James Joyce and James Connolly had little in common except their names and are rarely spoken of in the same sentence. One was a militant republican who died for Ireland, the other a moderate nationalist who devoted himself to forging in the smithy of his ... See more
Oh dear. When I suggested (Diary January 7th) that the National Children’s Choir had preserved all the original lyrics of The Boys Are Back in Town at a Phil Lynott tribute concert on Sunday, it seems I was mistaken. The choir’s musical director, Anne Pur... See more
Outlandish as it may be as a tale of vampirism in 1930s Mississippi, with subplots including Irish traditional music and the Ku Klux Klan, the movie Sinners has macabre echoes of a dark real-life event in Indiana just over 100 years ago. We’ll come back t... See more
You know you’re getting old when even the annual commemorations of dead musicians you remember seeing play start to turn 40. So it was with the latest “Vibe for Philo” (officially known this year as “The Dedication”), which marked that milestone anniversa... See more
A minor hit when first released in 1988, the Proclaimers’ Sunshine on Leith has grown to become one of the world’s great football anthems in recent years, even though – like many football anthems – it doesn’t mention the game. As now played regularly at E... See more
