Songs on a Subject

I’ve been interested in a range of songs on a subject – most largely songs about emigration but I’ve also looked at songs about the First World War, the 1798 rebellion, the songs and music of 1916, sexuality and trains, the latter because I was asked to. These can be accessed below.

1. Emigration Songs
2. Songs of the First World War
3. Two aspects of 1798
4. The Irish Railways in Song

Some items posted elsewhere are relevant –

• Notes on Books – Contributions to Encyclopaedias
  • The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999)
    • Emigration
    • Songs of the Great War
    • Hunting songs
  • The Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003)
    • Songs of the Great War

• A summary of a talk I gave to the 2001 McGlinchey Summer School (CLonmany, Co Donegal) on “Emigration Songs” is on the page – Emigration Songs. It had previously been published in It’s Us They’re Talking About: the proceedings of the McGlinchey Summer School for 2005. It also bears on another of my headings – Song Cultures – Regional Song Cultures.

• Parts of the items posted in the sections of Song Cultures look at songs on a subject, especially the slides from three presentations I gave in 2016, all three both regional and sectarian, which have been posted, two under Sectarian Song Cultures, and the other at Regional Song Cultures
• Songs and Music of 1916: Castlewellan, Co. Down; Carndonagh, Co Donegal
• Songs and Music of 1916: Clonmany, Co Donegal

• The best English-Irish Poetry before Yeats is a merry romp through some songs that are often sung innocently – and some that couldn’t possibly be – but it makes serious points.

• What’s the difference between a duck? – an exploration of textual variation in English language traditional songs in Ireland. has a lot about Hunting Songs, and about one in particular – ‘The Granemore Hare’. This could be considered a Song History and will be mentioned there.