About "Woman of Ireland"

[181823@econz.unizar.es]

Ariusz wrote:

>I just listen to the kind of "The Best" album by Mike Oldfield and payed
>attention for the track called "Woman Of Ireland". It's the same melody as
>the song "Mna Na Eirehann" (sorry if I mispelled) singing by Kate.
>I think it would be no surprise 'cause Mike Oldfield is interested in
>Irish music. What surprised me is that according to inlay tha track is written
>by Mike Odfield and I always thought it is traditional tune.
>Maybe it's the mistake.
>Anybody knows something about that? The track is from the Mike's album
>Voyager (1996). Maybe somebody own that record - what is written on the
>cover of it.

Well, maybe im not the proper person to talk about this song (i'm not an
expert in irish music) but i used to like the music of Mike Oldfield and i
have something to say about this topic.

The first time i've heard "Women of Ireland" (that's the title in the disc;
maybe someone could help me with this: it's "Women" or "Woman" ?) it was in
the soundtrack of "Barry Lindon". It was a beautiful instrumental version
performed by The Chieftains, and i think it's a "must". All the disc is a
"must", in fact.

I think that the melody of this song is a traditional irish tune, and the
lyrics are from Sean O' Riada. Or maybe the lyrics are traditional and the
melody was composed by Sean, i'm not sure about this.

Is not the first time that Mike Oldfield uses other person's work and he
"forget" to mention it. "Etude", a track of "The Killing Fields"
soundtrack, is an arrangement of a melody composed by a classic spanish
composer, but in the titles is nothing said.

By the way, i think the Mike Oldfield's version of "Woman of Ireland" is
awful (like my english; sorry!).

Cheers!