I’LL LIVE TILL I DIE – A memoir in word and song of Delia Murphy, Queen of Connemara

A memoir in word and song of Delia Murphy, Queen of Connemara

Performed by Gerry Anderson, Máirín O’Donovan and Carmen Cullen

If you listen carefully enough to your memories, you might just hear If I were a Blackbird, The Spinning Wheel and Three Lovely Lassies, gracing the airwaves of Radio Eireann, or emerging from the trumpet of a gramophone, in a Dance Hall somewhere in Mayo….

From Delia Murphy’s earliest days she was attracted to the ballads she heard from wandering journeymen, minstrels, ‘tinkers round their fire camps,’ and anybody who had an ear for traditional lore. Delia Murphy was a pivotal figure of the 40s and 50s who took the Irish ballad and turned it into something of her own. According to Luke Clancy, she was the single most important person in preserving this form of music and enabling the popularity it has today.  Her songs have been covered by the Wolfe Tones, the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners, the Pogues, and ‘Murphs’ almost single handedly prompted the Irish Folk Revival and captured in song the expression of emerging Irish Nationalism.

This special evening mixes biography, musicianship, family reminiscences, and, of course, song, and celebrates everything that is Delia Murphy. Gerry Anderson presents a memoir, drawing on his knowledge of the singer as the first inspiration of his own development as a ballad singer and traditional musician; Máirín O’Donovan will sing some of Delia’s favourites; and Carmen Cullen, niece of Delia, adds some family reminiscences and reads from her novel set in 1942 called Two Sisters Singing.

Monday 11^th June                                          Tuesday 12^th June

St Fiaccs House, Graiguecullen 2pm              Sacred Heart Home, Carlow 2pm

The Estoria, Bagenalstown     7pm                 Glendale Estate & Nursing Home, Tullow 7pm

SOLD OUT