Ted Tocks Covers - Year 9 - Day 22

The Foggy Dew

Those who sacrificed everything on Easter Monday, 1916 were forever remembered by Canon Charles O’Neill.

“For slavery fled, O glorious dead, when you fell in the foggy dew!”

#CanonCharlesONeill #TheChieftains #SineadOConnor #TheDubliners #LukeKelly #TheClancyBrothers #TommyMakem #WolfeTones #CelticThunder #ColmMcGuinness #DaoiriFarrell #Odetta #TheSnakeCharmer #U2 #TheCranberries

https://tedtockscovers.wordpress.com/2026/03/17/the-foggy-dew-they-bore-the-fight-that-freedoms-light-might-shine-through-the-foggy-dew-musicislife-tedtockscovers-happystpatricksday-canoncharlesoneill-sineadoconnor-thechiefains/

The Wild Rover

Thinking back to yesterday’s EAS 2025 social event, I think the song that attracted the greatest degree of audience participation was this one. It’s very well-known and the chorus is great for a singalong. Anyone who has any Irish relatives – especially an uncle with a fondness for the drink – will certainly have heard this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DnR8v7X4zc

P.S. It wasn’t sung by the Luke Kelly and the Dubliners last night.

#LukeKelly #TheDubliners

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #CerysMatthews

The Dubliners:
🎵 The Rocky Road to Dublin

#TheDubliners

https://woodenelephants.bandcamp.com/track/rocky-road-to-dublin

https://open.spotify.com/track/2u2olzUT4gYEwpPDOOK4ld

Finnegan’s Wake – The Dubliners

Taking a short break of examination duties I thought I would post this version of the song Finnegan’s Wake. It was first published in America in the mid-19th century, it is a ballad about the wake of a hod-carrier by the name of Tim Finnegan who is too fond of whiskey. One day, with a hangover, he falls off a ladder and dies. His wake gets a bit rowdy and eventually a bottle of whiskey is thrown over his body, which brings him miraculously back to life.

It’s been in my mind since I got talking at lunch with some colleagues a while ago about James Joyce‘s famous novel Finnegan’s Wake largely because of the connection with particle physics via the word “quark” and thence to the Arthurian legends; for more of that see here. Anyway, one of the people there knew the song on which Joyce based his book and proceeded to sing a few verses of it, much to the surprise of the people sitting around us.

The interesting thing about the title is that Joyce dropped the apostrophe so it is not really about the wake of Tim Finnegan but lots of Finnegans waking up. The implication is that, in a way, we’re all Tim Finnegan. That’s exactly the sort of play on words – or in this case play on punctuation – that Joyce revelled in and with which Finnegans Wake is peppered.

Another reason for posting this is for a chance to see the iconic beards of the Dubliners, especially lead singer Ronnie Drew. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INiY-6tVnxI

#FinneganSWake #FinnegansWake #RonnieDrew #TheDubliners

Something I've only just discovered: Luke Kelly was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and became an active participant in left-wing organisations such as the Young Communist League and the Connolly Association in England.

#LukeKelly #TheDubliners #Communism

Fuair Bernard Noël “Banjo Barney” McKenna bás ar an 5ú lá de Mhí an Aibreán 2012. Ceoltóir agus ball de The Dubliners a bhí ann. Sheinn sé an bainseó tenor agus an mandolin.

#CeoilNahÉireann #BarneyMcKenna #BaileÁthaCliath #TheDubliners #Gaeilge #Gaeilinn

Bernard Noël “Banjo Barney” McKenna died on 5th April 2012. He was a musician and a much-loved founding member of The Dubliners. He played the tenor banjo, mandolin and melodeon. He was most renowned as a banjo player.

#Ireland #IrishHistory #IrishMusic #BarneyMcKenna #TheDubliners #Dublin #OnThisDay

Ted Tocks Covers - Year 8 - Day 21

Molly Malone

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Here is what many refer to as the official anthem of Dublin.

“In Dublin's fair city
Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow
Through the streets, broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh"

#thedubliners #tillycripwell #dervish #imeldamay #rubymurray #BridieGallagher #sineadoconnor #fiffinmarket #pattygurdy

https://tedtockscovers.wordpress.com/2025/03/17/molly-malone-her-ghost-wheels-her-barrow-alive-alive-oh-musicislife-tedtockscovers-thedubliners/

On 18 February 1935 Ciarán Bourke was born in Dublin. He was one of the original founding members of The Dubliners.

From the Late Late Show tribute to The Dubliners. Ciaran recites "The Lament for Brendan Behan" by Joe O' Broin. This was his last appearance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyWpb1V0dRo

#CiaránBourke #TheDubliners #IrishMusic #Ireland #Dublin #IrishHistory #OnThisDay