY SYDNEY CARTER. IN THIS SELECTION ARE IRISH AND SCOTTISH TRADITIONAL SONGS, IRISH ART SONGS, ELIZABETHAN SONGS, MISCELLANEOUS CONTEMPORARY MATERIAL, AND SOME OF HER OWN COMPOSITIONS. oooooOooooo I KNOW MY LOVE —Irish Traditional GREENSLEEVES — English Trad.

ORO MO BHAIDIN — Irish Trad.

THE LAIRD O' COCKPEN — Scott Trad.

SONG FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT — Lightfoot KITTY OF COLERAINE — Irish Trad.

A LA CLAIRE FONTAINE — French Trad.

A READING THE FAIRY TREE — Lane/O'Brien MY LAGAN LOVE — Irish Trad.

FINE KNACKS FOR LADIES — Dowland SHE MOVED THROUGH THE FAIR — Irish Trad.

(Intermission)

SHAWL FROM GALWAY — Croft/Neil HEBRIDEAN MILKING SONG — Scot. Trad.

NEVER WEATHER BEATEN SAIL — Campian SHE DIDN'T DANCE — Irish Trad.

WIEGENLIED - Schober/Schubert THE CLOWN - Levi/0'Hara SEAN'S A BHRISTE LEATHAIR — Irish Trad.

SONG OF GLENDUN — O'Neill/Hardebeck AN FHIDEAG AIRGID — Scot. Trad.

A READING A NEW YEAR CAROL - Britten LORD OF THE DANCE — Carter oooooOooooo Mary O'Hara may choose to depart from the above programme and substitute some of the following songs: CALENO CUSTURE ME (Eng. Trad, c.1600) * SPANISH LADY (Ir. Trad) SLIGO FAIR (Ir. Trad.) * LUIBIN O LU (Ir. Trad.) * WILLIE'S GANE TAE MELVILLE CASTLE (Scot. Trad.) * UNICORN (O'Hara-Levi) * QUIET LAND OF ERIN (Ir. Trad.) * PUSSY WILLOWS CAT TAILS (Lightfoot) * DEUS MEUS (Ir. Trad.) * EIBHLIN A RUN (Ir. Trad.) * THE RIDDLE SONG (N. Amer. Trad.) * DANNY BOY (Ir. Trad.) * FACE TO FACE (Tagore-O'Hara) * UIST CATTLE CROON (Scot. Trad.)

IN CONCERT AUSTRALIA 1986 JUNE Sunday Monday

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Wednesday Thursday Saturday Sunday Monday Wednesday Saturday Monday Wednesday Saturday Sunday Monday Wednesday Thursday Saturday Sunday

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W. Gipps. Art Cent. Friday J.B. Osborne Th. Saturday Ford Theatre Monday Theatre Centre Wednesday

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Opera House Concert Hall

SYDNEY BRISBANE

JULY City Theatre GLADSTONE ROCKHAMPTON Pi I beam Theatre Burdekin Theatre AYR Civic Theatre TOWNSVILLE MOUNT ISA Civic Theatre Arts Centre DARWIN Queens Park Th. GERALDTON Town Hall KALGOORLIE Concert Hall PERTH MELBOURNE Concert Hall ADELAIDE Town Hall RENMARK Chaffey Theatre PORT AUGUSTA T.A.F.E. College PORT PIRIE K. Michell Theatre MT. GAMBIER Helpmann Theatre WARRNAMBOOL Pert. Arts Centre

AUGUST WARRAGUL BENDIGO GEELONG CANBERRA

Management for Mary O'Hara: Ashling Promotions (U.K.) Dr. P. OToole — Director

CLIFFORD HOCKING ENTERPRISES PTY. LTD. 290 Collins Street — Melbourne 3000 — Victoria 135 West 70th — New York 10023 U.S.A. Clifford Hocking & David Vigo Marc Wilkinson Maggie Gerrand

— Directors — Associate & Tour Director — Executive Assistant

Representatives for the Mary O'Hara Tour National & Melbourne PR — Suzie Howie Publicity Sydney Mary Ann Rolfe Brisbane Simon Houghton Gladstone Richard Quigley Rockhampton Malcolm Calder Ayr John Young Townsville David Gration Mount Isa Graham Patterson

Geraldton Bill Mason Kalgoorlie Claire Condry Perth Claire Condry Adelaide Promcon Corp.

Renmark Christopher John Port Augusta Ursula Brieger Port Pirie Mervin Lewis

Mount Gambier Robin Cutbush Warrnambool Cheryle Todd Warragul Ron Denson Bendigo Felicity Kingerlee Geelong Graham Sedgewick Canberra Doug Hunter Darwin Sue Dibbs