In the years before the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, Patrick Pearse (one of the leaders of the 1916 rebellion in Ireland) wrote and produced a number of plays and pageants in Irish and English that were staged in his school St Enda's, The Mansion House, Croke Park, and the Abbey Theatre. Music and song featured in some of these plays, and Síle Denvir was asked to perform some of this music at a symposium at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, in November 2013 by Róisín Ní Ghairbhí and Eugene McNulty, authors of the book 'Patrick Pearse: Collected Plays'. They describe the rationale for this particular book: 'In the build-up to 2016 we hope that these plays will draw a new generation of readers and that interested theatre practitioners may find in them a source for innovative and imaginative new productions.' (Ní Ghairbhí & McNulty, 2013). Responding to this, Síle Denvir arranged the music and songs that are mentioned in Pearse's plays into one cohesive musical piece which she titled 'Caithréim'. Although Pearse himself was reportedly tone-deaf, his use of music and song as an integral part of his plays leads us to believe that he understood the effect music and song can have on an audience. Pearse was heavily involved in Conradh na Gaeilge and Oireachtas na Gaeilge, and these cultural organisations shaped his cultural and artistic outlook. Pearse had a deep interest in folklore and Irish language song. His aunt Margaret was a singer who sang in English and in Irish, and Pearse would have often heard her singing when he was a young boy (Ní Ghairbhí, 2008: 167). He also had an interest in song collecting, and songs were often published in the Irish language newspaper 'An Claidheamh Soluis' (The Sword of Light) which he edited between 1903 and 1909. Twenty two songs were also published in the 'Collected Works of Pádraic H. Pearse: Songs of the Irish Rebels and Specimens from an Irish Anthology: Some Aspects of Irish Literature: Three Lectures on Gaelic Topics.' In the accompanying essay, 'The Folk-Songs of Ireland', Pearse illustrates a deep respect for Irish language song, stating: 'It is in the highest degree probably that every form of literature which we have at the present day has sprung from the folk-tale and the folk-song... It is impossible to conceive a state of society in which they did not exist: since man first trod this earth to the present moment, he has loved to wander in the land of fancy opened up by the folk-tale, and to pour forth in song the emotions of his soul.' (Pearse, 1879-1916: 198). Síle Denvir Síle Denvir hails from Indreabhán in the Connemara Gaeltacht. An accomplished performer, Síle is a sean-nós singer and harpist and is a founding member of the group Líadan. She has a particular interest in Irish-language song in a modern context and in 2008 Cló Iar-Chonnacht published her book Dearcadh an tSaoil – Amhráin Chiaráin Uí Fhátharta, an edition of songs composed by the Connemara songwriter Ciarán Ó Fátharta. She received her PhD doctorate from the University of Limerick in 2012 and she is currently a lecturer in the Irish department at Dublin City University. Síle is a regular contributor to various TV and radio programmes and she is the presenter of the programme ‘Sean-Nós’ on TG4.