Greetings from sunny Dublin, Ireland! I hope you are all well. I did a lot of recording, mixing and mastering work recently to get a new album recorded. As a Tír Enda member and Live stream watcher you already heard early versions of some of these songs. 

The name comes from the fact that I wrote a piece called The Mystery based around an interesting chord progression. Then I stumbled upon perhaps the first poem ever written not only in Ireland, but in Europe and it is also called The Mystery. It links in with the Milesian invasion of Ireland, with this poem recited by Amergin as a way to stop the storms created by the Fairies or The Tuatha De Danann. This translation is by our first president, Douglas Hyde (Dubhghlas De Híde) and it's the opening piece on the album. You should be able to listen to it below!

The Mystery
I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the murmur of the billows,
I am the ox of the seven combats,
I am the vulture upon the rocks,
I am the beam of the sun,
I am the fairest of plants,
I am a wild boar in valour,
I am a salmon in the water,
I am a lake in the plain,
I am a word of science,
I am the point of the lance of battle,
I am the God who created in the head the fire.
Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain?
Who announces the ages of the moon?
Who teaches the place where couches the sun?
                                   (If not I)

So the album begins and ends with a Mystery. You'll be hearing more about this in future most definitely. For now let me know what you think of the album cover. It's a picture of a dry stone wall from Inishbofin Island on the west coast and I feel it evokes the Mystery well. 

Click play below the lyrics to hear! 

I've been working on this for a few weeks now and keep meaning to share a video (I made several). I'll share those some other day. Today is the first mix of The Céide Fields and tír Enda members get to hear it first! The Cédie Fileds is a place in North Mayo where i went with my folks when i was young. There are stone 5500 year old stone walls buried beneath the peat bog that grew over them. The story of how they found them is intriguing but todays song ponders who the builders were and how they were farming on the coast 5500 years ago and just marveling at their accomplishments, building the walls "rock upon rock".

Deep Beneath the Ceide Fields Enda Reilly June 2026

The truth is buried where eyes can’t see

But they could feel it

Yes they could feel it

And they were searchin interacting and believing

To achieve it 

To achieve it

Deep Beneath x3

Deep beneath us in the underworld

Consumed by nature

By the Tuatha De Danann

A time capsule, an encasement

A preservation, an embracement

Deep Beneath x3

Deep Beneath x2 

The Céide Fields

Rock Rock upon Rock 

Rock upon Rock to build these walls we got

Rock Rock upon Rock 

Rock upon Rock to build these walls we got

And now we wonder who they were

Those ancients

our relations?

Can we uncover who we truly are

As a nation

 A nation?

Deep Beneath x3

Deep Beneath x2 

The Céide Fields

Rock Rock upon Rock 

Rock upon Rock to build these walls we got

Rock Rock upon Rock 

Rock upon Rock to build these walls we got

The truth is buried where eyes can’t see

I can feel it

I can feel it!

And still we’re searchin interacting and believing

To achieve it

To achieve it

Deep Beneath x3

Deep Beneath x2 

The Céide Fields

Deep Beneath x2 

The Céide Fields

I've been working on this song a long time and I think it's nearly there. Here's an explanation of what it's about and a first listen for you. The lyrics and a few pictures of the island are below to give you a feel for it. Thanks for listening and let me know your thoughts! Have you got a special place you think of in the hustle and bustle of modern life?

Lyrics 

The 12 Bens Of Galway

I dreamt in the night I went to Inishbofin. 

Took a plane, then a bus, then a boat to the island. 

Through Connemara, Clifden and Cleggan. 

Over rough seas to a piece of heaven.

To a bay with a beach like the Mediterranean,

And the Stags at the cliffs with dark waves thundering,

Two Island swans in a lake in the middle

And a white cow standing proud on a hill.

Past the hay-fields to the seaweed shore,

spend the day fishin’, reelin’ wrasse galore,

Out to Cromwell's fort by the boats in the bay.

Then back for a session with the lads at the Days,

Down the purple valley and out to the sea, 

The 12 Bens of Galway smiling at me.

There’s ten ton boulders flung by the Atlantic 

Where sheep eat greedily a green grass carpet

On a black peat bog a declaration 

I love you In white stone writing

Waking to the sound of the cock as he crows 

a walk around the island

On the wee windy roads 

Through the Summer Meadow the delicious air

I really caught a taste of heaven there

Down the purple valley and out to the Sea,

The 12 Bens of Galway smiling at me. 

Skies turn redder as the day is ending

Can I stay in this dream? Keep pretending

Its my memory I'm taking it with me

As I drive the streets of Detroit City.

Waking to the sound of the cock as he crows. 

A Walk round the island, 

On the wee windy roads 

through the summer meadow,

the delicious air

I really caught a taste of Heaven there 

Down the purple Valley out to the sea. 

The 12 Bens of Galway smiling at me.

