Good Afternoon Christy.
Vishva and I returned from Dublin with a bug or the lurgy as Dad would have called it. We are still poorly and hoping to recover by Christmas. These things take a little longer at our age. To pass the time I’m spending this wet and windy afternoon in the U.K. planning how we will celebrate Vishva’s 70th Birthday which is in October next year. I’ve checked your gig guide and there is nothing showing beyond September yet. I will keep looking. You might see us down at the front again. I hope so.
My search for my roots continue. Both my Dad’s dad and his mum were Irish. One a Murtha and one a Machin. Dad had flaming red hair and was a fighter. Both in life and in the ring. It is from him I inherited my love of Irish music with songs passed down the family whenever we gathered together. They have all gone now. Dad died in 1997. I wrote this for him then. https://tommurtha.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/the-last-wave-2/
I remember them all especially at Christmas.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful festive season and a healthy and happy new year. Thank you for making 2023 so special.
Take care,
Tom and Vishva
One side of the potato-pits was white with frost –
How wonderful that was, how wonderful!
And when we put our ears to the paling-post
The music that came out was magical.
The light between the ricks of hay and straw
Was a hole in Heaven’s gable. An apple tree
With its December-glinting fruit we saw –
O you, Eve, were the world that tempted me.
To eat the knowledge that grew in clay
And death the germ within it! Now and then
I can remember something of the gay
Garden that was childhood’s. Again.
The tracks of cattle to a drinking-place,
A green stone lying sideways in a ditch,
Or any common sight, the transfigured face
Of a beauty that the world did not touch.
My father played the melodion
Outside at our gate;
There were stars in the morning east
And they danced to his music.
Across the wild bogs his melodion called
To Lennons and Callans.
As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry
I knew some strange thing had happened.
Outside in the cow-house my mother
Made the music of milking;
The light of her stable-lamp was a star
And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.
A water-hen screeched in the bog,
Mass-going feet
Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes,
Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.
My child poet picked out the letters
On the grey stone,
In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland,
The winking glitter of a frosty dawn.
Cassiopeia was over
Cassidy’s hanging hill,
I looked and three whin bushes rode across
The horizon — the Three Wise Kings.
And old man passing said:
‘Can’t he make it talk –
The melodion.’ I hid in the doorway
And tightened the belt of my box-pleated coat.
I nicked six nicks on the door-post
With my penknife’s big blade –
there was a little one for cutting tobacco.
And I was six Christmases of age.
My father played the melodion,
My mother milked the cows,
And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned
On the Virgin Mary’s blouse.
Hi Christy, thank you for the beautiful music on December 13 in Tullamore. It was a long trip across the pond for Chris and I, but we thoroughly enjoyed the show. We have been fortunate enough to have come over to see you five times now and we hope for many more. Thanks for singing “Sonny’s Dream” for us. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Cheers!
Christy's reply
Thank you for your feedback….from Newfoundland to Tullamore certainly qualifies as “long haul listening”….its gratifying to learn that these songs travel so far….Sonny’s Dream has been a beautiful song to sing these past 40 years…I first heard it sung by Hamish Imlach from Motherwell in Scotland…. Hamish heard Ron Hynes himself sing it in St John’s in the 1970s…. Hamish recorded it here in Ireland on a single which I produced…I subsequently recorded it myself on an album called “Ride On” in 1984…. its popularity started to spread… .. Mary Black then recorded it here with Emmy Lou Harris and Dolores Keane….over the past 30 years it has become part of our National Repetoire of Folk songs…the late Ron Hynes himself visited Ireland in the 1990s brought here by how popular his beautiful song had become….
I don’t sing Sonny’s Dream that often… but soon as the audience hear the opening line they join in with great affection..its a very special song…..simple words and melody come together to create ( for me ) a captivating atmosphere..
“he sits by the window
of his room on the stairs
watching the waves
gently wash on the pier”
Four of my favourite lines from any song…..
interestingly, many variations to Ron’s original lyric have emerged as Sonny’s Dream has crossed the Atlantic over and back…one new verse has mysteriously emerged..another of the original verses has disappeared
Hello Christy,
Looking at these great lists of folk music flowering from the land, and all the new music I’ve discovered and loved by hanging about here and getting to know people.
It’s a winderful place.
we chanced upon Sam Lee one night….walking past Sotheby’s in South Ken we saw a poster saying there was a concert of old English Songs that very evening…it was beautiful …and free
Morning Chtisty,
Thinking about getting up here, ready for a cup of Barrys black label and some toast.
