In BBC Northern Ireland's television music series, "Brian Kennedy On Song", Brian took a musical journey round Ireland, revealing the stories behind some of our best loved songs and performing with many of Ireland's best known musicians. Brian and his guests uncovered some of the mysteries surrounding the origins of these songs, while others shared personal memories and thoughts about them.
A second series is planned. Share your thoughts here at A Sense of Place on what songs you would like to see featured in it. Either click on 'Discuss this Article' at the bottom of the page (if you are a member - register to become one) OR e-mail communities-ni@bbc.....
Read some of the SONG SUGGESTIONS that have already been made.
In response to your queries, the series producer tells us that there are no plans at present either to repeat the series or for it to go on sale. However, there will be a CD coming out at the end of March. Entitled "Brian Kennedy On Song", it will be released on Curb Records and will feature most of the songs covered in the series. It will be available throughout the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.
Read COMMENTS from those who have been watching the series.
Read YOUR MUSICAL MEMORIES about Irish songs.
A list of popular Irish songs would not be a short one! We are fortunate enough to have a vast and rich collection of them. Each song has its own story and we have our stories about them.
BARRY McGUIGAN
It's 1985 and Barry McGuigan is on the brink of the most important fight of his career. He remembers ...
"I've trained for 6 years to fight this guy, got myself into the peak of condition - I'm at the zenith of emotion, I'm coming there and my old man's singing this song and, you know, twenty seven thousand people are screaming it back at him... people tell me nowadays - 'you know what I remember about that night, it wasn't your fight, it was your dad singing'."
(What was his dad singing - "Danny Boy" of course.)
GLORIA HUNNIFORD
"I don't think the songs ever lose their sentimentality and their force and I think no matter how many years you are away from Ireland, you still call it home. I mean I still talk about going home even though I've lived in Kent now for twenty years ... and I think that's why the sentiment of these songs mean so much, because deep down in people's soul, Ireland is still home to them and so a lot of what you grew up with as a child, particularly as you get older, comes flooding back to you and I think arguably means alot more to you as you get older."
EAMONN HOLMES
Eamonn left Northern Ireland in 1986 to work in England and a large family gathering was held to wish him farewell.
"I was at an age where it was hard to relate to, I suppose, my dad in an emotional way... But I remember at the end of the proceedings, I was okay up until then, but he sang 'Danny Boy' - and 'Danny Boy' is a song, I know on the face of it it's about a girl singing to her loved one - it can be about that - but it can be about a parent's love for a child and Ireland being Ireland, it's so often used in terms of people who have had to emigrate, to leave, to go and earn a living. And when you look at the words for it, there's always the welcome 'tis you must go and I must bye, but come ye back when summer's in the meadow or when the valley's hushed and white with snow - tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow, Danny Boy - Danny boy - I love you so -' so that's what he was saying."
YOU too will have personal stories about Irish songs and music. Songs that evoke memories of a particular time and place, and that have a special meaning for you. What emotions do you feel when you hear these Irish songs? How important are they to you? Share your comments with others at the bottom of the page.
Did you know....?
- Elvis Presley loved 'Danny Boy' so much he asked for it to be the first song played at his funeral.
- The lyrics of 'Danny Boy' were written by a Bristol barrister who apparently never set foot in Ireland.1
- 'The Mountains of Mourne' composer Percy French hated anyone with a good voice singing his songs.2
- Dublin's famous 'Molly Malone' song was in fact written by a Scot.
- Rumour has it that actor Peter O'Toole re-wrote the final verse of "Carrickfergus" (hear more in the series)
- The classic song 'The Isle of Innisfree', from 'The Quiet Man' movie, was written by an Irish policeman on a bus trip to Dublin.
Is there a common myth you can dispel or have you a quirky tale to tell? Go to the bottom of the page to make your contribution.
Eamonn Holmes remembers as a child people gathering in their house to chat and the conversation invariably turning into song. Have you similar memories? What songs were sung? Do you feel differently when you're away from home and you hear these songs?
Whether you remember your grandparents talking about songs sung on the emigrant boats to America or the sights and sounds of a Josef Locke concert or your choice of music for drowning the shamrock on St Patrick's Day .... we'd like to hear your stories here at "A Sense of Place".
You can input your comments directly onto the site by clicking on 'Discuss this Article' at the bottom of the page (you need to have logged in or registered to do this) OR you can e-mail us at communities-ni@bbc.co.uk .
Your Stories
Michael Flanagan
For me the most beautiful, haunting and evocative Irish song is "Carrickfergus", without a doubt.
I was born in Belfast, however I left it all behind at eleven years old to emigrate with my family to Australia, where I still live today some twenty years later. Trying to assimilate into a foreign country at such a tender age, I worked at a feverish pace towards obliterating every trace of Irish-ness in my persona so that I could blend as seamlessly as possible into the Aussie world.
That reconstructed sense of self continued well into my adulthood until, about five years ago, I accidentally caught part of a tv program featuring Brian Kennedy singing "Carrickfergus" whilst idly channel surfing. I had never heard of either the song or the man before, but still I was absolutely spell-bound by the experience of hearing both. I felt such a stream of consciousness overwhelm me, a sense of belonging and identity like I had never known before. A connection to my roots, the past I had long ago buried and denied.
Re-hearing old, familiar songs often conjures up long forgotten memories for us. Even just a snippet of lyric or a snatch of a melody can instantly transport us back to where we were when we first heard a particular song - what we were doing, how we were feeling, even the smells and sounds around us at the time. However, "Carrickfergus" was a song I had never heard before, it was totally unfamiliar to me; so how do I explain the profound effect it had on me in that moment? I can only conclude there is something inherent in the song itself, something on an instinctive level. Something like a ‘race-memory’; that in some way the song itself retains all the emotional responses of everybody who has been touched by it over the years. If indeed such a concept is possible...
I know there was also something inherent in Brian Kennedy that further contributed to making that moment so significant for me, something that served to fine-tune and amplify the power and beauty of that song. It was the fact that his Belfast brogue came through so strongly in his singing voice, almost like he was calling out to me and saying, "Why on earth wouldn’t you be proud to come from Belfast?" And from that moment on, unlike the previous fifteen years, I was.
Thanks to all that, these days Ireland is my love again, and I know that one day I indeed will "ferry me over to my love and die’. In the meantime, I have listened to many more Irish songs, and have even become inspired to try my own hand at writing them too, but none of them have ever come close to impacting me like that defining moment in my life when I heard "Carrickfergus" for the first time.
Julian Jones
I share wholeheartedly the feelings of Michael Flanagan on the subject of traditional Irish song "Carrickfergus", especially as sung by Brian Kennedy.
I'm an aussie with no Irish ties although I'm now working in Dublin. I first heard Brian singing Carrickfergus on an aussie TV show in 1996. I searched in vain to buy this in Oz. I then found it on a Celtic Anthem collection CD when I arrived in Dublin a few years ago.
It remains a favourite of mine to the point of including it in my will to be played at my funeral, no less!
Share your musical stories by adding an entry below or e-mailing us at communities-ni@bbc....
Read more of YOUR MUSICAL MEMORIES about Irish songs.
Click to return to front page..
- 1. To read more about 'Danny Boy' and the song's Limavady connections click here.
- 2. One Tyrone lady remembers Percy French staying at her parent's house - click here to read more.
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