Christy Moore — a magical beauty is born

In this Irish Examiner exclusive interview, Christy Moore talks to Joe Dermody as he releases his latest album, ‘A Terrible Beauty’

Sat, 02 Nov, 2024 - 00:00

Joe Dermody

Open and modest, and more than a little self-deprecating, folk icon Christy Moore is in a relaxed mood speaking with us from his home in Kildare.

He is promoting his new album A Terrible Beauty and a dozen sold-out shows at Vicar Street, Dublin, through November, December, and January.

It is 56 years since the release of his debut album, Paddy On The Road. A Terrible Beauty, his first album with legendary Irish label Claddagh Records, is beautifully recorded with a mix of deeply intimate songs alongside others that are full of social and political commentary.

What inspired his choice of songs?

“There’s no concept to an album for me, it’s just a collection of the songs that have come my way since the last album. It’s a record of what I’ve been doing for the last two or three years. People send me songs from all over and I try and write a bit myself.

“I’ve never been very prolific. In the earlier days, I always relied very heavily on the traditional songs. Then around the ’80s, I started to get songs from contemporary writers. I just love that, you know. I love that someone would trust me with their song.”

Christy Moore was nearly finished recording the new album when he saw Martin Gale’s painting 'A Terrible Beauty' at a gallery in Dublin with his wife: 'Straight away, I said to Val: ‘There’s the sleeve and album title’.

Christy is very relaxed talking over the phone, “an old Nokia” as he points out, asking if I can hear him clearly enough. Listening back, there’s not one “um” or “aah”. No hesitation.

The new album features several a capella pieces (including ‘Black and Amber’, the first single), songs about the Ukraine and Gaza, songs on social issues in Ireland, plus two colourful belters, ‘Cumann na Mná’ and ‘The Big Marquee’.

He’s keeping the promotion to a minimum: As you read this, you may already have seen Christy on RTÉ’s Late Late Show but his chat with the Irish Examiner is the first — and quite possibly the only — Irish press interview with him that you’ll read this week.

Where does A Terrible Beauty sit amid his glittering array of albums? It’s up there with his best. It’s flawless. There’s not one dud on it and the passion in the delivery is spine-tinglingly powerful. He says this power is less about himself, and more down to the fact that the songs are so good.

“A lot of writers will send me songs. It’s great to get a new song that’s exciting to sing. It’s like getting a suit; I might have to get it adjusted so that it fits me. I can’t cover songs directly, I generally have to make alterations; wherever possible, I contact the writer and ask if it’s okay if I make a few changes, and invariably it is okay with them,” Christy says.

Christy Moore playing at one of a series of anti-nuclear festivals at Carnsore Point, Co Wexford, in August 1978. Picture: Eddie Kelly

“Sometimes it means changing the order of the words, or changing the tune a little. Sometimes the song has chords in it that I don’t know how to play. Some writers don’t mind. Some are more particular. One or two writers have really stood their ground and I appreciate that too.”

The album features ‘Black and Amber’ and ‘Lemon Sevens’, written by Brian Brannigan of the Irish group A Lazarus Soul. Christy said Brian was great to deal with and was delighted with Christy’s versions of his songs, tales of people impacted by drink and drug abuse.

Are these themes that are close to Christy’s heart?

“I suppose, for me, if I hear a song that rings a bell in my head, or if I hear a song that attracts me, that’s what it is. I don’t set out with any purpose in mind, trying to do this or that. I’m just a singer who loves to sing.

“I started singing at four or five years of age at my mother’s knee, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I just love it, and I love my audience.

“Once I go out in front of an audience, it’s a very precious space where you have a song that you want to sing and people who want to hear.

“I don’t know how much longer I’ll have it, but I’ll keep going back to that precious space for as long as I can.”

Return to solo concerts

Just before covid, Christy decided to return to playing solo after many years with magical guitarist Declan Sinnott. While fans loved him in Planxty and Moving Hearts, the fact is that Christy has been a solo act for the bulk of his career.

He says that playing solo now gives him more freedom to change his setlist at will. At 79, he has no plans to play outside Ireland again.

“I just love heading to Mayo or Cork or Donegal, doing the gig and heading home again. I haven’t been on a plane for over 20 years.

Christy Moore at 79. 'I’m just keeping myself right and trying to keep body and soul together. That’s working fairly well at the moment.' Picture: Ellius Grace

“I’d love to go back to Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, but I just don’t know about it. The desire is there, but I’m afraid I might not be up to it. A good few years ago, I had a bit of a tumble and it affected my head a bit. I’m going to be 80 next May. My voice is holding up and I just want to look after this gift I’ve been given and not take any chances with it.

