As you might know, Delia was a pioneering figure in the history of Irish  song and recorded and performed extensively between 1930-1960 in Ireland and abroad. Some of her best known songs, still remembered today, are The Spinning Wheel and If I were a Blackbird. Delia was born in Co. Mayo and married Thomas Kiernan, Irish Ambassador. Despite travelling extensively and bringing up a family she continued with her singing career.

Liam Clancy attributed the success of Irish ballads today to Delia’s concerts and recordings and radio broadcasts acknowledged her as the first lady of Irish popular song.
Delia Murphy, The Queen of Connemara
Liam Clancy in talking about the importance of singer Delia Murphy said that she was a pivotal figure who took up the Irish ballad and turned it into something of her own. She was the single most important person in preserving this form of music and enabling it to have the life and popularity it has today.
      Delia Murphy lives on through her songs, still played on Irish radio today and reissued on CDs. She continues to be cherished by all those who loved her singing and remember her from the innumerable occasions she graced the airwaves of Radio Eireann with her popular songs. She is not forgotten for her many recordings heard on gramophone and in dance halls throughout Ireland and the wonderful concerts she sang in, both  at home and abroad.
      Murphs, as she was known, was born in 1903 in Mount Jennings, Claremorris, Co. Mayo. She was an open-hearted woman who did not like affectation and despite being the wife of an Irish Ambassador treated the ordinary and famous alike. From her earliest days she was attracted to the ballads she heard from wandering journeymen, minstrels, tinkers round their fire camps and anybody who had an ear for and a love of traditional lore. She described the songs she heard as tunes with spirit, truth and guts, different from the sentimental songs such as Moore’s melodies that had been popular since the beginning of the century.  Delia was the child of a wealthy family. Her father, born poor, made his fortunes in the Klondyke and Leadville mines and bought the big house when he came home. She was educated in Tuam Convent and later at University College Galway. Here she met and married Thomas Kiernan who began his diplomatic career when he was appointed Secretary to the Irish High Commissioner in London. From then on he was Director General of Radio Eireann and Ambassador in many countries from The Vatican to The United States.
      Delia had her own indomitable personality and despite her husband’s postings continued to make her songs popular through concerts,  impromptu appearances  and recordings. Well known songs of Delia include, If I were a Blackbird, The Spinning Wheel and Three Lovely Lassies but she is known and loved for many more and had a repertoire of hundreds.
•    Gerry Anderson will give an entertaining talk bringing you through Delia’s  life and times, drawing on his knowledge of  the singer as the first inspiration of his development as a ballad singer and traditional musician, interviewing those who knew her  and researching details of her life.
•    Márín O’Donovan adds a special dimension to the programme by singing some of Delia’s favourites, bringing them to  new listeners as well as those who remember them  from days gone by.
•    Carmen Cullen niece of Delia adds some family reminiscences and reads from her novel set in 1942 called Two Sisters Singing. Lily the main character of the novel is inspired by her famous aunt.  

Gerry Anderson

Gerry is a music teacher and guitarist for the Irish Italian group, Oltre Mara.
The  band was born to play  pieces of traditional music from  southern Italy and keep in touch with,  and be sensitive to, Irish cultural  elements.  "Oltremara's" target is to make  Mediterranean's musical and folk  patrimony known and create a cultural fusion with both Irish and other's  dance and musical traditions. The possibility of cultural exchange is integral to Oltremara’s vision and is the back bone to every musical and dance perfomance. The members have met in  Ireland by chance and all of them come from different musical and dance backgrounds.

Márín O'Donovan

A professional actress and belonging to a famous theatrical family, Maureen trained with her father's company, the late Frank O'Donovan (Batty Brennan in The Riordan's). Márín has played in theatres al over Ireland and has sung professionally with many of the Big Bands such as The Niall Kearns Dance Orchestra. She has appeared in countless films, Becoming Jane and H for Jacinta, to mention two and many TV productions and is filming at the moment with TG4 on the film Márú. She has a part playing opposite Sean Penn in his latest film, This must be the Place

Carmen Cullen

Head of English in a large Dublin second-level school for more than twenty years Carmen is now a fulltime writer. She has published four collections of poetry and her book Class Acts, plays and workshop material for schools  is currently on the Applied Leaving Cert’ course. She completed her MA in Creative Writing in Trinity College in 2008 and is working on her novel Two Sisters Singing from which her reading for the show takes place.