Ultimate Irish Music at the Royal Hall: A Presidential Celebration

APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

President, Your Highnesses,

Excellencies, Ministers and, as the rest of us are known,

ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The title of this evening's event is Ceiliuradh,

which translates as celebration.

It'll be a celebration of Irish creativity

in one of the homes of British creativity,

with the spirit of collaboration

at the heart of everything you see and hear tonight.

We're here on this historic occasion of the first-ever state visit

of the President of Ireland to Great Britain.

This is the final evening... You should "whoo"!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The list of Irish artists who have made their way here

is a long and distinguished one.

It continues to lengthen.

It includes Irish musicians, comedians,

performers,

God help us, hosts...

LAUGHTER

..some of whom will celebrate our two countries' ties tonight.

I myself am a child of two fathers.

Dad, don't worry, I'll explain.

LAUGHTER

I was born here in Great Britain to Irish parents

who are here tonight.

In fact, I am reliably informed

I was "made in Ireland", whatever that means.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

As a child of two fathers, I think I am qualified to say the Irish

and the British have more in common than we both like to admit.

But that is what tonight is all about -

admitting it, embracing it, celebrating it,

and looking forward together.

Enjoy the evening. Thank you so much for celebrating with us.

Please welcome now Donal Lunny and his house band.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# My heart tonight is far away across the rolling sea

# In the sweet Milltown Malbay

# And it's there I'd love to be

# So long ago and far away

# Nothing can compare

# And my heart's tonight in Ireland

# In the sweet County Clare

# In the town of Scariff the sun was shining in the sky

# When Willie Clancy played his pipes

# And the tears welled in my eyes

# Many years have passed and gone

# Since the times we had there

# But my heart's tonight in Ireland

# In the sweet County Clare

# My heart tonight is far away

# Across the rolling sea

# In the sweet Milltown Malbay

# And it's there I'd love to be

# So long ago and far away

# Nothing can compare

# My heart's tonight in Ireland

# In the sweet County Clare

# That August in Kilrush

# When the rain was lashing down

# And our hotel was that hay barn

# On the outskirts of town

# We were all sick and feverish

# And Dolan had the flu

# But Johnny produced some whiskey

# And the sun came shining through

# My heart tonight is far away

# Across the rolling sea

In the sweet Milltown Malbay

# And it's there I'd love to be

# So long ago and far away

# Nothing can compare

# My heart's tonight in Ireland

# In the sweet County Clare

# Those nights in Sixmilebridge

# When the music flowed

# And many was the time at night

# That lights were turned down low

# The sergeant from Kilkishen He would buy us all one more

# And we never left that pub before the clock was striking four

# Lahinch and Ennistymon

# Liscannor and Kilkee

# But best of all was Milltown

# When the music flowed so free

# Willie Clancy in the County Clare

# I'm ever in your debt

# For the sights and sounds of yesterday

# Are shining memories yet

# My heart tonight is far away

# Across the rolling sea

# In the sweet Milltown Malbay

# And it's there I'd love to be

# So long ago and far away

# Nothing can compare

# My heart's tonight in Ireland

# In the sweet County Clare

# In the days of Sweeney in the sweet County Clare. #

Whoo!

AUDIENCE CLAP IN RHYTHM

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Andy Irvine with My Heart's Tonight In Ireland.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Will you please welcome a great Irish writer,

Mr Joseph O'Connor.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

July 1969

I was aged 21

Fought with the old lad for the length of me hair

Never said goodbye

Packed a rucksack with curses

and hitched the road to Dun Laoghaire Pier

and the boat train to Euston.

A cousin's digs in a Harrow Road boarding house

Lonesome after dark

Head full of wildfires and rock'n'roll London

Saw the Who live in Brixton

Saw the Stones in Hyde Park.

Poured Atlantics of concrete in Dalston and Hammersmith

The dance hall in Brixton

The chapel in Bow

Or the freeze of a south-east London morning

Digging trench tunnels in the Lewisham snow.

