Cover Story: Grace by Jim McCann, Caoimhe Mooney, Bobby Sands's granddaughter, a Beyonce-beating duo .... and Rod Stewart
May 03, 2024
Colin Randall writes: Nationalism gets a bad press. The word makes us think of hideous figure of the far right, all the way from Le Pen, Zemmour, Wilders and Meloni to Trump and - increasingly - the headbanger wing of the parliamentary Conservative Party.
For all that, I would have been, if born in Ireland, what the Irish call a nationalist, in other words a believer in the peaceful unification of north and south in a single, independent nation with both of the primary traditions, Catholic and Protestant, enjoying guaranteed constitutional and legal protection. Republican was the designation claimed by those who dropped the bit about being peaceful.
In 1916, those opposed to British rule staged a brave but ramshackle rebellion, proclaiming an Irish republic at last independent of Britain. If the timing of the Easter Rising was cynical, Britain then engaged in what falsely became known as "the war to end war", the response was brutal.
The beautiful balled Grace, written in 1985 by the brothers O'Meara, Sean and Frank, has as its hero Joseph Plunkett, a sickly poet and scholar and youngest of the 28 rebels executed by the British after the uprising was crushed. Grace, of course, is its heroine.
Grace Gifford as painted by William Orpen. Joseph Plunkett by unknown photographer
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The song tells not so much of his martyrdom in the cause of Irish freedom, but of his soon-to-be-lost love for Grace Gifford. They were allowed to marry in the chapel of Kilmainham jail in Dublin a few hours before his execution. Their married life consisted of the 15 minutes they were allowed together after the ceremony.
No one on the right of British politics, and few Ulster Protestants, will like Grace any more than they might take pleasure on hearing The Fields of Athenry or any other song portraying Irish nationalism or republicanism in a sympathetic light.
That's fine. I wouldn't choose to listen to The Sash My Father Wore, King Billy's on the Wall or Hijack the Popemobile.
For versions of Grace, we have a girl of 11, an out-and-out rebel band, a hunger striker's granddaughter and the late Jim McCann with the Dubliners. All of them do an excellent song justice.
There is another take on Grace that I haven’t mentioned yet. I enjoyed the younger Rod Stewart of Maggie May and Mandolin Wind fame but most of his subsequent work, commercially successful it was, left me cold.
His decision to record Grace was mildly brave, inviting criticism from flag waving Blimps and buffoons.
But he makes a commendable job of it, capturing the spirit and sacrifice of what McCann called “in every sense a love song”.
I hope Stewart has been able to shrug off the carping from those accusing him of glorifying the IRA and a few Irish people who ludicrously detect cultural appropriation. The latter group, I suspect, would refrain from levelling the same charge at the Fureys for recording No Man’s Land (which they renamed Green Fields of France), written about a British squaddie by the Scottish-born Australian Eric Bogle, or many songs composed by Englishmen and women but often sung by Irish artists. Think of Beeswing or Dirty Old Town. For that matter, Song for Ireland was written by an English couple, the late Phil and Sue Colclough, founders of the first folk club in Stoke-on-Trent but also lovers of the west coast of Ireland.
Those other impressive versions I referred to feature Sina Theil and Meadhbh Walsh, Erin Sands (granddaughter of Bobby), Caoimhe Mooney (11 when she recorded it) and, inevitably, the Wolfe Tones.
Others will have their own preferences, which may include versions not even mentioned here. For me, no one beats the Jim McCann, his eloquent spoken introduction as compelling as the faultless singing.
But I'll allow others a look in. Here, Stewart leads an open-air audience in Cork in a rendition that matches the enthusiasm of a Celtic Park crowd.
Instead of overloading this article with more clips, let me simply offer links to other versions:
Their version, which I include as much for the stunning cinematography as for the music, entered the Irish charts at No 1, knocking Beyonce off top spot
**The IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands's granddaughter Erin
***Caoimhe Mooney (just 11 when she recorded it)
FURTHER READING
* Reporting the Troubles and catching some great Irish music too
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