11th April 2022:
Yesterday’s session was a little different. We started 30 minutes earlier to accommodate a live YouTube broadcast from the Ukraine. Jolly’s Irish Music Band are based in Odessa. Their income is now near zero as they cannot perform, so they are trying to earn some money by doing YouTube broadcasts. The manager of the Dubliner paid for the broadcast and a hat was passed round, which meant a substantial amount was raised for the musicians. This is their Facebook URL: https://www.facebook.com/Band.Jollys/
It was a surreal occasion. They must have been broadcasting from a bomb shelter of some kind. They finished with The Town I Loved So Well, a song about how Derry and the terrible changes it underwent when the British army moved in in the early 70s, so the connection between Odessa and Derry was obvious and appropriate. In fairness, while I must stress the British did not shell Derry, their presence changed the face of the city, and not for the better.
Here are The Dubliners singing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_LbS_5qlI The song was written by Phil Coulter, who also wrote Puppet on a String, the runaway winner of the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest. Up to and including 1967, it was a very stuffy competition with men in tuxedos and ladies in gowns. Sandie Shaw stepped on stage in her bare feet wearing a mini dress that looked more like a nightie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JIR2cukpA The clip is colorized; the original broadcast was in B&W. Sandie changed the contest forever. The following year it was all long hair and garish colours, a bit like Austin Powers with music.
Of course, nothing in the previous paragraph has anything to do with Irish music except that Coulter is Irish, and I think both songs highlight his compositional range.
Back to the Dubliner. Before the Ukrainians started, we managed to do our first three sets plus Molly Malone, sung by a young lass called Eleftheria, who was visiting from Malta. She is Kostas’s (of Tir Fada) niece. Kostas could not stay for the session as he had a gig nearby. The nice thing, however, is that his two young sons stayed behind and joined in the session again, so the boys are becoming session fixtures. Our age range runs from about 13 to 72. When the Ukrainians finished, we had a few minutes to play a few more sets before we had to give way to Manchester City v Liverpool.