Remember me, brother

In Maida Vale, where I worked on the flats near the working man's hall

Donegal Tom and Roscommon Johnny Casey

Humming Roxy Music's The Thrill Of It All.

On our way to confession one Christmas Eve night

The Bethlehem stars over Kensington Gore

Punk girl was Irish

She begged us for a copper

Sang us the Gleanntain Ghlas Ghaoth Dobhair.

Then she pointed to a building all glittered in lights

Round as a cardinal Handsome and tall, said

"I think of John Lennon every time I pass it by

"And one night the Pride of Ireland's

"going to fill the Albert Hall."

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Ta ait i mo chroi do gach fear 's gach mnaoi

'S gach paiste beag agus mor

Ata beo go buan Gan bhuairt, gan ghruaim

Fa Ghleanntain Ghlas Ghaoth Dobhair.

Remember me, sister

In Stepney and Bayswater is all I ask

Without sorrow or hate

in Harwich and Deptford and Romford and Woolwich

In Canning Town, in New Cross Gate

Through the city of songs where the sweet Thames flows

For a London calling with lustre and light

From the Waterloo sunset to the rainy nights of Soho.

And down in the tube station at midnight

Where I drove their trains Where I hefted a pick

As my daughters taught their children or nursed their sick

Where Ireland married England So close for so long

Oh, for all my children

Paul Brady, sing my song.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Yeah

# Oh, oh-ho-ho

# Oh-oh-oh

# Well, I was just about 19

# When I landed on the shore

# My eyes big as headlights

# Like the thousands and thousands who came before

# I was going to be something

# Smiled at the man scrutinising my face

# As I walked down off the gangway

# Came down to the city

# Where I worked for many's the year

# Built a hundred houses

I must've pulled half a million pints of beer

# Living under suspicion

# Putting up with the hatred and fear in their eyes

# You can see that you're nothing but a murderer

# Yeah, in their eyes, we're nothing but a bunch of murderers

# So, hey, Johnny Can't wait till Saturday night

# Got a thirst that's raging

# I know a place where we can put that right

# Wash away the frustrations

# Hose down these flames inside But look out... #

Yeah!

