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Compiled by
Raymond Daly and Derek Warfield
For the
first time a detailed and comprehensive songbook surrounding
key events in Ireland's political, social and sporting
history has been compiled. The stories and issues impacted
upon the recent Irish immigrant communities in Scotland,
noticeably prevalent amongst the supporters of Celtic
Football Club, are focused on in particular.
These
historical songs and ballads have been used by the Irish
people to defend and propagate the many related causes of
Ireland. They have been known to educate and inform, to
bring knowledge and truth through literature and poetry.
Above all, the lyrics and tunes in Celtic & Ireland in song
and story… are far reaching, educational, and of course,
provide a great source of pleasure.
For more
info..............
www.celticsongbook.com
songs1967@eircom.net
FIRST BOOK REVIEW
Celtic And
Ireland in Song and Story by Raymond Daly and Derek Warfield
This is a truly
excellent publication, very informative, interesting and
accurate with a wealth of detail about both Celtic and
Ireland in its 472 pages. It claims to cover both and does
so admirably well, including the lyrics of Irish rebel and
Celtic songs which are, as the back cover says "far
reaching, educational, and of course, provide a great source
of pleasure".
For people like
myself who (for background reasons of being a Scottish
Protestant) do not know as much about Irish republicanism as
he should, this book is an absolute godsend with much detail
and photographs about the incidents much commemorated in
song. Sean South, (from Garryowen) for example, is a
studious earnest looking man whose funeral cortege passed
along O'Connell Street, Dublin a few days after that
memorable New Year's Day. It attrected thousands of mourners
before it made its way to Limerick. Kevin Barry played rugby
and other sports and was indeed offered his life in return
for the "names of his brave comrades and the things they
wished to know", but Kevin Barry answered no. The founder of
the Argentine Navy was a man from Mayo called William Brown,
and Tom Barry of Barry's Flying Column had served with the
British Army in Mesopotamia in the Great War. (So indeed did
my grandfather and the grandfather of Gordon Smith, the SFA
Chief Executive - the famous Matta Smith who played for
Kilmarnock in the 1920s.)
There is a
brief potted history of the club with the songs that the
supporters would have sung at the time. "Hello, Hello" is a
song much associated with Rangers, but in fact Celtic
supporters had it first and immortalised it after their 5-0
win in the 1925 Scottish Cup semi final against Rangers. The
late 1960s were the time of "The Merry Ploughboy" and as the
book says "Lisbon" for a spell, took the place of "Dublin".
There was also as I recall, three add-on words about Her
Majesty! And the early 1990s that dreadful time in our
history saw the birth of the "Fields of Athenry", a song
sung by its writer Peter
St.John at half
time at a game between Celtic and Falkirk in April 1996.
The book is
awash with detail and is clearly written by two enthusiasts.
One of the writers Derek Warfield is associated with the
Wolfe Tones group, and the other is a man called Raymond
Daly who travels on the Mid Leinster Celtic Supporters Club
from Tullamore.
This
book is indispensable to anyone who wishes to know what
Celtic is all about. It is well illustrated, although I have
doubts about the photograph on page 424 which purports to be
Celtic in 1935. The players are none too familiar. It is
possibly a reserve team, or it may even be Kilmarnock,
Morton, Hamilton Accies or some other hooped team. But that
is a small blemish. In other respects, it is a very fine
book. No Celtic supporter should be without it.
David Potter
(Celtic Historian)
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