Irish Songs Lyrics With Guitar Chords By Martin Dardis

Updates And Most Popular Songs

	No 1 Amhrán na bhFiann  The National Anthem of Ireland Includes the lyrics, sheet music and video. The 15 songs here are not necessarily in the order of popularty on the site.
	No 2 Whiskey In The Jar by The Dubliners, An old Irish war song sang the world over and still as popular as ever.
	The Green Fields Of France, an anti war song by Scotsman Eric Bogle. About WW1 Sang by The Fureys.
Night Visiting Song Luke Kelly	The Night Visiting Song by The Dubliners featuring Luke Kelly singing his final song before departing. Considering his long years as a singer, Luke kept his best until last.
Will You Go Lassie Go Clancys	Will you go lassie go, a Scottish love song by The Clancy Brothers And Tommy Makem, it's as fresh today as it was over 40 years ago. A true classic.
Grace Song By Jim McCann	Grace by Jim McCann. A love song about Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett set the night before Joseph was executed in Kilmainham prison in 1916 for his part in the rising.
Galway Girl Steve Earl	Galway Girl, a modern day love song by Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon which has now become the most popular Irish song in the last twenty years.
The Ferryman-The Ramblers	The Ferryman written by Pete St.John and first played by The Dublin City Ramblers has now become an all time favorite at ballad session around the world. It's all about the men who used to ferry people across the River Liffey before all the new bridges were built.
Dirty Old Town Lyrics Chords	Dirty Old Town is known all over the world, written by Ewan McColl and brought to Ireland by Luke Kelly. The Dubliners have being singing it for 50 years.
Red Rose Cafe Fureys	The Red Rose Cafe as sung by The Fureys And Davie Arthur is centered around a small cafe in Amsterdam where nobody ever goes to work and they meet up each day for to drink and sing.
Back Home In Derry	Back Home In Derry which was written by Bobby Sands while locked away in Long Kesh and recorded by Christy Moore. The song details the voyage to Australia to serve their time in a penal colony and the conditions of the ships that transported them their.
When You Were Sweet Sixteen	Sweet Sixteen is a love song brought back to life by The Fureys And Davie Arthur, written 100 years ago by American James Thornton. Included are the ''Letter Notes'' of the music which are suitable for all lead instruments including whistle and mandolin.
Red Is The Rose Martin Dardis	Red Is The Rose which I recorded myself is an old traditional song. I learned it from Tommy Makem, it's a love song and the tune is most likely of Scottish origins.
Let The People Sing Wolfetones	Let The People Sing by The Wolfe Tones is a cry to the powers that be to stop harassing Irish people for singing their songs and stories which forms a large part of their culture.
Fields Of Athenry	The Fields Of Athenry, words and music by Dublin songwriter Pete St. John and sang by Paddy Reilly is about The Great Hunger that spread throughout Ireland from 1847 to 1851 and centeres around the Town Of Athenry in County Galway. Video tuition included for guitar.

Updates

Gweedore Lyrics   The Bold Princess Royal Dubliners /Luke Kelly   Lullaby - Phil Coulter Lyrics   There's A Song To Be Sung   Changes Christy Moore   The Rambling Kerry Lad   The lonely schizophrenic songs   All Of The Hard Days Are Gone   Home In Donegal By Kevin McKrell   Ta Na La Lyrics

Wolfe Tones Review

After a long absense of from attending The Wolfe Tones concerts I decided to attend one of their shows on the 30th of December in Dublin. I didn't quiet know what to expect as I hadn't seen The Wolfe Tones live since the departure of Derek Warfield from the group, as most of you already know that Derek left the band many years ago for what he called ''Artistic Differences'', and now tours with his own new band. Tickets cost 20 euro for all seats, some shows that are held in hotels have a meal included in the price but you can just pay for the show which is what I done. The doors opened at 9-30 and anybody that bought tickets that included a meal were already in the venue so all the front seats were already full when the doors opened. I thought this was a little unfair to the fans who simply didn't want to eat and only wanted to see The Wolfe Tones as the only remaining tables were at the back. I didn't let this put me off one bit,we took our seats and as usual headed for the bar where we ordered several drinks each. Ordering several drinks saves you the hassell of returing to the bar and standing around waiting to be searved by Part-Time bar staff who are usually very slow. The Wolfe Tones came on stage shortly after 10 pm and played a solid two hours without a break. There wasn't any band on beforehand as a warm up act. The lads started with the song ''In Belfast'' followed by Janey Mac I'm Nearly 40 and then played a medely of oldies including The Merry Ploughboy and Slievenamon. They played a good mix of old and new songs that included standards such as The Streets Of New York and Joe McDonnald and from the new album they played Swing A Banker. During the whole show there's a large video screen showing photos. of the the person they are singing about that tell the story of the song. This is an intresting addition to the show. All the music is not live, there are some backing tracks used in several of the songs which include strings, bass and drums. I'm a bit of a purest when it comes to using backing tracks and was disappointed to see The Wolfe Tones using them. They arn't used in every song, but after a while I forgot about them and really started to enjoy each song. The athomphere was what I'd discribe as ''Laid Back'' . The lads put on a show that you could bring the whole family to see. There were no drunks to be seen anywhere, just people of all ages enjoying a bunch of bards telling stories of our troubled past with some comical songs thrown in by Brian Warfield. Tommy Byrne, Noel Nagle and Brian were in good form and gave one hundred percent. Brian intriduces most of the songs and gives a bit of background information on them all. After the show was over all of The Wolfe Tones came off stage and stayed around signing autographs, chatting to the fans and getting photographs taken. Nobody was left out as the lads stayed put until everybody was catered for. All in all it was the best spent twenty euro in many's the year. The only gripe I would have being a musician myself would be for The Wolfe Tones to get another musician to join them and never to use backing tracks again, perhaps a mandolin player. If the ticket price was incresed to 22 euro this would cover the cost of the other musician. If ever you thought about going to hear the lads play, I say go and listen, you won't be disapointed, they are as fresh and energitic as the first time I seen them in The Wexford way back in days of yore.

