Review: Christy Moore, National Concert Hall Dublin, May 1st 2021.

The highlight of Saturday evening for me was watching a live stream of a concert from the National Concert Hall in Dublin by the great Christy Moore. There was no audience of course due to the pandemic, but it was still a wonderful experience and watching at home you got a front row seat. Christy was on great form and you have to admire his energy because in five days’ time he will be celebrating his 76^th birthday. His voice is as good as ever. He didn’t have his usual little band of Declan, Jimmy, Cathal and Vicky with him, probably due to covid, just his son Andy who helped out on three songs. He began with The Song Of Wandering Aengus which was written by W.B. Yeats. 

Then the very humorous All I Remember by Mick Hanley  followed by one of my recent favourite songs Ringing The Bell written by Rob Corcoran. To celebrate Bob Dylan’s upcoming 80^th birthday Christy unveiled a new song which I think is called Zozimus and Zimmerman. Michael J Moran (c. 1794 – 3 April 1846), popularly known as Zozimus, was an Irish street rhymer. He was a resident of Dublin and also known as the "Blind Bard of the Liberties" and the "Last of the Gleemen". Some of Zozimus's rhymes survive as songs, such as Saint Patrick was a Gentleman. Christy said he had seen Bob Dylan play many times, including once in Slattery’s in Cable Street, (but he might have dreamed that one!). I don’t think I have heard the next song before. It is called 1942 and written by Ricky Lynch, a very powerful song about the holocaust. His son Andy then joined him for a beautiful rendition of Bright Blue Rose written by Jimmy McCarthy.

I think Andy might be a Liverpool fan because the next song was Does This Train Stop At Merseyside?, followed by the first song by Ewan McColl that Christy ever learned called Go, Move, Shift. Christy said that he thought that a song he recorded by Paul Doran called The Gardener would be very popular and he even sent it to Monty Don, but didn’t hear back about it. He sang another song by Paul last night which I think is called Green Island and seems very relevant in view of climate change. This was followed by the brilliant and funny Christy song St Bendan’s Voyage. 

I’m not sure of the spelling of the next song by Tom Touhy. It might be called Gossoon. This was followed by a song written by Jim Page who Christy said would be watching in Seattle. The very powerful The Clock Winds Down. It mentions Greta Thunberg. I wonder if Greta has heard it. In three days’ time it is the 40^th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands and Christy marked the occasion by singing Bobby’s song Back Home In Derry. I never tire of hearing the next song, the classic Barney Rush song Nancy Spain. Christy never seems to tire of singing it either. Then he sang a song for his wife Val which was Lawless. Christy is soon to feature on an Irish postage stamp, so he went along to the GPO building in Dublin to record a video to launch the stamp. He sang one of the songs last night which is called Where Is Our James Connolly?. He stood up to sing it unaccompanied. This was followed by Aisling written by the one and only Shane McGowan. The hilarious Delirium Tremens followed, and Christy had changed some of the words to make it more topical. Finally, Christy sang If I Get An Encore in which he mentioned the likes of Pecker Dunne and Margaret Barry. In the absence of live concerts this was the next best thing, so thank you to everyone involved in organising this concert, but most of all, thank you to Christy Moore.