There was a concert to be remembered in Boyle on Thursday,
26th June. It was organised to raise money for a memorial to the
singer, John Reilly, a traveller, who lived for several years in Boyle, during
the nineteen sixties.
Christy Moore first heard John Reilly sing at a Fleadh Ceoil
in Boyle and brought many of those songs he heard with him, to Planxty (“The
Well Below the Valley-oh” and “Raggle Taggle Gypsy” are just two). The Grehan
Sisters, Francie, Marie and Helen, knew John Reilly well, as he spent a lot of
time in their house when they were young.
The Grehans kicked off the show with “My Uncle is a TD”– where,
even if you’ve never heard it, you’d recognise the sentiment. The Grehan
Sisters are a fabulous group. Their stagecraft and entertainment skills have not
diminished over the years. They slowed the set, speeded it up, and sang songs,
sad, silly and serious.
Helen nearly brought the house down early on with her
version of John Reilly’s “Captain”:
“Once there lived a captain,
Who was borne out for sea,
And before that he got married,
He was sent far away...”
And again, later, with her own song, “Where soldiers go”.
The energy of the three sisters was a wonderful lead-in to
the second part of the show.
Christy Moore came out quietly, sat down, and immediately
set out, unaccompanied, on Lord Baker:
“There was a Lord who lived in this land
He being a Lord of high degree
He left his foot down on a ship’s board
And swore strange countries he would go find”
It was a reminder, if one was needed, of what an excellent
teller of tales he is.
Seamie O’Dowd turned up to accompany him on most of his set;
(“I met him at a session and told him about this gig, he said, ‘that’d be a
great gig to be at’, I said: ‘I can get you a seat’...”).
Christy sang most of his John Reilly 'specials': “The Well
below the Valley-oh”, “Raggle-taggle gypsy”, “What put the blood” and more,
giving them all the attention and the affection they deserved. He accepted a couple of requests, one from Helen Grehan, “As I went out on a
Summer’s eve” and one from Marie Grehan, “that song that always made me cry”...
after some searching, that turned out to be the “Ludlow Massacre”.
We had
“Black is the colour”, “The Man from RTE” (Fintan Vallely), “Cliffs of Doneen”
and (“now, a song for The Ming”) “I’m a bogman”.
The focus was on the John Reilly and other traveller songs,
however, so we heard, “Blue Tar Road”, “Go, move, shift” and Ewan MacColl’s, “I’m
a freeborn man of the travelling people” from Christy. Fergus Russell from the
Góilín Club in Dublin was invited up to sing a song he wrote himself about travelling
man, “Pat Rainey”, and Jerry O’Reilly, also from the Góilín, sang a John Reilly
song.
Some members of John Reilly’s family were in the audience,
as were members of the late Tom Munnelly’s family. Tom recorded many of the
songs made famous later by Christy Moore, from John Reilly himself. These
recordings are now in the National Folklore Collection in UCD.
The concert finished with the Grehans back on stage to join Christy
Moore and Seamie O’Dowd. There was much affectionate banter, for, as we were
reminded during the concert, they have been friends and musical colleagues for
over fifty years. Christy suggested Seamie move to the edge of the group to let
Francie in beside him, but when she took the mike at the edge herself, he made
some comment along the lines of, “Turned down again, nothing’s changed”!
The last bit was true, for the music, anyway, judging by the
appreciative enthusiasm of the crowd, nothing has.