Your list of Scots musicians was fabulous , Hamish Henderson curated so many and was delighted to see him in there, like the travelling Stewarts.
We are very fortunate with our carriers of the flame in Hibernia and in Caledonia.
I know Dagrab has a special liking for Dick Gaughan . He gave me a post to put up about him but the site says it is a duplicate and won’t take it.
Martyn Bennett is my one to add to the list, with his fusion of traveller and scots song to his pipe based backing, exemplified on his album Grit.
Rory
Christy's reply
the offered list was very much from my times in Scotland 1966-72….people I heard sing and play….many of whom I befriended….
Hi Christy,
To click onto the Guestbook tonight
and find Galway added to the list of gigs for the new year.
Thank You
Bourkey
Christy's reply
always a pleasure
going way back to 50 different venues in over 50 years
never a bad night in Galway
for me it began in O’Connor’s of Salthill circa 1963
I sang Kevin Barry, Rosin The Bow and Brennan on The Moor,
Christy O’Connor gave me a glass of Rum & Black and I had no bother sleeping in the tent that night…myself and John Flood were down for the Galway Races but we never left Salthill…
when we met Doggy Anderson, Jim McDermot, Fido White and The Ba Dowling from Moorefield GAA Club it was like a night of Nuclear Fusion….those were the days and nights when a large bottle was a half dollar and sunday a day of obligation
Spot on Christy! And when Dick Gaughan left Dave Richardson went on board, and played mando and bouzouki Maybe that was due to to a couple of buddies of yours!
Spot on Pat! I think Dolores singing Caledonia trumps Archies version. I always return to her and Mick Hanley singing “My Love is in America” stunning!
You can even hear Donal there putting the bouzouki through the synth! Gorgeous!
By the hokey smokes Rory, Christy, Gipp…..some names there!
Just a few more that I came across ..
All the Brennans and Duggans from Dobhair, all the Mooneys and Duffys from Bunbeg, all the O’Domhnaills from Tory and Donegal, Albert Fry and Liam O’Connor from Belfast, all the O’hUllacháins and Grahams from South Armagh/North Louth, the KK ennedy from Dundalk, anyone who ever dipped a pint in Marks…..and if you want your auld lobby washed down, sure we can throw that lot in too….
Gippmeister, I also liked Dolores Keane singing it….
if memory serves the original Boys of The Lough were from this side of the water…a lot of great players passed thru that band…I think the original band was
Cathal McConnell, Robin Morton and
Christy's reply
if memory serves the original Boys of The Lough were from both sides of the water…a lot of great players passed thru that band…I think the original band was
Cathal McConnell, Robin Morton and Dick Gaughan ….over the following decades the line up varied but the band always delivered…
It was from Cathal McConnell that I first learned “Only Our Rivers” which was penned by his Brother Mickey McConnell who has written many great ballads
Dougie McClean, Annie Lennox, The Proclaimers, Billy Connolly and Archie Gemmill (heard him sing Caledonia once)
“I’ve heard four people sing this song, two of them are dead, and I’ve to sing it now”
Everytime I hear that line I keep saying I must ask Christy who the four are. Being a Scottish song I presume the four singers were Scottish, if so are they mentioned in your list below?
Hello Christy,
I’m reading a book that landed here this morning.
Deirdre of the Sorrows.
By John Coulter, it’s a libretto for an opera, written in 1944.
There’s no music included though.
That Deirdre is a spirited woman!
Davey Johnson (1,2,&3.)Jimmy McBeath, Dick Gaughan, Jeannie Robertson,Lizzie Higgins,Willie Scott, Jimmy Hutchinson, Barbara Dickson, Hamish Imlach,Hamish Henderson , Hamish Bain, Archie Fisher, Aly Bain,High Speed Grass, The MacCalmans,Mike Whellans, The Whistlebinkies, Danny Kyle, Owen Hand, The Corries,Robin Hall , JImmy McGregor,Bill Barclay, The Clutha,Five Hand Reel,Nigel Denver, Alex Cambell,Gordon McCulloch, Matt McGinn,( Glasgow) Shaggis,Ian McKintosh, Paddie Bell,John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Incredibles,5 Hand Reel,Tannahill Weavers, Bobby Eaglesham, Watt Nicholl,Dolina McClennan,Rae Fisher,Dougie McClean, Annie Lennox, The Proclaimers, Billy Connolly,Gerry Rafferty,Rab Noakes
Mickblakejohnreillydavidkeenansineadoconnorshanemacgowandoloresoriordanbobbysandswallypagegerwolfejohnspillaneliamoflynnphillynottpadraigstephensmargaretbarryenyarorygallagherronniedrewlukabloomjakeburnsjohnnyfingersfinbarfureytommymackemdonallunnyandyirvinepaulbradypeckerdunnephilipchevrondeclanorourkepaddyreillypetestjohndeclansinnotjoshuaburnsidemattmcginnfrancesblacklukekellymauraoconnelllukekellyjoeheaneychristymoorecolmmacconiomairemartinhayes
The never ending circle Christy, and you could list a circle ten times the size and then some.
