Ireland 100: An Old Song Re-Sung

RTÉ and South Wind Blows present a live concert to mark 100 years of the Irish State as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023 

RTÉ, in association with South Wind Blows and supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023, will present a live concert event, which will be free to the public to attend, to mark the first 100 years of the Irish State on Saturday 7, October, 2023 at the RDS.

Ireland 100: An Old Song Re-Sung commemorates, in performance, song, music, dance, and spoken word, the hundred years from 1923 – 2023 through the lens of Irish culture. Woven into the show are key themes of our 100-year story of achievements, failures, challenges, and changes. Human experience and identity and the cultural and artistic response to these events are at the heart of the show.

Contributions and performances from some of Ireland’s outstanding artists, singers, musicians, dancers and broadcasters - combined with stunning archive film and stills projections – will create an immersive, engaging, reflective and memory-driven atmosphere.

Featured artists and contributors include: Damien Dempsey, Aiden Gillen, Tolü Makay, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Síle Denvir with Bláth na hÓige and Liam Ó Maonlaí, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Loah, Donal Lunny, Martin Hayes, FeliSpeaks, Diarmaid Ferriter, Sally Mulready OBE, the London Irish Pensioners Choir and more.

Ireland 100: An Old Song Re-Sung takes its title from WB Yeats’s poem, ‘Down By The Salley Gardens’. Yeats, was the first Irish Nobel laureate from the newly independent State, winning the award in 1923, the year in which the opening of the show is set. 1923 was also the year that Ireland joined the newly-established League of Nations, thus marking formal recognition and the country’s entry into the international community.  This moment marks the end of a uniquely transformative period in our history which saw huge social and political change as the developing new State navigated an uncertain future, filled with possibilities.

Tickets are free, but limited and ticket applications will be taken via rte.ie/culture on Tuesday 19 September from 12pm.

The concert will be broadcast on RTÉ One, RTÉ Player and RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday 30 October.

Ireland 100: An Old Song Re-Sung is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme, 2012-2023’.

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin commented: “It is has been my great pleasure to lead on and oversee the co-ordination of the final phase of the cross-governmental Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.  I am delighted that my Department is supporting this impressive live production planned for the RDS. This event highlights the important role artists and cultural organisations have played throughout the Decade of Centenaries and I have every expectation that it will be an exceptional cultural event that appropriately reflects on the historic period and its legacy.  I am delighted that members of the public will get to enjoy this event and would urge people to apply for tickets as soon as possible.   Using Ireland’s entry into the League of Nations as a launch point, the production aims to use music and performance to help us understand our past, make sense of our present while all the while looking to the future we will create for generations to come after us.  I would like to thank RTÉ and the many artists and arts organisations for their contribution to the Decade of Centenaries over the last 10 years with ambitious and quality productions and programming”. 

Director-General of RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst said: “We are proud to partner with South Wind Blows and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in this special event to mark 100 years of the Irish State. Through our involvement in the Decade of Centenaries, RTÉ has been part of a range of important programmes and events. So many of the stories which have featured on this journey have been made all the more memorable through song, dance, spoken word, film, documentary and drama, which are so central to Irish culture. We look forward to bringing contributions and performances from some of Ireland’s outstanding artists, singers, musicians, dancers and broadcasters to audiences and to playing our part in sharing such a historic occasion across our services.”