Dear Christy
Blessings and all good wishes to you and yours on Bealtaine!
Just learned about an old tradition that’s still alive in Boyle, people leaving flowers on doorsteps and windowsills on May Day morning.”They were believed to offer luck to the house and offer protection from mystical forces”. Isn’t that lovely!? So if possible I would have placed some flowers from our garden on your doorstep …
It was wonderful to hear your voice yesterday afternoon – great interview on RTE 1!!! Actually we now should stay at Beara and we would have listened directly to the radio. But the dreadful plague keeps us at home, so fortunately computing makes it happen that we could listen abroad. Many thanks to Juno for putting up the link!
So sad to see the red letters behind your announced gigs … the next four would have been “ours” – We’re missing you Christy!
Take care of yourself and keep well,
Traudel
Christy's reply
Boyle, County Roscommon, a sacred place ….we travelled 100 miles to hear the glorious Grehan Sisters sing their wild and wonderful ballads…we slept rough thru the night hoping the next day would look after itself and it always did…we heard Mairtín Byrnes, Patsy Hanly, Barney McKenna, Margaret Barry and ,most of all, we heard John Reilly….we had’nt got a tosser between us but drops of porter fell our way, the spirits of the night carried us up and away….
pulling gigs has been a painful process but has to be viewed in proper perspective..the world is in lockdown and its very seldom that anyone dies from the lack of song….
Thank you both for keeping in touch, and for being such loyal long haul listeners,
Hopefully we’ll all breathe in the same air again before too long
dagrab
May 1, 2020 at 12:52 pm
Location: sunlight and caffeine needed...trial and error.mostly error!
genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
then hit search box
D
Christy's reply
Dagrab, me auld segocia,you bear such an array of good tidings that I sometimes fall behind, I’ve been blest of late with an array of songs to contemplate, Dr Sinnott has been sending me chord sequences so I’m trying hard to stitch everything together…I have a deep envy of those who hear a melody and chord automatically…a process that lies beyond my wildest dreams…I strive and shudder with frustration until that moment when arrives….when melody,lyric,pitch,rhythm all fall into place and I can simply sing, think of nothing except the act itself, let the voice fulfil its task of delivering the lines, surrounded with notes and timbre and texture….some times the process continues to the next stage….airing a song to the band…everyone flutherin around to find their own place,their own notes,riffs, involvement, shape, sometimes a magic will emerge (duende ?) then the next stage..confronting the listener with a new piece of work, matters not whether its a cover, a collaboration, an original or a Trad song….for the duration of the performance it is mine, it is ours it is yours,
“the servin girl took up her pail”
“with sneering and swear word his tongue it was snarling”
“you ate your fry off the back of her neck”
“God works in Strange ways”
I remember trampin the streets of Manchester in 1966, my last few proper jobs in that great united city..a box jumper, a cold meats porter, a (very) casual labourer, a vegetable van driver until came the day..after 3 hours in John Lewes I pulled the plug..abandoned the real world(and my insurance cards) and struck out..
“I was deaf in Dukinfield and I was blind in Shaw”
I found his name online,and then went down an amazing rabbit hole…
http://www.genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search …has all listings from Radio Times…putting ‘Christy Moore’ and then ‘Planxty’ into the search box reveals a mine of info…brilliant to see how many times you were on the radio.I only heard a fraction…fair play to Jim,Frances and Wally…some other great broadcasters/artists listed too…
Keep well
Dave
Christy's reply
Thats the very man
a real sweet man always with an encouraging word for the new comer..
he smoked an eccentric pipe with a very distinctly perfumed tobacco
wore loose Summer shirts
a sight to behold cycling around London City wit that enormous instrument on his back
Brian Brocklehurst…Fondly Remembered
Hello Christy,
Sorry to come back so soon but I’m feeling intrigued by something and wondered what you and everyone else might think about this.
It’s the gender of songs. It keeps coming up here naturally, when talking about songs to recognise a gender in them. I’m wondering if it depends on the individual? No idea really, just intrigued about it. Songs seem to me to have their own personality when I’m singing them. Don’t know really,, they feel part of me and also be their own thing. They don’t feel passive?
Rebecca
Christy's reply
Songs can kick with either foot..they can go whatever way the wind is blowing..to think I used to sing The Bunch of Thyme…may god forgive me…my only excuse–“twas the drink that had me”..
