Seosamh O hEanai (Joe Heaney) - Roisin Dubh

Wonderful performance by the master. May I ask where and when it was recorded?

A great performance by the master!

I remember going to a folk festival and listening to Joe Heaney sing a long ballad (in English). it was one where in each verse one line carried the story with 3 lines of refrain. So the story moved very slowly but I was not impatient, I had nowhere to be or go than to listen to this story unfold and the repetition was not annoying, it was like meditating.

But the singer has to let the song come through him, and resist the urge to insert his self into it. I was studying aikido at the time, and the mental process is very similar. Heaney was an Irish version of a zen master and a national treasure.

@Yehudittx exactly, a lot of people dont realise the refuting of the ego is central to irish tradition

@Seamus616 God, that's very true. I'm living in a shepherd's cabin in the french pyrennes for the year, meditating, singing sean nos and playing irish music, and I couldn't agree more. I think every buddhist monk should sing those tragic ones like currachin na tra baine, too, there's nothing like the story of a tragic currach accident to bring home the truth of the buddha's first noble truth - the truth of suffering!

@paulette01 I disagree. Strongly. The suffering was to preserve their Irish identity, which due to historical events, became identified with Catholicism. Mary was only elevated in the Catholic Church because the missionaries were having such trouble weening the Irish from goddess worship. The one true god of the Irish is a godess.If all the Irish converted to Protestantism, but continued to retain national language culture and identity, the Brits would have found another issue.

tá sé seo iontach

hi im listening to joe for over 45 years now and so great he was first time i ever seen his photo heard he was like me liked his pint and a smoke like me , i used to listen to him long ago on radio eireann with princious mac an agisa cant spell it mon nights 9.30 aww to the good old days that were did he die in the usa i wonder . beannacht de le do anam dhilis a seosamh o hEanai go ar dheis de a bhi do anam dhilish .amein

not bad from me a man born in england of connemara parents my beloved maithir mor agus moo athair mor learned me to speak this beautiful lanungage and my beloved uncle who i was brought up with this message is dedicated to their memory beannacht de leo go leir. padraic de burca united kingdom

I loved this, I could listen to Joe for hours and hours, thanks so much for posting this.

@castlebar67 He died in America in 1984 but he was buried in Carna with his parents and brothers.

@Realteen Níl - cailleadh é i 1984

What the heck are you rabbiting about he was born in Carna, bla bla your shite about speaking Gaelige sound hollow when you speak shite like that.

Go hiontach a Sheosaimh!!is brea liom an croi agus an ceol ina ghlor. R

I heard this sung by a local young lady on my first trip to Ireland, and fell in love with it, even though I didn't understand the Gaelic words.  This is quite wonderful.  Do you know of a little-known recording of a song sung by Mary Black with her husband, Joe O'Reilly, on accordion.....?  Don't know the name, but it's about a young woman named Adelaide, whose husband went off to war; she looked for him when 'the battle was o'er', and finally found him, her poor wounded hussar'.  I heard this on an FM radio station in Texas years ago.  I didn't catch it in time to tape all of it, but got the last part.  It is hauntingly beautiful; so well-done.  I just mention it; thought you may know it.
 

Bodhranbeat  What the hell are you on about? He said he himself is from England but his parents came from Conamara. His grandparents taught him Irish. Before you go on accusing people of nonsense you'd better learn not to speak nonsense yourself, mister pot calling the kettle black!

Brilliant Faithful Joe Heaney, RIP

I have no idea what to think of the two "thumbs down" - very un-Irish not to appreciate the effort. Thumbs up or no comment at all. Heaney is a master and an exponent of the Connemara style of sean nos singing. Respect.

Not the sweetest of voices, but the rendition is one of the better I have heard. It is very much like what would have issued from the hearts and voices of my people, who came to America, for the most part, in steerage, with untrained voices and strong minds. Catholics they were, who paid the price, and Catholic am I. He bears true Witness.

Heavenly

Some voice

this surely inspired oriada to write mise eire. i hear the rain on the tin roof
well met joe . would love to be in your company. did o riada give u full credit i wonder?

Sounds good in my right ear

Thaithin mo chluas dheis é seo go hiomlán

This is brilliant singing, I use to listen to it on radio eireann when I was a child, so soothing and so sad at same time.

What language is this? It sounds Russian, am I right?

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2021 from USA

I don't see any " thumbs down" here, are you sure you are not mistaken the replies for thumbs down sign.

As a child I was taught this poem