On 28 July at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, the Australian String Quartet and William Mabo will give the premiere of Andrew Ford’s Machnamh, a ‘rumination’ on Seán Ó Riada’s famous tune ‘Mná na hÉireann’ (‘Women of Ireland’). It was commissioned by Ford’s neighbour, Owen J. Conlan, in memory of his mother Eva Gladys Conlan, and here he is talking about it.