Herosongs: Where History Meets Song Episode Three promo

Episode Three of Herosongs is to be aired this Sunday 28th July at 7pm on RTÉ Radio 1. What do Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Stewart Parnell and Napoleon have in common? In this episode of Herosongs presenter Therese McIntyre, explores some of the songs in the traditional canon about these three historical leaders often sung or lamented as loss leaders. She visits Parnell’s grave in Glasnevin Cemetery with resident historian Shane Macthomais and looks at the ballad sheet of ‘The Blackbird of Avondale’ one of two songs with the same title written about Parnell with Grace Toland in the Irish Traditional Music Archive as well her take on the song ‘My Name is Napoleon Boneparte’ also known as ‘Farwell to Paris’. Sean Nós singer Iarla Ó Lionáird shares his memories of singing the song about Jacobite pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie, ‘Mo Ghile Mear’ as a young boy; “I started singing it with the choir when Sean O’Riada was still alive so I’ve had a long relationship with it” and we also hear from history lecturer Maura Cronin of Mary Immaculate College Limerick and Terry Moylan author of ‘The Age of Revolution in the Irish Song Tradition 1776-1815’, about the life of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Napoleon.