A chara, – I read with great interest Conor Pope’s article outlining the recordings that influenced 13 public figures (“Records that shaped me: by Ray D’Arcy, Chupi Sweetman, Joe Duffy, Pauline McLynn, Paul Howard and more”, Music, April 20th).
Of the 64 recordings cited, only 10 were by Irish artists (U2 scored twice). The list was devoid of Irish classical, jazz, blues and traditional recording artists despite there being an abundance of performers of international renown of this island.
In the case of traditional music / musicians this makes me wonder, as received wisdom is that this form of music has greatly influenced a number of other international genres and is greatly popular across the globe.
On the basis of the chosen recordings, a statistician might conclude that music created by Irish musicians is neither popular nor influential. Musicians take note. – Is mise,
Matt Williams: Take a deep breath and see how Sam Prendergast copes with big Fiji test
New Irish citizens: ‘I hear the racist and xenophobic slurs on the streets. Everything is blamed on immigrants’
Jack Reynor: ‘We were in two minds between eloping or going the whole hog but we got married in Wicklow with about 220 people’
‘I could have gone to California. At this rate, I probably would have raised about half a billion dollars’
CAOIMHÍN MacAOIDH,
Béal Átha Seanaigh,
Co Thír Chonaill.