Hi Christy
Thanks a million for the beautiful show you put on on the 2nd of January
Apologies if I was a bit too loud during Lingo Politico! Was very excited to be there
Thanks a million for gifting me your setlist at the end of the show. That’s one for the mantle piece!
But what I’m most thankful for is that your works have brought me and my family so much joy throughout the years. I cannot praise you enough..
God bless
Finn Tierney
Christy's reply
Good man Finn…you were not a decibel too loud…I enjoyed your contribution..thanks for being there…always good to have an Allenwood man at me back….tell Mickey Carroll and Johnny Doyle I was asking for them….between Milltown and Allenwood there is hope rising for the Lilies
Hi Christy,
Ath-bhliain Faoi Mhaise Duit!
Here in Mt. Scott watching/listening to your concert in Barrow lands, with Declan! What a duo! Only Out Rivers Run Free….I learned to sing that song from your singing back in the Planxty days! My son is taking me to your concert in UL in April….I took him and his friends to see you for the first time there, back in 2015/2016….so he’s now paying me back! We went to Vicar St a few times too, and again went back to UL! You gave him a shout out that same night too, and he was absolutely chuffed! We can’t wait to see you live again! We might send in a request beforehand, if you’re not too busy! Thank goodness that we’re all still above ground looking down!!! Life has been strange over the last few years, that’s for sure! You might pay a visit back to Miltown Malbay for Willie Week?!?! It seems to be getting very popular with some younger entertainers!! But then again, it always was I suppose! I’ll go back to listening to one of the most beautiful songs that you sing, written by Jimmy McCarthy….Bright Blue Rose ♥️♥️♥️
Best wishes always from Tina and son, Daniel..Mt. Scott.
Christy's reply
I first visited Sráid na Cathrac in 1965….That first night there I was introduced to the man himself…Willie Clancy…. He was strapped into his pipes….I was carrying a guitar….he welcomed me to the session and asked me did I know “Liverpool Lou” I got the box out and Willie and I sang and played that lovely old Dominic Behan ballad together…
Happy new year to you and yours, I’m just sitting here watching you on tg4, happy out.
It’s been a while since I checked in with ya.
My recovery is going well, coming up on 6 months clean shortly, whod of thought it ) a life beyond my wildest dreams now makes sense.
I’m really looking forward to the night I go to my first gig post treatment and getting clean and please god 🙏 it will be you, IM VERY EXCITED even at the thought of it.
Anyway I’m gonna listen to the last of ordinary man, jaysus that Declan fella might be onto something with that guitar 🎸😏 ohhhhhh I’m missing youuuuuu
Best wishes from a life long fan
Jason
Christy's reply
Thanks for sharing ….its always uplifting to read of recovery….you remind me of something I heard many years ago…
how we must first uncover, to discover, then recover….
I wish you well….at first the slogans appeared to me like cliches but gradually I learned the wisdom in those simple words….
Easy Does It……Keep Coming Back…
Hi Christy
Must be a tough gig been the warder in the joy.
But from what I heard John Lonergan brought a common sense
and humanitarian approach to the job.
Can’t remember was it in despatches or a podcast
but you visited a prisoner who was in a bad way
Under his pillow a copy of the Christy Moore songbook
Wonder whatever happened him
It’s a thin line
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Christy's reply
That lad did not survive…I think of him….
I met John Lonergan in both Mountjoy and Portlaoise.A unique and special man, He gave me the opportunity to play in both those institutions, always making me welcome and facilitating the gigs I played….met many good people there, both inmates and staff, heard some songs, tales and yarns….every time I walked out thru those prison gates I gave thanks for the priviledge of having a home to go to
Hi Christy
Were any of the concerts in Mountjoy recorded ?
Christy's reply
Not that I know of…there was a recording made in Portlaoise about 40 years ago..it went far and wide…it was recordedon a cassette in the Republican wing ….one of 5 different gigs I did to cover the various ODCs, Republican POWs,,Non aligned plus a few songs in the Prison Officers Canteen…John Lonergan was the best of Governors….
3 monhs after that gig I was playing in Sydney, Australia where someone had a cassette copy for me to sign ….the postal system was very efficient back then!!
