The Rites of Winter: Discover our Solstice music and movement experiences at Orlagh House on Dec 22.

“Without the cycle of the seasons experience, a compensatory pleasure would vanish from the world. There is a lovely term in botany — vernalization — referring to seeds that can only thrive in spring if they have been through the severity of winter. Well, many aspects of our life have become, in the past several hundred years, “vernalized.” (Even those who live in warmth recognize the need for at least the symbols of the cold, as in all that sprayed-on snow in Los Angeles in December.) If we didn’t search winter to find some new emotion of its own to make up for the absent ones, half of the keyboard of life would be missing. We would be playing life with no flats or sharps, on a piano with no black keys’

Adam Gopnik

Winter

Dear Friends

Winter is coming and we are thrilled to add the Liam O’Maonlai to our brilliant creative line up for Solstice on Dec 22 in the heart of the Dublin Mountains. We have extended our Early Bird offer of €135 to Sunday Dec 15 so you can avail of this opportunity to join us at Orlagh House.

A love letter to Winter

Winter is the time when the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun. Winter is sometimes felt as the season of absence: absence of light, absence of colour, absence of warmth. Summer is the shiny season that everyone is drawn to. Summer is fecund, wild, free and sexy. The Summer Solstice is a cause for celebration. So what about the Winter Solstice?

A love of the bleak midwinter is perhaps a slow burner, an acquired taste but this turning of the wheel- the season, the space and the cycle is much needed medicine for the times we live in. International bestselling author Adam Gopnik tells the story of winter in five parts: Romantic Winter, Radical Winter, Recuperative Winter, Recreational Winter, and Remembering Winter. In this beautiful meditation on Winter he pays homage to what could be a lost season and thus, a lost collective cultural history due to the threat of global warming….

We are inspired to create a range of immersive experiences that celebrate the Winter Solstice and mark this turning of the great wheel. Our ancestors connected with this time of the ‘longest night’ to focus on the power of darkness. Not the negative image of darkness, but the richness of that unknown, dark, fertile, deep part in each of us where our intuitive, creative life force abides. So we have gathered a collective of brilliant guides to illuminate the creative power of the moving body, music and song.

Music and Movement Line up

We are beyond thrilled to welcome Liam Ó Maonlaí, I have a Tribe, Anna Mieke and Carol McInerney to the cosy fold of our winter warming mountain retreat. Liam O’ Maonlai is a gifted singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who delivers the ethos of Ireland and the universality of the human soul. He has been the charismatic front man for the internationally loved band, The Hothouse Flowers, since their beginnings in the late 1980's. He has honed his craft for decades and has earned his place as one of the most beloved and respected music carriers in Ireland

“I see my solo stage as a story-telling place where I am at ease and I can form a relationship between myself and the house I perform in …revealing the songs and sounds that have been like sunlight to me in life.”

– Liam O’ Maonlai

I Have A Tribe is led by Patrick O’Laoghaire. The songs begin with the piano and the voice and they move into various directions and shapes, sometimes definite and sometimes improvised. Recently Patrick joined various artists of the PEOPLE collective Berlin, and SFSH Cork - collaborating with Beirut, This is The Kit, Feist and more. He has opened shows and tours for Lisa Hannigan and Anna Calvi and has a new album due for release in 2020. You can see a short clip here of I Have a Tribe collaborating at our recent Fire in the Head experience with storyteller Martin Shaw and comedian Tommy Tiernan .

Anna Mieke is the musical project of Anna-Mieke Bishop, who performs on Greek bouzouki, guitar and piano. Themes and inspiration for Anna Mieke’s songs stem from a colourful background of experience: learning Maori songs at school in New Zealand; hitch-hiking through Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, picking up traditional songs along the way; cycling from her home in Wicklow to the southern tip of Spain; living in Granada for a time, and then, in Cork, performing cello in the experimental improv group, HEX.

Movement therapist and dance meditation teacher Carol McInerney is passionate about supporting people to connect with their innate wisdom and essential self through reclaiming connection with the body. Her teaching draws from the understanding that as human beings we are part of the living earth and by attuning to its natural cycles and rhythms we can align with our own, and with the cosmic intelligence that creates and supports all of life. She loves to work with the potency of the natural elements, the pathways of the sun and moon and the pauses of equinox and solstice, as moving with Nature helps us to remember who we are, to relax into our knowing and become more accepting of our own unique ways of being in the world

You can watch some of our Summer Solstice adventures here.

See you on the ‘other’ side.

Amidst acres of winter wonderland we intend to unwind, attune to the rhythms of the natural world and surrender to mythic time. We will be nourished by delicious warming foods, hot spiced drinks, candlelight rituals, story-sharing, live music and blazing fires under the roof of our favourite rambling Georgian mansion. Our informal faculty includes Liam Ó Maonlaí, { Musician, Singer, Songwriter}, Anna Mieke {Musician & Songwriter}, Carol McInerney {Movement therapist & Dance Teacher}, Chloe McHugh {Sonas Sound Therapy}, Diarmuid Lyng {Father, Hurler, Campaigner), Laura Murphy {Artist , Writer & Creator of IMBAS}, Patrick O'Laoghaire {Artist & Musician} Siobhan de Paor {Poet, Activist & Performance Artist}

If you are feeling the pull into Dreamtime, these are the Solstice Experiences in store for you…..