Special homage to a rich legacy of music and song

Readers of a certain vintage will remember the Walton’s Programme on RTÉ Radio, a weekly offering of popular ballads presented by Leo Maguire. He constantly reminded listeners to the Saturday afternoon programme that it was “a reminder of the grace and the beauty that lies in our heritage of Irish song, the songs our fathers loved”.

Many of those songs will feature in The Music and Songs Our Fathers Loved, a show being be staged at the Town Hall Theatre on Friday next, May 11, with 15 performers, including singers and musicians. It comes to Galway fresh from its success at Glór in Ennis and the Doolin Folk Festival.

This “homage to the early recording pioneers of Irish music and song”, was the brainchild of Tom Cussen, of the evergreen trad group Shaskeen, and Dave Saunders, of Ennis-based folk group The Wingers and both groups will join forces to present it.

The two men tasked Clare FM’s Pat Costello, who performs with both groups, to put this show together “to keep him out of mischief,” says Tom with a laugh.

Irish music has become a huge cultural force at home and abroad in recent decades, but Tom points out that, just a century ago, it was in danger of being lost totally.

“It’s difficult to imagine now, but in the early days of the 20th century, Ireland’s traditional culture of music and song had been depleted by generations of deprivation and emigration,” he says.

While Ireland gained Independence in 1922, thousands of young people continued to leave here each year for a brighter future elsewhere.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.