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By popular demand, these
recordings capture some of the great classics from over ten years of the Festival.
Of course it would be difficult to include each and every gem. That is for the
future. Enjoy these special odes.
Anybody who hasn’t
heard of the Bard of Armagh Festival by now is dead in some part of them that
should be most alive. Anyone who hasn’t been at one of the Bardic nights
of hilarity and revelry over the past twelve years has yet to add an ingredient
to their lives that will make them expel all negativity that may have entered
their heads.
If the Bard Festival had
been false and not of the people, it would have died years ago. If the standard
of writing and delivery had not developed as time went on, it would have withered
and faded away. But the very opposite has happened. Is has grown and bloomed
with the years in every way. It regenerates itself every November by its own
power and excellence and becomes more and more rooted in the life of the people
as a great natural inheritance
Year after year the standard
rises. Bards from all over know they have to keep perfecting this ancient art
of versification or they will quickly fall away. Their subject matter is the
same- the vagaries of life, love and death and the eccentricities of the human
condition.
The Bard of Armagh night
is an injection of gaiety, an anti-dour poultice, a shot in the ass of jubilation,
a transfusion of merriment, a social enlightenment, a spiritual regeneration
and last but not least, the best night’s crack ever devised in this part
of the world.
The Bard Festival sees humour as an antidote to the stresses of modern life. It realises there is much therapy in a long laugh and in laugh after laugh, reflecting society through a not-so-serious mirror and for once get us laughing at ourselves. The humour is always intimate and deep and those who go once get addicted.
CD
1
Getting Dressed - Patsy O Hagan
My Friend Kate - Joan Gaffney
My Stay in Daisy Hill - Henry McGrath
Catched on the Brew - Liam McNally
The Man that shot the Dog - Michael Quinn
The Corinthians write back - Declan O Brien
The Bard of Armagh - Matt McAteer
The Belleek One - Declan Forde
Bring back the Dark Ages - Elizabeth Carty
Foreign Feedin’ - Jimmy Rafferty
CD
2
The Present - Pat McGeeney
Woman Power - Rosemary Twohig
A hen looks back - Joe Corscadden
The Pope returns to Ireland Incognito - Seamus
Carolan
Light Relief - James Brady
Lack of Identity - Marie McCartan
The Ballad of Dennis Taylor - Peter Carragher
Our News - Mary Byrne
The Good Old Days - Padraig
McGinn