A record beating feat

The final touches are being added to Ireland’s largest drum in a Ballyhaise warehouse.

Crafted by Mícheál Ó Raghaill, the fibreglass and wooden drum is set to become an attraction at Gearóid and Lorraine Teevan’s Healing Spirit festival.

“It’s the story of tradition and heritage, it combines everything,” says Gearóid, explaining that the ‘An Ruaille Buaille Druma’ will “weave” in the Cetlic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa.

The drum’s exterior is being painted in time for their Bealtine festival taking place on May 4 at Drummany Spirit in Milltown.

The day will also see the opening of Bridget’s Thatched Cottage and the launch of the community drum.

“The fact that it’s a drum, we can connect to our own rhythm of our heart and the heart of Mother Nature,” he explains.

For now, Gearóid has only heard the sound of himself playing the drum.

“I look forward to seeing everyone around it and being guided into playing it.”

The drum was mounted on scaffolds, when the Celt came to see it and you can’t but marvel at its sheer size - 40ft 8in in circumference.

Asked if it is Ireland’s largest drum, Gearoid asserts “Yes”.

Pushed if he knows that for a fact he explains: “We’ll we’ve put it out there, so we’re looking for anyone to dispute that. As of now it hasn’t been.”

He has tasked Fermanagh artist Claire Falconer with designing the drum’s artwork. She has been studying the landscapes of Cavan to encapsulate in the project.

“Is that too pagan for you?” she laughs, when telling The Anglo-Celt her vision for the drum in front of her. She’s embracing her inner child with this project, something the drum’s vast scale allows her to do.

The Carrybridge native began her career doing classical works; figurative women, iconic faces and landscapes.

“It was like my inner child just wanted to burst out and I started becoming more playful with it and more meditative with it.

“All of a sudden, things got more colourful and free-flowing and I started to enjoy it more and become less of a perfectionist too.”

Rewind three weeks, Gearóid asked Claire to design a poster for their upcoming festival. However, it was only after that he “added in the drum” to the May 4 deadline also.

“I laughed,” Claire recalls, when Gearóid asked, “Do you think it’s doable?”

“My gut just said, ‘Yes, it is’.”

The project ties in with another which she is already involved, VisionÉire, which is “visual art, music, spoken word all weaving together this idea of healing Ireland, healing the land, healing our souls and working in community”.

“Very much like what Gearóid and Lorraine are doing with Healing Spirit,” she describes.

On the day she agreed to work on the drum, ideas started flowing between the three.

“That’s exactly what we have here,” she says.

“The first thing that came were the tress, connecting everything all round,” she describes.

“We have the oak and the hawthorn and the yew and all of the sacred trees which are very powerful beings no doubt, and they all align with the old seasons; so the equinoxes and the solstices, and they are dancing.”

Getting “the feel of rhythm” visually was important for Gearóid.

“So the trees in my mind were immediately dancing figures,” Claire explains. “Also we’re going to have a waving line forming the line of the clouds in the sky, which is actually going to be the musical stave with some musical notes coming through it.”

Connecting the skyline will be swans which she describes as “the old mystical beings of the other world in Ireland”.

A “really big” forager, Claire also has incorporated plants into the design. The drumlins of Cavan and the elements will feature too.

“We are made of earth, air, fire and water,” she believes.

“I want them to be beings as well.”

Words such as ‘fox’, ‘hare’, ‘badger’, ‘eagle’, are among the post-it notes stuck to the drum, which will become visible creations as the artwork progresses over the coming days. “The dandelion, the nettle, the cleaver and the clover,” she lists.

“They’re going to cycle all around the bottom and it should be lovely because it’ll look like they are actually growing up out of the earth.”

With just days left to finish, Claire assures “by hook or crook, I’ll get there”.

“The torture for me historically is that I never feel anything is finished.”

“Who knows, at the next Healing Spirit Festival in August I might be lifting the paint brush again and adding in another wee squirrel,” she laughs.

For more information or tickets for the festival, search here www.drummanyspirit.com