Really enjoying The Spike
Here is a link to that tune is was on about earlier – have a look an see if you like it. I put it up on Youtube which I’m not too familiar with so hopefully you have no problem accessing it. Lyrics should be in the video description. The name of the song is The Armani Suits Brigade. It’s sung to the tune of The Rising of the Moon. There was a similar tune years ago called The Reluctant Patriot – but this is a more contemporary version!
Let me know what you reckon and apologies for the poor recording quality!
All the best!
Don
Christy's reply
Thanks for sharing Don…thats a solid rhythmic strum you got goin there..what I reckon matters little… most important thing I gotta say is that its brill to see a man enjoying his music and lyric as much as you do here….its great to see your joy as you play and share..there a lot of doom around at the mo..( I’m responsible for some of it myself )…as for the sound..I have tracks on albums that dont sound as good as this….keep going Don 123..best wishes
Speaking of the wireless Christy, did Planxty play a gig in UCD, around ’79, ’80, that was also broadcast live on RTE radio? I’m sure I used to have a cassette of it that’s long been chewed up.
Christy's reply
not that I can recall..we did play Theatre L in UCD circa ’72/73, that gig was filmed and features occasionally ..I dont think we played the campus in ’79/80
This site bates all and that’s for sure.
Thanks to Kevin from Cavan for posting
Liam Clancy introducing and singing
Lament for Brendan Behan
Minded me of a Late Late show from back in the day
when Ciaran Bourke introduced The Ould Triangle with this
Sad solemn notes and crates of newly drawn stout
The usual symptoms when life goes out
But the extinction this time been seven times the most
The music held no echo
And the tears drowned out our toast
Sorrow and bereavement
Life has no meaning now
Silence is master
Laughter and songs bowed
For gone went our great captain
To some more hospitable inn
Where cant and hypocrisy
Can no longer embarrass him
Thinking you joined The Dubliners for the mightiest version of
The Black Velvet Band the same night
Any memories of that one ?
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
Christy's reply
The verse that Ciaran Bourke recited that night was written by the late Joe Ó Broin… Joe was a rebellious, rumbunctious, rambling, irreverant, lovable Dublin Poet who lived his final years in Hagfield County Mayo with his Wife Jan and their young family….his visits to Dublin were renowned for their rattling of cages, divvilment and the consumption of tomato sandwiches…we often think of Joe here…he write another memorable poem called “Cavan’s Tractor Boy” ..written about Gerry Tuite from Mountnugent in Co.Cavan
The January Man has been busy here…providing good sounds that take me back to Rare Records,John Dalton St. A real emporium where I found ‘Prosperous’,soon after it’s release…
Around that time ,in the same shop I discovered ‘Frost and Fire’,by The Watersons .I proceeded to play the grooves off that LP,at a volume where I could put in harmonies (maybe your Andy did similar?)…Today,I’m revisiting that era via the CD on the cover of February’s Uncut magazine…loads of old and new gems in ‘Deep Roots’- A celebration of Topic Records – the final track being The Watersons classic ‘Here we come a wassailing’.
As so often,there’s a surprise from Richard Thompson on the Topic CD…Aeons ago,I remember a song on the radio (singer not known)with the opening,’I know where I’m going,I know who’s going with me’…right now,the song is on repeat here,courtesy of Mr Thompson’s wonderful version of ‘The Light Bob’s Lassie’…for decades I’ve admired the guy…it’s 50+years now and unlikely to end soon!
“Rogha na Ban” was a morning programme on ‘Radio Eireann’ followed by Liam Nolan. Back in the days of yore. We hadnt any apparent sophistication of a term like ‘Radio One’.
Oh, and it did broadcast from Athlone. And we still had to get “VHF”.
Christy's reply
Way way back in the days of black and white I did a radio programme on Radio Éireann from Henry St Dublin …back then there was an RTE Studio attached to the GPO….Liam Nolan was the man on the microphone…from Dublin, it would bounced from the Athlone transmitter out across the 32..my first time on the wireless….
Morning Christy,
The opening song of your marvellous Traveller album , has perhaps reached its time.
Urgency Culture
Information overload
Hotbed of nothing
Holocaust of silence
Violence of Apathy
Consumed by security
Intuition becoming obsolete
Let me hear the voice of an innocent child
I play it often, but today it resonated even more.
Thanks for it.
