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IRELAND’S FAVOURITE FOLK SONG

Image Name:
IFFS Óro Sé Image Name: IFFS Óro Sé
IFFS Henry Girls - Town I Loved so Well Prog Image Name: IFFS Henry Girls - Town I Loved so Well Prog
IFFS Brian Crowley Image Name: IFFS Brian Crowley
IFFS Bronagh Gallagher Image Name: IFFS Bronagh Gallagher
IFFS John Spillane Image Name: IFFS John Spillane
IFFS Sile Denvir Image Name: IFFS Sile Denvir

The two songs which feature in episode 3 are The Town I Loved So Well written by Phil Coulter and Óró Sé Do Bheatha Bhaile – a song that stems from the Jacobite song tradition of the 18th century , and was re-written by Patrick Pearse, to become a rousing song for the persute of Irish Freedom.

The significance of both these songs are without question. Óró Sé Do Bheatha Bhaile, is one of the few Irish language songs that we all know, while The Town I Loved So Well  tells a tale of a city that was very much a tight community both in happy and difficult times, which held onto their spirit and hope for the better times ahead.

Acclaimed actor and singer,  Bronagh Gallagher champions The Town I Loved So Well. Her “Derry’s Anthem”, as she calls it, “incapulates the entire feeling and spirit of Derry from the 1960’s to the present day. It is a song where Phil Coulter just got it right!

While Derry Girls cast member and Derry native, describes the song as a love song from Coulter to his city.

Óró Sé Do Bheatha Bhaile’s champion is Cork singer-songwriter, John Spillane. He believes that this rousing and uplifting song incapulates the significance of the Irish language in our folk music culture – a song that he carried from the craddle, and still performs on a regular basis. Filmmaker Ken Loach was struck by “…the great sense of struggle, determination, and longing…” in the song, and tells us how and why he included it in a scene of his critically acclaimed film, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”.

In the programme, guests share their knowledge of the history of each song as well as insights to its musicology and popularity.

The contributors for Programme Three are:

Bronagh Gallagher – Actor & Singer

Saoirse-Monica Jackson – Actor

Richard Moore – CEO of Children in Crossfire

John Spillane – Singer-songwriter

Síle Denvir – Sean-nós singer

Ken Loach – Film Director

Brian Crowley –  Historian