Irish Fridays

[johncorrigan]

Sean Keane, the quiet man of the Chieftans, has died. At least, that's my lasting memory of him - a tall handsome man somewhere in the middle of the group doing his job of concentrating on playing the fiddle. It was with great sadness that I just found this video; it must have been one of the last appearances he made, on the occasion of Joe Biden's visit to Ireland - you can see the helicopter bearing the President away. His old friend and fellow Chieftan Matt Molloy is there too, both leaving the limelight to others and getting their heads down to the job in hand. I have included the Irish Times obit plus the video above, and another video with Sean, mainly on his own demonstrating his virtuosity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkPTrTyW61E

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2023/05/08/sean-keane-a-giant-of-irish-music-a-virtuoso-player-who-wore-his-musical-talents-lightly/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HyKbHbTQw

Thanks, Padraig. That was a great wee bit film of Seán back in the 80s. The Chieftains were such a great group of musicians that it is sometimes hard to see the individual in there. I only saw them once and that was with Van, and that was a memorable night, outdoors in the rain at Edinburgh Castle.
Here's the great bit of film of Van and the Chieftains doing a glorious version of 'Raglan Road'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLCYH36ahpE

[johncorrigan]

I was listening to a few old compilations in the car this week and Ye Vagabonds was brought to my mind again...here they are on 'Bacach Shíol Andaí' - ideal for an Irish Friday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgeIBnjNLic

[Padraig]

The Boys of Mullaghbawn is an old song, claimed by Seamus Heaney in Stepping Stones as one of his favourite Irish songs. He went on to say that he had a plan for that air when he was asked in January 1972 by Luke Kelly of the Dubliners to write a poem about Bloody Sunday that he could sing. Heaney duly did so and suggested the air of the Boys of Mullaghbawn, since his poem used the same rhythmic pattern. Nothing came of the project however. The poem was published in the local Derry Journal on the 25th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday with the title The Road to Derry, a journey from Bellaghy that Heaney made for the funeral of the victims in 1972, but is not included in Heaney's collected works. So, here are The Road to Derry, and The Boys of Mullaghbawn a source of inspiration for the poem.

The Road to Derry

On a Wednesday morning early I took the Road to Derry
Along Glenshane and Foreglen and the cold winds of Hillhead;
A wet wind in the hedges and a dark cloud on the mountain
And flags like black frost mourning that the thirteen men were dead.

The Roe wept at Dungiven and the Foyle cried out to Heaven,
Burntollet's old wound opened and again the Bogside bled;
By Shipquay Gate I shivered and by Lone Moor I enquired
Where I might find the coffins where the thirteen men lay dead.

My heart besieged by anger my mind a gap of danger,
I walked among their old haunts, the home ground where they bled;
And in the dirt lay Justice like an acorn in the winter
Till the oak would sprout in Derry where the thirteen men lay dead.

The Boys of Mullaghbawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSgKoLPPVDc

ps note the first photograph in the presentation of the song - there you have John Hume, Austin Curry, Danny Kennedy all deceased, and the bold survivor Bernadette Devlin, resting after Civil Rights activity. An inspired touch.

[Globaltruth]

Thank you Padraig.

[johncorrigan]

Thank you Padraig.

Great to read 'The Road to Derry', Padraig. I don't remember having seen that before. Fits rather well into the tune of 'The Boys of Mullaghbawn' right enough.

[johncorrigan]

Good old Petroc...as well as playing Michael Marra's beautiful 'Hapt in Mist' this morning, he also reminded me it is Columba's feast day today. Thought I'd post a part of Ossian's suite about Iona this Friday, which comes complete with some lovely photos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zYRlt_ZNeg

[Padraig]

Good old Petroc...as well as playing Michael Marra's beautiful 'Hapt in Mist' this morning, he also reminded me it is Columba's feast day today. Thought I'd post a part of Ossian's suite about Iona this Friday, which comes complete with some lovely photos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zYRlt_ZNeg

Great video John. The music, art and architecture a reminder of how close is the Scottish/Irish connection; and they also vie for the attentions of Columba.

Private Passions last Sunday by chance had your friend and mine, Iarla O Leonaird ( not necessarily in honour of Columba) singing Casadh an tSugain; here is The Twisting of the Rope sung by the O Flaherty family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKj3Xq5Upfg

[Padraig]

Great video John. The music, art and architecture a reminder of how close is the Scottish/Irish connection; and they also vie for the attentions of Columba.

Private Passions last Sunday by chance had your friend and mine, Iarla O Leonaird ( not necessarily in honour of Columba) singing Casadh an tSugain; here is The Twisting of the Rope sung by the O Flaherty family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKj3Xq5Upfg

Please note, the above link is (unaccountably) not the right one. It should be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUtMkxfPLAw

[Globaltruth]

Great video John. The music, art and architecture a reminder of how close is the Scottish/Irish connection; and they also vie for the attentions of Columba.

