Wavelength Music Documentary: Éire - An Audio Portrait, Pt 1

Introduction

Simply put, Irish music and spoken word are incomparable.  Music and speech weave together into textures both refreshingly abrasive and silky smooth with an energy which, for Irish people, is like the air they breathe.

Textures to beguile you, make you laugh and always to charm you.  Sometimes, they will confront you.

Intentionally impressionistic in style, this program seeks to feel these qualities rather than narrate them.  It naturally contains a lot of folk music but it’s not all traditional - we’ll hear classical, progressive and jazz performances, and plenty of rock and instrumental music too.

It's a mark of the greatness of Irish music that despite 700 years of authoritarian and often brutal British repression, a great Irish singer can still sing an English song as willingly and evocatively as Luke Kelly sings The Unquiet Grave.

Special Thanks:   

Anna Clark-Doyle, English voiceovers;  Rory Cosgrave, Irish voiceovers, research;  Stephanie Batt, for taking me to so many folk music sessions in 1960s Dublin;  Pat Collins, director of Song Of Granite;  my Dad, an Irishman, who planted the seeds when I was 12 by giving me the The Clancy Brothers' & Tommy Makem's  Hearty & Hellish.

Playlist

Introduction:  Seóirse Bodley/1st Movement, Symphony#2, (I Have Loved The Lands Of Ireland, BBC Phil Orch, cond. Bryden Thomson);  (00.07) Richard Harris/Under Ben Bulben (Pt1);  (01.00) Kevin Flanagan/Mise Éire (poem, Pádraic Pearse)  (02.20) Mary Black/Bright Blue Rose (live, Royal Albert Hall - guitar, Declan Sinnot)  (06.52) Luka Bloom/Exploring The Blue  (10.42) Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh/An Mhaighdean Mhara  (14.18) U2/Sunday Bloody Sunday  (18.53) Linley Hamilton/Love Dance  (22.52) Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd/The Beach Scene, Calvary  (24.33) Sinéad O'Connor/Báidín Fheilimí  (27.45) Brendan Behan/The Auld Triangle  (29.42) Adrian Dunbar, on his documentary Brendan Behan - The Roaring Boy (RTE, 1/12/14)  (31.42) The Cranberries/Dreams  (36.03) Phil Coulter/The Fields Of Athenry  (39.19) The Saw Doctors/Joyce Country Ceili Band  (44.12) Dolores Keane (ft. De Dannan)/Galway Bay  (47.32) Thin Lizzy/Whiskey In The Jar  (53.01) Enya/Shepherd Moons  (54.35) Brendan Gleeson, Kelly Reilly/The Forgiveness Scene,  Calvary  (55.55) The Pogues/Summer In Siam  (59.48) Luke Kelly/The Unquiet Grave

(01.05.45) Voces8 (ft. Sibéal)/Carrickfergus  (01.10.04) The Dubliners/Rising Of The Moon  (01.3.12) Finbar Furey/Nearer My God To Thee  (01.16.20) Paul Cosgrave/Hope And History (stanza from Seamus Heaney's Doubletake)  (01.16.20) Boomtown Rats/Banana Republic  (01.19.45) Judy Collins/The Patriot Game  (01.23.40) Pecker Dunne/McAlpine's Fusiliers  (01.26.55) Mary Black/The Fog In Monterey  (01.29.55) The Answer/On And On  (01.33.28) Seóirse Bodley/2nd Movement, Symph #1 for Chamber Orchestra, RTE Symph Orch, cond. Robert Houlihan  (01.38.00) Sinéad O'Connor ft The Chieftains/The Foggy Dew  (01.43.20) Pete St John, Gay Byrne, Late Late Show, RTE  (01.45.43) The Dubliners/Dublin In The Rare Ould Times  (01.50.15) Excerpt, Michael Collins  (01.50.55) Fiona Gregory/Ballad Of Michael Collins  (01.55.45) Ralph McTell/From Clare To Here  (01.59.50) De Dannan/The Rights Of Man_Pride Of Petravore  (02.03.15) Wolfe Tones/Bold Robert Emmett  (02.06.25) Pat Collins on Song Of Granite  (02.07.10) Joe Heaney/The Galway Shawl  (02.10.10) Seamus Heaney/Bogland (ft Liam Óg O'Flynn, Uilleann Pipes/Ardaí Chuain)    

rob.paul@sapphirefm.au