Rory
Great post the on Friday Rory! Fair play to you, always enjoy your posts so keep them coming and a happy Christmas to all.
Speaking of Christmas and Christmas eve in particular TG4, 20.15. A documentary on Tom Munnelly. I believe yourself is involved Christy? Really looking forward to it.
Christy's reply
I was delighted to be invited to say a few words about Tom Munnelly….Tom was the sort of man you don’t meet every day
Hi Christy
Just received a Christmas card from my Cousin, Shay Hennessy ( Crashed Records etc ) in the card it said ” save the stamp”. When I looked at the envelope here you were. Fame at last.
It’s our Golden Wedding on the 29th this month.
I know we aren’t able to come to the gig but if you could sing the Voyage as part of your set that would be great.
All the best to you.
Tickets purchased for May 4th in Glór.
Our Robbie’s First Friday singing session will take place the night before. A weekend of song!!
Good Afternoon Christy.
Vishva and I returned from Dublin with a bug or the lurgy as Dad would have called it. We are still poorly and hoping to recover by Christmas. These things take a little longer at our age. To pass the time I’m spending this wet and windy afternoon in the U.K. planning how we will celebrate Vishva’s 70th Birthday which is in October next year. I’ve checked your gig guide and there is nothing showing beyond September yet. I will keep looking. You might see us down at the front again. I hope so.
My search for my roots continue. Both my Dad’s dad and his mum were Irish. One a Murtha and one a Machin. Dad had flaming red hair and was a fighter. Both in life and in the ring. It is from him I inherited my love of Irish music with songs passed down the family whenever we gathered together. They have all gone now. Dad died in 1997. I wrote this for him then. https://tommurtha.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/the-last-wave-2/
I remember them all especially at Christmas.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful festive season and a healthy and happy new year. Thank you for making 2023 so special.
Take care,
Tom and Vishva
Hello Christy,
A Christmas Childhood
Patrick Kavenagh
https://allpoetry.com/poem/14330523-A-Christmas-Childhood-by-Patrick-Kavanagh
One side of the potato-pits was white with frost –
How wonderful that was, how wonderful!
And when we put our ears to the paling-post
The music that came out was magical.
The light between the ricks of hay and straw
Was a hole in Heaven’s gable. An apple tree
With its December-glinting fruit we saw –
O you, Eve, were the world that tempted me.
To eat the knowledge that grew in clay
And death the germ within it! Now and then
I can remember something of the gay
Garden that was childhood’s. Again.
The tracks of cattle to a drinking-place,
A green stone lying sideways in a ditch,
Or any common sight, the transfigured face
Of a beauty that the world did not touch.
My father played the melodion
Outside at our gate;
There were stars in the morning east
And they danced to his music.
Across the wild bogs his melodion called
To Lennons and Callans.
As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry
I knew some strange thing had happened.
Outside in the cow-house my mother
Made the music of milking;
The light of her stable-lamp was a star
And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.
A water-hen screeched in the bog,
Mass-going feet
Crunched the wafer-ice on the pot-holes,
Somebody wistfully twisted the bellows wheel.
My child poet picked out the letters
On the grey stone,
In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland,
The winking glitter of a frosty dawn.
Cassiopeia was over
Cassidy’s hanging hill,
I looked and three whin bushes rode across
The horizon — the Three Wise Kings.
And old man passing said:
‘Can’t he make it talk –
The melodion.’ I hid in the doorway
And tightened the belt of my box-pleated coat.
I nicked six nicks on the door-post
With my penknife’s big blade –
there was a little one for cutting tobacco.
And I was six Christmases of age.
My father played the melodion,
My mother milked the cows,
And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned
On the Virgin Mary’s blouse.
***
Rebecca
Hi Christy, thank you for the beautiful music on December 13 in Tullamore. It was a long trip across the pond for Chris and I, but we thoroughly enjoyed the show. We have been fortunate enough to have come over to see you five times now and we hope for many more. Thanks for singing “Sonny’s Dream” for us. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Cheers!
