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Of course, he toured constantly from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, and that—together with the alcohol that went with it—took a toll on his health. But when he had rested and recovered, none of those skills had left him.

He’s more of a singer of other people’s songs, in the Irish tradition, than a songwriter, although he’s written plenty. But he has spent a lifetime listening, both to the traditional repertoire and to the work of contemporaries, at home in Ireland and elsewhere.

His range as a singer is also phenomenal. He is as at home singing a gentle love song, a traditional song about blacksmiths, an angry political song or a rollicking modern ballad, such as Joxer Goes To Stuttgart. So even if Christy Moore had just been a performer he would be one of the outstanding figures of his generation. 

But, of course, that’s not the whole story. 

It’s impossible to overestimate the role that Irish music has played in creating the idea of the modern Ireland, and its transformation from a conservative insular state dominated by the Catholic Church to a secular outgoing country. And Christy Moore has been at the heart of this.

He was central to the creation of Planxty, which in the judgment of Mal Rogers created “a massive international audience [by] playing traditional music with a rock attitude”, and also by building on the work of the Clancys and the Dubliners. And almost immediately after that, in co-founding the Moving Hearts with Donal Lunny, he helped take Irish folk music electric.   

Since his first solo record, Paddy on the Road, was released in 1969, Christy Moore has recorded more than 20 studio albums and another six live recordings. And that isn’t counting his records with Planxty and Moving Hearts. This is a long way of saying that picking any 12 songs from such a huge catalogue is going to leave a lot of fine songs out. 

The rules here were that we could make four choices each, and they had to come from his solo work. As ever, do tell us in the comments what we should have included.

The playlist

(1) Ordinary Man. This timeless song is as relevant today as when it was written. Factories are still being shut down, and workers are being left with empty pockets and no prospects, while the fat cats get fatter. Moore paints the picture with a resolute voice and charged performance. (SP)

(2) The Dark Eyed Sailor. Moore is as fine a traditional ballad singer as you’ll find—truly one of the greats. A maid has been waiting for her sailor’s return after seven long years. She does her best to ward off a young rake’s attention—only to discover he is her William. It’s an old story—yet always fresh when sung by Moore. (SP)

(3) City of Chicago. This is one of the great songs about Irish emigration—actually, about emigration generally—and Christy Moore sings one of the best versions of it. Appropriately, since it was written by his brother, the singer Luka Bloom. (AC)

(4) Missing You. Written by Jimmy McCarthy about an Irish building labourer in London. It’s a finely crafted miniature about the pain of exile, casual racism, and the impossibility of going home. (AC) 

(5) Magdalene Laundries. Moore is a fine interpreter of other people’s songs, as we have noted often enough in our Cover Stories series here. This is his version of Joni Mitchell’s song about one of the great scandals—here from a live performance at The Point in Dublin.

(6) Smoke and Strong Whiskey. Bleak descriptions of everyday life may seem unpromising material but Moore turns them into a magical  song of lyrical power and musical brilliance. (CR)

(7) Delirium Tremens. A Christy Moore original that takes the form of a talking blues and turns it into something uniquely Irish. Live, the audience always claps along with the chorus: “Goodbye to the port and brandy, to the vodka and the stout…” (AC)

(8) Lyra McKee. Moore famously mellowed over the years, his thoughts on the ‘armed struggle’ changed radically by events such as the IRA’s Enniskillen bombing. Here, he gives wholehearted voice to James Cramer’s song denouncing the killing of a young journalist as she covered a dissident republican riot in Derry. (CR)

(9) On the Bridge. Deploring terrorism is easy, deploring injustice somewhat harder. But one measure of a decent approach to law and order, crime and security is how those suspected even of evil acts are treated. This song stands as an eloquent condemnation of the stripsearching of female Republican prisoners held without trial. (CR)

(10) Greenland. Drawn to tales of the glacial North, I naturally gravitated to this song about the frozen landmass. A hunter, bound to the ice and rocky shore, must leave his harsh existence behind. In hushed tones, Moore tells of the sorrow in his parting. (SP)

(11) Viva  la Quinta Brigada. The Irish contribution to the anti-Franco International Brigades captured with snapshots of some of the men who fought to ‘stem the Fascist tide’ in the Spanish civil war. (CR)

(12) Ride On. This song may be an obvious choice, but it was my gateway into Christy Moore. It’s a gut-wrenching tale of a broken heart and separation; Moore vividly paints a portrait of a man grappling with the end of a love he cannot save. The song has become an anthem for the hurt and lonely. (SP)

The playlist can also be listened to on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6gikXQYmAqQEzurKkvfHjI?si=srP-zioFTXq8h3YAPDNoeg&pi=7eivdwUmTOGzi

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