Browse Items (38 total)

Long, long ago ancestral lore was passed on orally;
The spark to light the Cultural Fire was lit in family
And local neighbours and the clan, all warmed to that same Flame
And so all came to act the same, all Keepers of the Flame.
Ár gcultúr…

The song remembers the massacre that took place inn Carlow town in 1798. It uses the melody of the Caramagnole, from the time of the French Revolution, and event that inspired the struggle for Republicanism in Ireland.

The text, to the melody of Biddy Mulligan, is a nostalgic trip down memory lane to the people and ways of the past, and, to cultural practices now gone.

The Saturday night ritual of shoe polishing is described in detail in this memory of a family weekly event.

The song is one of those gems of the Oral Tradition that narrates in ballad form an actual event that is generally missed in the larger historical picture.

The song narrates the horrible story of one aspect of the heartless colonial system, where helpless orphans were abused and seen as breeding animals at the behest of the aristocracy.

The ballad tells the story of one victim of Colonial 'justice', where a sentence without compassion compounded the misery of the Famine by cruel application of the law.

The song celebrates the joys of birdsong throughout the year, but especially the song of the Robin.