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The greatest Irish song of all time

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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 14,327 ✭✭✭✭Arghus


    The greatest Irish song of all time is clearly Where's Me Jumper by The Sultans of Ping.

    It's not even close.



    Every time the guitar kicks in I jump for joy inside.


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,472 ✭✭✭✭dxhound2005


    Oh my god.

    This is the best typo I've ever seen in my WHOLE life.

    Fairytail of New York gives that a bit of twist as well.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,886 ✭✭✭pavb2


    My Lovely Horse - Ted & Dougal


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,366 ✭✭✭Star Bingo


    zanador wrote: »
    If we're going by global penetration then U2 would have bigger songs than Zombie, I'd think?

    I think in McManifesto’s case we’re talking globalist penetration.



  • Registered Users Posts: 77 ✭✭Character Building


    Planxty- Cliffs of Dooneen. Liam O'Floinn (RIP) truly was the master.

    Do yourselves a favour and look up the live from Vicar Street version from one of the reunion tours in the early noughties.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 441 ✭✭forgottenhills


    .red. wrote: »
    A lot of Irish people don't realise how big a band The Cranberries actually were. They were selling out big venues like our 02 in Asia and South America, but filling the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in their home country.
    Outside of Ireland they wouldnt be as big as U2, but would easily be the 2nd largest Irish band of all time.
    The YouTube viewing figures aren't all that surprising from a band that sold 40million records.


    The top Irish song for me would probably be Zombie or Put em Under Pressure, very different songs and for very different reasons.

    The likes of the Cranberries, Undertones, Thin Lizzy etc. have got great individual tracks, and U2 are the biggest selling Irish act internationally, but there is only 1 Irish rock or pop act that you will ever see nominated in the greatest albums of all time lists that are compiled internationally and that is Van Morrison.

    His albums from the 1970's from Astral Weeks, Moondance to Veedon Fleece have never been surpassed by any other Irish act from an artistic point of view (and many famous Irish singers from Hosier to Bono will admit this) but some of the songs in these albums are quite complex and have to be listened to a few times to "get" them. That is why some of his other more poppy stuff that were hits such as "Have I told You Lately That I love You" or "Brown Eyed Girl" are the only tracks of his that you normally hear on the radio/at weddings etc and many Irish people are unaware of his great albums.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,035 ✭✭✭✭J Mysterio



    Had to get to page two for some Rory :(


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,589 ✭✭✭✭Aidric


    Lot of great shouts so far in this thread. For its historical significance this must be a contender. Jim McCann pours everything in to this passionate performance.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    Lots of good stuff here.

    I’ve always liked this although I’m not sure I’d like to meet the band down a badly lit alleyway.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,888 ✭✭✭Atoms for Peace




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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I absolutely adore Sigerson Clifford's The Boys of Barr na Sráide. Look at those words and their syntax creating a world and a loss to the world at the same time:


    Oh, the town, it climbs the mountains and looks upon the sea
    At sleeping time or waking time, it’s there I’d like to be.
    To walk again those kindly streets, the place where life began,
    With the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

    With cudgels stout they roamed about to hunt for the dreólín*
    We searched for birds in every furze from Litir to Dooneen.
    We danced for joy beneath the sky, life held no print nor plan
    When the Boys of Barr na Sráide went hunting for the wren.

    And when the hills were bleedin’ and the rifles were aflame
    To the rebel homes of Kerry the Saxon strangers came,
    But the men who dared the Auxies and fought the Black-and-Tan
    Were the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

    But now they toil in foreign soil where they have made their way
    Deep in the heart of London or over on Broadway,
    And I am left to sing their deeds and praise them while I can
    Those Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

    And here’s a health to them tonight wherever they may be.
    By the groves of Carham river or the slope of Bean ‘a Tí
    John Daly and Batt Andy and the Sheehans, Con and Dan,
    And the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

    When the wheel of life runs out and peace come over me
    Just take me back to that old town between the hills and sea.
    I’ll take my rest in those green fields, the place where life began,,
    With those Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I also love the macaronic Siúil a Rún from the 1690s (about an Irish woman with great loneliness on her as she waits for her man to come home from fighting in France as part of the Wild Geese) for the same reason: the turn of phrase captures a whole world and time in our history. The song has been collected throughout the centuries across Ireland but I adore Len Graham's rich south Ulster voice in Skylark's version from 1987:


