Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Meath Writers' Circle (3) May 2011

Michael Shiels.


I first came across this on the BBC cassette "Bringing It All Back Home" a good number of years ago and is the story of a bundle of letters found by Peter Jones which were sent to his great grandfather by his father in Ireland. They were letters of family news, births, deaths, sales of lands, bad harvests, marriages, and maybe most of all, enquiring if he would be coming back home The last letter informs him that his father whom he has not seen for 30 years has died. Peter Jones used these letters to make a song called "Kilkelly" and on the BBC cassette the credits go to Mick Moloney, Jimmy Keane, and Robbie O' Connell. The info on the sleeve notes of the cassette was the source of the above, so with thanks. There are many fine versions of this song over on youtube, and while Michael recites it here, maybe we can tempt him into singing it at a future date. 

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