Joe writes: I recent saw the film In Bruges which features the song On Raglan Road over a key scene. The version used on the film is by Luke Kelly of The Dubliners who first set the Patrick Kavanagh poem to the tune of the traditional song The Dawning Of The Day. I prefer Van Morrison & The Chieftains' take, from the album Irish Heartbeat which my dad has written about before . I love the bit where Van whispers. In fact, the entire vocal performance is incredible. Here [...]

Last week I returned from my first trip of the year to mainland Europe. I spent six busy days in Germany, though it would be more correct to say that I spent it in Bayern (or Bavaria as it's known in English). My previous visit to Deutschland was last summer when I attended the wedding of my friend Christian and his wife Ria. The main reason for my visit this time was to attend a double birthday celebration in Nuremberg for both Christian and Ria who were born 24 hours apart in 1980. I was also invited to a double [...]

The entrance to Long Kesh prison We only made it to one play at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival and what a play it was. Chronicles of Long Kesh at the Assembly Hall told the story of the prison situated outside Belfast that was variously known as Long Kesh, the Maze and the H Blocks. The prison opened as HM Prison Maze in 1971 and housed thousands of paramilitary prisoners before its eventual closure in 2000. This two-hour play could have been heavy going for its midday audience, but it managed to blend a hearthy dose [...]
I made my first post over at Star Maker Machine yesterday. It is a fabulous group blog which has a weekly theme for posts - this week it's boats. The song I posted was The Coal Boat Song by Stompin' Tom Connors (head over there if you want to listen to/download that track) and, when I started typing 'coal boat' into my iTunes to look for it, I realised just how many great songs there are with 'coal' in the title! So this got me thinking and, following a bit more research, I decided to also... Please [...]