Songs written for love, Songs written for gain,
can make you laugh,can soothe a bad pain,
Songs have heart, body and soul,
lay one to rest and another is born.
Hello Christy,
So it’s a magpie this morning. Ruffling its lovely feathers and making the most amazing noises. The breadth of talk on your guest book is great. Hope you have a good day.
Rebecca
Christy's reply
I wish the winds would blow them back to France…marauding colonial invaders !!!
Hope your Harp is reverberating
Many thanks to Lizzie for the long haul link to the Peregrine falcons…wonderfully cathartic,just watched again…
The highlight of a recent lockdown hour’s escape was a walk in a local park-where I take Grandkids in normal times…the duck pond was full of activity…highlights being Canada Geese with hours old goslings and a heron in flight…simple pleasures and wonderful birdsong…Just before your Nokia fest yesterday,there was an excellent D’Arcy interview with a manager at Dublin Zoo…his description of the place in lockdown and hearing the zoo animals from his home/garden,a few mlles away was brilliant..
‘and the couple in the park
holding hands and waiting for the dark…’
Enjoy May Day…after 30 Groundhog Days of April…
Dave
Christy's reply
the neighbouring Herons finished off the Goldfish..smacking their beaks with relish…the poor tadpoles have gone the same way, the Magpies are gadding about bristling with badness as they seek to hunt and destroy…wren holding forth opp a back window, blackbirds piping their sweet tunes, a robin all but talking to me, Pigeons coocooing, jackdaws cawcawing, seagulls whining, Aer Lingus and Ryanair tarmacked….
Thanks, Hilary, for the poem. I am reading and listening to all kinds today for the day that’s in it. Poetry has the ability to touch the heart and soul in ways that prose cannot. Mary, you are right about Eavan Boland’s poem. It is powerful indeed.
On another note, for those who are cooped up, let me introduce my babies. There has been talk of birdsong here recently, so here are real birds -although there is more chirping and squawking than singing. This is a link to a live webcam on the UC Berkeley Campanile where three baby peregrines were born on April19th and 20th. The parents take turns at looking after them, and it is a treat watching them being fed and so on. They have grown a lot in a short time and are beginning to do things on their own. If you’re watching, we are eight hours behind here.
Still talking about animals, as you know they are beginning to reclaim their territories since humans have stepped back. A mountain lion has been spotted here recently and was on the neighbour’s doorstep the other night. If things go on like this, we might see woolly mammoths roaming around again.
I hope you are doing well, Christy. Each day, I think it’s one day closer to us emerging dazed (and fatter) from our hidey-holes. Take care.
Christy's reply
Thunder and Lightning is no lark
when Dublin City is in the dark
if you have any money go up to The Park
and view the Zoological gardens
we went up there on our honeymoon
she said to me John if you dont come soon
I’ll have to get in with hairy baboon
up in the Zoological Gardens…………….( Zozimus)
Great to hear you on the Radio today ……when I mentioned in my comment to Ray that “Ordinary Man ” is the ringtone on my Phone; he asked ” are there still Ringtones”….. I bet you have a Ringtone on the NOKIA? As you were singing I was having this vision of you with the
phone propped up in the workroom as you performed. Radio is wonderful, we can paint any picture we wish.
KEEP SAFE.
Ride on.
Patsy
Christy's reply
How can I find out if I have a ringtone ? I don’t be ringin myself Patsy.. maybe if I got a second line on the Nokia..
your vision was spot on… I had the Nokia taped to the wall of the workroom.. when I took it down all the wallpaper came away with it..now I’m in trouble… maybe Dee Forbes might cover the new wallpaper required ? when apples still grow in November..
Hi Christy, great to hear you again today. Your familiar soothing tones are a great comfort in these strange times as they were for us this time two years ago. The Voyage means so much to us and many others. Happy to have all our crew at home and well, online studying. Always remembering your kindness and concern and the dedication of Beeswing for Cian. Happy Birthday for next week. Keep well.
adding to the day’s riches…a good evening’s listening/ reading of Irish poetry ,courtesy of http://www.itma.ie
Good to share the lockdown with kindred spirits
keep well all
Dave
Christy's reply
you loaded 16 Tons and what did you get
another day older and deeper in debt
so St Peter don’t you cal me cos I cant go
I owe my soul to the company store
Christy,
I’m still on a high after tackling the postman yesterday afternoon…..only to turn on the wireless today and hear you on the auld Nokia. It surely didn’t disappoint.