Thank you for your feedback….from Newfoundland to Tullamore certainly qualifies as “long haul listening”….its gratifying to learn that these songs travel so far….Sonny’s Dream has been a beautiful song to sing these past 40 years…I first heard it sung by Hamish Imlach from Motherwell in Scotland…. Hamish heard Ron Hynes himself sing it in St John’s in the 1970s…. Hamish recorded it here in Ireland on a single which I produced…I subsequently recorded it myself on an album called “Ride On” in 1984…. its popularity started to spread… .. Mary Black then recorded it here with Emmy Lou Harris and Dolores Keane….over the past 30 years it has become part of our National Repetoire of Folk songs…the late Ron Hynes himself visited Ireland in the 1990s brought here by how popular his beautiful song had become….
I don’t sing Sonny’s Dream that often… but soon as the audience hear the opening line they join in with great affection..its a very special song…..simple words and melody come together to create ( for me ) a captivating atmosphere..
“he sits by the window
of his room on the stairs
watching the waves
gently wash on the pier”
Four of my favourite lines from any song…..
interestingly, many variations to Ron’s original lyric have emerged as Sonny’s Dream has crossed the Atlantic over and back…one new verse has mysteriously emerged..another of the original verses has disappeared
Greetings to all you Newfoundland Songsters
Here’s a christmas card from me to all here
https://www.123cards.com/s/4648258f693/
Hello Christy,
Looking at these great lists of folk music flowering from the land, and all the new music I’ve discovered and loved by hanging about here and getting to know people.
It’s a winderful place.
I’m not going to add to the lists.
Just post this gem. The poise and spareness of it blows me away everytime I hear it.
https://youtu.be/EQdfuDWdqgI?si=z_w6MTFNTnaxBgCK
Rebecca
we chanced upon Sam Lee one night….walking past Sotheby’s in South Ken we saw a poster saying there was a concert of old English Songs that very evening…it was beautiful …and free
Thanks Christy
Morning Chtisty,
Thinking about getting up here, ready for a cup of Barrys black label and some toast.
Your list of Scots musicians was fabulous , Hamish Henderson curated so many and was delighted to see him in there, like the travelling Stewarts.
We are very fortunate with our carriers of the flame in Hibernia and in Caledonia.
I know Dagrab has a special liking for Dick Gaughan . He gave me a post to put up about him but the site says it is a duplicate and won’t take it.
Martyn Bennett is my one to add to the list, with his fusion of traveller and scots song to his pipe based backing, exemplified on his album Grit.
Rory
the offered list was very much from my times in Scotland 1966-72….people I heard sing and play….many of whom I befriended….
Gipp.
Archie Gemmil played for Derby County under Mr Clough. Did he sing as well? That’s my knowledge of ‘Mr Gemmil’.
Hi Christy,
To click onto the Guestbook tonight
and find Galway added to the list of gigs for the new year.
Thank You
Bourkey
always a pleasure
going way back to 50 different venues in over 50 years
never a bad night in Galway
for me it began in O’Connor’s of Salthill circa 1963
I sang Kevin Barry, Rosin The Bow and Brennan on The Moor,
Christy O’Connor gave me a glass of Rum & Black and I had no bother sleeping in the tent that night…myself and John Flood were down for the Galway Races but we never left Salthill…
when we met Doggy Anderson, Jim McDermot, Fido White and The Ba Dowling from Moorefield GAA Club it was like a night of Nuclear Fusion….those were the days and nights when a large bottle was a half dollar and sunday a day of obligation
Whoops! Wrong link but all good!
https://youtu.be/LqhMBqK2GY4?si=ygjZJcIIOgTlCaKZ
Jaysus Pat! Youre on the ball there yourself!
Spot on Christy! And when Dick Gaughan left Dave Richardson went on board, and played mando and bouzouki Maybe that was due to to a couple of buddies of yours!
Spot on Pat! I think Dolores singing Caledonia trumps Archies version. I always return to her and Mick Hanley singing “My Love is in America” stunning!
You can even hear Donal there putting the bouzouki through the synth! Gorgeous!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=51GvSi_M6cs&pp=QAFIAQ%3D%3D
Dolores Keane…..our first lady of song
By the hokey smokes Rory, Christy, Gipp…..some names there!
Just a few more that I came across ..
