Liffeyside by Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O' Leary

'Liffeyside' by Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O' Leary.
From forthcoming album Hydra (August 2024)

Following the hand of fate which guided them from a remote village in the Austrian Alps to a tiny island in Greece, long time musical collaborators, Irish traditional singer and musician Nuala Kennedy and Dubliner / New Yorker singer songwriter Eamon O' Leary have created 'Hydra' a stunning new album of songs.

Recorded in an eighteenth century carpet factory on the Island of Hydra, the duo album vibrates with the bohemian charm and luscious sense of space that made this island so attractive to past luminaries such as Henry Miller, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lawrence Durrell, Leonard Cohen and his love Marianne Ihlen…

"Liffeyside" came to Nuala from her friend and mentor Cathal McConnell of Boys of the Lough, who joins the track on backing vocals. He in turn learned it from the singing of Delia Murphy, a 20th-century Irish song collector. Delia Murphy Kiernan (16 February 1902 – 11 February 1971) was a singer and collector of Irish ballads, who recorded songs from the 1930s to 1960s. During World War II, while her husband was the Irish Ambassador in Rome, Kiernan aided Vatican official Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in saving the lives of 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews.

"I fell in love with the song's universal theme of compassion," Nuala says. "And we adapted the chorus to make it more of a sing along, so everyone could join in..." Indie-folk singer Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy, Anais Mitchell are also singing on the track. And strings are provided by fiddler Liz Knowles (Martin Hayes).

Tracklist

1.	Nuala Kennedy & Eamon O' Leary - Liffeyside	3:25

Lyrics

"LIFFEYSIDE" LYRICS

When some crystal clouds of dawn o’er the moor are peeping,
Past the sheiling where my love through the night is sleeping,
From Liffeyside I call you, dear love, don’t ever be forlorn,
Dear love, the night is ending and soon will bring another dawn.

When at noon the sun is high in the sky above you,
Every living thing that moves seems to say that I love you,
From Liffeyside I call you, dear love, don’t ever be forlorn,
Dear love, the night is ending and soon will bring another dawn.

In the evening, by the fire, with crickets singing,
The swallows to their nests in the eaves are winging,
From Liffeyside I call you, dear love, don’t ever be forlorn,
Dear love, the night is ending and soon will bring another dawn.

Credits

released June 20, 2024
Liz Knowles - strings
Liffeyside Chorus - Cathal McConnell, Will Oldham and Anais Mitchell
Recorded at The Old Carpet Factory Hydra
Trad. arranged by Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O' Leary (PRS/MCPS)

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