I would like to start by congratulating you on your most recent album. I particularly love Boy in the Wild and Cumann na Mná. I’m a French Canadian native with some loose ties to Ireland and I wanted to share with you my funny discovery of your music. I found a young man who goes by shanemarnomusic doing an impression of you singing “sultans of swing” by dire straights. I howled with laughter at the story telling nature of the song but proceeded to look up Christy Moore to see if his “impression” was faithful. Since then I have been absolutely obsessed with your music and have delved deep into the archives. You are an incredible man, and despite discovering your music somewhat late into my life, i can’t wait to enjoy it for the time I have left.
Hello Christy. Hip Hip Hooray. Today my copy of your new album arrived. It’s a treasure. Thank you for your music and songs. You’ve taken up so many current and relevant topics. 13 tracks.13 gems.Touching. A great job is also done by Andy and all musicians.
Thanks to 4711ers who created the link to your wonderful appearance at the Late Late Show.
All the best, Günter
Christy's reply
We’re firing on all cylinders here at 4711ers
last 10 posts;
Germany
Cymru
Finland
Yorkshire
The Rebel County
Luimneach
Hawick
NSW Oz
Blantyre
Suffragette City
Dear Christie, I travelled over to Dublin to see you on Saturday – so glad I did!!!! It was incredible!!!
It has been quite a few years since I managed to see you live (I live in Wales now, but I am from Germany originally). Sometimes if you see an artist again after a long time you think “hmh… not as good now as I remembered him”. But surely not with you! You are just as good as you were 30 years ago… maybe even better!!!!!
Your music has been such a big part of my life since I first went to Ireland as an au pair in Dublin in 1990 and heard from you the first time. It has been with me in good times and in bad and whenever I feel stressed or desperate I put on your music and the sound of your voice instantly soothes me and lifts me up. Well, and when I am happy and content I also put on your music and the sound of your voice makes me even happier!
Your songs highlight things that I am worried about or appalled by … or that I love and admire! They make me love and they make me cry. Your music is the soundtrack to my life!
I cannot thank you enough for all the endless hours of happiness your music has given me. THANK YOU!
Christy's reply
I thought you’d never come back !…Fáilte arais Ingrid
Thank you for the new album – going strong I see!
But another thank you is in order. One for bringing Ordinary Man to the world’s attention – and mine. As the captains of industry seem to refuse the story to retire, I felt compelled to write a Finnish translation of then song and get in touch with Peter Hames’ widow for all the official work. It seems I didn’t miss contacting Peter himself by very long – but long enough :(.
Anyhow, if you would like to have a listen to how Ordinary Man sounds in Finnish, here is Normijätkä.
Should you want to have a copy of the whole CD (every song in an imcomprehensible language), we’ll get that sorted. I’ll just need to know where to send it.
All the best, I am hoping to make it to one of yer gigs eventually. Getting hold of tickets at a time when being able to afford both a ticket and a trip hasn’t always been easy though.
-Markus
Christy's reply
hey Markus….you’ve nailed it..well done….good to know that the song is ringing out in dear Finland…I loved my visits there …shine on
Hello Christy,
So pleased to hear the new songs are feeling at home in the setlist. I seem to be singing them all night, a different one is there every time I wake up. And those lovely bottom Fs are doing wonders. I’m singing along gently breathing them. When I started I had a range similar to Andy Irvine but up the octave. Amazing what a few years of listening and singing along with a baritone can do for you. Who’d have thought I’d grow into a comfortable bottom F!
Finger picking is really showing me where the weaknesses in my left hand are. No problems with what to practice next.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
that Mic belongs to my sound crew..the RTE sound crew were very happy to handle such a beautiful beast….
well spotted with thon bottom F….
as far as I know…no one else in this whole wide world uses my very awkward guitar tuning….it happened over 60 years ago, all by accident…its taken me all those years to accept it, to struggle on,
its the same as regular tuning except my bottom string is tuned to F….
do not try it….its not recommended….
if I ever got a second chance at life that would be the only change I’d want to make….6th string back down to the bottom E
Hi Christy,
The new album arrived in the post, and it’s a credit to you. Such a rollercoaster of emotions when listening. You’ve intertwined pieces that evoke laughter, anger, sadness and pride (as a Corkonian!). Your voice, whether spoken or in song is as clear and strong as ever and that was never more evident than the lovely slot on the Late Late with Paddy Kielty, whose reaction to sitting there with you was a joy to behold – genuine appreciation and emotion.
