Belfast songwriters to launch St Patrick song

The first folk song about St Patrick will be launched on Thursday to mark this week’s holiday.

“Raise a Glass to Saint Patrick” is the first tune of its type about Ireland’s patron saint and will be played on the Uilleann pipes and bodhran drum.

Belfast songwriters Colin Magee and Charlie Pettigrew penned the music promising to explain more about the man behind the legend.

Mr Magee said: “We wanted to reflect the man he was and the mythical figure he has become, both his restless, tenacious free spirit and the later icon of unity and togetherness.”

The song will be released simultaneously in Ireland, the UK and the US on St Patrick’s Day.

Pat Davey, a former all-Ireland Uilleann Pipes Championship champion and Rohan Young on the bodhran will play the tune.

Mr Magee, director of Belfast’s Nashville Songwriters’ Festival, said not much was known about the religious figure.

“We just want to tell the story and we wanted to be the first write a song about St Patrick,” he said.

“A lot of people take part in St Patrick’s events but don’t really know much about them.

“St Patrick embodies of course something of the Irish people themselves who, by force of historical circumstances, have spread throughout the world and brought with them that tenacity, that undying affection for their green land and that love of craic, dance and song.”

The song will be released on March 17.