Thank you for continuous lifting our spirits…. time and time again. I hope we can return the favour to you in the not too distant future with the smell of our perfume and aftershave as we sing, toe tap and create that atmosphere that gets the heart going and the sweat pumping!!!
Thanks so much for the delivery…. treasured and making itself at home on the mantle piece. Veracity and unique it is…. The generosity and dedication to your listeners never fails to amaze me…
Ps…I didn’t forget about it either!!! 😉
Christy's reply
every time ye listen the”favour” is returned in trumps….
the whiff of Brut & 4711 is always a bonus
Begob I see name & places mentioned, Ballisodare and Jim Lloyd, a name from the past, is he still on the go? ‘Folk on Two’, they were ‘easy’ to listen to as those BBC stations back then were all on medium wave. And Carrick-on-Suir and the salmon left at the door… I’ve connections down that part of the country. So the ‘Batmoblile’ is up on the blocks, this feckin’ virus has us all gone mad. You had told us a good while ago here you had abandoned a Smartfone and gone back to an original Nokia – it did the job today.
Christy's reply
you got it good in Athlone..the Beeb was prob beamed into your big mast…I played that Folk on Two way back circa 1969…Ian & Lorna Cambell and Dominic Behan were on the same show…Jim Lloyd was a charming host…his partner Frances Line used to produce the “Folk” programmes on BBC radio….
Hi Christy,
Thanks to Hilary ( as always) for the nod to Poetry day Ireland.
Then further to my post here of a couple of days ago,about this wonderful poet, what better to read on a day such as today than ‘The Shamrock’ by Ethna Carberry ( Anna MacManus) .
The final stanza reading…
In the folds of my heart is the Shamrock-there
It grows in my love, wide-spreading, fair,
And a thousand times dearer than rose or sedge,
Tall-flowering , by the gray sea’s edge.
I don’t know if anyone ever put her words to music, maybe the people’s MP did, hope so.
Cheers
Rory
Christy's reply
Fair Play to Hilary…Queen of The Kingdom and Rose of Trá Lí
It was lovely to hear you on the radio and to sing along to The Voyage. I liked your encore song too, it was the first time I’d heard it.
I agreed with Ray when you asked if it came across alright on your Nokia, it sounded just perfect for the occasion.
God bless and have a great birthday xx
Christy's reply
Greetings to the “North End”…. last time I played Preston was 1968….thanks for thumbs up on my reliable old Nokia
Hi Christy wishing you happy birthday
Next week same day as myself it’s a long time since i first saw you in Ballysadare
In Sligo great times enjoyed your
Last gig in Clonmel I’d say I won’t
Get a cake either
All the best
Eugene Sweeney
Christy's reply
greetings to that Vale of Honey…I hope you plaster is sticking…I’ve got a twinge of gig withdrawal here but can still sing to myself here in the workroom..to do the job right I need the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd (Brut and 4711)
It was so wonderful to hear you talk and play on RTE1 this afternoon. It really lifted the spirits and the 20 year old Nokia certainly delivered! You are a true gentleman and an absolute legend.
Take care and I hope that your birthday does indeed feature cake, despite the lockdown!
Ride on.
Brendan
Christy's reply
Morra Brendan,
it was a grand interview with Ray…we both hail from opposite sides of the Curragh so we have a lot in common even tho 20 years apart
Christy, Listening on Radio just now & wanted to let you know. My Sister passed away on Monday, but a few years ago she sang at a singing group in the teachers club in Parnell sq, and was so proud that at the end of the evening you complemented her and encouraged her to continue singing. She has dined out on that ever since and I just want to thank you on her behalf. You have her so much joy. Thank you.
Listening to you on Ray D’arcys show from Portglenone Co Antrim Looking forward to another gig soon Hope you get birthday cake next week. Many happy returns xx
Take care
Christy's reply
someone has promised to bake me a choclate cake with a big 75 iced on..the power of radio
Dear Christy
Blessings and all good wishes to you and yours on Bealtaine!
