The Barleycorn
Fields of Athenry
1982 - Dolphin DOLM 5034 LP
Side One
Fields Of Athenry (Pete St. John)
Men Behind The Wire (Paddy McGuigan)
Only Our Rivers Run Free (Mickey MacConnell)
Selection Of Reels
Sean South
This Land Is Your Land
Side Two
A Man You Don't Meet Everyday
God Bless This Lovely Land
James Connolly
Cheif O'Neills Favourite/George Whites Fancy
Lakes Of Coolfin
God Save Ireland
Credits
Brian McCormick: Vocals & Bass
John Delaney: Vocals, Banjo & Mandolin
Paddy Sweeney: Vocals & Guitar
Produced by Finbar Furey
Sleeve Design: Andy Doyle
Recorded at Keystone Studios (Dublin) 1982
Engineer: Fred Meijer
Strings: Gerry Hughes
Sleeve Notes
Since they came together in 1969—the Dawn of Ireland's present Troubles — the members of the Barleycorn have been. the minstrels of Hope amid Oppression. Their music, dealing with injustice and struggle, evokes the defiance of their Belfast tradition. Songs such as "The Men Behind the Wire", "the Boys of the Old Brigade" and others of their successes, have become the rally m sound of hope in the ghettoes of the Six Counties. But it is a long struggle as this album reminds us.
Here, on the Fields of Athenry in the 1840s. Irishmen and women faced starvation at worst, eviction or at best passage on a coffin ship to a New World. But from the Fields of Athenry. just as from the ghettos of Belfast, themusic of the people harbours a hope for a better life—far from the degradations of the present. Through the music of the Barleycorn, we share in that hope. We feel the present but we shout our defiance and future free from oppression.
Darach Mac Donald
(Sunday Tribune)