# I said, "Look out

# "Cos I'll tear you into pieces if you cross me

# "Don't come too close"

# I'm sick of watching them break up

# Every time some bird brain puts us down

# Making jokes on the radio Guess it helps them all drown out

# The sound of the crumbling foundations

# Any fool could see the writing's on the wall

# But they just don't believe that it is happening

# But there's a crowd says I'm all right

# They say they like my turn of phrase

# Take me round to their parties

# Like some dressed-up monkey in a cage

# And I play my accordion

# Whoa, but when the wine seeps through the facade

# It's nothing but the same old story

# You and I knew

# It's nothing but the same old story

# So, hey, Johnny

# Can't wait till Saturday night

# Got a thirst that's raging

# I know a place where we can put that right

# Wash away the confusion

# Hose down these flames inside But look out

# Yeah

# I said, "Look out

# "Cos I'll tear you into pieces if you cross me"

# Yeah

# I got a brother in Boston

# He said he'd send me on the fare

# Just wrote me a letter

# Making out that he's cleaning up out there

# Three cars in the driveway

# Summer house way down on the Cape And I know

# He'll fix me up in the morning

# My brother

# Well, I've been thinking about it

# But it seems so far to go

# People say in the winter

# You get lost underneath the snow

# And there's this girl from my home place

# We've been planning to move back and give it a try

# So I never got around to going

# That's right I never got around to going

# So, hey, Johnny

# Can't wait till Saturday night

# Got a thirst that's raging

# I know a place where we can put that right

# Wash away the frustrations

# Hose down these flames inside But look out

# Yeah

# I said look out

# Don't come too close

# Hey, ho-ho-oh-ho

# Yeah

# Yeah

# Ni-no, ni-no

# I said look out. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Great stuff! Paul Brady.

# Do you remember we traipsed around

# From pub to pound shop through Kentish Town

# Only a fiver to our name

# The drunk on the doorstep had more to our shame

# Living over the offy

# Had its trials

# The fights all night out there and inside

# And those stews that lasted three days into four

# And the dreaded bailiffs return to our door

# But we stuck with each other

# With all our might

# We pulled it together

# And held on tight

# And I'm glad for us

# Yeah, I'm glad, mo chroi

# But it's nothing to anyone except you and me

# There are wrongs for every right

# There's ups and there's downs

# But you're the one for all my life

# My true love I have found

# Yeah

# You, my love, I've found

# I watched the moon cover the might of the sun

# The weird evening light at a quarter past one

# And I knew in my head as you lay in our bed

# You'd stay in my heart till the day I was dead

# We killed each other then loved in time

# And laughed till we almost cried

# Yeah, we cried as well when it all went to hell

# And my heart it broke till I swear I died

# But we stuck with each other with all our might

# We pulled it together and held on tight

# And I'm glad for us Yeah, I'm glad, mo chroi

# But it's nothing to anyone except you and me

# There are wrongs for every right

# There's ups and there's downs

# But you're the one for all my life

# My true love I have found

# Yeah, you, my love, I've found

# Oh, you're good at the things that I'm hopeless at

# And I notice what you ignore

# But it's when I see you're not perfect for me

# It's then I love you more and more

# Oh, we stuck with each other with all our might

# We pulled it together and held on tight

# And I'm glad for us Yeah, I'm glad, mo chroi

# But it's nothing to anyone except you and me

# There are wrongs for every right

# There's ups and there's downs

# But you're the one for all my life

# My true love I have found

# Yeah, you, my love, I've found

# Oh, there are wrongs for every right

# There's ups and there's downs

# Oh, but you're the one for all my life

# My true love I have found

# Yeah, you, my love, I've found

# Doo doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

SHE SPEAKS IRISH

The amazing legend that is John Sheahan.

# Doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo

# Doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo

# Doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo

# Doo

# My thoughts are dark and empty

# I'm not crying out loud

# Don't know what am I asking for if an answer can't be found

# The loneliness is killing though there's someone in my bed

# There's only so much living and I fear I could be dead

# But they're standing at my window when the night seems like it's won

# And everything seems brighter with the sign of the sun

# And I said Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# I know one thing for sure is that I love today

# Yeah, it's good to be alive, yeah

# Yeah, yeah

# Mm, yeah

# Things are looking up for me

# When the clock keeps ticking on

# Oh, holding on to time gone by

# Clinging to a song

# To pull me through with every word

# Or rock me with a tune

# And hold my hand, but the shadow man is lying in my room

# But they're standing at my window when the night seems like it's broke

# And everything seems brighter with the sign of the sun

# And I said Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# I know one thing for sure is that I love today

# Yeah, it's good to be alive, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah! Yeah!

# Doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo

# Doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo

# Lying in my bedroom My eyes are wide awake

# My body's died and given up Oh, for heaven's sake

# Won't you please send me a little sleep

# To ease my worried mind

# I'm losing rationality that I won't know how to find

# But they're standing out my window when the night seems like it's broke

# And everything seems brighter with the sign of the sun

# And I said Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# I know one thing for sure is that I love today

# Yeah, it's good to be alive

# Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# Oh, my God, it's good to be alive

# I know one thing for sure is that I love today

# Yeah, it's good to be alive, yeah

# It's good to be alive

# It's good to be alive

# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Thank you very much. It's good to be alive on a night like this, isn't it?

Thank you.

OK, and time for a dance.

AUDIENCE CLAP IN RHYTHM

CHEERING

CHEERING

Incredible dancing from Caitlin, Seo, Michael and Ellie!

Great stuff.

OK, I'd like to introduce you now to a great musician

and a brilliant songwriter.

