Ireland’s Favourite Folk Song - RTE One

Started by BennyCake, May 21, 2019, 11:39:48 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Which of these would you pick as Ireland's Favourite Folk Song?

A Woman's Heart
The Foggy Dew
The Parting Glass
A Rainy Night In Soho
Raglan Road
Óró, Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile
Rocky Road To Dublin
The Town I Loved So Well
Danny Boy
The Green Fields Of France

BennyCake

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.

Seany

Nancy Spain
City of Chicago
Back Home in Derry
Ride On

magpie seanie

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.

guy crouchback

 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.

easytiger95

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.


Puckoon

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.

Gabriel_Hurl

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

omaghjoe

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?

balladmaker

#8
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.

omaghjoe

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

weareros

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

weareros

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.

BennyCake

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.

Captain Obvious

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.

BennyCake

My pick would be 'Only Our Rivers Run Free'.