For me the standout piece is Boy in the Wild. As a father and a son, it really caught me, and has stayed with me since the forst listen. Having two sons who live abroad, one in New York, the other in Western Australia, the message for them is close to my heart, and I sent both of them a link to the video.
Thank you, for the songs, the spoken word and for being a voice for the voiceless in a time where they’re too often silenced by the scallcrows and keyboard warriors.
Míle buíochas a chara,
Jim
Christy's reply
ceart go leor mo cara…(“marcaidh ar aghaidh” sez Jimmy Mack)
lovely to think of Wally’s song beaming out to NY and WA
thanks for feedback
We just wanted to thank you for such an incredible night on Saturday in Vicar Street. You sang a song for our mum and dad, Eamon and Mary, and to say that they were shocked and delighted is an understatement. Dad said it was the best night he had in years and mum wants to tell you, as a proud Kildare woman and long time listener, that you sounded as good as ever! I think that will be one of those memories we talk about for years to come.
Love the new album, you have always kept your fingers on the pulse of Ireland in your music.
Thanks so much.
Sarah and Claire
Christy's reply
“If I happen to go to the market of Croom
with a feather in me cap and my pipes in full tune
I’m made welcome at once and brought up to a room
where Bacchus is sporting with Venus”
Hi christy
I spoke to decie mclaughlin yesterday.
Back in free Derry after 3 weeks in usa gigging before supporting Damo after thenew year.
Plans to gig liverpool, glasgow,london and Hawick next autumn. He has somegreat work and will be welcomed warmly in my town.
His Weile Waile is a different one to yours but i guess there are dozens of versions of such old songs.
Rory
Greetings Christy from down here.
Last year I spent a month on your beautiful West coast crashing out a few tunes in the pub sessions at places like Doolin and Donegal. One night I walked into a little pub in Sligo town with my guitar and the resident musician that night very kindly and warmly invited me to sing and play with him. Anyway, we belted out ‘County Down’ amongst others with him blasting some remarkable fiddle. He also treated myself and the punters to a rip roaring version of Rory’s ‘Out on the Western Plains.’
The next day I contacted the pub to thank them for hosting me and they asked if I knew the gentleman who I had played with. I replied in the negative and the publican told me it was Seamie O’Dowd. I still feel extremely humbled to have been invited by such a legend to share some tunes. Such a welcoming and encouraging cove.
I saw your show in Castlebar, Christie. Thank you for another memorable evening.
I’m back in August and September 2025 so will see you in concert again.
Christy's reply
Seamie is a generous man of music….he is at the very heart of the raw bar in Sligo…..not and instrument case is opened but he gets to hear of it…he’ll be there, ready to rock, ready to roll….I look forward to playing a few tunes with him in 2025
Hi Christy
I’m in me hospital bed in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride and I’ve just watched the Late Late on the player. It fair lifted my spirits. You need to have a big feck off party for the oul 80th Christy. So many of us would love to share and celebrate with you. How about going full circle. A gig in Lisdoonvarna? Twould be epic. Love the album. Go raibh maith agut.
Christy's reply
you remind me of The Forum in East Kilbride….top Folk Club back in the day…
Hope you are on the mend Ben….I have you in the white light….
OK Ben…Lisdoon it is…everyone invited
but be warned
my Ma held a 21st for me in 1966…they had a great time …..but I got held up at a Fleadh Ceol in Portarlington….or was it Portlaoise and Tullamore
Just a quick query. I noticed a comment you made about the fact you used to visit packy manus byrne in ardwick in 1966. Was that to the house on Shakespeare Street that he used to live at? Just curious because that’s where my mum and dad had two houses and where we lived until 19 67/1968, when the area was demolished? Packie byrne lived with them and also the grehen sisters.
