Relive the Island of Saints through a music film in The Dock

The Dock hosts the Irish premier of The Island Of Saints a new music film by director Eric Fraad on March 9 at 8pm.

The Island of Saints is a new ground-breaking feature length music film by Director Eric Fraad inspired by the music ensemble Anakronos’ highly-acclaimed album, The Red Book of Ossory and its backstory.
The Island of Saints oscillates between different scenes; music performance scenes of Anakronos performing music from The Red Book of Ossory labum alongside scenes dramatising the infamous witch hunt and trial of Dame Alice Kyteler in 1324 and the burning of her servant.

The Red Book of Ossory is an important 14th century medieval manuscript which was compiled in Kilkenny and is housed there in St Canice's Cathedral.
Pre-eminent among the manuscript’s texts are sixty remarkable Latin poems by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory.
The bishop instructed that these lyrics be sung by the priests, clerks and choristers of the St Canice’s “on the important holidays and at celebrations in order that their throats and mouths, consecrated to God, may not be polluted by songs which are lewd, secular, and associated with revelry, and, since they are trained singers, let them provide themselves with suitable tunes according to what these sets of words require.”

Accordingly, Caitríona O’Leary has set de Ledrede’s esoteric and imagistic poetry to music from a multitude of medieval sources.
Fourteenth century Ireland was a time of invasions, war, lawlessness, famine and plague.
A time of fear, violence and almost unimaginable mutability.
In 1317 Richard de Ledrede – an English Franciscan of the Order of Friars Minor - arrived in Kilkenny as the new Bishop of Ossory (1317 – 1361) and immediately set about challenging the secular authorities and making a name for himself as a zealous moraliser and “scourge of heresy.”

He was responsible instigating and presiding over the famous witchcraft trial of Dame Alice Kyteler, composed a fantastical and nightmarish list of charges against her and others, and caused the first person in recorded history to be burned at the stake for the heresy of witchcraft; Dame Alice’s servant, Petronilla de Meath.
The film will be of interest to those with an interest in Irish history and music but also to those who enjoy a well told film drama.

The Island Of Saints is a historical story replete with life-and-death power politics, fanatical idealism, witchcraft, last-second escapes and gothic scenes.

Please join us if you can. Tickets are just €7 and are available from The Dock box office on 0719650828 or online at www.thedock.ie 

UPDATE: The 2 Johnnies to be back on RTÉ 2FM later this month

Great news!