On August 22, we met
the Family Gavin, and their Gypsy Wagon TV. They had invited me
to sing and to be recorded in their wagon, and I had the luck of knowing their natural
paradise in the middle of Fintown's Nature; a green paradise of trees
and grass, lakes, rivers... They were very kind with us and we spent
a happy and nice afternoon of music and friendship. You can see their awesome channel of folk and music.
The other great experience of this summer was meeting Mickey McConnell.
First
of all, I met the song. “Only our rivers run free”. I listened to
it some years ago, through YouTube, sung by a young man in a pub of
England; this man seemed a worker or a syndicalist, and he sang for
freedom. I felt upset with that song, it made me cry and I didn’t
know why. May be It happened because its meaning was applicable to
the situation of my country, Catalonia. As I told you, It happened
some years ago.
From
that moment on, I searched and I discovered that that song was
written by a man called “Mickey McConnell”. I learnt things about
him. He was born in Northen Ireland. His song “Only our rivers run
free” talked about the constittutional status of Ulster, and this
song became a hit in Ireland in 1968. He made many other songs like
“The little drummer boy” and “Follow the flag”. The songs of
Mickey were sung by singers like Christy Moore, The Wolfe Tones, Mary
Black, The Kelly Family, The James Last Orchestra...
I
listened “Only our rivers run free” again in YouTube from a young
singer called Sheena (now she is older and lives and sings in pubs
from New York. Few weeks ago she was in derry) and I cried again.
Finally I learnt to sing this song, and... from time to time, even
now, I perform it in the kitchen of my home for my daughter. Now she
is 11, but when she was three or four, she hardly ate his dinner, and
I sang this song, an others too, so that she had dinner easier, and
really she did. Now, I have just made a Catalan version of the song.
I told it to Mickey last night and he loved the idea.
So…
after all that… I met Mickey McConnell through facebook one or two
years ago. This summer, my family and me decided to visit Ireland and
I asked Mickey where did he sing and he told me about McMunns, in
Ballybunion. We went to have a dinner there on August, 26, and it was
great, magic, exciting… My family and me enjoyed a lot, and, in two
occasions, Mickey put his guitar on my hands and asked me to sing a
couple of songs. It was very exciting to contribute to the magic of
the pub with two Catalan songs. If only I had knew that I was going
to sing I would have prepared some irish song; I usually sing “Grace”
and “The great majestic Shannon” but I don’t know them by
heart, and I sang two Catalan songs that I remember and feel very
well. Anyway, It was great. The atmosphere of the McMunns was
bewitching, entrancing, gripping, awesome… Mickey sang “only our
rivers run free” “Viva la quinta brigada” and many others.
Other man whom name I don’t remember that had been a very good
football trainning (and player) many years before sang too (a deep
song about a worker). A woman stood up and sang too (Me and Bobby
McGee). Mickey made us feel welcomed; he dedicated songs to us, he
explained to the whole pub that we had come from Catalonia, he
introduced ourselves to one of the owners of McMunns and some other
kind people, he helped us to feel very happy in a warm and kind human
climate. That night, the Irish people of McMunns turned out to be
like a group of friends for us, openminded, open to other culture
(Catalan culture), cheery…
So…
I want to thank Mickey such a wonderful night, three days before I
turned fifty years old.
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