Thanks, Geraldine
Christy's reply
That was the very street… a single bedsit…a big ancient Iron bed with a valley in the middle…Packy made strong tea….it was back when The Grehan Sisters were living in Hyde…we were all on the same boat
(from The Guardian via Dave in Manchester)
Packie Byrne, who has died aged 98, was one of the the best loved of the Irish singers and musicians who became part of the British folk scene. A highly skilled musician on the tin whistle, Packie was also a singer, with a repertoire that ranged from humorous songs to classic ballads, and a storyteller with a wealth of tales from his native Donegal. In his 60s, Packie played the part of Dr Carmody in Ken Loach’s film Black Jack (1979). They wanted a musician with an Irish accent, who could handle horses and who was – as Packie recalled – “a damned good liar”.
The youngest of three children, Packie was born in the “townland” or hamlet of Corkermore, in Co Donegal. His parents, Connell and Maria Byrne, both sang traditional songs, and neighbours would visit for evenings of music, singing and dancing. It was there that Packie picked up his repertoire of songs and tunes. Leaving school aged 14 – he had been one of 120 children in a single classroom – Packie worked on the family farm. At 20 he made the first of many visits to England, working in a variety of jobs – at Corby’s steelworks, the railways in Kettering and as a Betterware salesman.
The wireless and modern dance bands in Donegal had widened Packie’s musical horizons. He learned to play the saxophone, and in England won a prize playing an Irish tune that Norrie Paramor’s band couldn’t master. Paramor advised him to freelance, and Packie played in several bands, making occasional appearances with Jack Payne and Max Jaffa.
Returning home at the outbreak of the second world war, Packie again worked on the family farm and as a cattle drover, but also performed in local theatrical productions and in a comedy and music duo. Back in England by 1943, he failed an army medical and instead joined the Home Guard.
Throughout the 40s and 50s, Packie travelled between Ireland and England, where he worked on building sites and farms, busked before cinema queues and sang in concert parties. During a three-year period when he was hospitalised with TB, he renewed his interest in traditional song and music. He won several singing competitions in the late 1950s, and then the All Ireland competition in 1962 and 1963. His singing was frequently broadcast by Radio Eireann.
In 1964, when the great fiddle player John Doherty backed out of a festival at Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), Packie filled his place. His songs and tunes, combined with his stage presence and humour, quickly endeared him to the folk enthusiasts and, within a week, he was gigging at London folk clubs. Soon after, he became a full-time folk singer.
In the late 1960s, Packie lived in Manchester, where he formed an occasional duo with the uilleann piper, Felix Doran. In 1969, the EFDSS released an album of Packie’s singing and whistle-playing. Folk clubs and concerts took him from Penzance to Scotland, but in 1971, Packie returned to London, where he worked in a solicitor’s office until retirement.
Packie’s song repertoire had sometimes been considered rather lightweight, but his album Songs of a Donegal Man (1975) secured his reputation as a highly accomplished singer of classic ballads. In the year of its release, he teamed up with the Californian harpist, Bonnie Shaljean, and together they performed at clubs, concerts and festivals, and on radio and television, and made two albums, The Half Door (1977) and Roundtower (1981).
At the age of 70, Packie retired from singing and playing and moved permanently to live in Donegal. The retrospective album Donegal and Back! was released in 1995. His autobiography, Recollections of a Donegal Man, was published in 1989, followed by a collection of his stories, My Friend Flanagan, in 1996. Packie’s singing was also included in The Voice of the People (1998), Topic Records’ landmark series of traditional music albums.
Packie Manus Byrne, folk singer and musician, born 18 February 1917; died 12 May 2015
You’ve read 18 articles in the last year
Article count
… we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million supporters, from 180 countries, now power us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent. Will you make a difference and support us too?
Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful.
And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
Whether you give a little or a lot, your funding will power our reporting for the years to come. If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you’re making a big impact every single month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you.
Christy I would appreciate it very much if you would sing Nancy Spain for the memory of the late John (Jack) McMahon, who passed away too early in life during the week at one of your upcoming gigs. John who was late of Brandon Co Kerry & Newcastle West was a frequent attendee of your gigs in the Project Arts Centre in the 1977/78 era. Jack then in turn sang Nancy Spain and other songs from your repertoire at the time to the rest of us and that is how I first heard of Christy Moore. There was only Radio 1 back then not even pirate radio so it was either a gig or LPs/Cassettes and LP’s were 5 to 6 times the price of attending a gig. You yourself had a conversation with John one evening below in Brandon in the early 1980’s around the time of the salmon wars, a trip that gave you the inspiration for the song St Brendan’s Voyage. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Regards JP
Christy's reply
” a boat sailed out of Brandon in the year of 501″
consider it done JP….I’ll keep it between Jack and myself….when I sing Nancy Spain a number of faces appear before me, my Mother Nancy Power, the writer Barney Rush, the journalist Nancy Spain…next time Jack McMahon will be beside them
Christy,
I wanted to say that what i thought epitomised the Late Late Show recording (thanks to Scott 1888 for posting it) was young Kielty’s obvious awe and delight at being in your presence that shone through.
