St. Patrick's Day

A Day filled with Green, Good Craic and Great Music

Today is St. Patrick's Day: a day filled with everything green, good craic and great music along with a few surprises thrown in for good measure.  A day in which consuming green beer isn't frowned upon and if you find a Leprechaun hold him hostage and he will grant you 3 wishes in exchange for his release. My only wish would be bring to your pot of gold but that just isn't gonna happen instead I'll settle for having a unique St. Patrick's Day filled with lots of new findings and plenty of Mexican food. 

Early this morning I was searching YouTube.com for a video about County Tyronne, Ireland.  A young friend of mine, Alyssa Schaefer, is preparing to visit Ireland for school and was interested in any videos about 'The Moy which is in County Tyronne.  

For those of you that are not a Thunderhead or an fan of Celtic Thunder, 'The Moy is home to Ryan Kelly, one of the lead singers of the group.  Mr. Kelly has been known to frequent Tomney's Bar in 'The Moy when he's not on tour with Celtic Thunder in either US/Canada or Australia.  

After finding the video that I've seen a few times prior, I decided to see if there were any videos about 'The Moy which might include the bar but all I found  was the video for Ryan Kelly's The Village That They Call 'The Moy. I then decided to see if there were any videos about the bar itself but again I got nothing except, Geraldine Quinn's YouTube Channel which has a couple videos recorded in Tomney's Bar in 'The Moy but none about the bar itself.

I just happen to come across this lovely little gem of a video http://youtu.be/JBptjW59Ac4 by Derek Ryan who is from County Carlow, Ireland.  I checked out some of Derek Ryan's other videos that were posted on  YouTube.  Derek Ryan's Mary http://youtu.be/IyAlpq1dqVI which is a truly beautiful original song.  I then happened upon this video by sheer coincidence http://youtu.be/WZnQkvQYlNw which seems to have been recorded inside Tomney's Bar and outside in various locations in 'The Moy.  Next I came across an interview of Derek Ryan with Seamus Quinn on Country Time With Quinn http://youtu.be/m560f5_3LyQ that's when I found out Derek Ryan is a country music artist. Here is the link to Derek Ryan's website http://www.derekryanmusic.com/

Again I found another video from Country Time With Quinn this one featuring Nathan Carter, who is another country music artist in Ireland. I then found another performance and interview on The Nolan Show on 1/23/2013 http://youtu.be/CMxcif8HSdE . Nathan currently resides in Fermanagh after having spent 3 years in Donegal.  He puts a country spin on various traditional Irish songs including Caledonia http://youtu.be/2Fo2Jyw3hrs which was also recorded by Celtic Thunder. Here is another video from Nathan Carter http://youtu.be/fLBHIAxWA8Y, it starts out with Spanish Lady which has been recorded by The Kilkenny's and appears on Celtic Thunder's newest album Mythology.  This video also features the song Holy Ground which Celtic Thunder along with The Kilkenny's recorded.  The last part of the song, Westmeath Bachelor, I never heard of until now but its kinda funny because it talks about Mullingar which is Emmet Cahill's hometown.  I found that he has recorded  country music that I am familiar with including http://youtu.be/sJj-xXFxzMg.  Here is the link to Nathan Carter's website http://nathancartermusic.com/

All of this happened purely by accident.  It's like discovering new talent even when the talent in question has been around for awhile. I'm very happy to have found them and to share them will all my friends :)   I guess that's what happens when you live in the United States and aren't very familiar with country music artists across the Pond in Ireland.  

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona

Happy Saint Patrick's Day !!!