Playing banjo chords- The Irish tenor banjo is mostly played as a lead instrument but ou can also play chords on the Irish 4 string banjo, there's a handy diagram which shows you how to play four of the most popular chords on the banjo in the mandolin section. As the banjo is tuned the very same way as the mandolin then the chords are the same. Here's the link to show you how to play chords on the Irish banjo.

Ten Years On

Well, it's almost ten years now since I started colecting song lyrics and chords and placing them on the internet. I started off with a very small site hosted by Expage who are no longer around. I had no experence at all when I started and it used to take be over an hour just to type out the lyrics of only one song. I moved to this website around 2004 when Expage closed down and it's been going well ever since. I'd type out the songs from memory or from playing a C.D. over and over and go back and fill in the chords. It's been a hard auld slog but I got there in the end. I think it was around 2004 that I lost half of my hearing, I went totally deaf in one ear. This was a big set back as I was never the same with working out chords after that but I knew the basics of how music went in relation to chords and keys and soon got back into the swing of thing.   The site has grown leaps and bounds over the years with the addition of new songs. In 2004 the site was getting about 1,500 visitors a day which wasn't bad. Today on average it gets around 14,000 hits a day. in total since I started there have been 13,518,926. I received much help over the years from folk music fans to which I'm very greatful. Marc in particular has been a hugh help with working out the guitar part of some of the most complicated chord arrangement on certain songs.   I have received nothing but good will and support from all who come here, even well known singer songwriters have lent their support. Singers like Johnny Duhan who went to the bother of sending me all his popular songs and  who writes for Christy Moore, others like Seamus Robinson [R.I.P.] who was a regular contributory and friend who wrote such classic songs as Take Me Home To Mayo, there have been many more famous names who gave me encouragement but shall remain nameless for now. A big thank you to you all for Keeping The Tradition Alive And Kicking

There are several hunderd youtube videos on the site. These videos are only here as a guide to give you the gist of the timimg of the song. The videos may not be in the key that I have set the chords to any given song unless I have stated this. Several visitors to the site have written to be saying they are having problems playing along to the videos. Once again I say, play the song in a key that suits your own voice. For example Tommy Byrne from The Wolfe Tones plays a lot of songs in the key of F Major, this key won't suit most guitar players. If the chords I have given don't fit your voice then change the key of the song with the key changer

The +1 button on this site

The + 1 button on this site is a way to recommend Irish Songs And Guitar Chords to your friends. The + 1 button is by Google and if you have a google account and are signed in you'll see the + 1 logo when you do a google search and you can also see the logo displayed on this site's homepage at the bottom. When you click the + one button you're recommending this site to any of your friends that are also signed into their google account. You will be also helping this site gain new visitors by just clicking the + 1 button. I just thought I'd explain that in case you didn't already know.

Tablature For The Green Fields Of France

The tablature notation is now on site for The Green Fields Of France, as you may know this site is primarily for chords as opposed to ''tabs'' , but now and again I may place a bit of tablature to one or two songs. As The Green Fields Of France is one, if not the most popular folk song in the world this is the one I have sought out. The tabs have been worked out by a friend who teaches guitar and also plays in my local pub. It shows all the notes and how to play them. The link to the song is in the Eric Bogle section.

Feedback On Ballad Groups  Not Playing Rebel Songs

A while back I inquired as to why rebel songs were not being played at sessions anymore, I have received a considerable amount of feedback. The ansers came from several scorces including bands, session players, songwriters and punters attending gigs. To summerize the info. I will outline the main reasons in the fall off of rebel songs not being played. No1 reason is there are litteraly only a handfull of ballad groups left doing the pub sessions in Ireland so there's little chance to hear ballads as the norm in your local pub. No 2 reason is cowardice or fear my musicians who don't want to offend someone in the pub that may take offence at rebel songs being played. No 3 is also related to the fear factor by the musicians who are afraid to loose the gig by playing ballads insofar the publican may discontinue the gig.

