“Yet there’s always hope in anyone singing as well as this man sings on this record, singing words as true and as deeply felt as these, in this voice both lonely and full of power. This is Dublin singing and Irish singing, as Dublin as the Easter Rising, as Irish as the Love Songs of Connacht or Flanders fields or the Limerick Soviet that got clobbered”
-Pearse Hutchinson on Liam Weldons ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’
James Connolly (Track 5)
Liam Weldons ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’ is one of the classic Dublin albums. Both my own parents are of Ballyfermot stock, and Liam lived opposite my mothers family home where she says a familiar face or two could often be seen. Ballyfermot played no small part in the ‘Folk Renaissance’ of the 1960s and 70s of course, with Downeys and other pubs in the area hosting fantastic singers nights and sessions, the Ballyfermot Phoenix Folk Night in particular. The Fureys of course were a huge part of the scene locally, as was Liam, but names and faces like Christy Moore would swing by on occasion too. Only quite recently I saw Andy Irvine upstairs in Downeys, so some of the tradition remains.
I’m rambling here however, back to ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’. A ’76 classic from Mulligan Records. A class act, thankfully brought back to us in 1999 with a star-studded launch in the Cobblestone (sadly on the other side of the city from Ballyfermot, but all is forgiven) An album that opens with a song reflecting on the troubles of the time in which it was written, lamenting our dead and cursing the nature of the “nation of the blind” that ensured yet more would join then. An album that closes with a beautiful song about, of all the innocent things in the world, the Jinny Joe. Between the Mausers and the Jinny Joes, we find songs of love and songs of class conflict. Blue Tar Road in particular dealing with, what Liam himself termed
“Travellers being pushed from pillar to post by the corporation and even some mortgage-minded vigilante type citizens”
Fintan Vallely, writing in the Sunday Tribune in 1999 about the songs of Liam Weldon, stated that
“Uncompromising, these challenged the middle-class complacency of the Irish Free State, and dangerously he trod ground shared with critics of a Irish national identity which he believed in”
That perfect Dublin mix, of the personal and political, the songs of love and the songs of liberty, is what makes ‘Dark Horse On The Wind’ the classic it is. Here, you’ll find ‘James Connolly’ (perhaps the best rendition I’ve heard, and a song of a man Liam termed “Irelands greatest socialist revolutionary”) and Smuggling The Tin, a nice short number on smuggling tin across the border into the free state.
While Liam was unsure who had written James Connolly, in ‘One Voice’ Christy Moore writes that he himself had
“…long since recorded it before I learned that it was written by Patrick Galvin, the Cork poet and writer. We have subsequently met.
….I did a subsequent recording for an album commemorating 100 years of the Scottish Trade Union council. The inclusion of the song caused anger among certain Scottish Trade Unionists who cared not that Connolly gave his life, living and dying, for all workers north, south, east and west. It was ironic uproar indeed, for Connolly was born in Edinburgh in 1869”
Liam Weldon passed away in 1995.
Smuggling The Tin (Track 2)
Although I have been following this blog for a few months I just saw this now while looking up more info on Liam Weldon. I’m listening to the album as I type, and its powerful stuff indeed. A great singer, well up there with the likes of Frank Harte etc…The title track is one of those ones that you instantly want to learn and sing, but at the same time don’t want to cos you know you’ll never do it justice…Keep up the blog, its deadly!
I stumbled onto this site and this article because somebody in Chicago asked me a question about Pete St John.
Whilst I’ve been in the UK over 20 years I knew Liam and Nellie well but lost touch when I moved over. I have many happy memories of the sessions in Tailor’s Hall and the Brazen Head when An Taisce took over the Hall. Liam’s key phrase was “There is a great difference between a folk singer and somebody who just sings folk songs.”
