The Warmth and Mirth of an Irish Christmas: Fiddler Eileen Ivers, Tricky Wrens, and Troublesome Cakes on U.S. Tour

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Recalling the roaring hearths and roars of laughter that are part and parcel of Christmas in Irish families, virtuoso fiddler Eileen Ivers interweaves age-old Wren Day songs, beloved American carols, and even a jigging Bach in An Nollaig: An Irish Christmas. With her signature warmth, Ivers invites listeners in for a tuneful, soulful celebration that’s as comforting as a favorite carol and a slice of Christmas cake.

Ivers and her ensemble will take the festivities across the U.S. this December, with a final gala performance at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Whether teaming up with local orchestras or with community dancers and singers, Ivers presents a vision of Christmastide that embraces the friendliness of a family gathering and the supreme musicality of a seasoned, skilled master.

“There is so much joy in the season, and I wanted to bring that out to welcome listerners in,” explains Ivers with a smile.  “Just like ornaments on a Christmas tree, the tunes in An Nollaig have been lovingly passed down through the generations as well. Some are hundreds of years old—some are new.”

In Ivers’s capable hands, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” becomes a playful jig, and the 20th-century classic “Do You Hear What I Hear?” becomes a rousing reel. Even Bach takes on an Irish lilt, as Ivers transforms “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” giving the 9/8 piece a striking feel of an Irish three making dancing irresistible, much to the delight of conductors and classical musicians when performed with orchestra.

This clever rethinking of Christmas chestnuts comes naturally to Ivers, who is equally adept at bringing ancient Irish traditions to life.  She explores the curious traditional celebration on December 26, the feast of St. Stephen, which is also known as Wren Day in Ireland. Ivers draws on songs sung by young village boys who would decorate a wren and go from door to door, as well as on the Irish legends surrounding the wren, as betrayer of St. Stephen’s hiding place to the Romans, or as the sly winner of a contest among birds.

Ivers also touches on a sensitive Yuletide topic: the dreaded fruitcake. Though Ivers recalls her family’s luscious porter-and-whiskey-soaked version, she recounts the quirky adventure of the hapless Miss Fogarty, whose Christmas cake leads not to merriment, but to food poisoning (“Miss Fogarty’s Christmas Cake”).

Ivers has performed with a myriad of pop icons and world-class orchestras, yet for An Nollaig, she invites local Celtic dancers and choirs to join her ensemble in sharing the stage and the fun. Presenters get into the act, too, bringing in Christmas trees, fireplaces, rocking chairs—anything to make the stage merry and bright. “We’re involving the community as we go around to theaters. It’s always a delight and creates this special connection to the show,” Ivers says.

The spirit of sharing has led Ivers to donate some of the proceeds of CD sales on tour to the Salvation Army. “It’s a full circle,” she notes. “We give back to people who don’t have the same blessings. That’s what Christmas means to us, and that makes this one of my favorite times of the year to perform.”

Spotlight: Eileen Ivers

Charity from the Choctaws. Repurposed slave ships and New Orleans dance crazes. Icy Canadian islands, Appalachian hollers, railway camps in the desert. These are all scenes and skeins of Irish experience, a trail of tales left by millions of travelers fleeing famine and seeking hope.

Virtuoso Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers—founding member of Cherish the Ladies, original Riverdance star, and lifelong traveler of Ireland’s musical paths—brings to light the riveting world of Irish stories and sounds, ones that will amaze even the most seasoned travelers through immigrant history.

Ivers is mapping out these compelling tracks for audiences across North America this February and March with a new multimedia concert, Beyond the Bog Road. The images, sounds, and tales of Irish immigrants’ desperate and daring journeys to and in America come together in Ivers’ stunning technique, unique artistry, and deep Irish-American roots. Ivers and her ensemble of 13 musicians and dancers will be performing in Florida, Utah,New Hampshire, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Through the multitude of immigrant lives run the bog roads of Ireland, the rutted ways where generations cut turfs for their hearths, turning mud into fire. These roads led starving men and women away from home, to face the daunting months-long trip across the uneasy ocean in the “coffin ships,” slave ships refitted for a new set of grim journeys.

Yet the story of Irish immigrants in America is also one of brilliant transformation from desperate refugees to cultural forces to be reckoned with. It is the story of a musical people who knew how to kindle even the damp earth and make it sing. “Irish music integrated with other North American music to form the root of everything from bluegrass to country,” explains Ivers. “This was one of the richest cross-fertilizations of folk music styles anywhere. And it’s still bearing fruit.”

Ivers has lived and breathed this cross-fertilization and its musical outgrowths from birth. She grew up in the Bronx, the daughter of Irish immigrants, raised on the music of her parents’ homeland. With a talent for mathematics—a field in which she pursued post-graduate studies—Ivers learned how to combine heart and passion with incredible technical precision. Her prowess with the fiddle won her not only nine All-Ireland Fiddle Championships, but also the admiration of musicians from Sting to The Chieftains to the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, among her many affiliations.

While a dedicated and celebrated Celtic fiddler, Ivers has always been forward thinking about her tradition and instrument. With ears wide open for new angles and future sounds, she has long been drawn to the multicultural and multifaceted American musical palate, and the pivotal Irish influences tucked into cornerstones of our history.

This fascination has led Ivers to long-lost stories and heart-wrenching moments that go far deeper than the sparkle and dash of brilliant fiddling or the simple pleasures of Celtic-themed stage shows. Beyond the Bog Roaddelves profoundly and wholeheartedly into the Irish experience’s impact on the New World and how it intertwined with African and Native American cultures, with Francophone and Appalachian music and dance.

Ivers brings together a gorgeous array of traditions from her family and her heritage, cherished airs, jigs, reels, and songs, as well as original compositions. She unites tunes from her father’s West Irish village to her father-in-law’s poetic memories of the “wakes” that honored departing immigrants, most of whom never saw their homelands again.

She ponders the tragic, hungry deaths of thousands of Irish immigrants en voyage to a Quebecois island, and the fellowship of Acadians who helped those who survived, by diving into the Pan-Celtic tunes of French Canada, where Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany met. Ivers and the Irish and Irish-American musicians and dancers featured in Beyond the Bog Road explore the songs and vibrant movements of the tenements, railroad camps, and stony lonesome settlers.

But Beyond the Bog Road soon moves into territory even many Celtic music fans will find unexpected and surprising. Ivers’ meditation on the suffering and injustice of the Great Famine recalls moving links to the New World: The Choctaws, sympathetic after their own losses on the Trail of Tears, sent what aid they could to starving Irish peasants.

The Black Bottom, a dance rivaling the Charleston in Roaring Twenties popularity, had an Irish side that harkened back to the rhythm rivalries between African tap and Irish step dancers in late 19^th-century New York. This Afro-Celtic cross pollination was relished by Louie Armstrong and now gets a new dose of Irish energy thanks to Ivers’ and company.

Not content to chronicle the distant Irish and Irish American past, Ivers also pays tribute to the success of later generations of Irish descendents, humorously recounted on Vaudeville stages and revived with Ivers’ characteristic warmth. She also honors the continued expansion of the Irish diaspora, the post-war movement of people who brought her parents to New York, and its vivacious musical worlds, as the living traditions of new travelers have enriched and been enriched by jazz, African, and global sounds.

“What unites all these pieces is that they flow from the honest music of a strong and resilient people who overcame and continue to overcome much adversity,” notes Ivers. “And this music has now gone far beyond the bog road, to every corner of the globe.”