Great songs and green links: Give Paul McCartney back to the Irish

As Paul McCartney gets ready to release the much-anticipated McCartney III album, we take a look at the former Beatle's strong connections to Ireland, and the highpoints of his career through the decades  

 Paul McCartney during one of his live concerts. 

Over the autumn rumours began circulating about Paul McCartney. The gossip among Beatles fans was that the 78 year-old former Fab, was having a productive lockdown. So productive in fact that he was working on a follow-up to two of his best loved records, 1970’s McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II. After a tough 12 months, were Beatles aficionados getting ahead of themselves in hoping for a McCartney III? 

“For years fans have wondered… ‘we’ll never get a McCartney III’,” says Jason Carty, Beatles and Macca fan and co-host of the acclaimed Beatles podcast Nothing Is Real. “We never thought we’d see it.” But their wishes are about to come true with confirmation that McCartney III is to be released on December 18. Christmas is arriving a week early for McCartney devotees .  The appeal of the 'McCartney' records is that they capture the singer at his rawest and most unedited. This is the McCartney of Eleanor Rigby and Blackbird rather than of We All Stand Together and Pipes of Peace. A Beatle without the bluster.