Waking to the sound of the cock as he crows. 

A walk round the island, 

On the wee windy roads 

through the summer meadow,

the delicious air

I really caught a taste of Heaven there 

Down the purple valley out to the sea. 

The 12 Bens of Galway smiling at me.

Down the purple valley and out to the sea. 

The 12 Bens of Galway are still waiting for me.

Hey Tír Enda friends! have a great Valentines. here's a love song i wrote for my wife Anne Marie! 

Live at the Kilgour Scottixh Centre!

I'm experimenting with some different sounds and apps to maybe give my show a different musical dimension. let me know what you think?

On Raglan Road

On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.

On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion's pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay -
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.

I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that's known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May

On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay -
When the angel woos the clay he'd lose his wings at the dawn of day.

 

Last year I got to sing this one at Raglan Road on out Tour to Ireland which was special!

 

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas live Stream the other day! Here's something that i've been working on that wasn't appropriate for that, but I want to get it to you nonetheless. This year we got to go to Clonmacnoise in Ireland with the tour group and It was fascinating. It's an ancient monastic city on the river Shannon in the middle of ireland.

I found this poem recently which I felt was in need of a melody and so here it is for now. See below for some video and phots of Clonmacnoise itself which i took earlier this year. 

Here's the poem 

The Dead at Clonmacnois

In a quiet water’d land, a land of roses,  
     Stands Saint Kieran’s city fair;  
And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations  
     Slumber there.  

There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest          5
     Of the clan of Conn,  
Each below his stone with name in branching Ogham  
     And the sacred knot thereon.  

There they laid to rest the seven Kings of Tara,  
     There the sons of Cairbrè sleep—   10
Battle-banners of the Gael that in Kieran’s plain of crosses  
     Now their final hosting keep.  

And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,  
     And right many a lord of Breagh;  
Deep the sod above Clan Creidè and Clan Conaill,   15
     Kind in hall and fierce in fray.  

Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter  
     In the red earth lies at rest;  
Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,  
     Many a swan-white breast.

And below is some behind the scenes footage! We had great craic on the boat. I was busy singing and drinking so i got no footage of the singsong, but suffice it to say we had fun! 

I’ve put together a new video performance of Don Oíche Úd i mBeithil from my album Christmas Is With Us, and I’m glad to share it with you here. The poem goes back to the early 1600s and Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil. 

This version comes from my album Christmas Is With Us, and I hope this brings a moment of peace to your day Thanks, as always, for being part of Tír Enda.

I'm working on a new program for libraries called Songs And Stories of The Wild Atlantic Way and was looking for a WB Yeats poem with a reference to the sea. So I spotted this and thought it looked fun. Enjoy!

The Fiddler of Dooney

WHEN I play on my fiddle in Dooney,  
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;  
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,  
My brother in Moharabuiee.  
 
I passed my brother and cousin:          
They read in their books of prayer;  
I read in my book of songs  
I bought at the Sligo fair.  
 
When we come at the end of time,  
To Peter sitting in state,   
He will smile on the three old spirits,  
But call me first through the gate;  
 
For the good are always the merry,  
Save by an evil chance,  
And the merry love the fiddle   
And the merry love to dance:  
 
And when the folk there spy me,  
They will all come up to me,  
With ‘Here is the fiddler of Dooney!’  
And dance like a wave of the sea.

I took a notion to do a cover of this classic. Enjoy!

So you may have seen my facebook post about me learning more about Oíche na Gaoithe Móire or The Night of the Big Wind and I mentioned I'm writing a song about it. (It's the only way I learn stuff😅) 

As Tír Enda members you get to hear the full song as it is now first. I'm pretty happy with how the production worked out. This was just a demo but I'll see how it feels in a week or two, I might release it like this. Let me know what you think!

There's plenty to explain about in the lyrics so hopefully they aren't too cryptic. One thing is that Nollag na mBan is Little Christmas or the 6th of January when the gates of heaven are said to close, hence those references. 

The lyric is below along with the track. Press play or download. (Ignore the itunes and rss links)

The Night of the Big Wind

Come gather round and hear

Faoi oíche na Gaoithe Móire

For it was in the year of 1839

A deadly storm appeared

Struck without a warning

Lord God have mercy on 

The Night of The Big Wind

Sunday was strangely calm

It being Nollag na mBan

A flag of snow lay soft

Like fleece upon the land

As the quicksilver fell

The temperature was rising

Not a soul prepared for 

The Night of The Big Wind

The gates of heaven

This twelfth night started closing

Chimneys falling

Rooftops began exploding

Families fleeing, crawling

Lest they be blown away

Lord God have mercy on

The Night of the Big Wind

From Buncrana to Belfast down to Blarney

From New Ross to Kilkenny to Coolany

Three million trees down, birds and livestock slaughtered

Fires raged and water devastated.

