Songs of home and leaving — from Christine Tobin

Irish Post

2 days ago

Three powerful performances explore Irish emigration, homecoming and the poetry of W.B. Yeats at London's Irish Cultural Centre, July 19-20
ACCLAIMED Irish vocalist and composer Christine Tobin returns to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith for a two-day, three-concert residency titled Letters Home , running 19–20 July 2025. Blending music, memory and multimedia, the project explores themes of emigration, belonging and the emotional geography of the Irish experience.
Each of the three performances offers a distinct perspective on the search for home, cultural identity and the passage of time.
Returning Weather
Saturday 19 July, 7.30pm
The residency opens with Returning Weather , a song cycle described by Tobin as 'part homecoming, part memoir.' Inspired by her return to Ireland after years abroad, the performance weaves together original compositions, spoken word and stunning imagery of the landscape around Frenchpark, Boyle and Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon.
Musically, the piece draws on Irish traditional music, 20th-century art song and jazz. Tobin is joined by Aoife Ní Bhriain (violin), David Power (uilleann pipes & whistles), Phil Robson (guitars, electronics), and Steve Hamilton (piano). The work explores what it means to belong—to land, to memory, to community—and how those ideas evolve over a lifetime.
Letters Home
Sunday 20 July, 2.30pm
The second concert blends live performance with documentary film. Also titled Letters Home , it focuses on the lives of Irish emigrants who left Roscommon for Britain during the 1960s to 1990s. The film, made by Tobin and Robson, is based on interviews with six elders who emigrated in search of work and later returned to Ireland. Their voices form the narrative spine of the documentary, which is interspersed with archive images, photos and live songs performed on stage.
Tobin sings traditional and popular Irish songs of farewell and longing—such as Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore , Mountains of Mourne and Come Back Paddy Reilly —evoking the pain and pride of a generation that helped build modern Britain while supporting families at home through remittances. The hour-long show gives voice to everyday resilience and the quiet heroism of the Irish in Britain.
Among the featured interviewees is Annie, who left rural Ireland in her teens and took an unusual path for a woman at the time—working for the New York Telephone Company rather than entering domestic service. Another participant, Michael, now in his eighties, left for England in the early '60s and built a successful construction business after stints with Wimpey and McAlpine. At just 20 years old, he was sending home £100 a month to support his mother.
Sailing to Byzantium
Sunday 20 July, 7.30pm
The final concert in the trilogy is Sailing to Byzantium , featuring Tobin's musical settings of 12 poems by W.B. Yeats. Named after the poet's 1927 meditation on ageing and the eternal role of art, this performance reflects on what lies beyond the physical journey—searching instead for artistic and spiritual meaning.
The poems, ranging from When You Are Old and The Wild Swans at Coole to The Second Coming , are reimagined through Tobin's musical lens. She is joined by Gareth Lockrane (flutes), Kate Shortt (cello), Phil Robson (guitars), Dave Whitford (double bass) and Steve Hamilton (piano).
'I like finishing with Yeats,' Tobin says. 'After exploring the early and middle years through the themes of emigration and return, Yeats helps us look ahead—to the search for wisdom, purpose and creative fulfilment.'
An Expanding Body of Work
Letters Home follows the success of Tobin's recent composition Pseudologia Fantastica , commissioned by Improvised Music Company's BAN BAM programme and premiered in Dublin in April. That work, exploring misinformation and far-right ideologies through multimedia, marked a new political direction in her output.
Still, Returning Weather and Letters Home remain deeply rooted in her personal history and the shared legacy of the Irish diaspora. 'There are many songs of leaving,' Tobin notes. 'This is the music of return.'
Irish Cultural Centre, 5 Black's Road, Hammersmith, London W6 9DT
Tickets available for each concert separately: Returning Weather (Saturday evening)
(Saturday evening) Letters Home (Sunday afternoon)
(Sunday afternoon) Sailing to Byzantium (Sunday evening)
Running times: approx. 1 hour each (some include film interludes).
See More: Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith, Music, Poetry, WB Yeats