Release Date: 2020

“a magnificent thing. It runs to 400 pages, between soft covers, but has the shape and weight of a presentation tin of biscuits. With Christmas coming, it could be the perfect present for the ballad singer in your house” - Irish Times

“a pleasure on so many level” - Living Tradition

“the book concludes with a series of poems and songs written in honour of Harte since his passing, proving not only that the tradition continues but also that he himself has become a part of it” - History Ireland

Edited by Terry Moylan

This book contains a selection of the songs now being sung in Ireland. They are shared and enjoyed by enthusiasts throughout the country, in a musical world apart from commerce, charts, and fashion. This selection is the personal choice of Frank Harte, one of the foremost of Ireland's singers and song collectors.

Irish people make songs in every style, from the hilariously comic through tales of heroism and of adventure, of love (happy and unhappy, of satire, of place and of travel, to songs of grief and tragedy.

And they make them in two languages. They are not created to be bought and sold, but simply to be performed and shared.

They are cherished for the emotional charge they carry and for the stories they tell, allowing the singer and listener to travel in the imagination, to laugh at a ridiculous situation, or to empathise with a hero's misfortune. Underpinning this richness of story is the

extraordinary richness of Irish melody. The pleasure provided by a good song is two-fold, as most of them are wedded to excellent airs, many of them to the most beautiful ones.

Ireland being a cultural neighbour to other founts of folksong - chiefly Scotland, England and America the song riches of those countries have been borrowed by Irish enthusiasts and circulate with the native material, and some that have become naturalised may be found here also.

© 2020 The Harte Family

Published by Craft Recordings