There’s A Radio Documentary Coming Out About Rachel Baptiste: A Black-Irish Singer in 1750s Ireland
There’s A Radio Documentary Coming Out About Rachel Baptiste: A Black-Irish Singer in 1750s Ireland
Text: Rachel Hannon
Journalist Saibh Downes has created a documentary ‘Black Syren’ for RTÉ lyric fm about a Black-Irish singer called Rachel Baptiste who lived in Ireland in the 1750s. The documentary attempts to figure out how Rachel got here and why she was so accepted. It also talks Ireland’s relationship with the slave trade and what that meant for Irish society. It reveals a part of Irish history that we’ve never seen before.
Speaking on the documentary, Saibh Downes said:
“A 1750 advertisement for a concert in Dublin’s Crow Street Theatre claimed that the concert’s performers aimed to convince their audience that the “power of music is not confined to colour”. Top of the billing is singer Rachel Baptiste described as “a real black woman, a native of this country”. Black and Irish is sometimes considered a new identity. For some it might begin with Paul McGrath or Phil Lynott but this is a story that goes back to the theatres and pleasure gardens of Georgian Ireland where Baptiste sang a mix of Handel arias and popular Irish tunes like Eileen Aroon to her well-heeled audiences. Black Syren pieces together the story of Rachel Baptiste from the fragmentary accounts provided in reviews and newspaper adverts of the time. It’s a story not just about music but about Ireland’s place in the Atlantic slave trade and in a colonial era which was defined by racial hierarchies.”
The documentary will feature music as Rachel might have sung it from the Irish Baroque Orchestra’s recent release ‘Ireland’s Black Syren’ and original recordings from TUD Conservatoire musicians Clíodhna O’Regan (voice) and Dylan Donegan (harpsichord).
Set your reminders for this documentary. ‘Black Syren’ will be on RTE lyric fm’s Lyric Feature at 6pm Sunday 11 May, 2025. You will also be able to listen back on rte.ie.
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