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Philomena Begley

Author: Philomena Begley

Publisher: The O'Brien Press Ltd

Published: 2017-11-06

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1847179878

She recorded and performed with stars like Billie Jo Spears, Ray Lynam, Foster and Allen, Charley Pride, Big Tom and Brian Coll, shared festival line-ups with Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Don Williams, Hank Locklin and many more and was awarded gold, silver and platinum discs. Yet, throughout her extraordinary career, she has never forgotten where she came from, and it is the love and inspiration of her husband, Tom, her close family and her worldwide fan base that have made her the warm and generous star we know and love. Here Philomena Begley takes us from her happy beginnings as a bread-man's daughter in Pomeroy through the devastating loss of her brother Patsy and the risks of touring Ireland at the height of the Troubles, right up to her fiftieth anniversary in show business in 2012 – her 'gold and silver days'.

A Happy Type of Sadness:

Author: Kevin Martin

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2018-07-06

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1781175837

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Country music fandom is at an all-time high in Ireland; social dancing has never been as popular. New artists, bands and venues proliferate; it seems each week 'Ireland's latest country sensation' is brought to the public's attention through the ever-widening media outlets populated by the genre. This book provides a comprehensive history of the genre looking at the artists and their music and seeking to contextualise the genre within the wider context of Irish culture. It demonstrates the significant role Ireland has played in the history and development of American country music and how, as an old classic country song says, the circle has remained unbroken. It also analyses the associated media, dance and social cultures. Irish country music is now a significant industry on a continuous upward curve. It earns a lot of money for a lot of people. It deserves a work of record. This book is the first of its kind. It is written in an easy to understand language to appeal to the widest possible demographic. It is also written from a neutral point of view but in a way that appeals to the fans of country and Irish music. Artists covered include Big Tom, Daniel O'Donnell, Nathan Carter, Philomena Begley, Susan McCann and Robert Mizell. The author is an established writer with extensive media experience including RTÉ Radio 1, TV3, Irish Independent, The Irish Times, New York Times, The Irish Post and a plethora of local and regional radio stations.

Big Tom

Author: Tom Gilmore

Publisher: The O'Brien Press Ltd

Published: 2018-09-17

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1788490762

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A tribute to Big Tom McBride, 'the Johnny Cash of Irish country music'. From labourer to music star, the journey of the singer who brought so much joy to fans at home and to emigrants abroad over five decades. Featuring never-before-published interviews with Big Tom and the country stars who loved him, as well as exclusive family photographs, this book is full of the characteristic wit and warmth of Ireland's greatest country music legend, Big Tom. Big Tom McBride was the original Irish country music star, who paved the way for today's new wave of artists. His unique voice and sincere delivery earned him the title The King of Irish Country. He was held in huge affection by many thousands of devoted fans, and was greatly loved and respected by his fellow musicians. Throughout Big Tom's music career, spanning five decades, he packed ballrooms and marquees the length and breadth of Ireland and Britain, with his band The Mainliners and later with The Travellers. His records sold by the tens of thousands, and he had numerous Top Ten hits. Legions of fans were transported by his beautiful singing, evoking an Ireland of a more innocent age. Many made the pilgrimage to the McBrides' home outside Castleblayney, County Monaghan, where they were greeted with genuine, warm-hearted hospitality. Tom Gilmore has interviewed family, friends and fans, as well as unearthing previously unpublished interviews with Big Tom himself. This book also features tributes to the music legend from luminaries of music, sport and politics.

Sorry for Your Trouble

Author: Ann Marie Hourihane

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1844885259

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The Irish do death differently. Funeral attendance is a solemn duty - but it can also be a big day out, requiring sophisticated crowd control, creative parking solutions and a high-end sound system. Despite having the same basic end-of-life infrastructure as other Western countries, Irish culture handles death with a unique blend of dignified ritual and warm sociability. In Sorry for Your Trouble, Ann Marie Hourihane holds up a mirror to the Irish way of death: the funny bits, the sad bits, and the hard-to-explain bits that tell us so much about who we are. She follows the last weeks of a woman's life in hospice; she witnesses an embalming; she attends inquests; she talks to people working to prevent suicide; she follows the team of specialists working to locate the remains of people 'disappeared' by the IRA; and she visits some of Ireland's most contested graves. She also explores the strange and sometimes surprising histories of Irish death practices, from the traditional wake and ritual lamentations to the busy commerce between anatomists and bodysnatchers. And she goes to funerals, of ordinary and extraordinary people all over the country - including that of her own father. 'I had joined a club,' she writes, 'the club of people who have lost someone very close to them.' And then, with her family, she sets about planning a funeral in the middle of a pandemic. Sorry for Your Trouble sheds fresh, wise and witty light on a key pillar of Irish culture: a vast but strangely underexplored subject. Rich, sparkling and eye-opening, it is one of the best books ever written about Irish life. ___________________________ 'A beautiful, insightful reflection on a very, very peculiar country's approach to the oddest experience of them all' RYAN TUBRIDY 'Hugely moving and illuminating. All of life, somehow, is here' TANYA SWEENEY, IRISH INDEPENDENT 'Moving, comforting and funny' BUSINESS POST

