G'day all,

I think paddymac summed it up very well. The Clancys were a great phenomenon of the folk revival and they set Irish folk music firmly on the course that led to where it is today. (Whether that is a good or a bad thing is a personal opinion.)

They were quite eclectic in their choice of songs (a good grounding in pub folk, not politically-driven folk) and sang a lot of songs that keep turning up in Mudcat threads headed Is *** ** ****** an Irish Song? but you can't blame them if the next generation didn't bother to find out what they were singing.

However you look at it they were great fun - and dead serious at times. I remember going to one of their concerts in Sydney around 1964. The old Stadium at Rushcutters Bay was packed with wall-to-wall Irish ... navvies, lumpers, clerks, scholars, priests and nuns ... and they (nearly) finished the concert with God Save the Queen.

Nobody stood.

Then they broke into The Soldier's Songs and every single person rose to their feet - if not instantly ... after a short, sharp prompt by the Irish wharkie standing next to them!

Regards,

Bob Bolton