He's been on my BBC Radio 2 show many times,

twice nominated for a Mercury Music Prize.

Please welcome, singing My Lighthouse, Villagers,

otherwise known as Conor O'Brien.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# You are needing a friend

# For to follow, for to fend

# And I haven't got a clue

# If I'm getting through to you

# My lighthouse

# In the violent moonlight

# I am searching the tide

# In a vessel, in the storm

# And you're the kind host in the port

# My lighthouse

# And we'll be there to right our wrongs

# In the time it took to write this song

# And we'll beat the ghost with our bare hands

# And we'll skin the corpse and we'll love and laugh

# And we'll dance all everlasting day

# And you'll sing to me everything I meant to say

# And we'll drink to the gentle, and meek and the kind

# And the funny little flaws in this earthly design

# From the Reeperbahn to the Sundarban

# I will heed your call from the dust and the sand

# And I'll save all my stories for thee. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

And now, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure

to welcome to the stage one of my favourite songwriters

of all time, Mr Elvis Costello.

CHEERING

# Is it worth it?

# A new winter coat and shoes for the wife

# And a bicycle on the boy's birthday

# It's just a rumour that was spread around town

# By the women and children

# Soon we'll be shipbuilding

# Well, I ask you

# The boy said, "Dad,

# "They're going to take me to task

# "But I'll be back by Christmas"

# It's just a rumour that was spread around town

# Somebody said that someone got filled in

# For saying that people get killed in

# The result of this shipbuilding

# With all the will in the world

# Diving for dear life

# When we could be diving for pearls

# It's just a rumour that was spread around town

# A telegram or a picture postcard

# Within weeks they'll be re-opening the shipyards

# And notifying the next of kin

# Once again

# It's all we're skilled in

# We will be shipbuilding

# With all the will in the world

# Diving for dear life

# Though we could be diving for pearls

-# We could be diving for pearls

-Could be diving for pearls

-# When we could be diving for pearls

-When we could be diving for pearls

# When we could be

# When we could be

# Diving for pearls. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

This historic first state visit to the UK has touched the hearts

of Irish people at home and to the huge Irish diaspora here in Britain.

It will do much to deepen the ties of affection

between the people of both countries

and recognise the bonds of family and history

that bring us close together.

Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me

great pleasure to introduce President Michael D Higgins.

Your Royal Highnesses Prince Michael

and Princess Michael of Kent,

A Thaoisigh...

APPLAUSE

Taoiseach, Tanaiste, dear friends.

It is of course right and proper that we congratulate

the wonderful musicians, singers,

dancers and composers

who are taking part in this celebratory occasion,

which we have given the title Ceiliuradh,

a beautiful Irish word

that invokes memory

and also looks to the future,

imagination, samhlaiocht,

and does both with love.

And in this magnificent venue

and on this wonderful and historic occasion

I want to extend my thanks to a number of people

who have made this evening's celebration

and, indeed, the past few extraordinary and memorable days

so positive, so uplifting

and so hopeful.

APPLAUSE

First of all, Sabina and I wish to express our deep appreciation

to our hosts Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth

and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh,

who are represented here today.

APPLAUSE

We want to thank them for the gracious and generous welcome

and the warm hospitality

that they have extended to us and to our delegation

and to thank them for being represented here this evening

by Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent.

I'm delighted that their Royal Highnesses

have been able to join us this evening

and we all hope that they will have been sufficiently entertained

to transmit a positive review to Her Majesty the Queen.

APPLAUSE

This evening's celebration

demonstrates once again

not only the importance of culture in general,

culture that crosses generations and boundaries,

but in particular the depth and the richness

of our Irish cultural tradition.

What we've seen and heard

also shows how deeply interwoven

are the wider cultures of these islands,

the contribution that migrants have made to them

and how they have influenced

and, from their different allusions and collisions with other cultures,

how they have enriched each other.

And on a night like this,

it is great to be Irish,

and it is even better

to share in the company of our neighbours...