Rory
Christy's reply
Happy Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas) Rory…
reading your note on “Urgency Culture” was like glimpsing an old friend on a crowded terrace, in a passing bus, on a fleeting dream….
That Traveller album happened by chance….after an enforced and lengthy lay-off I was struggling to find my way back to work….
I heard the sounds Leo Pearson was making ….I’d not encountered his process before….it was new to me…he showed an interest in my songs… he was familiar with Irish Balladry as his Father had been a long time manager of The Dubliners,he had grown up listening to the songs of Luke and Ronnie….he brought his black boxes to our garden room and began to work his magic…I loved making that album and I’m charmed to hear that it still spins in Hawick
Interestingly, the current Abbey production is Behan’s “The Quare’ Fellow’, the play itself based upon scenes in Mountjoy as an execution is to go ahead. I’m told the executed party was a Kirwan man who’d murdered a family member and tried to conceal the evidence.
This very week sees the announcement that a piece of ground inside Mountjoy Prison is to be dug up. They hope to locate the remains of Harry Gleeson who received a posthumous pardon a few years ago.
The McColl song about Tim Evans is a regular on your repitoire.
Christy's reply
you remind me of my visits to The ‘Joy…..did many gigs there when John Lonergan was Governor…subsequently had the good fortune to visit and sing in many walled/barbed wire venues …always with the good fortune of being allowed home after the sessions..
MacColl’s “Tim Evans” has not been in the set for manys the year…it featured on 1974’s “Whatever Tickles Your Fancy”….I still hear Jimmy Faulkner’s riffs from 50 years ago..
Happy New Year Ed, to you and all Shannonside Songsters
Christy,
I’m going to see you on Sunday night. Absolutely love all of your music, but I would love to hear Duffys Cut, Magic Nigts at the Lobby Bar or Sail on Jimmy. Really looking forward to Sunday night…..Legend!
Christy's reply
good man Padraic… a good trio of songs there… Wally Page, John Spillane and Albert Niland, three of our finest songwriters….I’ll see what can be done tomorrow night but no guarantees…thank you
Ending the day as it began with talk of “Lament for Brendan Behan” It was written by Fred Geis. Found some info about his writings and life here: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118389
Christy's reply
In an hour or so, I go from never having heard of Fred Geis to having an image of him in my head…great stuff…..thanks
Evening Christy,
The song you referenced is called “Lament for Brendan Behan”. It was written by a young Jewish student from Chicago who had no Irish connections whatsoever other than the fact that he had a fascination with BB. He wrote it shortly after hearing of Brendan’s death. The lyrics are as follows:
Word has come from Dublin City
Word has come to our town
Word has come from Dublin City
They tell me bold Brendan is dead.
Born in ’23 in a slum in Dublin
With a tenement over his head
Born with a spirit his flesh could not contain
They tell me bold Brendan is dead.
He died at the Meath in far-off Dublin
In a cold white hospital bed
In the Georgian tenements the children hush their singing
They know that bold Brendan is dead.
No stranger to life he lived right enough
No stranger to the glass in his hand
No stranger to the cause he fought all his life
Yet they tell me bold Brendan is dead.
Ireland has lost her sweet angry singer
No longer his poems of fine design
Will ring out in Gaelic their sound through the night
For alas! bold Brendan is dead.
Fred met Liam Clancy in a Chicago folk club, sang the song for him in a corner, and asked him would he sing it when the Clancys and Tommy Makem next sang in Dublin.
Liam agreed, learnt the song and kept his promise in December 1964. The song is on the actual concert recorded live and available on CD, the title being “Recorded Live in Ireland”.
Happy New Year to you and yours Christy.
Christy's reply
Thanks John…that is great to know….Des English must have learned it from Liam Clancy’s recording….interesting that you write from the same Town I first heard the song in 1966/7
Hi Christy
Thanks a million for the beautiful show you put on on the 2nd of January
Apologies if I was a bit too loud during Lingo Politico! Was very excited to be there
Thanks a million for gifting me your setlist at the end of the show. That’s one for the mantle piece!
But what I’m most thankful for is that your works have brought me and my family so much joy throughout the years. I cannot praise you enough..