You mean so much to so may of us, whether we are wee people who maybe make a fleeting connection, a gig attendee who gazes and enjoys from the back row of the stalls, whether it was a publican 40 years ago,a veteran of hundreds of your shows, or a recording star, a casual listener who just likes but does not buy your music , a fan who hangs on your reply to a post ,or even a television personality of significant fame …..they/we are all in such a fortunate position to ‘know’ of the joy your music, your care and your spirit .
Patrick Kielty was all of us.
Thank you Patrick, thank you Christy.
Rory
Christy's reply
a glorious audience amalgamates
becomes a single unit
when tens, hundreds,sometimes thousands gather together
in the valley of song
Dear Christy,
As i await the hugely anticipated arrival of your LP, i have been enjoying another album released after 16 years of waiting…..though i hope the postage does not take that long for Terrible Beauty to arrive.
The Cure have produced a masterful collection of new songs based around Robert Smith’s obviously shattering losses of recent years.
rory
Christy's reply
an album can be years in the making….like way back yonder when some had photograph albums and Brownie 127s…snaps were taken and rolls developed…over a few years I filled an album of my favourite Brownie 127 shots….all of them taken around the old home town…all disappeared circa 1960 when I got a guitar…
Every album has its own unique back story…these stories seldom written…each song a different chapter… the Broomielaw chapter would reach right back to 1964 when I first heard “The Bleacher Lassie o’ Kelvinhaugh”. I was dossing on a cold basement floor in Rathmines when Mick Moloney sang that song…I’ll never know where he gathered it….years later I heard different versions by ,I think, Dick Gaughan and Owen Hand….I honestly believed I had never gigged the song but both Hilary & Olive corrected me…apparently I performed it 3 times in Glasgow and once in Boyle, Co.Roscommon over the past 18 years…
The final chapter would concern “Snowflakes”…would describe time spent working with Martin Leahy some years back..getting to know him a bit…him moving from behind “the traps” to becoming a songwriting activist….
If time and memory permitted, I’d write these wee stories but life goes on, priorities take precedence, … (contd Page92)
Congratulations on your new album. I bought ‘A Terrible Beauty’ and started listening to it. The Late Late Show RTE online as well, also the Boy in the Wild video was inspiring.
It’s fantastic.
Hello Christy how are things. My Name is Allen Currid from Mount Edward Ballinfull County Sligo. Christy I went to your Concert in The Great Northern Hotel Bundoran County Donegal in the Republic Of Ireland on Thursday night Thursday the 19th of September 2024 at 8:00PM and it was an excellent show. Christy that was the first time I was at your Concert and it was brilliant.
Christy enjoyed your appearance on the Late Late and the quiet empathic bond between you and Paddy when talking about the loss of your fathers. Boy in the wild is an absolute gem. Paddy’s choice of your beloved anthem, Viva la Quinta Brigada was great. I have a 2008 poster from the significant event held in Barcelona commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Brigades departure from Spain. In both Spanish and as Gaeilge – Is stair sibh, is laochraí sibh – You are history, you are heroes. I’ve a copy ready to go in the poist tomorrow if think that’s ok. Can’t wait to get album – the cover is stunning. Tickets booked for the Orchard county. Go well.
Dear Christy!
I would like to start by congratulating you on your most recent album. I particularly love Boy in the Wild and Cumann na Mná. I’m a French Canadian native with some loose ties to Ireland and I wanted to share with you my funny discovery of your music. I found a young man who goes by shanemarnomusic doing an impression of you singing “sultans of swing” by dire straights. I howled with laughter at the story telling nature of the song but proceeded to look up Christy Moore to see if his “impression” was faithful. Since then I have been absolutely obsessed with your music and have delved deep into the archives. You are an incredible man, and despite discovering your music somewhat late into my life, i can’t wait to enjoy it for the time I have left.