HE SPEAKS IN IRISH

..our friends in Britain.

So, ar aghaidh leis an gceol

agus Beannachtai oraibh go leir.

And may we all together

go on to celebrate and get all of the benefits,

and may future generations after them,

of this great evening, Ceiliuradh,

celebrating friendship

and all of the possibilities that we have together into the future.

Slan is beannacht. APPLAUSE

Now, it's probably naive to be still surprised

at the global reach of Irish music,

but, by any standard, our next guest has had a stellar career.

As an actor, in Alan Parker's film The Commitments,

as frontman and singer-songwriter with his band The Frames,

and somewhere along the way has picked up an Oscar,

had a major Broadway success and current West End hit

with the musical Once.

Here to perform the Oscar-winning hit from the movie

is Glen Hansard with the brilliant Lisa Hannigan.

APPLAUSE

Thanks, everybody.

Michael D, thanks for this. What a lovely night.

Thank you. Thanks for coming over here.

APPLAUSE

The Dubliners played here in 1964,

and John is here, and he's going to join us.

Please give it up for John Sheahan from The Dubliners.

APPLAUSE

All right. Three...

# I don't know you

# But I want you

# All the more for that

# Words fall through me

# And always fool me

# And I can't relax

# And games that never

# Amount to more than they're meant

# Will play themselves out

# Take this sinking boat

# And point it home

# We've still got time

# Raise your hopeful voice

# You have a choice

# You've made it now

# Falling slowly

# Eyes that know me

# And I can't go back

# Moods that take me

# And erase me

# And I paint it black

# You have suffered enough

# And warred with yourself

# It's time that you won

# Take this sinking boat

# And point it home

# We've still got time

# Raise your hopeful voice

# You have a choice

# You've made it now

# Falling slowly

# Sing your melody

# I'll sing along

# Oh, oh

# Ahhh

# Take it all

# I paid the cost too late

# Now you're gone. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Thanks, everybody.

We've got a few friends joining us now for a song.

Give it up.

APPLAUSE

Thank you.

If Brendan Behan was here he'd be 91.

It's his 50th anniversary this year, actually quite close to now.

This is a song about an Irishman in prison

for reasons I won't go into...

LAUGHTER

..on this lovely night.

But this is essentially a song about a man missing his girl,

that's really what it's about,

he's locked up in a room and he misses her.

This is a Brendan Behan song, it's called The Auld Triangle,

-and if you know...

-CHEERING

If you know this song, please help us out.

# A hungry feeling

# Came o'er me stealin'

# And the mice were squealin'

# In my prison cell

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# To begin the mornin'

# The screws were ballin'

# Get up, get up, you bowsie

# And clean out your cell

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# The wind was sighing

# As the day was dying

# As I lay crying

# In my prison cell

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# On a fine spring mornin'

# As the loike were a-dreaming

# And the seagulls they were squealin'

# All above the prison walls

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# Oh, the screw was peepin'

# And the lag was sleepin'

# As I lay there weepin'

# For my gal Sal

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal... #

John.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

# I wish to Jaysus

# He'd raise me wages

# From 30 shillings

# To two pounds ten

CHEERING # And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# In the female prison

# There are 75 women

# And it is with them

# That I wish I did dwell

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal

# On a fine spring evening

# We all lay dreaming

# Of a future gleaming

# In the Royal Albert Hall

CHEERING

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal... #

All right, all right, all right.

So you know it by now, right?

Most of you knew it already.

"And the auld triangle went jingle-jangle,

"all along the banks of the Royal Canal."

It's you now.

Imagine it's the last day on earth, it's a Paddy's Day.

CHEERING

Everyone's had a drink...

-just the one.

-LAUGHTER

You might have to stand up for this.

We're going to give it over to you, it's the last one.

Are you ready? Here it comes.

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal... #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

# And the auld triangle

# Went jingle-jangle

# All along the banks

# Of the Royal Canal. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING