Moya Brennan, also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing professionally in 1970 when her family formed the band Clannad. Brennan released her first solo album in 1992 called Máire, a successful venture. She has received a Grammy Award from five nominations and has won an Emmy Award. She has recorded music for several soundtracks, including Titanic, To End All Wars and King Arthur.
Irish music is music that has been created in various genres on the island of Ireland.
"Star of the County Down" is an Irish ballad set near Banbridge in County Down, Ireland. The words are by Cathal MacGarvey (1866–1927) from Ramelton, County Donegal. MacGarvey's song was first collected in Herbert Hughes Irish Country Songs. The tune is traditional, and may be known as "Dives and Lazarus" or "Kingsfold".
"She Moved Through the Fair", also called "She Moves Through the Fair", is a traditional Irish folk song, which exists in a number of versions and has been recorded many times. The narrator sees his lover move away from him through the fair, after telling him that since her family will approve, "it will not be long, love, till our wedding day". She returns as a ghost at night, and repeats the words "it will not be long, love, till our wedding day", intimating her own tragic death and the couple's potential reunion in the afterlife.
Reynardine is a traditional English ballad. In the versions most commonly sung and recorded today, Reynardine is a werefox who attracts beautiful women so that he can take them away to his castle. What fate meets them there is usually left ambiguous.
Joseph Campbell was an Irish poet and lyricist. He wrote under the Gaelic form of his name Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil Campbell being a common anglicization of the old Irish name MacCathmhaoil. He is now remembered best for words he supplied to traditional airs, such as My Lagan Love and Gartan Mother's Lullaby; his verse was also set to music by Arnold Bax and Ivor Gurney.
Philip Coulter is an Irish musician, songwriter and record producer from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009.
Anúna is a vocal ensemble formed in Ireland in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne. Taking the current name in 1991, the group has recorded 18 albums and achieved a high level of international success, including a significant role in Riverdance from 1994 to 1996. Almost all of their repertoire is composed or arranged by McGlynn. Despite having been based in Ireland since their foundation and providing training to many Irish singers, McGlynn announced in December 2022 that the group would cease public performance in Ireland, while continuing in Northern Ireland and beyond.
"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.
Irish Heartbeat is the eighteenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and is a collaboration with the traditional Irish musical group the Chieftains, released in 1988. It was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, Ireland, and reached number 18 in the UK album charts.
"Down by the Salley Gardens" is a poem by William Butler Yeats published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889.
John Harold Hewitt was perhaps the most significant Belfast poet to emerge before the 1960s generation of Northern Irish poets that included Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. He was appointed the first writer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast in 1976. His collections include The Day of the Corncrake (1969) and Out of My Time: Poems 1969 to 1974 (1974). He was also made a Freeman of the City of Belfast in 1983, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast.
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".
Herbert Hughes was an Irish composer, music critic and a collector and arranger of Irish folksongs. He was the father of Spike Hughes.
"Spanish Lady" is a traditional Irish folk song, also found in England. The Bodleian Library has several broadsides of an English ballad with this name, one dating from the 17th century. Fragmentary or related versions from the US date from 1883. It is #542 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It should not be confused with "Spanish Ladies" or "Lady of Spain," both of which are entirely different songs.
"Gartan Mother's Lullaby" is an old Irish song and poem written by Herbert Hughes and Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil, first published in Songs of Uladh [Ulster] in 1904. Hughes collected the traditional melody in Donegal the previous year and Campbell wrote the lyrics. The song is a lullaby by a mother, from the parish of Gartan in County Donegal. The song refers to a number of figures in Irish mythology, places in Ireland and words in the Irish language.
The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, the sixth album by English folk group the Unthanks, was released on 30 July 2012. Its extended title is: Diversions, Vol. 2: The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. Recorded at Salford's The Lowry, at Leeds Town Hall, at Derby Assembly Rooms and St George's Bristol, it was the Unthanks' second live album. It was acclaimed by the critics, receiving a five-starred review in the Daily Express and a four-starred review in The Guardian.
John Patrick Campbell (1883–1962) was a Belfast-born artist known for his illustrations in publications by members of the Gaelic League published under the name Seaghan MacCathmhaoil. He was also involved in theatre and related productions. He emigrated to the United States in the early 1910s, and directed the 1913 "Irish Historic Pageant" in New York. His work as a published illustrator or artist seems to have ended by the 1920s.
Francis Joseph Bigger was an Irish antiquarian, revivalist, solicitor, architect, author, editor, Member of the Royal Irish Academy, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. His collected library, now distributed across several public institutions, comprised more than 18,000 books, journals, letters, photographs, sketches, maps, and other materials. His house in Belfast was a gathering place for Irish nationalist politicians, artists, scholars, and others. He was a prolific sponsor and promoter of Gaelic culture, authored many works of his own, founded several institutions, and revived and edited the Ulster Journal of Archaeology.
