Treasa Ní Cheannabháin

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Treasa Ní Cheannabháin (born 1953) is a notable Irish singer in the sean-nós tradition. She was born in Cill Chiaráin in Carna, Conamara, an Irish-speaking area, and three of her daughters are also well known as singers. She is married to Saber Elsafty, a doctor of Egyptian origin, and is also known for her activism on behalf of Palestinian civil rights.

Both her immediate and extended family are musical. Her mother was a second cousin of the distinguished sean-nós singer Seosamh Ó hÉanaí, and another notable singer, Peadar Ó Ceannabháin, is a cousin. Treasa won Corn na mBan (the Women's Cup for singing) at the Oireachtas in 1995 and was runner-up in Corn Uí Riada, another prestigious competition.

In 1996 Treasa and daughter Róisín Elsafty released an album on the French label Musique du Monde label entitled L'art du sean-nós.

Activism[]

In 2008 she slipped across the Egyptian border into Gaza with her daughter Naisrín Elsafty and a niece in order to distribute €7,700 collected by the Galway-Palestinian Children's Fund. They were arrested and briefly detained, and Treasa's husband had his passport confiscated to prevent him helping Treasa to leave.^[1]

The collection of the money had been aided by the release of a CD in Irish and Arabic, entitled An Phailistín, to which well-known Irish musicians Sharon Shannon and Donal Lunny contributed.

References[]

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