Hi there,

I would greatly appreciate your support with the following.

I have just set up the following website www.celticsongbook.com to promote Celtic & Ireland in Song and Story, a new historical songbook which i have compiled with Derek Warfield (formerly of The Wolfe Tones). To date i have received a very positive response regarding our book, which has taken me almost ten years to complete. My initial concept was to compile a simple songbook of Celtic & Irish songs and ballads. This soon changed when i began researching the background to each song and ballad with the end result of 472 pages of detailed background introductions surrounding key events in Irish history and the story of CFC. I found through my research of the songs and ballads that i was brought on a journey through Irish history and also through the history of CFC. This intrigued me greatly and hopefully all readers likewise.

Please visit my site to learn more about our book and read our first book review below by Celtic historian David W. Potter.

Once again i would be very grateful for your support and also your help in promoting Celtic & Ireland in Song and Story.

Kind regards,

Raymond Daly.


FIRST BOOK REVIEW


Celtic And Ireland in Song and Story by Raymond Daly and Derek Warfield

This is a truly excellent publication, very informative, interesting and accurate with a wealth of detail about both Celtic and Ireland in its 472 pages. It claims to cover both and does so admirably well, including the lyrics of Irish rebel and Celtic songs which are, as the back cover says "far reaching, educational, and of course, provide a great source of pleasure".

For people like myself who (for background reasons of being a Scottish Protestant) do not know as much about Irish republicanism as he should, this book is an absolute godsend with much detail and photographs about the incidents much commemorated in song. Sean South, (from Garryowen) for example, is a studious earnest looking man whose funeral cortege passed along O'Connell Street, Dublin a few days after that memorable New Year's Day. It attrected thousands of mourners before it made its way to Limerick. Kevin Barry played rugby and other sports and was indeed offered his life in return for the "names of his brave comrades and the things they wished to know", but Kevin Barry answered no. The founder of the Argentine Navy was a man from Mayo called William Brown, and Tom Barry of Barry's Flying Column had served with the British Army in Mesopotamia in the Great War.(So indeed did my grandfather and the grandfather of Gordon Smith, the SFA Chief Executive - the famous Matta Smith who played for Kilmarnock in the 1920s.)

There is a brief potted history of the club with the songs that the supporters would have sung at the time. "Hello, Hello" is a song much associated with Rangers, but in fact Celtic supporters had it first and immortalised it after their 5-0 win in the 1925 Scottish Cup semi final against Rangers. The late 1960s were the time of "The Merry Ploughboy" and as the book says "Lisbon" for a spell, took the place of "Dublin". There was also as I recall, three add-on words about Her Majesty! And the early 1990s that dreadful time in our history saw the birth of the "Fields of Athenry", a song sung by its writer Peter St.John at half time at a game between Celtic and Falkirk in April 1996.

The book is awash with detail and is clearly written by two enthusiasts. One of the writers Derek Warfield is associated with the Wolfe Tones group, and the other is a man called Raymond Daly who travels on the Mid Leinster Celtic Supporters Club from Tullamore. This book is indispensable to anyone who wishes to know what Celtic is all about. It is well illustrated, although I have doubts about the photograph on page 424 which purports to be Celtic in 1935. The players are none too familiar. It is possibly a reserve team, or it may even be Kilmarnock, Morton, Hamilton Accies or some other hooped team. But that is a small blemish. In other respects, it is a very fine book. No Celtic supporter should be without it.

David Potter (Celtic Historian)