Women's Volleyball NORCECA North American Championship 2026

So now you know the story of how this great musical festival came into existence, it's time for Ériu-Ceol to extend her welcoming embrace and reveal to you to the location for this year's TISC Annual 2025.   Beneath the Rock of Cashel did she sleep one thousand years and it is to this great monument of Ireland we are gathered to bear witness to this beautiful celebration of music!     The Rock of Cashel       The Rock of Cashel in county Tipperary is one of Ireland's most iconic ancient monuments. It served as the seat of many of the great High Kings of Ireland, the most famous being Brian Boru, who was crowned high King of Ireland in 990 in this ancient kingdom of Munster.   It is also said that on this spot, St.Patrick converted the pagan King Aengus to Christianity.     Some long-time TISC fans will remember this was also the venue for the TISC Open in 2015 and it holds a special place in my heart as it is where we found our mascot Séamus all those years ago and who has been by my side ever since on our TISC journeys

For centuries, while Ériu-Ceol had been in her slumber, her sister Fódla kept watch over the wild, the quiet places of the land. It is from this calm and serenity of the wilderness that Fódla first senses the awakening of her sister.     No war, no reckoning, no judgement does Ériu-Ceol embark on her re-awakening. Instead she stands upon the Hill of Tara, her voice amplified by the wind, calling forth the musicians from all corners of the globe to descend upon the Emerald Isle and create music so great and pure so as to deafen the noise of machine, the destruction of war and banish the silence of despair.     She declares a great music contest shall commence and the victor shall bear the Ór geal (the crown of gold) and the very wind itself will carry their melody across the land for another millennium until Ériu-Ceol will next return.     Fódla follows the whispering winds of Ériu-Ceol and is led to the Ór geal and sets forth to announce news of the great Song Contest across the land and overseas.         

Over the years, the Irish dreamt of the great occasion when their great goddess Ériu-Ceol would awaken from her slumber. One prophecy recorded in the Book of Inis Mór recounts that a great tremor beneath Ireland, known as the "Awakening Chord", will signal the return of Ériu-Ceol, and the island will begin to hum with melodic vibration.     Generation upon generation speculated as to what seismic event would bring upon the awakening. However, just as they sung Ériu-Ceol to her slumber, it would be the Spioraid Ceol who would awaken their goddess, not through earthquake or cataclysm, but by invoking her return through song, and just as Ériu-Ceol had foretold, she would awaken on the 1000th winter's thaw....       Invocation:       The Awakening:    

For centuries, the Spioraid Ceol maintained a tireless vigil over the mountains to pay homage to their goddess Ériu-Ceol until the day that her sweet soothing music will return to the valleys once again and restore the serenity that once prevailed.   Generations of Irish men and women, upon walking the hills in early morning and late evening, would recount stories of hearing the distant harmonies of the Spioraid Ceol, a most beautiful choir who sang their goddess to her slumber and will one day awaken from her long sleep.          

Introduction   In the mist-shrouded peaks of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, legend tells of Ériu-Ceol, the Celtic goddess of music. While her sisters Banba and Fódla claimed sovereignty over the soil, Ériu-Ceol claimed its spirit - the Amhrán Beatha or Song of Life. Along with her choir, the Spioraid Ceol, they filled the air with harmonious melodies that nurtured the land and all that inhabited it began to flourish.       The Great Slumber:   In the ancient days, when the Tuatha Dé Danann walked the land, the lilts of Ériu-Ceol and her choir were deafened by the din of iron and conquest. To preserve the pure meoldy of the land, Ériu-Ceol retreated to a hidden chamber beneath the Rock of Cashel. There, she instructed that her choir, the Spioraid-Ceol, cast a spell declaring that she would sleep for exactly one thousand years.   Before closing her eyes, she whispered into the earth, "When the thousandth winter begins to thaw, my heartbeat shall beat once more like a drum and the winds shall summons musicians from every corner of the earth to herald my return".