God bless
Finn Tierney
Good man Finn…you were not a decibel too loud…I enjoyed your contribution..thanks for being there…always good to have an Allenwood man at me back….tell Mickey Carroll and Johnny Doyle I was asking for them….between Milltown and Allenwood there is hope rising for the Lilies
Hi Christy,
Ath-bhliain Faoi Mhaise Duit!
Here in Mt. Scott watching/listening to your concert in Barrow lands, with Declan! What a duo! Only Out Rivers Run Free….I learned to sing that song from your singing back in the Planxty days! My son is taking me to your concert in UL in April….I took him and his friends to see you for the first time there, back in 2015/2016….so he’s now paying me back! We went to Vicar St a few times too, and again went back to UL! You gave him a shout out that same night too, and he was absolutely chuffed! We can’t wait to see you live again! We might send in a request beforehand, if you’re not too busy! Thank goodness that we’re all still above ground looking down!!! Life has been strange over the last few years, that’s for sure! You might pay a visit back to Miltown Malbay for Willie Week?!?! It seems to be getting very popular with some younger entertainers!! But then again, it always was I suppose! I’ll go back to listening to one of the most beautiful songs that you sing, written by Jimmy McCarthy….Bright Blue Rose ♥️♥️♥️
Best wishes always from Tina and son, Daniel..Mt. Scott.
I first visited Sráid na Cathrac in 1965….That first night there I was introduced to the man himself…Willie Clancy…. He was strapped into his pipes….I was carrying a guitar….he welcomed me to the session and asked me did I know “Liverpool Lou” I got the box out and Willie and I sang and played that lovely old Dominic Behan ballad together…
“O Liverpool Lou, Lovely Liverpool Lou”
Hi Christy,
Happy new year to you and yours, I’m just sitting here watching you on tg4, happy out.
It’s been a while since I checked in with ya.
My recovery is going well, coming up on 6 months clean shortly, whod of thought it ) a life beyond my wildest dreams now makes sense.
I’m really looking forward to the night I go to my first gig post treatment and getting clean and please god 🙏 it will be you, IM VERY EXCITED even at the thought of it.
Anyway I’m gonna listen to the last of ordinary man, jaysus that Declan fella might be onto something with that guitar 🎸😏 ohhhhhh I’m missing youuuuuu
Best wishes from a life long fan
Jason
Thanks for sharing ….its always uplifting to read of recovery….you remind me of something I heard many years ago…
how we must first uncover, to discover, then recover….
I wish you well….at first the slogans appeared to me like cliches but gradually I learned the wisdom in those simple words….
Easy Does It……Keep Coming Back…
Hi Christy
Must be a tough gig been the warder in the joy.
But from what I heard John Lonergan brought a common sense
and humanitarian approach to the job.
Can’t remember was it in despatches or a podcast
but you visited a prisoner who was in a bad way
Under his pillow a copy of the Christy Moore songbook
Wonder whatever happened him
It’s a thin line
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
That lad did not survive…I think of him….
I met John Lonergan in both Mountjoy and Portlaoise.A unique and special man, He gave me the opportunity to play in both those institutions, always making me welcome and facilitating the gigs I played….met many good people there, both inmates and staff, heard some songs, tales and yarns….every time I walked out thru those prison gates I gave thanks for the priviledge of having a home to go to
Hi Christy
Were any of the concerts in Mountjoy recorded ?
Not that I know of…there was a recording made in Portlaoise about 40 years ago..it went far and wide…it was recordedon a cassette in the Republican wing ….one of 5 different gigs I did to cover the various ODCs, Republican POWs,,Non aligned plus a few songs in the Prison Officers Canteen…John Lonergan was the best of Governors….
3 monhs after that gig I was playing in Sydney, Australia where someone had a cassette copy for me to sign ….the postal system was very efficient back then!!
Really enjoying The Spike
Good Man Christy!
Here is a link to that tune is was on about earlier – have a look an see if you like it. I put it up on Youtube which I’m not too familiar with so hopefully you have no problem accessing it. Lyrics should be in the video description. The name of the song is The Armani Suits Brigade. It’s sung to the tune of The Rising of the Moon. There was a similar tune years ago called The Reluctant Patriot – but this is a more contemporary version!
Link: https://youtu.be/eBS7atLRpco
Let me know what you reckon and apologies for the poor recording quality!
All the best!
