Ireland's Bards

The bards of long ago, when they travelled at all, went from one big house to another to play and sing for small private audiences from which the general public were largely excluded. In this more democratic age, our Bards of this record travel much more extensively and play to much wider audiences. They have been heard as far away as Canada in the west and Holland in the east. Here at home they are well known from Letterkenny to Wexford and from Dingle to Belfast. Their selection of songs on this album reflects their travels and includes a Canadian song, Christian Island. They also feature a mixture of love songs and patriotic songs and I am glad they have included one of our own loveliest airs "Ar Eirmn m h-eosfamn Ce Hi". The Bards themselves represent a wide cultural mix: Diarmuid Leary [ sic] from Wexford combining with Pat Ryan from Clare and with the lovely Ann Keaveny from Waterford between them.