Mna na hEireann

["SEAN TWOMEY (ARCHAEOLOGY) PG" <TWOMEYS@acadamh.ucd.ie>]

Hi all ,

It was bugging me for a while now that I knew Mna na hEireann was 
used in a film ( as an instrumental ) but I remember now thanks to 
the following quote from Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains. He was being 
interviewed for a book celebrating the late Sean O Riada  ( Paddy was 
a founding member of Ceoltoiri Chualann )

                            " He ( O Riada ) did compose one song, 
Mna na hEireann ..... , which was first performed in the Gaiety 
Theatre . Sean O Se used to sing it as a song, but when I recorded 
Chieftains Four , as a tribute to Sean I did a special arrangement of 
that tune, an instrumental arrangement. It was very popular and in 
fact I used it for Stanley Kubrick's film, Barry Lyndon, which won an 
Oscar . It was out of devotion to Sean that I recorded it and in the 
film it worked beautifully as a love theme . "
 ( note : from Integrating Tradition : The achievement of Sean O 
Riada edited by Bernard Harris and Grattan Freyer 1981 )

So there you go .......... Kate is singing a very popular tune and 
there's a link with Kubrick , who directed The Shining , which 
inspired Get out of my . . . . . . . 

God ! , for a minute there I was lost in Kate anorak land !!!

Sean ! : )