All the Brennans and Duggans from Dobhair, all the Mooneys and Duffys from Bunbeg, all the O’Domhnaills from Tory and Donegal, Albert Fry and Liam O’Connor from Belfast, all the O’hUllacháins and Grahams from South Armagh/North Louth, the KK ennedy from Dundalk, anyone who ever dipped a pint in Marks…..and if you want your auld lobby washed down, sure we can throw that lot in too….
Gippmeister, I also liked Dolores Keane singing it….
And The Boys of the Lough!
if memory serves the original Boys of The Lough were from this side of the water…a lot of great players passed thru that band…I think the original band was
Cathal McConnell, Robin Morton and
if memory serves the original Boys of The Lough were from both sides of the water…a lot of great players passed thru that band…I think the original band was
Cathal McConnell, Robin Morton and Dick Gaughan ….over the following decades the line up varied but the band always delivered…
It was from Cathal McConnell that I first learned “Only Our Rivers” which was penned by his Brother Mickey McConnell who has written many great ballads
Dougie McClean, Annie Lennox, The Proclaimers, Billy Connolly and Archie Gemmill (heard him sing Caledonia once)
“I’ve heard four people sing this song, two of them are dead, and I’ve to sing it now”
Everytime I hear that line I keep saying I must ask Christy who the four are. Being a Scottish song I presume the four singers were Scottish, if so are they mentioned in your list below?
Hello Christy,
I’m reading a book that landed here this morning.
Deirdre of the Sorrows.
By John Coulter, it’s a libretto for an opera, written in 1944.
There’s no music included though.
That Deirdre is a spirited woman!
Rebecca
Mickblakejohnreillydavidkeenan sineadoconnorshanemacgowandoloresoriordan
bobbysandswallypagegerwolfe johnspillaneliamoflynnphillynott padraigstephensmargaretbarryenya rorygallagherronniedrewlukabloom jakeburnsjohnnyfingersfinbarfurey tommymackemdonallunnyandyirvine paulbradypeckerdunnephilipchevron declanorourkepaddyreillypetestjohn declansinnotjoshuaburnsidemattmcginn francesblacklukekellymauraoconnell lukekellyjoeheaneychristymoore colmmacconiomairemartinhayes
What a country of music !
Rory
Davey Johnson (1,2,&3.)Jimmy McBeath, Dick Gaughan, Jeannie Robertson,Lizzie Higgins,Willie Scott, Jimmy Hutchinson, Barbara Dickson, Hamish Imlach,Hamish Henderson , Hamish Bain, Archie Fisher, Aly Bain,High Speed Grass, The MacCalmans,Mike Whellans, The Whistlebinkies, Danny Kyle, Owen Hand, The Corries,Robin Hall , JImmy McGregor,Bill Barclay, The Clutha,Five Hand Reel,Nigel Denver, Alex Cambell,Gordon McCulloch, Matt McGinn,( Glasgow) Shaggis,Ian McKintosh, Paddie Bell,John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Incredibles,5 Hand Reel,Tannahill Weavers, Bobby Eaglesham, Watt Nicholl,Dolina McClennan,Rae Fisher,Dougie McClean, Annie Lennox, The Proclaimers, Billy Connolly,Gerry Rafferty,Rab Noakes
tbc when I gang hame ken
Mickblakejohnreillydavidkeenansineadoconnorshanemacgowandoloresoriordanbobbysandswallypagegerwolfejohnspillaneliamoflynnphillynottpadraigstephensmargaretbarryenyarorygallagherronniedrewlukabloomjakeburnsjohnnyfingersfinbarfureytommymackemdonallunnyandyirvinepaulbradypeckerdunnephilipchevrondeclanorourkepaddyreillypetestjohndeclansinnotjoshuaburnsidemattmcginnfrancesblacklukekellymauraoconnelllukekellyjoeheaneychristymoorecolmmacconiomairemartinhayes
The never ending circle Christy, and you could list a circle ten times the size and then some.
Rory
Great post the on Friday Rory! Fair play to you, always enjoy your posts so keep them coming and a happy Christmas to all.
Speaking of Christmas and Christmas eve in particular TG4, 20.15. A documentary on Tom Munnelly. I believe yourself is involved Christy? Really looking forward to it.
I was delighted to be invited to say a few words about Tom Munnelly….Tom was the sort of man you don’t meet every day
Hi Christy
Just received a Christmas card from my Cousin, Shay Hennessy ( Crashed Records etc ) in the card it said ” save the stamp”. When I looked at the envelope here you were. Fame at last.
It’s our Golden Wedding on the 29th this month.
I know we aren’t able to come to the gig but if you could sing the Voyage as part of your set that would be great.
All the best to you.
well done you two lovebirds