Timothy O’Grady: I Could Read the Sky ft. Cathy Jordan, Louise & Michelle Mulcahy – Tradfest 2024

In the now-classic novel I Could Read the Sky, an old Irishman lies alone in bed in London and remembers a migrant’s life. Haunted by the faces and the land he left behind, he calls forth the bars and boxing booths of England, the potato fields and building sites, the music he played and the woman he loved. An Irish life with echoes of the lives of unregarded migrants everywhere.

This live show brings together words, music and photographs to tell the story. Reader: Timothy O’Grady. Music: Cathy Jordan, Michelle and Louise Mulcahy. Photographs: Steve Pyke.

“The work unrolls with the dignified steadiness of a gorgeous slow air…with stubborn pride in occasional grace notes….People have been trying to read the sky a long time. Rare masterpieces like this help us do it.”

Joseph O’Connor, Irish Times

“[I Could Read the Sky] is an almost indescribably brilliant account of what it is to be an Irish emigre – often lost to their families and references of home. It’s so lyrical, so full of feeling, and although many of the stories are heart-breaking, they’re told without an iota of self-pity. As for the scenes describing music, they’re quite simply the best I have read anywhere, ever.”

Sue Lyons, The Examiner

“O’Grady does not just respond to Pyke’s stark, beautiful photographs: he gives voice to thousands.”

Louise Kennedy

“’I Could Read the Sky’ is more than a concert, more than a show, and more than an experience, it is the truth, and all human life is here.”

– Irish Music Magazine

“…an amazing concert…and the audience responded with standing ovations and tears of sadness and pride.”

– The Examiner

“Tonight was quite something. Billed as a night of words and music, it instead blossomed into a communion of performers and punters.”

– Hot Press