The sessions at Tailor’s Hall were almost like a musical university with Liam’s gentle but firm MC’ing and the many visitors from abroad with musical instruments in hand. But my favourite were the laid back Sunday morning sessions and Liam’s (in)famous pot of “pigs bits” on the fire! Often as well Pete St John or one of the Furey’s would drop in. There was hardly anybody in folk circles Liam didn’t know or hadn’t made a bodhran for.
We campaigned together to keep Tailor’s Hall open as a folk venue with the “Save Tailor’s Hall” campaign based in my office and we enlisted John Buckley of Hickey Beauchamp, Solicitors (who very graciously took on the case Pro Bono) to stop the licence at Tailor’s Hall being extinguished. It turned out that we couldn’t do anything as only the residents of the civil parish it was being transferred to (Baron John’s Disco Pub in Crumlin!) could object as the Victorians assumed closing a pub was a good thing! The barrister on the other side was a John Cassidy who was unfailingly courteous and helpful to us and who the Judge turned to for advice on a number of occasions. The Judge was helpful but he then explained that he was not displaying bias but that John Cassidy was THE authority on the licensing acts and even he as a judge couldn’t find any logic in them – they had never been updated in Ireland since Victorian times. John late became a judge himself and I was very saddened to hear he died in a car crash. His daughter Constance is with her husband the owner of Lissadell House in Sligo.
After Tailor’s Hall the sessions decamped to the Brazen Head where the owner Mary Cooney assisted by her Barman Dessie were fighting a losing battle in trying to keep it going in the middle of a Dublin Corporation created wasteland after another notorious “road widening” scheme knocked down the buildings around it and destroyed the alley way entrance which protected it from the outside worlds and gave it its special athmosphere.
Liam and Nellie were special people and, along with many others, I never remember being made anything other than welcome in their presence and being put at ease. I had heard about his passing and while it was good to find the details on your site and Wikipedia it was sad to read but there are many happy memories of somebody who loved people and their music.
Come Here to me is an excellent site, keep up the good work and I’ve put you on my Blogroll.
David, it’s for comments like yours that we do this. Thanks so much for sharing that, an excellent contribution.
Liam was my grandad , i was only 1 when he died but i love hearing stories about him, thank you 🙂
Jade,
Since posting here I did this little tribute on my Blog;
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/09/liam-weldon.html
Your Grandad was a very special person who loved life, music and people. The quality of his humanity shone through.
Best wishes,
David
It is impossible to find this album in the States and I haven’t been able to find it on line. If ANYONE reading this has an digital version and would like to make an American comrade’s week by sending it to him, I wouldn’t object. rustbeltradical@hotmail.com
A huge thanks to Ian O Loingsigh for making my week! I have been looking for this album for seven years.
Guys, I have a few photos of Liam & Nellie (also Mrs Cooney & Dessie Smith) on my website http://www.colmkeatingphotography.com I too went to many of the sessions mentioned – Nellie is still about and sings the odd song in the Cobblestone on Sunday nights – after 10 pm. Colm .
[…] range of fields. It has also involved looking at Dublin talents like Frank Harte and the wonderful Liam Weldon, traditional singers who knew how to carry stories through the medium of songs. Liam Weldon was […]
The Góilín Singing Club in Dublin, http://www.goilin.com/ had a night last Friday, 27th Nov 2015, commemorating the 20th anniversary of Liam Weldon’s death. Nelly Weldon was the special guest. Are there more occasions planned?
Hi Guys,
Yes, this Thursday night 3rd December 2015the Phoenix rises yet again when The Phoenix Folk Club pays its special Tribute to Liam Weldon.
It starts at 9pm and the Main Guest is a great singer from Clare living in Galway Sean Tyrrell, and he’ll be joined by a protege of Liam, the great Luke Cheevers.
I’ll also be presenting a slideshow of photographs I took of Liam and “other heads” being friends of his over the years.
The Weldon family will also be present and if asked I’m sure that Nellie and Shay might give us a song too!
Colm Keating.