New Mandolin / Banjo Section Open

A new page has been opened for mandolin players looking to learn the basics before moving on to the sheet music section. Im aware of the amount to mandolin players who come to the site learning songs and looking for ''tabs'' but unfortunatly I don't know how to write banjo or mandolin tabs. This new part of the site is mainly for beginners looking to learn the scale and get some easy chord shapes. If there's anybody out there with tabs can you please send them to me.

New Songwriters On The Site

If you're looking out for new songs to sing or record you are spoilt for choice her as singer songwriters continue sending me new songs they have written. Some of they may not be very well established in the folk world but there sonwriting skills are second to none. I'm thinking mainly of John Keogh who regurally sends me new lyrics and Mick Higgins. John hales from Ireland and made a life for himself in England where he spent the best part of his life at this stage and has put pen to paper writing about his life experences working in England, from songs about working on building sites and building roads to re-writing Perch French songs in his own style of humour. Mick Higgins is also from Ireland but now lives in Malta, Mick also loves to write funny songs about anything from the ''Ash Cloud'' to the Irish having a ball in Malta. Mick also wrote one of the best songs I've heard in ages called Herbies Song , I won't say what it's all about but you can take your own meaning from the words

How Blind People Read Chords For Guitar

Have you ever wondered how blind and vision impaired people read guitar chords on a website ? well I never really knew until I got an email from a blind man who comes to the site regulary. Blind people use a text reader for reading the lyrics on the screen. The man in question gave me some praise for the format I use to place the guitar chords between the lyrics and not over the words like most guitar sites do. When a text reader programme scans the text all it can do is read it line by line and if the chords are above the lyrics it will speak out the chords on top before moving to the next line of text which is the lyrics of the song. With the system I use the text reader will read for example the first word then the chord the next few words then the next chords and so on. This is not what I had in mind all them years ago when starting the site, it just so happenes the format I use is of great benifit to the visually impaired and I was delighted to know the site was of great value to all those who have a problem with their sight.

New Section For Tommy Sands Tommy Sands Songs

A new section has now been added to cater for Tommy Sands songs. This is in recognition for the enormous contribution Tommy has given to Irish folk songs and folk music in general. Several of Tommy's songs are very popular on the site including his massive hit There Were Roses. I hope to add more stuff by this great Irish songwriter soon.

A new section for abc notation has been added. Abc is a form of music for anybody that doesn't use sheet music but prefares simple lead notes. It's not just for tin whistle but for most musical instruments including banjo, mandolin piano accordion and so on. The sheet music section on the site gets about one third of all the visits I will ad to this section when I have more time.

Brian Warfield Speaks Out

Brian Warfield Wolfe Tones The Wolfe Tones have been asked by many of our fans on Facebook andTwitter to bring out a song to rally the Irish people and help them in their resolve to meet the difficult challenge ahead.  'A Nation Once Again' was suggested and I think it's a great idea. The problem is radio exposure, we need our stations to rally behind it too and they mostly have left behind the Irish ballad and The Wolfe Tones during the so called Celtic Tiger years in their rush to become global.   Many of the values held and built up by the Irish people over the years have been left behind and forgotten. A drug culture prospers and cocaine and dope replace the traditional pint in the pub. Laws were passed that criminalises people for having an evening dinner and a bottle of wine out with his wife and family while life has become cheap as drug gangs take over our streets. Rural Ireland is devastated as people are held captive in their own homes by these draconian over the top laws. The Irish session in the local is almost extinct except in some tourist areas.  A whole way of life was rubbished in the rush to Europeanise everything. Laws that suited other European countries with highly developed transport systems cannot suit rural Ireland or the Irish way of life.   Now the Irish people must seek change, we cannot leave things as they are, let's take back our country, we must make our voices heard, we must vote out all sitting members of the Dail and put in all new faces regardless of party.  It will shake the hell out of them. We need real change, it's no use just changing parties for Government, we must send a new group of people there and all old faces must go. They are responsible, they are all part of the system that watched over the disastrous policies.  .   They say that history repeats itself and if you read Irish history you would know that the so called Famine in Ireland almost wiped out all the old Irish customs because of the devastation, the starvation, disease, death and emigration. The aftermath of these catastrophic years brought despondency which obliterated almost all things Irish, the language, the music, the folk lore and a whole way of life. The succeeding generations rushed to anglicise [as they have done here in the past decades], discarding everything of value in Ireland in favour of an imported culture. A snobbery entered the hearts and minds of the Irish who embraced English ways and customs and all things Irish became second rate and repugnant to them. It took generations of our people to regenerate an interest in our music, language, dance and traditions until once again the Irish saw the beauty in their own music and song. Now I believe we have learned little from history because it keeps repeating and once again our ballads, songs, music and traditions are given little support while the imports are given preference and priority. I put my faith in the young generation who I believe will embrace the traditions and values of their country and are proud of the land that past generations have  fought and died for, and the traditions that they cherished for centuries.