When Irish Ladies Are Singing

Clockwise: Celtic Woman, Sinead O'Connor, Enya, and Moya Brennan.

To get an early start on the St. Patrick's Day festivities, I thought I would allow some of the more recent Irish voices to come out to play. I understand I am a couple of days early, but wanted to do this nonetheless. Yes, I know, Saturday nights are usually the place for ladies singing torch songs from at least 50 years ago, but just for tonight, I thought I would invite some great singers who have been in a recording studio more recently than that. And I will start with Celtic Moan, a group of four vocalists and one fiddler, all Irish lassies, to capitalize on the 'Celtic' craze begun by Michael Flatley and 'Riverdance' so many years ago. The show, which first toured the United States in 1996, and officially opened on Broadway in 2000. The show focused on Irish dancing, and hence, showcased Irish music. Celtic Woman was put together to tour in Ireland, the UK, and world-wide. They became very popular, and soon were seen in fundraising specials for PBS. They were so profitable, they also spawned Celtic Thunder, the male version first seen in 2007. Here is Celtic Woman singing "Danny Boy".

Now, there is no way I could speak about Irish music without bringing in a favorite of mine, Sinéad O'Connor. Yes, she has done a fair share of Pop songs in her career, but Sinéad has always been very proud of her heritage, and recorded some great traditional music as well. On her album 'Sean-Nós Nua', she recorded some great songs, including the next song up, "Her Mantle So Green". The song is a beautiful but heartbreaking story of a young soldier going off to war, leaving behind the young girl he loves. This is Sinéad O'Connor singing "Her Mantle So Green'.

Many consider Moya Brennan the 'First Lady of Celtic Music', from her time as the lead singer and driving force behind the great band, Clannad. The band combined the more traditional sound of Celtic music with the Pop of the time as they took new themes and wrote songs that sounded like they could have been sung in Irish pubs for decades. Their sound was so authentic, so real, they were almost irresistible. I still remember the first time I heard them, when they released "In A Lifetime" with the boys of U2 in 1986, some 28 years ago. I love their version of "Siúil a Rún", a traditional Irish song. The title can be translated as "Go, my love", or even "Walk (away), my love". For, off their 1976 release 'Dúlamán', this is Clannad singing "Siúil a Rún".

My final entry for the post is from Enya, a woman who made a career out of combining the Celtic sound with New Age inspirations. Her sound was unique and yet very Irish, and was playing on the radios all around the world. What some didn't know that she was born Enya Brennan, and started her career in the family band, Clannad. That is right, she is Moya's sister. In 1988, Enya released her first solo album, 'Watermark'. While "Orinoco Flow" was the breakthrough hit off the album, I liked the song "Na Laetha Geal M'óige". The title translates to "The Bright Days of My Youth", a wistful look back to a time when the singer was full of hope and innocence. This is Enya singing "Na Laetha Geal M'óige".

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Sinéad O'Connor

It is certainly St. Patrick's Day, so "Éirinn go brách" and all that. In truth, the phrase was one of national pride, proclaiming "Ireland Forever" in Gaelic. So, while celebrating the day, I thought it only right to go with one of the most celebrated of Irish singers in the last 30 years, Sinéad O'Connor. She has done a great deal of Pop music through the years, but today, I will focus on the traditional music she has so beautifully produced.

"Molly Malone" was first noted in 1883, when it was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was also published in London in 1884 as a work written and composed by James Yorkston, of Edinburgh, with music arranged by Edmund Forman. This fabled story of a beautiful young Fishmonger who hawked her wares in Dublin before falling victim to a fever, is a wonderful tale, although in truth, no real proof of the woman can be found. Save in this beautiful song.



"Paddy's Lamentation" is an Irish song dating back to the 1860s. It is often referred to as Paddy's Lament. The subject matter is the fundamental futility of war, making a perfect song for Sinéad to sing.



"Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile" is a traditional Irish song, that came to be known as an Irish rebel song in the early 20th century. The title translates as "You are welcome home." In its original form, "Séarlas Óg" (meaning "Young Charles" in Gaelic), the song refers to Bonnie Prince Charlie and dates back to the third Jacobite rising in 1745-6. The Gaelic phrase is often translated to mean "you are welcome home." In the early 20th century it received new verses by the nationalist poet Padraig Pearse and was often sung by IRA members and sympathizers, during the Easter Rising. It was also sung as a fast march during the Irish War of Independence. Here, it is sung by O'Connor with a folkish joy.



The earliest version of "The Moorlough Shore" was found in a broadside in the Bodleian library, dated 1886. It tells the story of a young man who extolls the beauties of the countryside and the girl he has fallen in love with. She refuses his advances on the ground that she already loves a sailor. She will wait for her true love for seven years. In frustration the boy leaves his childhood home and sails away, still praising the girl he loves that lives by the Moorlough Shore.



"She Moved Through the Fair" was first collected in Donegal by poet Padraic Colum and musicologist Herbert Hughes, and published by Boosey & Hawkes in London in a work entitled Irish Country Songs in 1909. It is beautiful coming from Sinéad.



There is something incredibly, well, funny about the fact that the lyrics for the great "Irish" ballad "Danny Boy" was written by Englishman Frederic Weatherly. The music is credited to Irish lass Jane Ross of Limavady, who collected the melody, the "Londonderry Air", in the mid-19th century from a local fiddle player. The meaning of the song has long been discussed, from being a song song by a parent to a son going off to war, to an older person singing about the their past in Ireland. Here is Sinéad's remarkable cover of the song.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!