Hy Brysail is a collaboration of storytelling, song, music and dance exploring the links between Arranmore and Beaver Island. 
Narrated by Donegal dramatist, storyteller and member of Aosdána Little John Nee, the piece follows a group of evicted Arranmore islanders and how they came to settle in a small island in Lake Michigan, carrying their songs, music and language for generations, as they navigate the famine landscape of rural Donegal in search of safe passage to North America, before crossing paths with one James Jesse Strang, the self-proclaimed ‘king’ of Beaver Island and charismatic leader of an early sect of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Along the trail, Nee’s narrative is interwoven with the songs of the Donegal island, interpreted by brothers Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn of Ye Vagabonds both of whom spent their childhood summers on their mother's native Arranmore Island, as well as the fiddle and dance tunes of Northern Michigan rendered by indigenous fiddler Ruby John (The Johns) and world-renowned Michigan folk dancer Nic Gareiss (This Is How We Fly).
Evoking the musical landscape of both remote islands, the ensemble draw on a variety of musical sources, particularly the archival recordings of two luminary figures: Róise Mhic Ghrianna, an Irish language singer from Arranmore celebrated in her lifetime as 'Róise na nAmhrán'; and Patrick Bonner, famed musician and Beaver Islander whose Irish-American style of fiddling caught the attention of Alan Lomax in 1938. 
"Beaver Island is, perhaps, the most isolated and purely Irish colony in the United States." - Alan Lomax 

Macdara Yeates

Macdara Yeates is a traditional singer, composer, cultural producer and filmmaker from Dublin. Born and raised in East Wall in Dublin's North Inner City, Macdara has taken particular focus on the local folk song repertoire of his homeplace, culminating in an ongoing collaboration with the Dublin Dockworker's Preservation Society entitled 'Are You A Button Man?', in the form of live concerts, short film and radio documentary. Macdara has toured internationally both as a solo artist and with folk ensemble Skipper’s Alley across the United States, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Zambia, Canada and India.

An avid cultural producer and curator, Macdara has produced work in association with Aiken Promotions, The St. Patrick's Festival, The Dublin Port Company and the St. Patrick's Festival, including Abair an annual international programme examining the relationship between song and speech in the Irish oral traditions. Macdara is also a founding member of The Night Before Larry Got Stretched, a collective of traditional singers running regular events in Dublin with a particular emphasis on the dissemination of traditional song among young people. In 2020, Macdara produced and directed Tommie Potts: The Fireman FIddler of the Coombe, a feature-length music and social history documentary, chronicling the life and work of Tommie Potts, experimental fiddle player and fire fighter with the Dublin Fire Brigade. In 2021, Macdara was awarded a Music Network residency with the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.