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Margaret Barry

For the English children's writer, see Margaret Stuart Barry.

Margaret Barry
Birth nameMargaret Cleary
Born1 January 1917
Cork, Ireland
OriginCounty Cork, Ireland
Died1989 (aged 71–72)
Lawrencetown, County Down, Northern Ireland
GenresIrish traditional music, Sean-nós
OccupationMusician
InstrumentBanjo

Margaret Barry (1917–1989) was an Irish Traveller, traditional singer and banjo player.

Biography

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Born Margaret Cleary in Cork into a family of Travellers and street singers,[1] she taught herself how to play the zither banjo and the fiddle at a young age. At the age of sixteen, after a family disagreement, Margaret left home and started performing as a street musician.

In the early 1950s, she moved to London, originally to appear on a TV series called The Songhunter, produced by a young David Attenborough. Attenborough described in recent years how Barry’s striking wild, toothless appearance and her out-of-tune banjo playing prompted a volley of angry complaints about Irish tinkers being allowed on the TV.[2] Barry became a well-known name on the London folk scene in the 1950s where, with her distinctive singing style and idiosyncratic banjo accompaniment,[3] she was frequently accompanied by the fiddler Michael Gorman. Her singing and banjo playing became a major influence on the younger generation of ballad singers in Ireland and the UK, including Luke Kelly.[citation needed] She performed in the Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Centre in New York.[1]

One song for which Barry is particularly noted is "She Moved Through the Fair".[4] Asked by an interviewer, Karl Dallas, whether she had learned it from her family or from other Travellers, she replied cheerfully, "Oh, no. I got it off a gramophone record by Count John McCormack".[citation needed] The accompanying book to the Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set, Three Score and Ten, lists Her Mantle So Green as one of the classic albums[5]: 16  and "The Factory Girl" from Street Songs and Fiddle Tunes of Ireland with Michael Gorman is track 9 on the third CD in the set.

Street art dedicated to Barry in Cork City

A play, She Moved Through the Fair: The legend of Margaret Barry, co-written by Mary McPartlan and Colin Irwin had its debut in 2017 at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, as part of the Celtic Connections Festival.[6] Poet/songwriter, Frank Callery wrote a song for the centenary of Barry's birth.[7] Singer/songwriter, Tim O'Riordan, wrote a song in celebration of Barry, "The Heart of the Song (for Margaret Barry)" and recorded it on the album Taibhse in 2018.[8]

At the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2019, Barry was inducted into the Hall of Fame by American singer Peggy Seeger.[9]

Discography

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Crowley, Jimmy (2014). Songs from the Beautiful City- The Cork Urban Ballads. The Freestate Press. p. 269.
  2. ^ "Margaret Barry: wild Irish woman of the British folk scene". the Guardian. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
  3. ^ Byrne, Angela. "The 'Irish Tinker Lady' whose songs captivated London". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  4. ^ Molleson, Kate (24 January 2017). "She Moved Through the Fair / Leveret reviews – a touching tribute and classy and convivial folk". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  5. ^ Three Score and Ten Accompanying Book
  6. ^ "Folksinger and broadcaster Mary McPartlan dies at 65". www.rte.ie. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  7. ^ "Margaret Barry". www.audioboom.com. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  8. ^ "Taibhse Tim O'Riordan". www.timoriordan.hearnow.com. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  9. ^ Ye Vagabonds make it a treble at RTE Radio 1 Folk Awards.

References

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