“Going off long-haul for a week would mean that I’d have to leave home, and I don’t particularly want to do that. I like coming home to Val and the family. I do about one gig a week now.

Looking back to 1968, I did over 300 gigs that year, but I was only 23. I was fit and foolish and I had no responsibilities and I was having the time of my life.

"Whereas now, I do the gig and I have about six days to look forward to the next one.

“I’m just keeping myself right and trying to keep body and soul together. That’s working fairly well at the moment.

“At this time of my life, and playing solo, I’m just enjoying the freedom of it, the openness and being able to dip into repertoire from 20, 30, 40, or 50 years ago, being able to sing a song just like that. I think the audience like it as well.

“I can go wherever the night leads me. But there are also songs I know that I should sing. I can’t stand it when musicians get so up themselves that they don’t want to play their popular songs. I think that’s nonsense.

'The Big Marquee'

“I believe in trying to send the audience home feeling good, having heard the songs they wanted to hear.

"If I’m in the Marquee [in Cork] and if I don’t sing ‘Joxer Goes to Stuttgart’, there might be someone going home disappointed; that might be the one song that they really wanted to hear.”

One song that the Cork audience bought into instantly was ‘The Big Marquee’, singing along on the chorus from the first time they heard it. Rich with local references, it mentions Ricky Lynch, Caitríona Twomey, Jimmy Crowley, Hank Wedel, Haulbowline, The Corner House, and even The Cork Examiner.

Is it true that Christy started scribbling the lyrics of the song in the back seat on the road trip down to play the Marquee?

“We were heading for Cork to play The Marquee in 2019 when I started writing. Every year, I’d add another verse, drop a verse, until it felt right.

"I first sang it at the Don O’Leary tribute gig for the Cork Life Centre at the Opera House. That was a very special night. Caitríona Twomey from Cork Penny Dinners was also present.

“‘The Big Marquee’ is starting to gain some traction around the country. I thought it might not travel well outside of Cork, but as someone pointed out, ‘Lisdoonvarna’ doesn’t just go down well with people from Clare.

Christy Moore chatting with Don O'Leary at the Cork Opera House on November 6, 2022, when Christy played a tribute concert for Cork Life Centre. It was also the night 'The Big Marquee' made its debut. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

“I love that Ricky Lynch is in the first verse of ‘The Big Marquee’. I had to drop a verse out; it was about a merchant prince sailing up the River Lee on a Bilderberg flotilla. I was advised to desist lest I suffer the same consequence as Don O’Leary 40 years ago.”

Another new song from A Terrible Beauty that has been an instant hit with fans has been ‘Cumann na Mná’, Mick Blake’s song about the remarks made by a Sky TV presenter reacting to the Irish women’s soccer team singing ‘Celtic Symphony’ (“Ooh, ah, up the ’Ra”) in their dressing room after a match.

“Rob Wotton on Sky Sports après match, after the Irish women’s soccer team beat Scotland 1-0 in Hampden Park, he famously said to [Irish footballer] Chloe Mustaki ‘Might you Irish need to educate yourselves?’. It was just one of those things you hear and the minute you hear it, you say to yourself ‘Uh, oh’, that’s an interesting thing for Rob Wotton to say.”

Shining a light into dark corners of Irish life

Meanwhile, ‘Cumann na Mná’ takes us on a trip through a series of injustices that the British Empire perpetrated across the globe. Over the years, Christy’s strong political views have won him many fans, no doubt also turning away just as many.

The new album has tracks about quite stark Irish social and political contexts. It features ‘The Life and Soul’ about Ann Lovett, who died in 1984, aged 15, while giving birth beside a grotto in Co Longford; and another about Lyra McKee, a Belfast journalist killed in a riot, whose work involved a lot of reporting on the Troubles.

Does Christy believe that he will live to see a United Ireland?

“We progress at a snail’s pace towards change, every step made difficult as new problems emerge,” he replies.

“Our world has changed in so many ways since the peace process agreement was reached; fresh agendas emerge, fake news is rampant, so many people seeking refuge.

"Some have found a relative peace, others feel threatened by rising fascism. I live in hope, but also in fear.

Trump still lurks across the water, the hatred he spouts wafts around the world. Some of it lands here, stirring the snakes and vipers that lurk forever in our dark crevices.

Why does Ann Lovett’s life story, as captured here in ‘The Life and Soul’, still have such resonance today?