COUNTRY MUSIC ARTISTS

Author: DEREK TAYLOR

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2011-04-08

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1447618882

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A DIRECTORY ONLY OF COUNTRY MUSIC ARTISTS AND THEIR NOSTALGIC BACKING GROUPS FROM THE 1920s TO THE PRESENT

Sandy Kelly: In My Own Words

Author: Sandy Kelly

Publisher: The O'Brien Press Ltd

Published: 2023-10-09

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1788494695

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Born in Sligo into a family of travelling entertainers, Sandy Kelly has become one of the top musical performers in Ireland. Sandy was co-opted into the family variety show from an early age. As a teenager she sang on the social club circuit in the UK, playing an ever more prominent role. When she returned to Ireland, she developed initially as a pop performer before following her instincts and concentrating on a music career. Her landmark 1989 recording of the Patsy Cline hit 'Crazy' led her to perform on stages all over the world, including the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and the lead role in Patsy – The Musical in London's West End. But the music industry can be a tough place. Sandy has dealt with prejudice and financial pressures. Alongside the glamour of show business, she has experienced the heartaches of divorce, family illness and death, and faced the challenges of raising a daughter with special needs. Sandy has stood strong at the heart of Ireland's music scene for over four decades. Here, for the first time, she recounts the highs – and lows – of a lifetime in music, in her own words.

Elephant on Main Street

Author: B A Kilpatrick

Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers

Published: 2019-02-28

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1528947770

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This is this story of Eamon, a little boy growing up in Northern Ireland in the sixties, before he succumbed to Leukaemia, a few months short of his seventh birthday. The book describes specific aspects of his short but remarkable life, all written from his perspective. Each chapter has a footnote which charts the history of the conquest of childhood leukaemia which commenced during his lifetime. The book is based around actual events and things which Eamon said and did which have been passed down. Eamon has the benefit of perspective, so he can describe events that have yet to happen which have a bearing on the life of his family.

The Skelper and Me

Author: Tony Doherty

Publisher: Mercier Press Ltd

Published: 2019-10-11

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1781176744

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'As I grew older I often asked myself whether history has made me who I am, and will I, in turn, make history with that?' Tony Doherty has lived in the shadow of his father's execution on Bloody Sunday. At 18 he found himself facing long-term imprisonment, yet the soldier who shot his father was a free man. The Skelper and Me is no ordinary memoir. It is a triumph of working class resolve and resilience over the last bastion of Empire. Epitomising the old adage that 'if you didn't laugh you'd cry,' it sallies forth as a fascinating and compelling story of prison life, making a willing inmate of the reader, weaving a tapestry of the lives of his young cellmates, who never deserved such a life, but whose very existence played out, often hilariously, sometimes painfully, and at close quarter behind the steel door of Cell 5, Crumlin Road. Upon returning to a war-torn Derry in 1985, freedom had a more liberating effect on him and others than he had anticipated. As his family saw qualities in him that he hadn't realised, he began to pick up the pieces of his battered but unbroken home town, locked in bitter stalemate. At his father's cross on Creggan Hill, he promised to make right out of the wrong. The epic struggle that followed changed the course of history.

Days of Heaven: Italia '90 and the Charlton Years

Author: Declan Lynch

Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd

Published: 2010-04-01

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 071715162X

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The best of Irish Soccer. The kickstart the country needed. The men, the excitement, the places, the stories, the goals and above all, the journey. They were the best days of our lives. This is how so many of the Irish remember Italia 90 and all that came with it – the atmosphere of wild celebration, the scenes of chaos, the fine madness. Declan Lynch recalls the great moments – Packie's save and his leap into immortality; Pavarotti's Nessun Dorma and U2's Put 'Em Under Pressure; Kevin Sheedy's sweet strike; and all that drinking. Days of Heaven is full of hilarious accounts of how the Irish abandoned reality in that glorious time called Italia 90.