Aidan O'Rourke: Mangersta Beach

I loved the Outer Hebrides and this music – Mangersta Beach is on the west coast of Lewis – captures the feel of a landscape that somehow feels half Scottish and half Irish. 

So it's no surprise to find Aidan O'Rourke saying in an interview:

My dad plays banjo - he had immersed himself in the Glasgow folk scene of the late 1960s, which was a hotbed of political fervour as well as music. When he left Glasgow and moved to Oban, he brought with him that interest in Irish and Scottish music, and a lot of the political affiliation within it. There were references from Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, as well as Irish republicanism, the Easter Rising, groups like the Dubliners, Planxty - all of which was politically charged. 

 

My mum is from Donegal. My dad is Scottish but his paternal grandfather was Irish, from Tyrone. I could feel that my bones were Irish. The Irish political situation was pretty full-on at that time. We would travel to see my family in Donegal and travel through the north of Ireland and experience all that tension. It was tangible, there was a war zone just across the water. 

Mangersta Beach is a track from his 2006 album Sirius.