“I believe that the tragic death of Ann Lovett shone a light into some dark corners of Irish society. I recall how the Catholic Church dominated every aspect of my boyhood days … from Holy Family nuns at 5, Patrician brothers at 8, Dominican priests at 13, we were brainwashed by their pious concepts of sin, by their eternal burning pits of hell, by the infallibility of a pope.

Ann Lovett's story is captured in ‘The Life and Soul’ on Christy Moore's new album, 'A Terrible Beauty'. Picture: Wikipedia

"Our attitudes towards morality were fashioned by men who themselves were often far from paragons of morality. Many, but not all, of our clergy were cruel, sadistic and
misogynistic; a small number were rampant paedophiles. The Church of Rome moved them from country to country to protect them in their evil perverse practices.

“In the midst of all this, Ann Lovett and her newborn son were lost.

"Were it not for a few determined people, Ann too would have been brushed beneath the carpet of silent sin. Let us remember Ann Lovett. Let us raise a beautiful pagan memorial to honour her short life.”

With ‘Lyra McKee’, Christy reflects on the passing of the young journalist who was shot during rioting in the Creggan area of Derry in 2019. When he’s on stage, does he see these people?

Slain journalist Lyra McKee. Picture: McKee family/PA

“James Cramer, a Dublin songwriter sent me this song last year. Like many people in Ireland, I was horrified by the murder of this outstanding young journalist. The video of that cowardly hooded thug shooting into a crowded gathering still lingers. I see Lyra’s beautiful smiling face every time I sing James Cramer’s song. Let us remember.”

Christy’s own compositions include songs on civil rights topics. Christy’s 1996 song ‘Yellow Triangle’ was inspired by the words of Pastor Niemoeller, a Holocaust victim. ‘Viva la Quinta Brigada’ by Mick O’Riordan’s book, The Connolly Column.

The new album also features Michael Harding’s poem ‘Sunflowers’ (about Ukraine) and Jim Page’s ‘Palestine’. Does Christy think it’s important for people around the world struggling against atrocities to hear artists speaking up for them?

“I doubt if suffering can ever be alleviated by some faraway folk singer. Sometimes consciousness can be raised that might lead to changing attitudes, to summoning support, perhaps raising funds to help agencies directly involved in bringing aid. Over the years, there have been numerous campaigns that have gained support through various artists’ endeavours.

“Throughout my life, I have been affected by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl, and by hearing songs like Patrick Galvin’s ballad, ‘James Connolly’, Donagh McDonagh’s ‘Ballad of James Larkin’, Mickey MacConnell’s ‘Only Our Rivers Run Free’, Bob Dylan’s ‘Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’, Joni Mitchell’s ‘The Magdalene Laundries’, also by Charlie Murphy’s ‘Burning Times’, Natalie Merchant’s ‘Motherland’, Richard Thompson’s ‘Beeswing’.

“These songs have stopped me in my tracks.”

New album is dedicated to two late friends

A Terrible Beauty is dedicated to both Tommie Gorman of RTÉ and to music promoter Vince Power, both deceased.

The album’s stunning artwork is by Martin Gale, who went to the same school in Kildare as Christy.

“Tommie and I first met in Sligo 40 years ago. As time passed, our paths crossed in many different cities around the world. We’d share family news, we’d walk and talk.

The late Tommie Gorman. Picture: Leon Farrell/RollingNews

“He was always interested in the songs, always ready to discuss, to praise and critique. Betimes he’d pull me up with sharp observation.

“For years, Tommie was RTÉ’s political correspondent in Brussels after which he became RTÉ’s chief pol corr. He was in Belfast during the peace process negotiations.

“Vince Power went to London in his early teens. His first job was in Woolworth’s, then he opened a second-hand furniture store. His interest in live music led him to open a music venue in Harlesden, London; that legendary venue, The Mean Fiddler.

“He went on to become one of the world’s top music promoters. Vince never lost touch with his native roots in Co Waterford. Two dear friends always remembered.

“Martin Gale’s beautiful picture, A Terrible Beauty, appeared before me in a Dublin gallery as the recording was completed. Straight away, I said to Val: ‘There’s the sleeve and album title’. First, I had to acquire the painting and then get Martin’s permission to use it. Scored on both counts!

“Martin and I first met over 60 years ago at school in Newbridge. I’ve followed his work for many years and viewed his exhibitions.

“I never dreamt of his work coming together with my own ... nor did he. Yet here we are, all these years later together on this album.”