Cheers,
JD
Hello Christy. Hip Hip Hooray. Today my copy of your new album arrived. It’s a treasure. Thank you for your music and songs. You’ve taken up so many current and relevant topics. 13 tracks.13 gems.Touching. A great job is also done by Andy and all musicians.
Thanks to 4711ers who created the link to your wonderful appearance at the Late Late Show.
All the best, Günter
We’re firing on all cylinders here at 4711ers
last 10 posts;
Germany
Cymru
Finland
Yorkshire
The Rebel County
Luimneach
Hawick
NSW Oz
Blantyre
Suffragette City
and Yas from Tokyo
Songsters United….Fascists keep clear…Up Down…Two Bumps Josie….Adelante
Dear Christie, I travelled over to Dublin to see you on Saturday – so glad I did!!!! It was incredible!!!
It has been quite a few years since I managed to see you live (I live in Wales now, but I am from Germany originally). Sometimes if you see an artist again after a long time you think “hmh… not as good now as I remembered him”. But surely not with you! You are just as good as you were 30 years ago… maybe even better!!!!!
Your music has been such a big part of my life since I first went to Ireland as an au pair in Dublin in 1990 and heard from you the first time. It has been with me in good times and in bad and whenever I feel stressed or desperate I put on your music and the sound of your voice instantly soothes me and lifts me up. Well, and when I am happy and content I also put on your music and the sound of your voice makes me even happier!
Your songs highlight things that I am worried about or appalled by … or that I love and admire! They make me love and they make me cry. Your music is the soundtrack to my life!
I cannot thank you enough for all the endless hours of happiness your music has given me. THANK YOU!
I thought you’d never come back !…Fáilte arais Ingrid
Hi Christy,
Thank you for the new album – going strong I see!
But another thank you is in order. One for bringing Ordinary Man to the world’s attention – and mine. As the captains of industry seem to refuse the story to retire, I felt compelled to write a Finnish translation of then song and get in touch with Peter Hames’ widow for all the official work. It seems I didn’t miss contacting Peter himself by very long – but long enough :(.
Anyhow, if you would like to have a listen to how Ordinary Man sounds in Finnish, here is Normijätkä.
https://youtu.be/WN_sk4Mdcmk?si=8MEEpwlSDyPpYsd9
Should you want to have a copy of the whole CD (every song in an imcomprehensible language), we’ll get that sorted. I’ll just need to know where to send it.
All the best, I am hoping to make it to one of yer gigs eventually. Getting hold of tickets at a time when being able to afford both a ticket and a trip hasn’t always been easy though.
-Markus
hey Markus….you’ve nailed it..well done….good to know that the song is ringing out in dear Finland…I loved my visits there …shine on
Hello Christy,
So pleased to hear the new songs are feeling at home in the setlist. I seem to be singing them all night, a different one is there every time I wake up. And those lovely bottom Fs are doing wonders. I’m singing along gently breathing them. When I started I had a range similar to Andy Irvine but up the octave. Amazing what a few years of listening and singing along with a baritone can do for you. Who’d have thought I’d grow into a comfortable bottom F!
That was a striking mic you were using on the Late Late. Very pretty and a bit steampunky. Had a little look. Is this something like it
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/202651654405?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qqpBkaYJQv2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
That link looks weird, hope it works.
Finger picking is really showing me where the weaknesses in my left hand are. No problems with what to practice next.
Rebecca
that Mic belongs to my sound crew..the RTE sound crew were very happy to handle such a beautiful beast….
well spotted with thon bottom F….
as far as I know…no one else in this whole wide world uses my very awkward guitar tuning….it happened over 60 years ago, all by accident…its taken me all those years to accept it, to struggle on,
its the same as regular tuning except my bottom string is tuned to F….
do not try it….its not recommended….
if I ever got a second chance at life that would be the only change I’d want to make….6th string back down to the bottom E
Hi Christy,
The new album arrived in the post, and it’s a credit to you. Such a rollercoaster of emotions when listening. You’ve intertwined pieces that evoke laughter, anger, sadness and pride (as a Corkonian!). Your voice, whether spoken or in song is as clear and strong as ever and that was never more evident than the lovely slot on the Late Late with Paddy Kielty, whose reaction to sitting there with you was a joy to behold – genuine appreciation and emotion.