    I wish I was on yonder hill
    'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill
    Until every tear would turn a mill

    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

    Chorus (after each verse):
    Siúil, siúil, siúil a rún
    Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
    Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

    I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel
    I'll sell my only spinning wheel
    To buy my love a sword of steel
    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

    I'll dye my petticoats, I'll dye them red
    And 'round the world I'll beg my bread
    Until my parents shall wish me dead
    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

    I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
    I wish I had my heart again
    And vainly think I'd not complain
    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán

    But now my love has gone to France
    To try his fortune to advance
    If he e'er comes back, 'tis but a chance

    Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,357 ✭✭✭✭bodhrandude


    Emerald by Thin Lizzy, I'm surprised the Wolftones and the Dubliners didn't try this track, but Lizzy turned what sounds like a rebel song into a metal classic and I've been known to do it on the bodhran a few times. :)

    If you want to get into it, you got to get out of it. (Hawkwind 1982)



  • Site Banned Posts: 272 ✭✭Loves_lorries


    bullpost wrote: »
    Whatever about the later stuff, there's nothing Irish about The Whole of the Moon.

    One of my least favourite songs of all time.

    Do like fisherman's blues however.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,850 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    This cannot be beat.

    /thread

    Life ain't always empty.



  • Registered Users Posts: 46 Carsanal


    Grace.

    Nothing else comes close.


  • Registered Users Posts: 655 ✭✭✭Bellerstring


    https://youtu.be/OVAhroZZw8E

    Radiators from Space - Faithful Departed


  • Registered Users Posts: 46 Carsanal


    Aidric wrote: »
    Lot of great shouts so far in this thread. For its historical significance this must be a contender. Jim McCann pours everything in to this passionate performance.


    As I said before looking, nothing touches this in significance as the greatest Irish song.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,332 ✭✭✭.red.



    I've that downloaded in MP3, I still get goosebumps every time it come on.
    I'm not a huge chieftains fan, I do like a bit of Sinead but that collaboration is just WOW.


  • Registered Users Posts: 119 ✭✭KaiserLu


    Rock and Roll Kids.

    Goodnight.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,736 ✭✭✭Irish Guitarist


    I'm going to ignore everything the OP said about personal favourites and post a couple of my favourites.









  • Registered Users Posts: 11,469 ✭✭✭✭For Forks Sake


    Maybe not the greatest Irish band, but certainly one of the most underrated, and definitely the best live act



  • Registered Users Posts: 3,494 ✭✭✭dasdog


    Maybe not the greatest Irish band, but certainly one of the most underrated, and definitely the best live act

    Better tune...although I've never been inflicted with a live performance, yet.



    Far too many to choose. If I Should Fall From Grace With God (Pogues) or Farmer Michael Hayes (Planxty/Trad). The Thin Lizzy choices are terrible though, what a great band and their most popular songs are referenced. Astral Weeks is probably the finest album, recorded 50 years ago this month.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,815 ✭✭✭lulu1


    Scorn not

    Phil Coulter


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,117 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    Amazing that this gem came out of Derry in 1980 during some of the worst years of the Troubles. Derry was pretty grim back then and essentially lawless.



  • Registered Users Posts: 596 ✭✭✭Conservative


    U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

    The Pogues (they do qualify) Rainy Night in Soho, The Broad Majestic Shannon. Imo Shane at his best was as good as Dylan or anybody lyrically and certainly peerless in Irish or any other music from the folk tradition.

    Four Green Fields (written by Tommy Makem sung by many).

    Only Our Rivers Run Free.


  • Registered Users Posts: 733 ✭✭✭Tea-a-Maria


    The Auld Triangle


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,192 ✭✭✭bottlebrush


    no mention of The Corrs yet. .


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,469 ✭✭✭✭For Forks Sake


    no mention of The Corrs yet. .

    and with good reason.


    Jim would probably claim the reason has something to do with lizard people and fluoride anyway


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  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Some great songs in this thread, some new to me which I'm happy to hear for the first time.

    When I read the thread title, this is a song which came to mind...



    Clannad wouldn't be my favourite band, nor Bono my favourite vocalist, but this song just puts me in a very Irish place and time when I hear it.

    That dramatic middle 8/bridge, it honestly blows me away and would make me argue that Bono's strongest vocal performance came not on a U2 record.


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