Poll
Question:
Which of these would you pick as Ireland's Favourite Folk Song?
Option 1: A Woman's Heart
Option 2: The Foggy Dew
Option 3: The Parting Glass
Option 4: A Rainy Night In Soho
Option 5: Raglan Road
Option 6: Óró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
Option 7: Rocky Road To Dublin
Option 8: The Town I Loved So Well
Option 9: Danny Boy
Option 10: The Green Fields Of France
Narrowed down to these 10.
I thought maybe The Irish Rover, Fields Of Athenry, Only Our Rivers Run Free, Roddy McCorley, Whisky In The Jar and a few others might have been there.
And what about Joxer Goes To Stuttgart?
Feel free to add your favourite if it's not there.
Nancy Spain
City of Chicago
Back Home in Derry
Ride On
Some great songs on and off that list. We're blessed on this island with our musical traditions across all genres. Find it hard to pick one off the list but I'll give the nod to Rainy Night in Soho, an absolute masterpiece.
rainy night in soho gets my vote but Nancy Spain is also one of my favorites. But there is nothing Irish about it. interestingly it was written about a real woman called Nancy Spain she was an upper class english journalist, wrote for the telegraph i think. she was killed while on the way to the grand national in a private plane which crashed. she was among other things in a public lesbian relationship which was most unusual at the time.
Quote from: guy crouchback on May 21, 2019, 03:46:51 PM
rainy night in soho gets my vote but Nancy Spain is also one of my favorites. But there is nothing Irish about it. interestingly it was written about a real woman called Nancy Spain she was an upper class english journalist, wrote for the telegraph i think. she was killed while on the way to the grand national in a private plane which crashed. she was among other things in a public lesbian relationship which was most unusual at the time.
Just wiki'ed that there - it seems it is more Irish than you think. Written by an Irishman, Barney Rushe, he simply needed a name for the woman in the ballad and decided to use "Nancy Spain" because he liked the sound of her name. The song is not about her though.
Apparently he had a regular gig in Jersey when Christy Moore stopped in one night in 1969. He loved Barney's song and asked permission to cover it and Barney said yes, promising to make a tape and send it on. He didn't end up doing it until 1976, and Christy didn't cover it until 1979.
Soho is for me one of the most complete songs on the list - but I love most of them. It has a nice cadence, melody, and story. Never fails to make me stop and listen.
Honorable mention for Nancy Spain.
Quote from: Seany on May 21, 2019, 11:52:28 AMBack Home in Derry
I didn't realise it before but I heard a song at a party here over the weekend and thought it sounded familiar. It was the song that was used as the melody for "Back Home in Derry"
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"by Gordon Lightfoot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A
Is rainy night in Soho a folk song?..... Is it Irish?
Is the Parting Glass Irish?
Is the Green Fields of France Irish?
Is the Rocky Road to Dublin any Good?
It's a futile task trying to compile an all encompassing top 10 list, so many great songs not on the list. The problem with anything RTE related, they will steer the vote as they have done this time via a jury short-listed selection process for the top 10. Sure we couldn't have A Nation Once Again winning it!
Streets of New York
Boolavogue
Flight of Earls
Joe McDonnell
Farewell To Dublin
The Rare Oul Times
The Fields of Athenry
etc. etc. etc.
Its nothing short of bizare that the Fields of Athenry is not on it
I could only conclude that the D4 egg chasers associate it with Munster
Johnny I Hardly Knew You - some of the most powerful anti war lyrics ever
Arthur McBride - ditto
Bard of Armagh - became a famous cowboy song, Streets of Laredo
The West's Awake
O'Donnell Abu - should have been our national anthem
Quote from: omaghjoe on May 21, 2019, 05:06:51 PM
Is rainy night in Soho a folk song?..... Is it Irish?
Is the Parting Glass Irish?
Is the Green Fields of France Irish?
Is the Rocky Road to Dublin any Good?
Parting Glass is Scottish, while Green Fields of France was written by a Scotsman. With all the great Irish folks songs it's very Olé Ole to be at that crack.
Streets of New York and Joe McDonnell are too songs I can't abide.
Don't like The Town I Loved So Well either.
When I look at that list again, it's a poor selection, considering what else is out there.
Green fields of France is about a fallen solider William McBride from Armagh. Town I Loved So well one of my favourites on that list and sang probably best by Paddy Reilly.
My pick would be 'Only Our Rivers Run Free'.
Whiskey in the jar?
I'll tell me ma??
The Auld triangle,Finnegan's wake and Seven drunken nights.
Quote from: Blowitupref on May 21, 2019, 07:31:48 PM
The Auld triangle,Finnegan's wake and Seven drunken nights.
Now you're talking!
The foggy dew. Rifles of the IRA. ,Sean South.
Broad Black Brimmer, Men Behind The Wire, Boys of the Old Brigade, God Save Ireland, A Nation Once Again, The West's Awake, Only Our Rivers Run Free ...
Alrite steady on Alan Patridge
The Croppy Boy, Take her up to Monto. Mo Ghile Mear.
