Currently, there are typically anywhere from 8,000 to 20,000 aircraft flying around the globe.
The seas are also active, with thousands of passenger vessels, ranging from big cruise ships to smaller ferries, operating around the clock to transport travelers to their desired locations.
Humans have been migrating since the time early humans left the Great Rift Valley, and the same driving force remains today—individuals searching for a better life or fleeing from violence and tyranny, and wherever they go, they carry their cultures with them.
The frontwoman of the Sligo alternative folk group Moxie, Julia Spanu, is very familiar with this situation.
“My family has a long history of immigration,” she shared with me this week, ahead of Moxie joining the Kinnaris Quartet on the Mandela Hall stage on 2 August as part of this year’s Belfast Tradfest.
“My grandmother escaped Vietnam during the Indochina War and relocated to France, while my Italian grandparents on my father’s side had left Sardinia under Mussolini’s rule,” she explained.
Julia was born and raised in Tunisia during the time when the nation was governed by the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who was removed from power in the 2010/11 Jasmine Revolution.
Although there was chaos—perhaps even because of it, Julia’s family always recognized the strength of music. From an early age, she was supported in playing instruments and singing, which began her path to where she is today—living and working in Ireland, and serving as the emotionally powerful voice of Moxie.
Earlier than that… well, I’ll let Julia explain.
Prior to joining Moxie, I was involved in various activities, but I had just finished my undergraduate degree in applied languages and was also taking some courses in political science.
I resided in Madrid and Barcelona for a year and wanted to improve my English, so I relocated to Dublin in 2016, where I met the guys from Moxie.
Julia later returned to France for a short time to focus on her music, but the encounter with Darren Roche (accordion), Jos Kelly (accordion, keyboards), Cillian Doheny (banjo, guitar), and Ted Kelly (banjo and tenor guitars) turned out to be life-changing.
She was asked to join the band as a guest performer initially, but it soon and smoothly transitioned into her becoming a full-time member.
They were very eager,” recalls Julia. “It was extremely important for them to share traditional Irish culture with me, so they would strongly insist on taking me to festivals, like Miltown Malbay for the Willie Clancy week or the Fleadh, and they introduced me to an entirely new world.
“I was really captivated by it and had a strong desire to be involved. However, once I became part of it, they let me also express my own identities through languages, as well as through my cultural background, I suppose,” she says.
Although Moxie began in 2011 as a conventional group that only performed and wrote songs, they did so with remarkable creativity, openness, and skill, gaining international praise and delivering live performances that are unmatched.
Since the 14 years, Moxie has continuously developed even after Julia joined nine years ago when she appeared on the band’s second album,The Dawn of Motion.
The positive news is that Moxie is developing a third album, which will be inspired by Bob Quinn’s concepts regarding the connection of Irish culture to a broader Atlantean world encompassing Iberian, Mediterranean, and North African cultures.
Quinn’s concepts have mostly been disproven, yet the potential they suggest has inspired Moxie’s musical creativity, leading them to develop “an imaginary journey across the ocean and sea, bringing together these cultures through music.”
But there’s more to it than that, Julia explains.
“Having worked in linguistics before and being able to speak multiple languages, we felt it would be a wonderful concept to bring cultures together through music and language, essentially reaching out to different cultures and celebrating both their differences and the commonalities we share. That’s where the idea for the new album originated,” she says.
I’d be thinking about Tunisia, so my background led me to the history of the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and the Roman Empire, along with all the richness of the Mediterranean. Then we’d move towards Brittany and consider the sailors there, and the life of being married to a sailor, living in a world where you’d constantly worry, without any means or tools to communicate with a loved one who was at sea.
You’d be selecting small stories and choosing small topics or something that would deeply connect with what you relate to.
“Sometimes it would be something like one of the guys composing a melody or writing a march or a jig and wondering what it could represent. Like, ‘this melody makes me think of the accordion and gives me a Montmartre feeling,’ that kind of thing. It was so vivid,” says Julia.
Fortunately, everyone will have the chance to hear some of Moxie’s new songs as well as their most popular tracks when the band, in its new lineup, performs at Mandela Hall on Saturday, August 2nd. They will be joined by the Scottish all-female group Kinnaris Quartet, a performance that Julia is really excited about.
“I have a feeling at the moment that the world is more proud than ever of restoring and bringing back their ancient cultures and traditions,” she says.
Recently, I learned that playing Irish music wasn’t considered trendy at all, but I now find it incredibly empowering and inspiring to witness.
We’re visiting Belfast for the first time in three years, and the city is now full of young individuals who are creating room for traditional Irish music and the Irish language as well, and it’s all very uplifting.
For Julia, the Belfast tradfest is “a festival but also an invitation.”
The traditional session represents the height of musical enjoyment and inclusion, as individuals are welcomed to play, learn, or simply listen and participate.
It’s like time has paused, and we’re all experiencing this moment together, right here and now. absorbing the beauty of music and heritage.
Belfast Tradfest – referred to as “the top-tier traditional music events, lively pub gatherings, and Ireland’s rapidly expanding summer program for traditional music” – will take place from Sunday, July 27 to Sunday, August 3, 2025..
