“I’ve got no choice but to just do it,” Tríona Marshall returns to the harp on her own terms with Mayo concert

For Tríona Marshall, returning to the stage as a solo harpist is about more than a new series of concerts. It is about rediscovering something she feared she might no longer be able to do.

The acclaimed Irish musician, who toured internationally with The Chieftains for almost two decades, will perform at Matt Molloy’s Yard Bar in Westport on September 17, before bringing the concert to St Nicholas’ Church in Galway on September 26.

Behind the performances, however, is a deeply personal story.

Marshall went through a period when playing the harp became increasingly difficult because of pain in her hands. As a musician and teacher, being unable to use certain fingers meant stepping back from the instrument that had been such a central part of her life.

“I went through a period where I wasn’t able to play the harp,” she explains. “I had a lot of pain in my hands. At the time, I had to not play certain things. I couldn’t use certain fingers.”

Over the past year, however, things have changed. And when Tríona was able to play again, she found herself with a renewed determination to do exactly that.

“When I realised that I was over it, I just became passionate about the idea of going and doing some concerts — just me on my own playing the harp,” she says. “After all that pain, that’s all I wanted to do. But I’m able to do that now. So I really want to do that.”

There is an almost irresistible simplicity to that motivation. After years of touring, performing and sharing stages around the world, Marshall simply wants to sit down with her harp and play.

“I think now that I can, it’s like I’ve got no choice but to just do it,” she admits.

That feeling is at the heart of the upcoming concerts. Rather than the scale and spectacle of a large ensemble performance, Marshall is embracing the intimacy of playing alone, allowing the harp itself to become the focus.

The repertoire will be rooted in Irish music, including pieces she learned from musicians during her years with The Chieftains. Her travels have also left her with a broad musical palette, and audiences can expect influences from French-Canadian and Scottish traditions, as well as music from Japan and China.

But, ultimately, Marshall says, it will be “mostly about the harp”.

The venues have been carefully chosen too. Matt Molloy’s in Westport has a particular significance for Marshall after her years with The Chieftains.

“I know Matt quite well and I know the pub quite well,” she says. “It’s kind of like a musical home from home.”

For her, it feels like the natural place to begin this new chapter. The intimacy of a smaller venue also offers something that can sometimes disappear on a large concert stage: connection.

“One of the strange experiences when you’re doing a performance for people you can’t see is that you’re not able to interact with them,” she says.

Marshall remembers enjoying smaller performances where she could actually see the audience and respond to the atmosphere in the room.

There will be another kind of intimacy at St Nicholas’ Church in Galway, where the natural acoustic of the historic venue will allow the harp’s sound to fill the space.

Playing solo, she says, also gives her greater freedom to explore the instrument.

“When you’re on your own, you’re able to play with the tone,” she says. “You can have a completely different emotional experience.”

After almost two decades with The Chieftains, performing in some of the world’s great concert halls, it is a quieter kind of musical experience that Marshall is seeking now.

There is a sense of gratitude in the way she talks about it. Not simply gratitude for the career she has already had, but for the opportunity to play again.

“I’m truly enjoying it,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to just be in that moment.”

And perhaps that is what makes these concerts so meaningful. After the years of touring and the thousands of miles travelled, Marshall is returning to something wonderfully simple: one musician, one harp and an audience close enough to share the moment.

For Westport audiences, there is the added pleasure of welcoming back a musician who already regards Matt Molloy’s as a musical home.

Tríona Marshall in concert

Matt Molloy’s Yard Bar, Westport — September 17 at 8.30pm Doors 8pm | €15 | Tickets available at the door.

St Nicholas’ Church, Galway — September 26 at 8pm Doors 7.30pm | €18 | Tickets via Eventbrite.