Mise Éire

This morning I caught a few notes of Seán Ó Riada's most famous composition "Róisín Dubh" (meaning "Black Rose") on RTÉ Radio 1, which was also used as the theme music to the 1960 Irish film "Mise Éire (meaning "I am Ireland"). I love this music and always think of the time in school in the 1970's when the film was shown to us boys - it tells the story of Ireland (in Irish) from the 1890's to 1918. While the film, and Ó Riada's music, were unquestionably designed to stir up patriotism in the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the 1916 rising - it always sends a shiver down my spine when I hear this piece of music. While listening to this I can thrust out my chest in a little bit of Irish pride.

Below are two YouTube videos featuring Ó Riada's music. The first shows Matt Cunningham playing Róisín Dubh on tin whistle - brilliant. The second is a clip from the beginning of the Mise Éire film posted by a 65-year old YouTube user "rasherst" (Jim) who also has posted other parts of the film. So here's some reminders of some of the things we can be proud of as Irish people...