In Mondays aftermath

They fed and clothed their neighbours

For when such terror strikes 

We must rely on favours

And when the world seems like

It’s coming to an end

Lord God have mercy on

The Night of the Big Wind

Lord God have mercy on

The Night of the Big Wind

So I picked the old book up at the book sale in Milwaukee Irish Fest earlier this year as I felt it might be a good theme for a song even though a bleak topic, it's given me an understanding of  Ireland's past that i wouldn't have had. It seems the book was originally bought for £4.95 in the duty free in Shannon.  I got it for 4$. Bargain.

So having read through the book and learnt a great deal, the challenge of getting the essence into the song began. There are so many stories in the book but hopefully I captured the gist of it for you. 

Click Press play or download. (Ignore the itunes and rss links)

Here's a version of an Irish song I've been working on. It's from Co. Kerry and mentions Dingle (Daingean Uí Chúis) but it's about a goat who goes on a rampage and our hero the singer of the song decides to jump on him for the ride. 

I heard this one online on instagram recently. I think it was Cathy Jordan from Dervish was singing it at a session and the Chorus seemed familiar so I've been learning the words and coming up with a version. A different key might suit better but for now this is where we are at. 

I got to spend an evening in London once with the writer Finbar Furey and his wife. Lovely people. 

A new original song from the forthcoming Hy-Brazil album.

I was in Tallaght in Dublin for my brother's wedding a few years ago and went for a drive on New Years Day up the Dublin mountains and into Co. Wicklow with my Mother. I was surprised how close to the suburbs the wilds of the Tallaght hills are and how easy it is to just go and enjoy gallivanting round the windy roads. 

Somehow day to day it feels lik

Somehow day to day it feels like we're farther from the wild, but it's still there to be had. So this is kind of my version of Go Lassie Go which was originally a call for Glaswegians to go out into the highlands. We've never needed to hear that call more than now. In this day and age when we're being lured into reels and stories, binge watching tv shows and glued to screens all day, I know I need a reminder to take the time to get out there and go exploring.

So thanks for taking a musical journey with me Off the Grid For A While. 

Available on endareilly.com, Spotify, Bandcamp. Youtube Music etc. and im delighted to be launching it in The Cobblestone, Dublin Thursday 9th May 2024. Tix from Eventbrite.
 

Hello and Merry Christmas to you all. You may have seen on social media that I attended the procession through Dublin for Shane MacGowan RIP. It was a wonderful send-off and I had an eventful day for me thereafter rambling around Dublin city, meeting friends and family. That night I woke at 2.30am in the morning and wrote the first draft of this, which I thought would just be a poem. Over the next few days It developed into a song, which I ultimately decided to call A Dublin Farewell, inspired by that day, Shane and The Pogues. So I hope you enjoy the tribute which will be out on all streaming services on Christmas Day all going well. Thanks to Anthony Gibney in Audioland, Leixip for fitting me in to record and mix the song.

It's now available to download on Bandcamp here 

For Spotify folks you can presave A Dublin Farewell here
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/endareilly/a-dublin-farewell

Lyrics

The streets were lined with mourners,
To follow. the coach and horses
Give the big man a send-off
Sing his songs all the verses
Though everyone was stunned
And I surely shed a tear
For A Dublin Farewell
They came from far and from near.

And I overslept
and still I had the fry,
And I almost missed bus
But I didnt did I?
And I ran the streets of Dublin
Like a lover gone astray
Has he gone to Tipprary
so far far away?

But he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes hearts and everywhere.

We couldn't see the band but
We could hear them off the walls,
You barely heard the tune,
But you knew all the words,
And phones were in the air
As the coach moved on,
For the free born man,
The Irish son.

And he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes, hearts and everywhere

And Eddie led us all
As we sang every call,
A Pair of Brown Eyes and Dirty Old Town,
Fairytale of New York, Rainy Night in Soho,
Though we could’ve stayed all day
The Gaurds said we had to go.

And he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes, hearts and everywhere

Inst

Then I tuned an old guitar
For a bar of lemon soap
And Pj played a song from Finnegans Wake
And the tv lads came in
to catch take 2
In Sweny's Pharmacy
And Shane was there too,

Yes he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes, hearts and everywhere

It was all over in minutes
Might as well've been hours
Til I found Kehoe's pub
and had a hot powers,
And it never rained at all
And the music still goes on
With the Artane Band and the Rising Sons.

And he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes, hearts and everywhere

I rambled to St. Annes
To hear carols from the pues,
The revenue choir
Singing their dues,
The whole church sang
With the grand piano,
And In Oh Holy Night
I swear I heard The Pogues.

And he was there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air
In our ears, eyes, hearts and everywhere

Yes he's still there
Somewhere
On the ground or in the air,
In our ears, eyes and hearts and everywhere
In our ears, eyes and hearts and everywhere