Though Nordic I have become a great fan of Irish songs. Started with the Dubliners but soon found out that there is more than beer and whiskey in these songs.
I very much appreciate the living history and energy of all these songs about the Irish struggle for freedom and all these people whose efforts ultimately led to independence.
Now I have some 100 songs of the Dubliners, Pogues, Wolfe Tones, Irish Brigade.
Can you suggest any other artists of importance and titles of songs that are vital
if you want to have a representative collection?

By the way - does up the ra mean anything?

A few to get you started

Shebeen
Charlie and the Bhoys
Claymore
Gary Og
Tricia Ferns


If you email me @aol.com I will give you links to loads of sites and even some where you can listen to the songs online ...... no downloads required

;)

Hi also I'd recommend Eire Og (Gary Og's old band)

And the best place to buy them all those listed is the Sinn Fein Online Shop.

www.sinnfein.ie

Look for the link to the bookshop. Enjoy !

Dia duit!

There are also some traditional Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge) songs that you might want to check out.
There are for example Altan and Clannad. Altan is more traditional, whereas Clannad incorporates modern elements into traditional songs.
There are songs like "�r�, s� do bheatha 'bhaile", who also deal with the struggle
and resistance. (See the lyrics collection...)

And when it comes to Scottish songs, there are also some bands that are worth listening to: Battlefield Band, Tannahill Weavers, and Capercaillie for example.
Capercaillie has also a lot of Scots Gaelic (G�idhlig) songs.

�thas m�r leat, mo cara! -- Have fun, my friend!

Agus c�ad m�le f�ilte romhat go for�m seo!
And 100.000 welcomes to this forum!

Sl�n go f�ill, bye for now,

Roidsear

:D Thanks for all your tips. With my lousy bandwith I will be busy for a while.
Found three songs with Shebeen, who is new to me and like them very much.

And if you get tired of that stuff, check out The Pogues!

"Bottle Of Smoke" is my favourite by them, and they do some class battle marches.

Up the RA simply means "Up the Republican Army" (as in IRA - Irish Republican Army). It's a show of support for our favourite team, used like you would support a team in sports, for example. A related shout is "Up the Provos" which shows support to the "Provisional" wing of the IRA (since the Official-Provo split of -69). The Provos (sometimes PIRA) are what people were usually talking about when they said IRA in the 70's, 80's and well into the 90's. Sometimes in hasty graffitis you'll see just UTRA or UTP. These are abbreviations of above mentioned phrases.

As for your musical question :) I'd say you've got the bare essentials of the genre. Shebeen, Wolfe Tones and Irish Brigade form the nucleus of my collection, but especially when searching online it's often worthwhile to just punch in "Irish Rebels" or "Fighting Men from Crossmaglen". The latter will find you a great song for your collection but might also stumble upon a great collection of rebel songs which are sold in tourist shops under this name.

Actually this kinda reminded me, maybe there ought to be some sort of Celtic Lyrics Glossary? You know, RA, BA, GFA, UI, GAA and PSNI. These abreviations spring up every now and then but are confusing to people who are new to the scene. Some of them most people just assume everyone knows so they're not even explained anywhere.

Maybe this glossary could even include popular chants and shouts you often hear in the background in live recordings, as again these can be confusing to someone getting to know the scene. I had to travel to Dublin to discover that people actually do chant "The I, the I, the I.R.A." on live gigs. I'll not even tell you how difficult it is to try to discern what a barful of drunken paddies are trying to sing during the chorus of Fields of Athenry. Again, before actually asking them I was pretty sure it must be "hey Barry let the free beer flow"

The Tide, Skirm, Daithi Rua, The Butterfly Band, Inchequin +++