For me the standout piece is Boy in the Wild. As a father and a son, it really caught me, and has stayed with me since the forst listen. Having two sons who live abroad, one in New York, the other in Western Australia, the message for them is close to my heart, and I sent both of them a link to the video.
Thank you, for the songs, the spoken word and for being a voice for the voiceless in a time where they’re too often silenced by the scallcrows and keyboard warriors.
Míle buíochas a chara,
Jim
ceart go leor mo cara…(“marcaidh ar aghaidh” sez Jimmy Mack)
lovely to think of Wally’s song beaming out to NY and WA
thanks for feedback
Hi Christy,
We just wanted to thank you for such an incredible night on Saturday in Vicar Street. You sang a song for our mum and dad, Eamon and Mary, and to say that they were shocked and delighted is an understatement. Dad said it was the best night he had in years and mum wants to tell you, as a proud Kildare woman and long time listener, that you sounded as good as ever! I think that will be one of those memories we talk about for years to come.
Love the new album, you have always kept your fingers on the pulse of Ireland in your music.
Thanks so much.
Sarah and Claire
“If I happen to go to the market of Croom
with a feather in me cap and my pipes in full tune
I’m made welcome at once and brought up to a room
where Bacchus is sporting with Venus”
Hi christy
I spoke to decie mclaughlin yesterday.
Back in free Derry after 3 weeks in usa gigging before supporting Damo after thenew year.
Plans to gig liverpool, glasgow,london and Hawick next autumn. He has somegreat work and will be welcomed warmly in my town.
His Weile Waile is a different one to yours but i guess there are dozens of versions of such old songs.
Rory
sounds like a dream tour for Decky
Greetings Christy from down here.
Last year I spent a month on your beautiful West coast crashing out a few tunes in the pub sessions at places like Doolin and Donegal. One night I walked into a little pub in Sligo town with my guitar and the resident musician that night very kindly and warmly invited me to sing and play with him. Anyway, we belted out ‘County Down’ amongst others with him blasting some remarkable fiddle. He also treated myself and the punters to a rip roaring version of Rory’s ‘Out on the Western Plains.’
The next day I contacted the pub to thank them for hosting me and they asked if I knew the gentleman who I had played with. I replied in the negative and the publican told me it was Seamie O’Dowd. I still feel extremely humbled to have been invited by such a legend to share some tunes. Such a welcoming and encouraging cove.
I saw your show in Castlebar, Christie. Thank you for another memorable evening.
I’m back in August and September 2025 so will see you in concert again.
Seamie is a generous man of music….he is at the very heart of the raw bar in Sligo…..not and instrument case is opened but he gets to hear of it…he’ll be there, ready to rock, ready to roll….I look forward to playing a few tunes with him in 2025
Hi Christy
I’m in me hospital bed in Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride and I’ve just watched the Late Late on the player. It fair lifted my spirits. You need to have a big feck off party for the oul 80th Christy. So many of us would love to share and celebrate with you. How about going full circle. A gig in Lisdoonvarna? Twould be epic. Love the album. Go raibh maith agut.
you remind me of The Forum in East Kilbride….top Folk Club back in the day…
Hope you are on the mend Ben….I have you in the white light….
OK Ben…Lisdoon it is…everyone invited
but be warned
my Ma held a 21st for me in 1966…they had a great time …..but I got held up at a Fleadh Ceol in Portarlington….or was it Portlaoise and Tullamore
Just a quick query. I noticed a comment you made about the fact you used to visit packy manus byrne in ardwick in 1966. Was that to the house on Shakespeare Street that he used to live at? Just curious because that’s where my mum and dad had two houses and where we lived until 19 67/1968, when the area was demolished? Packie byrne lived with them and also the grehen sisters.
Thanks, Geraldine
That was the very street… a single bedsit…a big ancient Iron bed with a valley in the middle…Packy made strong tea….it was back when The Grehan Sisters were living in Hyde…we were all on the same boat
(from The Guardian via Dave in Manchester)
Packie Byrne, who has died aged 98, was one of the the best loved of the Irish singers and musicians who became part of the British folk scene. A highly skilled musician on the tin whistle, Packie was also a singer, with a repertoire that ranged from humorous songs to classic ballads, and a storyteller with a wealth of tales from his native Donegal. In his 60s, Packie played the part of Dr Carmody in Ken Loach’s film Black Jack (1979). They wanted a musician with an Irish accent, who could handle horses and who was – as Packie recalled – “a damned good liar”.