Don
Thanks for sharing Don…thats a solid rhythmic strum you got goin there..what I reckon matters little… most important thing I gotta say is that its brill to see a man enjoying his music and lyric as much as you do here….its great to see your joy as you play and share..there a lot of doom around at the mo..( I’m responsible for some of it myself )…as for the sound..I have tracks on albums that dont sound as good as this….keep going Don 123..best wishes
Happy new year Christy and All!
Speaking of the wireless Christy, did Planxty play a gig in UCD, around ’79, ’80, that was also broadcast live on RTE radio? I’m sure I used to have a cassette of it that’s long been chewed up.
not that I can recall..we did play Theatre L in UCD circa ’72/73, that gig was filmed and features occasionally ..I dont think we played the campus in ’79/80
Hello Christy,
Here’s a lovely version of it.
https://youtu.be/x9IoM6cJCbc?si=DMv059g5utlB5SME
Why does Rogha na mBan make me think of Rogan Josh? Oh dear…
Rebecca
always a pleasure to hear Kathleen Ferrier
This site bates all and that’s for sure.
Thanks to Kevin from Cavan for posting
Liam Clancy introducing and singing
Lament for Brendan Behan
Minded me of a Late Late show from back in the day
when Ciaran Bourke introduced The Ould Triangle with this
Sad solemn notes and crates of newly drawn stout
The usual symptoms when life goes out
But the extinction this time been seven times the most
The music held no echo
And the tears drowned out our toast
Sorrow and bereavement
Life has no meaning now
Silence is master
Laughter and songs bowed
For gone went our great captain
To some more hospitable inn
Where cant and hypocrisy
Can no longer embarrass him
Thinking you joined The Dubliners for the mightiest version of
The Black Velvet Band the same night
Any memories of that one ?
Tabhair Aire
Bourkey
The verse that Ciaran Bourke recited that night was written by the late Joe Ó Broin… Joe was a rebellious, rumbunctious, rambling, irreverant, lovable Dublin Poet who lived his final years in Hagfield County Mayo with his Wife Jan and their young family….his visits to Dublin were renowned for their rattling of cages, divvilment and the consumption of tomato sandwiches…we often think of Joe here…he write another memorable poem called “Cavan’s Tractor Boy” ..written about Gerry Tuite from Mountnugent in Co.Cavan
H
“I know…” most famous version by Finbar and Eddie Furey. Günter
Hi Christy
The January Man has been busy here…providing good sounds that take me back to Rare Records,John Dalton St. A real emporium where I found ‘Prosperous’,soon after it’s release…
Around that time ,in the same shop I discovered ‘Frost and Fire’,by The Watersons .I proceeded to play the grooves off that LP,at a volume where I could put in harmonies (maybe your Andy did similar?)…Today,I’m revisiting that era via the CD on the cover of February’s Uncut magazine…loads of old and new gems in ‘Deep Roots’- A celebration of Topic Records – the final track being The Watersons classic ‘Here we come a wassailing’.
As so often,there’s a surprise from Richard Thompson on the Topic CD…Aeons ago,I remember a song on the radio (singer not known)with the opening,’I know where I’m going,I know who’s going with me’…right now,the song is on repeat here,courtesy of Mr Thompson’s wonderful version of ‘The Light Bob’s Lassie’…for decades I’ve admired the guy…it’s 50+years now and unlikely to end soon!
Enjoy the gigs and keep well…same to all here.
Dave
“Rogha na Ban” was a morning programme on ‘Radio Eireann’ followed by Liam Nolan. Back in the days of yore. We hadnt any apparent sophistication of a term like ‘Radio One’.
Oh, and it did broadcast from Athlone. And we still had to get “VHF”.
Way way back in the days of black and white I did a radio programme on Radio Éireann from Henry St Dublin …back then there was an RTE Studio attached to the GPO….Liam Nolan was the man on the microphone…from Dublin, it would bounced from the Athlone transmitter out across the 32..my first time on the wireless….
Hello Christy,
I was searching for this, then saw your reply to Rory.
So many versions.
Impossible to choose a favourite.
https://youtu.be/M3qmJiUiAh0?si=ZuMGIrQNpqEAzG4F
Rebecca
Slíabh na mBan
Rogha na mBan
Nollaig na mBan
Cumann na mBan
Morning Christy,
The opening song of your marvellous Traveller album , has perhaps reached its time.
