Sula

Latest Release from ‘Super Group’ Daimh 2023

Oh nice, I love Daimh! This must be a very new release, as it’s not on their Bandcamp page yet with the other recordings.
I wonder if they got to record this one in different parts of the world, which I think is what they wanted to do before the pandemic and “Stopped in our Tracks” was released.

Available at https://www.daimh.net/merchandise/sula/

Thank you!

A concert or CD by Daimh is something to celebrate!
One of the most exhilarating bands about!
Thank youse for the links!

A naturalist’s notes:

On Daimh’s merchandise page you can read, beside the gorgeous gannet artwork;
<<Sula is the old Norse name for the Gannet, the largest seabird in Northern Europe.>>

…depending on your definition of ‘seabird’, this statement may be correct or a wee bit narrow:
The gannet, no doubt is the king of all North Atlantic seabirds, but not all seabirds dive or eat fish; other birds, on the other hand, are habitually tied to the sea and it is true of various ‘sea eagles’.
The White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla a.k.a. Ern/Erne, Iolar Sùil na Grèine; a Eurasian cousin of the American Bald Eagle) is a permanent resident of the Western coasts of Scotland, Iceland and Greenland. Its wingspan (wings-width and weight) far extend the gannet’s (over 6ft and under 6ft respectively).
Hence the white-tailed eagle is the largest sea-faring bird that can be seen in these parts.
Like the gannet, the white-tailed eagle ranges far and wide from its nesting spots and is an awesome sight in the sky above the Atlantic, the Minch, the Irish Sea…
One of its Scottish names (Gàidhlig: iolar sùil na grèine) translates as ‘Eagle of the Sun’s eye’.
Despite the grand name, its behaviour is less noble than the gannet’s; it is often ‘parasitic’ and, like the skua and jaeger, can be described as a pirate of the air.
From sùil na grèine to sula… back to our gannet:
The gannet (Morus bassanus, ex-Sula bassana, a.k.a. sùlaire) is simply a splendid bird and sleak, white, yellow & black flocks of gannets diving into the brimming schools of fish on a bright sunny day, to-and-fro-ing between the deep blue sea the and clear blue sky, form a truely inspiring spectacle.
‘Sula’ is a very apt name, no doubt, for a Daimh album, since the band has connections to Nova Scotia and Ireland: all homes to the gannet colonies.

Although ‘sula’ is a Norse name (meaning split stick), it also means eyes in Irish. Is it incidental, then, if old fishermen and lighthouse keepers like to repeat the story that the gannets die of hunger because the repeated head-first dives after mackerel and other fish make them blind, eventually, and helpless?
I’ve heard this story several times and there were always overtones of empathy in the voice of the teller.
The eyes of the gannet are strangely spectacled (or goggled); Google it up if you want to chekc it out. 😉

Up on Bandcamp now!

Actually, ‘sula’ means ‘before’ in Irish.

One of the Irish words for ‘eyes’ is ‘súile’.

The Irish language has three words for ‘gannet’ - see https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/gannet.