Man, Woman and Child is a research and performance project devised and co-ordinated by Michael Fortune and Aileen Lambert and for 2015 features Irish singers Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, Máire Ní Chéilleachair, Anne Skelton, Gerry Cullen, Phil Callery and Alasdair Roberts from Scotland.

This is the third and final strand of this hugely successful and influential project which is based on The Child Ballad Collection, a collection of traditional songs published by the American collector Francis J Child in England and Scotland between 1882 and 1898. Although many of the songs, or variants of them, are sung in the Irish tradition, no comprehensive study and performance of the ballads had been undertaken in Ireland prior to this project. 

Since this project began, a total of ninety “Child Ballads” have been researched and performed at concerts in Dublin, Limerick and in various singing sessions around the country. The effect of this recently came to the attention of Jim Carroll, one of Irelands most noted song collectors, who attributed the rise in the great number of narrative ballads being sung at singing workshops and festivals as a direct influence of the Man, Woman and Child Project. 

In conjunction with the concert, Jerry O’Reilly will also present a seminar on Child Ballads in Ireland, entitled “Early Classic Ballads in the Irish Song Tradition” while there will be a re-launch, on CD, of Hugh Sheild’s and Tom Munnelly’s double tape collection from 1985 entitled ‘Early Ballads in Ireland’ before the concert. 

Following the concert there will be a themed Child Ballad Singing Session in An Góilín Traditional Singers‘ Club in The Teachers’ Club which will feature a gathering of current and past participants from the project, plus regular club members. 

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Man, Woman and Child 2015 Programme:

Seminar: 1pm, Friday 11th December, National Library, Kildare Street. Adm. Free

CD Launch: 6pm, Friday 11th December, National Library, Kildare Street. Adm. Free 

Group Concert: 7pm, Friday 11th December, National Library, Kildare Street. 

Adm. €10 or €8 concession. 

Child Ballad Singing Session: 9.30pm, Friday 11th December. An Góilín Traditional Singers’ Club, Parnell Square. Adm. €3

No booking required, however early arrival advised. 

Further info please call Michael 087 6470247

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The first phase of the project began in 2013 and involved the following singers; Luke Cheevers and Niamh Parsons, John Tunney and Brigid Tunney, Mick Fowler and Rosie Stewart, Tim Lyons and Aileen Lambert. Forty-five songs from the collection were performed over four nights of concerts in the National Library, Kildare Street, Dublin, in November and December 2013. The project also featured a talk on Child Ballads in Ireland by Dublin singer Jerry O’Reilly entitled “There was a Lord Who Lived in this town – Early Classic Ballads in the Irish Song Tradition”.

The 2014 phase involved singers: Grace Toland and Jim MacFarland, Sandra Joyce and Hammy Hamilton, Róisín Gaffney and Fergus Russell, Róisín White and Len Graham. The four concerts were presented in the NLI in November and December 2014. Jerry O’Reilly again presented a talk on Child Ballads featuring recordings and live performances related to the songs selected by this years group of singers. Please click on the images below to view and listen to recordings from all of these events.