Quote from: balladmaker on May 21, 2019, 11:15:02 PM
Broad Black Brimmer, Men Behind The Wire, Boys of the Old Brigade, God Save Ireland, A Nation Once Again, The West's Awake, Only Our Rivers Run Free ...
Living up to your name...Balladmaker!
Quote from: armaghniac on May 22, 2019, 12:17:05 AM
The Croppy Boy, Take her up to Monto. Mo Ghile Mear.
MGM is in a class of its own I think
https://youtu.be/5Ojy1W6r8L0
Quote from: playwiththewind1st on May 21, 2019, 07:11:34 PM
I'll tell me ma??
Made me chuckle.
Back is the colour of my true love's hair. It is an international song really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWmCbEbMmeU
Closer to home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYpgsPB-Bkw
The Boys from Killybegs?
Mary from Dungloe?
Johnston's Motor Car?
Quote from: seafoid on May 22, 2019, 09:35:35 AM
Quote from: armaghniac on May 22, 2019, 12:17:05 AM
The Croppy Boy, Take her up to Monto. Mo Ghile Mear.
MGM is in a class of its own I think
https://youtu.be/5Ojy1W6r8L0
Yes it is
Tho again.... is it Irish?
Think I asked this before is it sung in Irish or Scots Gaelic?
Aon Focal Eile.
Quote from: BennyCake on May 23, 2019, 04:37:46 PM
Aon Focal Eile.
As Gaeilge songs should get a few extra points.
I would add Mór Chluana/Amhrán Dóchais - probably better know as The Taoiseach's salute. I think it was Liam Clancy that did a very good version.
Also an Poc ar buile
Many Young Men Of Twenty
Cliffs Of Dooneen
It's a brilliant tune but if we're going to include songs by Australians - Green Fields of France - then I'd like Me and Bobby McGee added too.
Eric Bogle is Scottish.
Honourable mentions to the Behans - Brendan for "The Auld Triangle" and Dominic for "The Patriot Game" - tellingly Dylan in his Greenwich village days apparently covered the first one as "The Banks of the Royal Canal" and of course nicked the latter for "With God On Our Side" - but I'd have to give it to Paddy Kavanagh's "Raglan Road" - Luke's version of course.
Quote from: thewobbler on May 23, 2019, 11:16:09 PM
It's a brilliant tune but if we're going to include songs by Australians - Green Fields of France - then I'd like Me and Bobby McGee added too.
In fairness as Captain Obvious said, it is about an Armagh soldier. I saw on Wiki that Eric deliberately gave the soldier an Irish name to counter anti-Irish sentiment at the time, when song was written in 1976. That said, it would be a lot more respectful to the songwriter if we called the song by it's rightful name "No Man's Land". Think he wrote a better song in The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
From Clare to here even if Ralph McTell is English
On Griffinstown Hill .... rarely heard, but what a ballad
Will you come to the bower is one of my favourites.
Quote from: seafoid on May 24, 2019, 03:37:55 PM
From Clare to here even if Ralph McTell is English
I can't be doing with Ralph McTell. Bland English folk music.
Was the thread originally called favourite Irish folk song? As it is, it's "Ireland's Favourite Folk Song". The foremost influence on Luke Kelly's musical upbringing was his Scottish grandmother, hence Parcel of Rogues etc. A favourite of mine is an English one done brilliantly by Planxty, Little Musgrave.
Agree with Mo Ghile Mear. The Cor Cúl aodh version is exceptional and they were brilliant at Martin McGuinness' funeral
Voted for Raglan Road but not gone on the shortlist as a whole. I'd have the following before several of them.
Carrickfergus (Jim McCann)
Galway Bay (Dolorous Keane)
Merry Ploughboy ( Dubliners - Ronnie)
Rising of The Moon ( Dubliners)
Ag Casadh an tSúgán ( Bothy Band)
Gleanntáin Ghlas Ghaoth Dóbhair (Altan)
Roddy McCorley ( Dubliners)
I Wish My Love was a Red Red Rose ( Altan)
The Boys of Barr na Sraide (Christy)
Kevin Barry
Red Red Rose, is that the Burns poem? If so, that'd be Scottish. Good tune though.
Can't stand Carrickfergus.
I think the judges did their best to avoid any pro-IRA/Rising songs because that would be too controversial ::) Foggy Dew threw in as a token gesture probably. And Oro as the token Irish language one.
Quote from: BennyCake on May 27, 2019, 01:49:16 PM
Red Red Rose, is that the Burns poem? If so, that'd be Scottish. Good tune though.
Can't stand Carrickfergus.
I think the judges did their best to avoid any pro-IRA/Rising songs because that would be too controversial ::) Foggy Dew threw in as a token gesture probably. And Oro as the token Irish language one.
Sure they knew they wouldn't need to in the surefire knowledge that balladmaker would pop up and nominate all the Wolfe Tones' musically and lyrically limited up the Ra songs as worthy of belonging on the list
Kevin Barry is a great song.
No mention of Thousands are Sailing by the Pogues, great tune.