Paddy Berry (Patrick Joseph Berry), born 12 October 1937, [1] is a traditional Irish singer from Wexford, Ireland. Born and raised in Scar, Duncormick, Paddy Berry now lives in Drinagh, on the outskirts of Wexford Town. Paddy is a well known performer of local Wexford ballads, as well as a songwriter and song and folklore collector. He has made a major contribution to the revival of traditional music, song and dance in Ireland over the past fifty years.
Paddy has been a prominent member of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann for nearly five decades and has been involved in various cultural education initiatives. His very important contribution has been recognised by fellow musicians and also earned Paddy a special lifetime achievement award from the president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, in 2003. [2]
Paddy Berry has published three recordings and three print collections of County Wexford Ballads. [3]
Paddy is the second of nine children and his youngest brother Phil is also a well-known traditional singer.
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella, whose capital was Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county was 149,722 at the 2016 census.
Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.
The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals. The band were regulars on the folk scenes in both Dublin and London in the early 1960s, and were signed to the Major Minor label in 1965 after backing from Dominic Behan who was paid by Major-Minor to work with the Dubliners and help them to build a better act fit for larger concert hall venues. The Dubliners worked with Behan regularly between 1965 and 1966; Behan wrote numerous songs for this act including the song McAlpine's Fusiliers created specifically to showcase Ronnie Drew's gravel voice. They went on to receive extensive airplay on Radio Caroline which was part owned by Phil Solomon CEO of Major Minor, and eventually appeared on Top of the Pops in 1967 with hits "Seven Drunken Nights" and "The Black Velvet Band". Often performing political songs considered controversial at the time, they drew criticism from some folk purists and Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ had placed an unofficial ban on their music from 1967 to 1971. During this time the band's popularity began to spread across mainland Europe and they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States. The group's success remained steady right through the 1970s and a number of collaborations with The Pogues in 1987 saw them enter the UK Singles Chart on another two occasions.
The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumper sweaters and are widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalising it in Ireland, contributing to an Irish folk boom with groups like the Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones.
Christopher John Davison, known professionally as Chris de Burgh, is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hits in the UK and two in the US, but he is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. His 1986 love song "The Lady in Red" reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.
Luke Kelly was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become involved in a folk music revival. Returning to Dublin in the 1960s, he is noted as a founding member of the band The Dubliners in 1962. Becoming known for his distinctive singing style, and sometimes political messages, the Irish Post and other commentators have regarded Kelly as one of Ireland's greatest folk singers.
Patrick 'Paddy' Reilly is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. Born in Rathcoole, County Dublin, he is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions of "The Fields of Athenry", "Rose of Allendale" and "The Town I Loved So Well". Reilly released his version of "The Fields of Athenry" as a single in 1983; it was the most successful version of this song, remaining in the Irish charts for 72 weeks.
"The Town I Loved So Well" is a song written by Phil Coulter about his childhood in Derry, Northern Ireland. The first three verses are about the simple lifestyle he grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal with the Troubles, and lament how his placid hometown had become a major military outpost, plagued with violence. The final verse includes a message of hope for a "bright, brand new day", saying "They will not forget but their hearts are set / on tomorrow and peace once again".
The Suffolk Miracle is Child ballad 272 and is listed as #246 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Versions of the ballad have been collected from traditional singers in England, Ireland and North America. The song is also known as "The Holland Handkerchief" and sometimes as "The Lover's Ghost".
Patrick Joseph McCall was an Irish songwriter and poet, known mostly as the author of lyrics for popular ballads. He was assisted in putting the Wexford ballads, dealing with the 1798 Rising, to music by Arthur Warren Darley using traditional Irish airs. His surname is one of the many anglicizations of the Irish surname Mac Cathmhaoil, a family that were chieftains of Kinel Farry in County Tyrone.
Daniel Doyle was an Irish folk singer born in Dublin. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was one of the top Irish singers, regularly featuring in the Irish charts and scoring three No.1 singles. He recorded 25 albums and is known for his chart-topping songs "Whiskey on a Sunday", "A Daisy a Day", and "The Rare Auld Times".
Johnny McEvoy is an Irish singer and entertainer of Country and Irish genre born in Banagher, County Offaly, Ireland.
Tom Munnelly was an Irish folk-song collector.
Irish traditional music is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland.
Margaret Barry (1917–1989) was an Irish Traveller, traditional singer and banjo player.
"Come All You Warriors" is a ballad concerning the 1798 Rising. The narrative focuses on the predominant figure in the Wexford Rising, Father John Murphy of the parish of Boulavogue.
John "Jacko" Reilly, (1926–1969) was a traditional Irish singer. He was a settled Irish Traveller who lived in Boyle, County Roscommon, but hailed originally from Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim. He was a profound influence on many popular folk and traditional singers, based largely on recordings of his singing by the Irish song collector Tom Munnelly which were however not released until after his early death in 1969 at the age of 44.
Sean-nós singing is unaccompanied traditional Irish vocal music usually performed in the Irish language. Sean-nós singing usually involves very long melodic phrases with highly ornamented and melismatic melodic lines, differing greatly from traditional folk singing elsewhere in the British Isles, although there is significant regional variation within Ireland. Sean-nós songs cover a range of genres, from love song to lament to lullaby, traditionally with a strong focus on conveying the relevant emotion of the given song. The term sean-nós, which simply means "in the old way", is a vague term that can also refer to various other traditional activities, musical and non-musical.