Just learned about an old tradition that’s still alive in Boyle, people leaving flowers on doorsteps and windowsills on May Day morning.”They were believed to offer luck to the house and offer protection from mystical forces”. Isn’t that lovely!? So if possible I would have placed some flowers from our garden on your doorstep …
It was wonderful to hear your voice yesterday afternoon – great interview on RTE 1!!! Actually we now should stay at Beara and we would have listened directly to the radio. But the dreadful plague keeps us at home, so fortunately computing makes it happen that we could listen abroad. Many thanks to Juno for putting up the link!
So sad to see the red letters behind your announced gigs … the next four would have been “ours” – We’re missing you Christy!
Take care of yourself and keep well,
Traudel
Boyle, County Roscommon, a sacred place ….we travelled 100 miles to hear the glorious Grehan Sisters sing their wild and wonderful ballads…we slept rough thru the night hoping the next day would look after itself and it always did…we heard Mairtín Byrnes, Patsy Hanly, Barney McKenna, Margaret Barry and ,most of all, we heard John Reilly….we had’nt got a tosser between us but drops of porter fell our way, the spirits of the night carried us up and away….
pulling gigs has been a painful process but has to be viewed in proper perspective..the world is in lockdown and its very seldom that anyone dies from the lack of song….
Thank you both for keeping in touch, and for being such loyal long haul listeners,
Hopefully we’ll all breathe in the same air again before too long
genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
then hit search box
D
Dagrab, me auld segocia,you bear such an array of good tidings that I sometimes fall behind, I’ve been blest of late with an array of songs to contemplate, Dr Sinnott has been sending me chord sequences so I’m trying hard to stitch everything together…I have a deep envy of those who hear a melody and chord automatically…a process that lies beyond my wildest dreams…I strive and shudder with frustration until that moment when arrives….when melody,lyric,pitch,rhythm all fall into place and I can simply sing, think of nothing except the act itself, let the voice fulfil its task of delivering the lines, surrounded with notes and timbre and texture….some times the process continues to the next stage….airing a song to the band…everyone flutherin around to find their own place,their own notes,riffs, involvement, shape, sometimes a magic will emerge (duende ?) then the next stage..confronting the listener with a new piece of work, matters not whether its a cover, a collaboration, an original or a Trad song….for the duration of the performance it is mine, it is ours it is yours,
“the servin girl took up her pail”
“with sneering and swear word his tongue it was snarling”
“you ate your fry off the back of her neck”
“God works in Strange ways”
I remember trampin the streets of Manchester in 1966, my last few proper jobs in that great united city..a box jumper, a cold meats porter, a (very) casual labourer, a vegetable van driver until came the day..after 3 hours in John Lewes I pulled the plug..abandoned the real world(and my insurance cards) and struck out..
“I was deaf in Dukinfield and I was blind in Shaw”
looks like BBC radio access is via http://www.genome.ch.bbc.co.uk…then hit the search box to reveal the info… D
no joy with thon blue line..not to worry..I’m spending too much time down the bye-roads of t’internet
Hi Christy
Brian Brocklehurst was Mr bass man on the Beeb…
I found his name online,and then went down an amazing rabbit hole…
http://www.genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search …has all listings from Radio Times…putting ‘Christy Moore’ and then ‘Planxty’ into the search box reveals a mine of info…brilliant to see how many times you were on the radio.I only heard a fraction…fair play to Jim,Frances and Wally…some other great broadcasters/artists listed too…
Keep well
Dave
Thats the very man
a real sweet man always with an encouraging word for the new comer..
he smoked an eccentric pipe with a very distinctly perfumed tobacco
wore loose Summer shirts
a sight to behold cycling around London City wit that enormous instrument on his back
Brian Brocklehurst…Fondly Remembered
Hello Christy,
Sorry to come back so soon but I’m feeling intrigued by something and wondered what you and everyone else might think about this.
It’s the gender of songs. It keeps coming up here naturally, when talking about songs to recognise a gender in them. I’m wondering if it depends on the individual? No idea really, just intrigued about it. Songs seem to me to have their own personality when I’m singing them. Don’t know really,, they feel part of me and also be their own thing. They don’t feel passive?