The youngest of three children, Packie was born in the “townland” or hamlet of Corkermore, in Co Donegal. His parents, Connell and Maria Byrne, both sang traditional songs, and neighbours would visit for evenings of music, singing and dancing. It was there that Packie picked up his repertoire of songs and tunes. Leaving school aged 14 – he had been one of 120 children in a single classroom – Packie worked on the family farm. At 20 he made the first of many visits to England, working in a variety of jobs – at Corby’s steelworks, the railways in Kettering and as a Betterware salesman.
The wireless and modern dance bands in Donegal had widened Packie’s musical horizons. He learned to play the saxophone, and in England won a prize playing an Irish tune that Norrie Paramor’s band couldn’t master. Paramor advised him to freelance, and Packie played in several bands, making occasional appearances with Jack Payne and Max Jaffa.
Returning home at the outbreak of the second world war, Packie again worked on the family farm and as a cattle drover, but also performed in local theatrical productions and in a comedy and music duo. Back in England by 1943, he failed an army medical and instead joined the Home Guard.
Throughout the 40s and 50s, Packie travelled between Ireland and England, where he worked on building sites and farms, busked before cinema queues and sang in concert parties. During a three-year period when he was hospitalised with TB, he renewed his interest in traditional song and music. He won several singing competitions in the late 1950s, and then the All Ireland competition in 1962 and 1963. His singing was frequently broadcast by Radio Eireann.
In 1964, when the great fiddle player John Doherty backed out of a festival at Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), Packie filled his place. His songs and tunes, combined with his stage presence and humour, quickly endeared him to the folk enthusiasts and, within a week, he was gigging at London folk clubs. Soon after, he became a full-time folk singer.
In the late 1960s, Packie lived in Manchester, where he formed an occasional duo with the uilleann piper, Felix Doran. In 1969, the EFDSS released an album of Packie’s singing and whistle-playing. Folk clubs and concerts took him from Penzance to Scotland, but in 1971, Packie returned to London, where he worked in a solicitor’s office until retirement.
Packie’s song repertoire had sometimes been considered rather lightweight, but his album Songs of a Donegal Man (1975) secured his reputation as a highly accomplished singer of classic ballads. In the year of its release, he teamed up with the Californian harpist, Bonnie Shaljean, and together they performed at clubs, concerts and festivals, and on radio and television, and made two albums, The Half Door (1977) and Roundtower (1981).
At the age of 70, Packie retired from singing and playing and moved permanently to live in Donegal. The retrospective album Donegal and Back! was released in 1995. His autobiography, Recollections of a Donegal Man, was published in 1989, followed by a collection of his stories, My Friend Flanagan, in 1996. Packie’s singing was also included in The Voice of the People (1998), Topic Records’ landmark series of traditional music albums.
Packie Manus Byrne, folk singer and musician, born 18 February 1917; died 12 May 2015
You’ve read 18 articles in the last year
Article count
… we have a small favour to ask. Tens of millions have placed their trust in the Guardian’s fearless journalism since we started publishing 200 years ago, turning to us in moments of crisis, uncertainty, solidarity and hope. More than 1.5 million supporters, from 180 countries, now power us financially – keeping us open to all, and fiercely independent. Will you make a difference and support us too?
Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful.
And we provide all this for free, for everyone to read. We do this because we believe in information equality. Greater numbers of people can keep track of the global events shaping our world, understand their impact on people and communities, and become inspired to take meaningful action. Millions can benefit from open access to quality, truthful news, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
Whether you give a little or a lot, your funding will power our reporting for the years to come. If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you’re making a big impact every single month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you.
