Irish music has always been attracted to folk heroes and there aren’t many folk heroes more inspiring than Nelson Mandela.
He has certainly inspired Irish musician John Hughes. Hughes was managing the Irish group The Corrs when they played at the South Africa Freedom Day concert in London in 2001.
It was so sad to hear of the death of Irish guitarist Gary Moore at the age of just 58.
Gary was a supremely gifted guitarist who set himself the very highest standards.
He was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Dublin when he was only 16 and quickly became a major figure in the local rock scene.
If you like Irish fiddle tunes then you could hardly do better than to listen to Sean Ryan – one of Ireland’s all time greats.
And just to add to the authenticity, you can how hear it how he played his music back home in his kitchen in Tipperary, thanks to a new double album released by Claddagh Records.
It’s good to see The Dubliners are still touring regularly and packing large theatres wherever they go.
They played several gigs every month of last year, mainly in venues all over Europe.
Now they’re getting ready for a tour of the UK. They start at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on February 18th and play another 15 gigs before finishing at the Fringe Theatre at Great Malvern on March 22nd.
The story behind the writing of a song can often be as interesting as the song itself.
Raglan Road is a good example. It was written, of course, by Patrick Kavanagh, and given the lofty themes and the subtlety of the emotions it conveys, it would be natural to assume that it was born out of some lofty literary ideal.
The truth, however, is more mundane and is based upon cabbages and turnips, as revealed by the object of Kavanagh’s love when he wrote Raglan Road.