Rebecca
Songs can kick with either foot..they can go whatever way the wind is blowing..to think I used to sing The Bunch of Thyme…may god forgive me…my only excuse–“twas the drink that had me”..
Songs written for love, Songs written for gain,
can make you laugh,can soothe a bad pain,
Songs have heart, body and soul,
lay one to rest and another is born.
a flawed lyric from many moons ago
Hello Christy,
So it’s a magpie this morning. Ruffling its lovely feathers and making the most amazing noises. The breadth of talk on your guest book is great. Hope you have a good day.
Rebecca
I wish the winds would blow them back to France…marauding colonial invaders !!!
Hope your Harp is reverberating
apologies..’Lizzy’! D
Mornin’ Christy
Many thanks to Lizzie for the long haul link to the Peregrine falcons…wonderfully cathartic,just watched again…
The highlight of a recent lockdown hour’s escape was a walk in a local park-where I take Grandkids in normal times…the duck pond was full of activity…highlights being Canada Geese with hours old goslings and a heron in flight…simple pleasures and wonderful birdsong…Just before your Nokia fest yesterday,there was an excellent D’Arcy interview with a manager at Dublin Zoo…his description of the place in lockdown and hearing the zoo animals from his home/garden,a few mlles away was brilliant..
‘and the couple in the park
holding hands and waiting for the dark…’
Enjoy May Day…after 30 Groundhog Days of April…
Dave
the neighbouring Herons finished off the Goldfish..smacking their beaks with relish…the poor tadpoles have gone the same way, the Magpies are gadding about bristling with badness as they seek to hunt and destroy…wren holding forth opp a back window, blackbirds piping their sweet tunes, a robin all but talking to me, Pigeons coocooing, jackdaws cawcawing, seagulls whining, Aer Lingus and Ryanair tarmacked….
Thanks, Hilary, for the poem. I am reading and listening to all kinds today for the day that’s in it. Poetry has the ability to touch the heart and soul in ways that prose cannot. Mary, you are right about Eavan Boland’s poem. It is powerful indeed.
On another note, for those who are cooped up, let me introduce my babies. There has been talk of birdsong here recently, so here are real birds -although there is more chirping and squawking than singing. This is a link to a live webcam on the UC Berkeley Campanile where three baby peregrines were born on April19th and 20th. The parents take turns at looking after them, and it is a treat watching them being fed and so on. They have grown a lot in a short time and are beginning to do things on their own. If you’re watching, we are eight hours behind here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ghtsndkf4
Still talking about animals, as you know they are beginning to reclaim their territories since humans have stepped back. A mountain lion has been spotted here recently and was on the neighbour’s doorstep the other night. If things go on like this, we might see woolly mammoths roaming around again.
I hope you are doing well, Christy. Each day, I think it’s one day closer to us emerging dazed (and fatter) from our hidey-holes. Take care.
Thunder and Lightning is no lark
when Dublin City is in the dark
if you have any money go up to The Park
and view the Zoological gardens
we went up there on our honeymoon
she said to me John if you dont come soon
I’ll have to get in with hairy baboon
up in the Zoological Gardens…………….( Zozimus)
Great to hear you on the Radio today ……when I mentioned in my comment to Ray that “Ordinary Man ” is the ringtone on my Phone; he asked ” are there still Ringtones”….. I bet you have a Ringtone on the NOKIA? As you were singing I was having this vision of you with the
phone propped up in the workroom as you performed. Radio is wonderful, we can paint any picture we wish.
KEEP SAFE.
Ride on.
Patsy
How can I find out if I have a ringtone ? I don’t be ringin myself Patsy.. maybe if I got a second line on the Nokia..
your vision was spot on… I had the Nokia taped to the wall of the workroom.. when I took it down all the wallpaper came away with it..now I’m in trouble… maybe Dee Forbes might cover the new wallpaper required ? when apples still grow in November..
beware of joggers
Hi Christy, great to hear you again today. Your familiar soothing tones are a great comfort in these strange times as they were for us this time two years ago. The Voyage means so much to us and many others. Happy to have all our crew at home and well, online studying. Always remembering your kindness and concern and the dedication of Beeswing for Cian. Happy Birthday for next week. Keep well.
adding to the day’s riches…a good evening’s listening/ reading of Irish poetry ,courtesy of http://www.itma.ie
Good to share the lockdown with kindred spirits
keep well all
Dave
you loaded 16 Tons and what did you get
another day older and deeper in debt
so St Peter don’t you cal me cos I cant go
I owe my soul to the company store
Christy,
I’m still on a high after tackling the postman yesterday afternoon…..only to turn on the wireless today and hear you on the auld Nokia. It surely didn’t disappoint.
