Tuesday night’s “Session With The Pipers” at the Cobblestone starred Glasgow Irish uilleann piper Sheila Friel. Sheila gave us a wonderful rendition of that beautiful slow air, “The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LDWL2KZwwsk for John Tunney, son of Paddy Tunney, singing “The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TAH-_yIj4c0 for Sheila Friel among fellow pipers.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TFzmKvLHQ20 for Paddy Tunney singing “The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow”.
See www.itma.ie/inishowen/singer/paddy-tunney andhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YEq8b96EkHY for more from Paddy Tunney, whom I had the privilege of singing in shared sessions at folk song festivals in Derry in 1999 and Inishowen in 2000.
In his 1991 memoirs, “Where Songs Do Thunder – Travels in Traditional Song”, Paddy Tunney related how Paul Robeson and himself exchanged “Old Man River” and “Mountain Streams”. Paddy had been invited to perform in the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 7 November 1958. Paddy’s account continued:
We stayed in London for a week or so and did recordings for the Cecil Sharp Library. It was during one of these recording sessions I had the singularly good fortune to meet Paul Robeson, surely one of the world’s greatest singers. He was in Cecil Sharp House rehearsing a show for BBC television, and I met him in the corridor on the way to the gents. When we had exchanged the usual polite, meaningless words I made bold to ask for a song. He courteously consented.
‘What would it be?’
”Old Man River’, please.’
He obliged. Never have I heard a song sung with so much soul and effortless artistry. When the applause died down he asked me to sing. There was only one song befitting such a rare occasion, and I sang it. It was ‘The Mountain Streams Where The Moorcocks Crow’.
He shut his big, sad eyes and listened intently. ‘Ah!’ he barely whispered, ‘Fine, fine! But then you’re Irish, of course.’ The big man from the Mississippi and the wee man from the mountain streams gripped hands again, but never a word was uttered. For me it was an unforgettable experience.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iEQEeNhtosg for Paul Robeson singing “Old Man River”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg7bPgrosAE for Robeson singing “Old Man River” to Sydney Opera House workers.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bezsMVU7c for Robeson singing “Joe Hill” to Scottish miners.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfpyPy2Cc8 for Robeson singing the Scots Gaelic love song, “Bheir mé óró, bhean ó”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U7wBlGEVboc for Robeson singing “The Skye Boat Song”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nbJhBzQiWgM for Robeson singing “Loch Lomond”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GLzNL_tywK8 for Robeson singing “Danny Boy”.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjO9rIwn5M for Robeson singing “Kevin Barry”.
Robeson performed a number of times at the Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale and established a strong empathy with the people of this mining valley. In 1950 ,when McCarthyism raged, he was denied a passport by the American State Dept when he refused to admit or deny that he was a Communist. He was deeply disappointed not to be able to travel to Wales and rang the organisers to apologise. A smart BBC reporter, present to cover the Festival, asked him to sing down the line which he did and was recorded. His choice was ‘Land of my Fathers’ and this moving piece is in the BBC archives and, I think , available online. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ziJoep1cDlY
How does it come that world renowned heroes like Paul Robeson always identify with the Irish Republican cause?