‘An Treas Suaile’, written by accomplished Gaelic musicians, tells moving stories of those lost in the Iolaire disaster through music and visual presentation.
Outer Hebrides, Scotland – 02/02/2024 – Funding secured by The Iolaire Centre, Julie Fowlis, and Duncan Chisholm is enabling further research and development of a highly emotive musical and visual production that commemorates the Iolaire disaster over 100 years ago.
‘An Treas Suaile’ (The Third Wave) written by musicians, tells the story of HMY Iolaire lost at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour with the loss of 201 servicemen on 1st January 1919.
Their performances in 2018 and 2019 included newly composed music, traditional material, and archive recordings with visuals and projected images.
With additional grant funding from the 14-18NOW cultural programme provided by the Imperial War Museums, the artists are continuing their collaboration with management support from the Iolaire Centre project team to research and record new music and the development of a short film.
Photo credit to John MacKinnon.
A memorandum of understanding has been agreed upon between the Iolaire Centre and the Artists to support the further development of ‘An Treas Suaile’. The Centre aims to host the body of work, the music, and stories, within the Centre in the context of telling the Iolaire story, and its impacts and encouraging contemplation and reflection on how communities recover from trauma.
Five years on from the initial performances of ‘An Treas Suaile’ the artists find there are still stories to be told and the development of this body of work continues.
The next stage of funding from 14-18NOW has been released following the recording of new music during the summer of 2023. This important step is key to the development of the short film which is in its early stages of development.
Iolaire Centre Trustee, Stewart Graham, said: “Both Julie and Duncan are highly respected artists who, through the production of ‘An Treas Suaile’, have managed to perfectly capture the poignancy in the stories they are telling. It is an honour to have the opportunity to support further development of the work and create a longer-term partnership as our Centre plans progress.”
Artist, Duncan Chisholm, said: “The story of the Iolaire is deeply moving. It is a multi-layered story of grief, trauma, incredible bravery and faith. It is a story of survivor guilt and of a silence surrounding the disaster that would last for decades. We were incredibly honoured to have been asked to create ‘An Treas Suaile’ and delighted now to be working closely with the Iolaire Centre to develop our ideas further.”