Thank you for continuous lifting our spirits…. time and time again. I hope we can return the favour to you in the not too distant future with the smell of our perfume and aftershave as we sing, toe tap and create that atmosphere that gets the heart going and the sweat pumping!!!
Thanks so much for the delivery…. treasured and making itself at home on the mantle piece. Veracity and unique it is…. The generosity and dedication to your listeners never fails to amaze me…
Ps…I didn’t forget about it either!!! 😉
every time ye listen the”favour” is returned in trumps….
the whiff of Brut & 4711 is always a bonus
Begob I see name & places mentioned, Ballisodare and Jim Lloyd, a name from the past, is he still on the go? ‘Folk on Two’, they were ‘easy’ to listen to as those BBC stations back then were all on medium wave. And Carrick-on-Suir and the salmon left at the door… I’ve connections down that part of the country. So the ‘Batmoblile’ is up on the blocks, this feckin’ virus has us all gone mad. You had told us a good while ago here you had abandoned a Smartfone and gone back to an original Nokia – it did the job today.
you got it good in Athlone..the Beeb was prob beamed into your big mast…I played that Folk on Two way back circa 1969…Ian & Lorna Cambell and Dominic Behan were on the same show…Jim Lloyd was a charming host…his partner Frances Line used to produce the “Folk” programmes on BBC radio….
Hi Christy,
Thanks to Hilary ( as always) for the nod to Poetry day Ireland.
Then further to my post here of a couple of days ago,about this wonderful poet, what better to read on a day such as today than ‘The Shamrock’ by Ethna Carberry ( Anna MacManus) .
The final stanza reading…
In the folds of my heart is the Shamrock-there
It grows in my love, wide-spreading, fair,
And a thousand times dearer than rose or sedge,
Tall-flowering , by the gray sea’s edge.
I don’t know if anyone ever put her words to music, maybe the people’s MP did, hope so.
Cheers
Rory
Fair Play to Hilary…Queen of The Kingdom and Rose of Trá Lí
Hi Christy
It was lovely to hear you on the radio and to sing along to The Voyage. I liked your encore song too, it was the first time I’d heard it.
I agreed with Ray when you asked if it came across alright on your Nokia, it sounded just perfect for the occasion.
God bless and have a great birthday xx
Greetings to the “North End”…. last time I played Preston was 1968….thanks for thumbs up on my reliable old Nokia
Hi Christy wishing you happy birthday
Next week same day as myself it’s a long time since i first saw you in Ballysadare
In Sligo great times enjoyed your
Last gig in Clonmel I’d say I won’t
Get a cake either
All the best
Eugene Sweeney
greetings to that Vale of Honey…I hope you plaster is sticking…I’ve got a twinge of gig withdrawal here but can still sing to myself here in the workroom..to do the job right I need the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd (Brut and 4711)
Hi Christy,
It was so wonderful to hear you talk and play on RTE1 this afternoon. It really lifted the spirits and the 20 year old Nokia certainly delivered! You are a true gentleman and an absolute legend.
Take care and I hope that your birthday does indeed feature cake, despite the lockdown!
Ride on.
Brendan
Morra Brendan,
it was a grand interview with Ray…we both hail from opposite sides of the Curragh so we have a lot in common even tho 20 years apart
Christy, Listening on Radio just now & wanted to let you know. My Sister passed away on Monday, but a few years ago she sang at a singing group in the teachers club in Parnell sq, and was so proud that at the end of the evening you complemented her and encouraged her to continue singing. She has dined out on that ever since and I just want to thank you on her behalf. You have her so much joy. Thank you.
Hey Joe…sorry to read about your Dear Sister….
Fair play Christy
Listening to you on Ray D’arcys show from Portglenone Co Antrim Looking forward to another gig soon Hope you get birthday cake next week. Many happy returns xx
Take care
someone has promised to bake me a choclate cake with a big 75 iced on..the power of radio