Urgency Culture
Information overload
Hotbed of nothing
Holocaust of silence
Violence of Apathy
Consumed by security
Intuition becoming obsolete
Let me hear the voice of an innocent child
I play it often, but today it resonated even more.
Thanks for it.
Rory
Happy Nollaig na mBan (Women’s Christmas) Rory…
reading your note on “Urgency Culture” was like glimpsing an old friend on a crowded terrace, in a passing bus, on a fleeting dream….
That Traveller album happened by chance….after an enforced and lengthy lay-off I was struggling to find my way back to work….
I heard the sounds Leo Pearson was making ….I’d not encountered his process before….it was new to me…he showed an interest in my songs… he was familiar with Irish Balladry as his Father had been a long time manager of The Dubliners,he had grown up listening to the songs of Luke and Ronnie….he brought his black boxes to our garden room and began to work his magic…I loved making that album and I’m charmed to hear that it still spins in Hawick
Interestingly, the current Abbey production is Behan’s “The Quare’ Fellow’, the play itself based upon scenes in Mountjoy as an execution is to go ahead. I’m told the executed party was a Kirwan man who’d murdered a family member and tried to conceal the evidence.
This very week sees the announcement that a piece of ground inside Mountjoy Prison is to be dug up. They hope to locate the remains of Harry Gleeson who received a posthumous pardon a few years ago.
The McColl song about Tim Evans is a regular on your repitoire.
you remind me of my visits to The ‘Joy…..did many gigs there when John Lonergan was Governor…subsequently had the good fortune to visit and sing in many walled/barbed wire venues …always with the good fortune of being allowed home after the sessions..
MacColl’s “Tim Evans” has not been in the set for manys the year…it featured on 1974’s “Whatever Tickles Your Fancy”….I still hear Jimmy Faulkner’s riffs from 50 years ago..
Happy New Year Ed, to you and all Shannonside Songsters
Christy,
I’m going to see you on Sunday night. Absolutely love all of your music, but I would love to hear Duffys Cut, Magic Nigts at the Lobby Bar or Sail on Jimmy. Really looking forward to Sunday night…..Legend!
good man Padraic… a good trio of songs there… Wally Page, John Spillane and Albert Niland, three of our finest songwriters….I’ll see what can be done tomorrow night but no guarantees…thank you
Ending the day as it began with talk of “Lament for Brendan Behan” It was written by Fred Geis. Found some info about his writings and life here: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118389
In an hour or so, I go from never having heard of Fred Geis to having an image of him in my head…great stuff…..thanks
Sorry Christy. The actual CD records a concert held at the Ulster Hall, Belfast. I’ll leave you in peace now.
Cheers
would you happen to know the name of the man who wrote the song ?
Evening Christy,
The song you referenced is called “Lament for Brendan Behan”. It was written by a young Jewish student from Chicago who had no Irish connections whatsoever other than the fact that he had a fascination with BB. He wrote it shortly after hearing of Brendan’s death. The lyrics are as follows:
Word has come from Dublin City
Word has come to our town
Word has come from Dublin City
They tell me bold Brendan is dead.
Born in ’23 in a slum in Dublin
With a tenement over his head
Born with a spirit his flesh could not contain
They tell me bold Brendan is dead.
He died at the Meath in far-off Dublin
In a cold white hospital bed
In the Georgian tenements the children hush their singing
They know that bold Brendan is dead.
No stranger to life he lived right enough
No stranger to the glass in his hand
No stranger to the cause he fought all his life
Yet they tell me bold Brendan is dead.
Ireland has lost her sweet angry singer
No longer his poems of fine design
Will ring out in Gaelic their sound through the night
For alas! bold Brendan is dead.
Fred met Liam Clancy in a Chicago folk club, sang the song for him in a corner, and asked him would he sing it when the Clancys and Tommy Makem next sang in Dublin.
Liam agreed, learnt the song and kept his promise in December 1964. The song is on the actual concert recorded live and available on CD, the title being “Recorded Live in Ireland”.
Happy New Year to you and yours Christy.
Thanks John…that is great to know….Des English must have learned it from Liam Clancy’s recording….interesting that you write from the same Town I first heard the song in 1966/7