Why not another bird? Like a nightingale?

When I wrote the first issue of the newsletter in March of 2005, I was in search of the perfect title. It had to be a bird, since the fansite is called: Celtic Songbird.

One song came to mind: "Look to the Rainbow," from the Musical Finian's Rainbow. I performed a very small singing part in that play during high school. And growing up, that was all the exposure I had to anything Irish.

The line of the song goes:
So I bundled my heart, and I roam the world free.
To the east with the Lark,
To the West with the Sea...

I thought: "Ireland has larks which are native to that country. And there is so much symbolism associated with the lark that I want to reflect in the newsletter." I then decided on the title.

The Lark is sometimes referred to as the poet's bird. Shelley wrote his poem "Ode to a Skylark" about it, and one of Shakespeare's famous songs begins:
"Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings."

Appropriately enough, Méav's voice has often been described as heavenly.

The lark is a powerful songbird that sings as it rises upward and upward until it is high in the sky. Their song can still be heard even when the bird is too high to be seen.

The newsletter was conceptualized and christened during the time when Méav had rejoined Celtic Woman after her year off. She was singing and soaring again, with her heavenly songs lingering in our heads long after she'd gone on to the next city. It was such a privilege for us at the newsletter, to be here on her flight to success.

It was once said that the lark's song is like a blessing and a prayer. Méav's music has been an inspiration and a blessing to countless people around the world. In a well-recognized painting by Jules Adolphe Breton, a farm girl is depicted stopping her work to listen to the song of a skylark. How many of us have done the same for Méav and CW?

So the lark seemed the obvious choice in many ways. It is a remarkable little bird that announces the coming of the day, an association which, again, is perfect.
"Open your eyes with me,
See paradise with me,
Wake and arise with me..."

Our goal is to put together an archive of issues highlighting Méav's career. We've proudly given the Lark a nest - a safe haven for the Celtic Songbird and her fans.

Chaucer saw the lark with its boundless energy as "the symbol of hope, happiness, and good luck."

Méav truly is the Lark. Her voice soars high and lifts us with it, blesses us with hope and joy, and lingers in our hearts until we can hear - and see - her again.

We at www.celticmeav.com are lucky enough to deliver to the fans a bit of history...
actually herstory: Méav's Story!