This Sunday's Lyric Feature, Black Syren, is presented by journalist Saibh Downes and tells the neglected story of a Georgian era star of the Irish stage - listen to Black Syren above.
Below, Saibh tells us about how she was drawn to the story - and what she learned in the process of telling it.
They called her the Black Syren.
Rachel Baptiste was a singer in Ireland during the mid-eighteenth century. She lived in Dublin’s Grangegorman.
Popular? Very. Baptise was a celebrated musician who toured across the country to doting audiences and compelled critics to write reviews praising her talent.
But here’s the part that makes this a good story. Rachel Baptiste was black.
I first heard her name during my time at university. A module on Irish music at the time of British rule in the late-eighteenth, early nineteenth century, as far as I remember. But she stuck with me.
Apart from one or two exceptions, virtually every record of Baptiste’s existence comes from newspaper listings which only offer minimal descriptions. We don’t know where she came from or ultimately, where she went.
Rachel Baptiste's story is a window through which we can see an Ireland that maybe we’ve never seen before.
How did she get to Ireland? Most likely her arrival on our shores was a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade. Rachel probably came back from the Caribbean with a returning Irish plantation owner. But what exactly was Ireland's role in the transportation of coffee, sugar and people?
'At the music hall in Crow Street will be performed a concert of vocal and instrumental music. The vocal part by Ms Rachel Baptiste and the accompaniment by an Indian gentleman.
These two performers hope to convince that the power of music is not confined to colour'.
This is a quote from a 1750 St Patrick’s Day advertisement for a concert in Dublin’s then Crow Street Theatre. It’s sober in its language. But the writer is clearly sympathetic. They hope the audience will embrace the performers and their music, irrespective of the colour of their skin.
in Peter's Cell, Limerick, circa 1768
We hear many more examples of this same sentiment throughout the documentary. And most are an unambiguous acceptance of Rachel by Irish society reflected in the publications of the time.
But why was Rachel Baptiste so accepted in Ireland? At a time when many world societies were organised by racial hierarchies, why was she so openly welcomed, and even loved?
As a first generation Black-Irish person, the identity still feels like a pretty new one to me. We don’t have a Windrush generation in this country. Nor a history of slavery or apartheid.
Yes of course, we have Phil Lynott and Paul McGrath. But there may have been those before them. Even two hundred years before. Who were perhaps loved in the same way. Well, that changes things.
recreating Rachel Baptist's performances
Rachel Baptiste’s story is a window through which we can see an Ireland that maybe we’ve never seen before.
Eighteenth century Ireland loved Rachel’s voice. But her legacy is about more than just the music she gave us. Rachel’s story is underpinned by our unique relationship with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and Ireland’s marked investment in the commerce of slave-produced goods. It also reveals a particular Irish acceptance, motivated by enlightened thought, of equality at a time when the world was, to say the very least, not as empathetic.
Black Syren, presented by Saibh Downes, is the Lyric Feature on Sunday 4th May at 6 pm and will be available after broadcast as a Lyric Feature podcast. The programme features music from the Irish Baroque Orchestra’s recent release Ireland’s Black Syren. Listen to more from the Lyric Feature here.