Hi Guys,
Yes, this Thursday night the Phoenix rises yet again when The Phoenix Folk Club pays its special Tribute to Liam Weldon.
It starts at 9pm and the Main Guest is a great singer from Clare living in Galway Sean Tyrrell, and he’ll be joined by a protege of Liam, the great Luke Cheevers.
I’ll also be presenting a slideshow of photographs I took of Liam and “other heads” being friends of his over the years.
The Weldon family will also be present and if asked I’m sure that Nellie and Shay might give us a song too!
Colm Keating.
The Phoenix Folk Club operates in Downey’s Bar on Ballyfermot Road at Grange Cross…the middle of Ballyfermot!
Tailors Hall
Oh us Dubs have fought great battles with many the foreign foe
The Viking and the Saxon the road we showed to go
But now greedy speculators have exploited all our mines
And when they had made their fortunes
Dole queues they left behind
Do you think they’ll treat the Tailors Hall with any more respect?
With a City Hall like Dublin’s what more can we expect?
And we all know well what they can do with cynical contempt
When they turned our famous Wood Quay into a monster of cement
Chorus
Well I made a lot of friends there whom I’d never have known
And through the years we sang together friendships they have grown
Barry Dunn sang the Dutchman and Connors sang McShane
And Weldon roared his head off ‘’from talking please refrain’’
We all heard the rumors when they first began
That the Tailors Hall was closing down we were sickened to a man
For all of us supported it through now thick and thin
But when the mighty dollar came we knew we could not win.
Chorus
Jem Kelly sang of Jimmy Joyce a man he claimed he met
And George’s songs I still recall I never will forget
And Chris Lucas was there his voice as sweet as wine
And so many famous names I think of them and pine
Chorus
O the Muses in the Wolfe Tone room are ever so discreet
As they smile right down on this happy crew
And tap their ghostly feet
Now they’re going to evict us singers Cormac Mc Carty and all
Come shed a tear for Dublin and the Ghost of Tailors Hall.
Chorus
© Robbie Dunn C/O Irish Entertainment
Brisbane, Australia
Phone: (07) 3396 3421 Mob. 0416 049 234
Email: robbiepdunn@gmail.com
Web: http://www.robbiedunn.com
Knew Liam back in the 70’s. He and Nellie were staunch supporters of Official Sinn Fein and later Workers; Party of which I am a member. Heard Liam sing in many locations, but one of the most memorable venues was probably the least intimate. I went to a concert he and Tony MacMahon did in the Exam Hall at Trinity in 1973, I believe. To hear Liam’s amazing voice singing “James Connolly” in that former bastion of West Brit Ascendancy made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and whenever I listen to the recording today I always remember that night. Speaking of the writer of that song, Patrick Galvin, I have a privately made recording of Patrick himself singing it. It was made at a house party near Washington, DC many years ago. If interested anyone can listen to it on my Youtube channel Eyeries1.
hello, I was living in Dublin in 1979, 1980, 1981 and used to go to the Taylor ‘s hall on Sunday . I was a young girl from Britany (Bretagne/Breizh) and Liam Kindly never forget to ask for a breton song. I was very impressed I was only 17, but I remember him saying” One voice, one song
“There was a little man singing a very funny song and the chorus went like “Up on the mountain that’s the place to be, listening to the blackbird singing I a tree, as long as I remember, I never will forget to pull up my umbrella when it comes on wet” I f any one could help me??
Than you so much for this blog
Hi Bourjot!
The man who used to sing that song was called Jem Kelly…Jem is the short name for James…the song is called “High Upon the Mountain Top”…Jem Kelly unfortunately “has passed on” as has Liam Weldon too. Both great men and powerful singers…and very interesting songs… At the moment some friends of Liam, including myself, are in the process of trying to make a film documentary on Liam and his songs…
Regards, Colm.
Thanks a million Colm, so kind of you,
these great singers I’ll never forget. They deserve a documentary for sure, let me know …
Regards Véronique Bourjot