Private Passions last Sunday by chance had your friend and mine, Iarla O Leonaird ( not necessarily in honour of Columba) singing Casadh an tSugain; here is The Twisting of the Rope sung by the O Flaherty family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKj3Xq5Upfg

Predictably that sent me to that second album by The Gloaming. Released 7 years ago. There I discovered a quote from Iarla O'L about this song

"One of my favorite songs from the folk world in the 1970s is Micheal O Domhnaill’s rendition of Casadh an tSúgáin. Paradoxically I never really sang it myself until quite recently - although Micheál was the first person to record me in a studio (Trend studios, in Dublin) many years ago.
Casadh an tSúgain / The Twisting of The Hayrope is a whimsical love story told in the usual shy and playful manner that characterizes many Irish folksongs when approaching the subject of love. Boy meets girl, calls around to her house only to be met by her rather protective mother who cleverly asks him to twist a hayrope (which by the way were used for many a thing in 19th-century Ireland, though usually to fashion a seat for chairs- hence the phrase Súgan Chair).
In his efforts to cooperate with the girl's mother, the young suitor compliantly twists the hayrope but in doing so finds that as it lengthens he is once again outside the door whereupon it is summarily shut in his face by the ever expedient matriarch."

Yet I have read other interpretations which talk of the girl, the object of desire, symbolically representing Ireland. Which only goes to show there are many meanings to be considered when twisting a hayrope.

And what might the chair look like? Something like this....?

[johncorrigan]

I heard this on Cerys this morning - Marting Hayes and the Common Ground Ensemble - 'Toss the Feathers/The Magerabaun Reel' - touring later in the year, I think Cerys said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtqyclPcvuI

[Globaltruth]

Just a couple of fellers strolling, prancing and dancing around with avian video effects.

Latest Myles O'Reilly video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSV3iA0yGR8

Meanwhile, back at CBS TV City Los Angeles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYREn_X9qYQ

[Ein Heldenleben]

Appropriately enough the Irish passport finally arrived today after a long hunt for birth and marriage certificates and held up by my dodgy printer . On a musical note It must be the only passport to feature an extended music quote ( the National Anthem ). Very impressed that unlike a lot of music quotes used out of context it appears to be accurate.

[Padraig]

Appropriately enough the Irish passport finally arrived today after a long hunt for birth and marriage certificates and held up by my dodgy printer . On a musical note It must be the only passport to feature an extended music quote ( the National Anthem ). Very impressed that unlike a lot of music quotes used out of context it appears to be accurate.

Still on a musical note, this is not the national anthem but represents the Nation, as it were. It looks like goodbye from the Forum, from Irish Fridays and from the wonderful contributions from our current stalwarts John and Global, stars of the Past like lateral and those whose names are on the tip of my tongue but . . . . . you know; and Ein Heldenleben who has joined the favoured few just in time. Until we meet again, don't know where, don't know when, remember, "if you must sing a song, sing an Irish song". Feicfidh me aris sibh gan mhoill.

Padraig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzh5uq8rkN0

[johncorrigan]

Still on a musical note, this is not the national anthem but represents the Nation, as it were. It looks like goodbye from the Forum, from Irish Fridays and from the wonderful contributions from our current stalwarts John and Global, stars of the Past like lateral and those whose names are on the tip of my tongue but . . . . . you know; and Ein Heldenleben who has joined the favoured few just in time. Until we meet again, don't know where, don't know when, remember, "if you must sing a song, sing an Irish song". Feicfidh me aris sibh gan mhoill.

Padraig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzh5uq8rkN0

Thank you, Padraig. You may not be surprised to hear that I have missed the news re the forum until this post because of events happening elsewhere in my life recently. Thank you very much for 'Roisin Dubh'. I have loved 'Irish Fridays', and many other bits of our part of the forum, and hope they can continue someway down the line. Thanks, in particular to you and Global, 'Irish Fridays' has certainly awakened a great love of a music that I feel to be a part of my heritage that I had not given much care to over the years. Thanks for all the tunes.

I've been thinking of this song as I wander through the landscape lately, a song my Mum and Dad used to love. Here's Rosanne Cash singing her Dad's composition 'Forty Shades of Green' along with the Transatlanic Sessions' Crew.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-kXrEisqb4

[johncorrigan]

Here's the Chieftains with Lila Downs and Ry Cooder from that great colab, 'San Patricio' - 'La Iguana'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fpkongV_HQ

I'm willing to bet that Lila would make a fine step-dancer..