Christy I would appreciate it very much if you would sing Nancy Spain for the memory of the late John (Jack) McMahon, who passed away too early in life during the week at one of your upcoming gigs. John who was late of Brandon Co Kerry & Newcastle West was a frequent attendee of your gigs in the Project Arts Centre in the 1977/78 era. Jack then in turn sang Nancy Spain and other songs from your repertoire at the time to the rest of us and that is how I first heard of Christy Moore. There was only Radio 1 back then not even pirate radio so it was either a gig or LPs/Cassettes and LP’s were 5 to 6 times the price of attending a gig. You yourself had a conversation with John one evening below in Brandon in the early 1980’s around the time of the salmon wars, a trip that gave you the inspiration for the song St Brendan’s Voyage. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. Regards JP
” a boat sailed out of Brandon in the year of 501″
consider it done JP….I’ll keep it between Jack and myself….when I sing Nancy Spain a number of faces appear before me, my Mother Nancy Power, the writer Barney Rush, the journalist Nancy Spain…next time Jack McMahon will be beside them
Christy,
I wanted to say that what i thought epitomised the Late Late Show recording (thanks to Scott 1888 for posting it) was young Kielty’s obvious awe and delight at being in your presence that shone through.
You mean so much to so may of us, whether we are wee people who maybe make a fleeting connection, a gig attendee who gazes and enjoys from the back row of the stalls, whether it was a publican 40 years ago,a veteran of hundreds of your shows, or a recording star, a casual listener who just likes but does not buy your music , a fan who hangs on your reply to a post ,or even a television personality of significant fame …..they/we are all in such a fortunate position to ‘know’ of the joy your music, your care and your spirit .
Patrick Kielty was all of us.
Thank you Patrick, thank you Christy.
Rory
a glorious audience amalgamates
becomes a single unit
when tens, hundreds,sometimes thousands gather together
in the valley of song
Dear Christy,
As i await the hugely anticipated arrival of your LP, i have been enjoying another album released after 16 years of waiting…..though i hope the postage does not take that long for Terrible Beauty to arrive.
The Cure have produced a masterful collection of new songs based around Robert Smith’s obviously shattering losses of recent years.
rory
an album can be years in the making….like way back yonder when some had photograph albums and Brownie 127s…snaps were taken and rolls developed…over a few years I filled an album of my favourite Brownie 127 shots….all of them taken around the old home town…all disappeared circa 1960 when I got a guitar…
Every album has its own unique back story…these stories seldom written…each song a different chapter… the Broomielaw chapter would reach right back to 1964 when I first heard “The Bleacher Lassie o’ Kelvinhaugh”. I was dossing on a cold basement floor in Rathmines when Mick Moloney sang that song…I’ll never know where he gathered it….years later I heard different versions by ,I think, Dick Gaughan and Owen Hand….I honestly believed I had never gigged the song but both Hilary & Olive corrected me…apparently I performed it 3 times in Glasgow and once in Boyle, Co.Roscommon over the past 18 years…
The final chapter would concern “Snowflakes”…would describe time spent working with Martin Leahy some years back..getting to know him a bit…him moving from behind “the traps” to becoming a songwriting activist….
If time and memory permitted, I’d write these wee stories but life goes on, priorities take precedence, … (contd Page92)
Hello Christy
Congratulations on your new album. I bought ‘A Terrible Beauty’ and started listening to it. The Late Late Show RTE online as well, also the Boy in the Wild video was inspiring.
It’s fantastic.
Yas
Thanks Yas…always good to hear from the Far East…
Hello Christy how are things. My Name is Allen Currid from Mount Edward Ballinfull County Sligo. Christy I went to your Concert in The Great Northern Hotel Bundoran County Donegal in the Republic Of Ireland on Thursday night Thursday the 19th of September 2024 at 8:00PM and it was an excellent show. Christy that was the first time I was at your Concert and it was brilliant.
Kind Regards
Allen Currid
Thank You Allen
Christy enjoyed your appearance on the Late Late and the quiet empathic bond between you and Paddy when talking about the loss of your fathers. Boy in the wild is an absolute gem. Paddy’s choice of your beloved anthem, Viva la Quinta Brigada was great. I have a 2008 poster from the significant event held in Barcelona commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Brigades departure from Spain. In both Spanish and as Gaeilge – Is stair sibh, is laochraí sibh – You are history, you are heroes. I’ve a copy ready to go in the poist tomorrow if think that’s ok. Can’t wait to get album – the cover is stunning. Tickets booked for the Orchard county. Go well.
always good to hear from The Bog Meadow
Thank You