Sing Up! is a collection of comic and satirical songs that comment on recent changes and developments in Irish society.
Sex, National Politics, Drink, Fast Food, Traditional Music, Religion, Recreation, Agriculture and the Weather—all are analysed in depth herein through the medium of the direct slag, the obtuse dig, the dry remark.
Sing Up! is, in the editor’s own words “a gather-up of intolerance, irreverence, slagging and sedition”—and all the more welcome and necessary for that.
“We have an ancient tradition of balladry in Ireland, a tradition that lives in continuation. These writers help to keep the ball rolling. I have long enjoyed their humourous slant, their jaundiced take, their pure love of Bognia. I have also had the privilege of singing many of their songs. This book is a must for me.”
— Christy Moore
“The perfect antidote if you are prone to bouts of moral piety.”
— Nell McCafferty
“In the grand tradition of Zozimus and the Gaelic poets, the satirical voice makes truth even funnier than fiction.”
— Des Geraghty
Sing Up! features songs by Finbar Boyle, Hugh Collins, Patsy Cronin, George Curtin, Crawford Howard, Dónal Lehane, Tim Lyons, Jim McAllister, Mickey McConnell, Fred McCormick, Brian McGuinness, Adam acNaughton, John Maguire, Mícheal Marrinan, Sheila Miller, Andy Mitchell, Sean Mone, Joe Mulheron, Ciarán Ó Drisceoil, Con Ó Drisceoil, Briain O’Rourke, Déaglán Tallon, Fintan Vallely and Bill Watkins.
***
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Fintan Vallely is a musician, lecturer and writer on traditional music. From Co. Armagh, he has taught flute at the Willie Clancy Summer School in Co. Clare since 1986. He is the author of the major reference work, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music (1999), and was the author of the first tutor for Irish flute, Timber, the Flute Tutor, in 1986. His other books include The Blooming Meadows (a collaboration with Charlie Piggott and photographer Nutan) and Together in Time (a biography of Antrim flute player John Kennedy). He is also the author of Tuned Out: Protestant Attitudes to Traditional Music in Northern Ireland (2008).
