Joe Heaney-The Rocks of Bawn

Joe Heaney (Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) (1919-1984) aka Joe Einniu the premier sean nos singer from Áird Thoir, Carna, Connemara, Galway, Ireland. Joe sings, perhaps his most well known English language song in the early 1980s-The Rocks of Bawn.

[@marciastern9015]

It's so strange...my grandmother lived at 135 Central Park West, where he was the doorman for 20 years. I passed him all the time as a kid. Then he was actually teaching at Wesleyan when I went there ten years later, and never made the connection until about ten years ago, when I brought his retrospective CD and they mention135....suddenly the memories of that stern, tall, and astonishingly polite doorman flooded back.

[@veritasuno3304]

Thanks for sharing ...

[@wearethevoice475]

Joe Heaney used to sing this song to us and many others when he stayed with us in our pub, The Clarence, in Finsbury Park.

[@joeoneill475]

No one brings Connemara's hard earned heart felt beauty to life like Joe Heaney. What a gift.

[@SeanFolsom]

I was at this Concert, with Joe at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, just a short time before He passed away in Seattle, Washington, back in 1984. A local Irishman Mr Hearne, who hosted the Irish TV Show on Channel 26, also video-taped a wonderful interview with Joe, an hour before the Concert. In this Interview, Joe explained that Songs performed in the "Sean Nos" (Old Style) either in Gaelic, or in English, have to "Say a Song" with a Pulse, but not with a Rigid Tempo, and the Song is never "Said" in Exactly the Same Way each Time. Subtle Variation can be, and is, introduced during each moment throughout the Song's recitation, depending on the Feelings and Emotions of the Singer. R.I.P. Joe Heaney.

[@aidanholland8831]

Sum soung

[@jimdoyles]

Good man sean👍🇮🇪

[@jimbanda]

That's a great story, and a wonderful memory Sean 👏👏

[@stepno]

Great to see Joe again in this clip... I was lucky to be one of his last students at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1981-82, just before he moved west to Washington State and the great beyond.

[@MerleHeidi]

Pure sean nós singing. Perfect! Thank you for posting this. A delight to see him singing.

[@eamonnkelly8454]

Joe sang this for Erin Gibbons, my other half, and Kathleen Pryce, whose father Paddy Ptyce came from Eyrephort, near Clifden, in the Eagle Bar in Greenwich Village in the summer of 1981. He performed there once a week that Summer. She is still talking about it..

[@bonniemilner529]

Top shelf - remember him well from his days in NYC.

[@HEADSUPBERKELEY]

Oh so delightful to see Joe again such a masterful performer and ambassador of Irish culture and I so miss him now

[@bveracka]

One of the true gems that the Emerald Isle produced. A voice like a fine-tuned instrument. It's amazing how well he was able to carry a tune without any musical accompaniment. Such a talented man Joe was! 🍀

[@olivermoynihan9804]

Absolutely brilliantly..

[@frankkelch4553]

Never heard this before... great stuff.

[@eamondelaney539]

What a great piece of film. Well done.Gorgeous

[@frankflynn2543]

What a talent

[@dannymcintyre3819]

Gun robh math agaibh Joe from Scotland. Moran taing. You were a master. A genius.

[@charlottecolohan4527]

Excellent

[@B0bChorba]

Incredible.

[@reginamclaughlin3814]

lovely

[@iancusack9494]

definitive version

[@sentimentaloldme]

Sound man Joe ..ni fheicimid a leithead aris..

[@B0bChorba]

Reminds me a little of Welsh singer May Bradley's singing 'The Gown so Green'.

[@olliemoy8954]

What a voice what a song what a man ..this man make me want to drink pints of Guinness chased down with whisky

[@frankflynn2543]

Stirs the cockles of my heart

[@utopia3230]

RIP

[@linny1955]

music and song from the one voice.

[@danielthompson6207]

A fellow is as like to find a golden harp as he is to find a better singer of this tune

[@andrewcarrollbasketsandmor2660]

Galanta ar fad!

[@iankely]

Brilliant version,originally version was written by my Grandfather Patrick Kelly from Cashel in Cannamara

[@thomaskelly5349]

How did a Kelly get a name like ian

[@thegreenmage6956]

Thomas Kelly Well, Patrick is Welsh, from Phadraig...

[@TheFolkRevivalProject]

Are you certain that's true? I read that it was an 18th century song...

[@dukadarodear2176]

I'm a Kelly. I didn't know than one of my Clann wrote the R O B. Interesting.

[@Truthwillalwayswinoverlies]

​@@thegreenmage6956 it was the Irish gaels who brang Gaeilge Gaelic to Scotland and the Isle of man and parts of Wales the Scottish were pics from picland spoke pictish wipe out by the Saxons. Pádraic Pádraig Phádraic is Gaeilge not Welsh . And Patrick is Latin from patricius not Welsh either Tál

[@malindaloza7768]

well , hello Iam an Algerian studant at university , and Iam working on Joe Heaney's songs please I need an Irish citizen to help me . :( I love this song and Iam working on analysis his songs looking for the irish identity . please it's a part of my desseration for a master degree. thank you

[@michaelwalsh2498]

Hello, I might be able to help. My father grew up with Heaney in Carna and my mother is from the same area.

[@malindaloza7768]

+Michael W OMG!! Iam soo happy this is my E-mail : [e-mail] please , let's discuss Thank you soo much Iam totaly lost . I'll explain evrything to you there .

[@geraldinecreaven6009]

A nice exchange! How did your meeting go? Very interesting.

[@smelly9997]

Dude what ya wanna know

[@marianobrien503]

a gifted rendition of the ancient aran amhran muinse. mo cheoil thu

[@user-fs4sc4or8k]

I could listen to Joe every morning noon and and night what a true decant connemara man maiiered as sraithain

[@nomajj3241]

Ar fheabhas.

[@PotterPossum1989]

What are some good CD record labels for vintage Irish music, and artists performing it, both back then and in their older age? I prefer music from the 1890s to the 1970s, and like to see older-era artists who've recorded again in their old age.

[@PotterPossum1989]

Sorry for the redundant comment, it's late

[@reddwing4368]

Pogue mahone

[@utopia3230]

He was a truly great singer though.

[@som2479]

He was a fine singer certainly, RIP. Not all the Sweenys are bad though!

[@irenemax3574]

"Sweeney" is the author of the ballad, it is himself he is giving out about.

[@TheJan2866]

Brilliant I had shit rocks great song though

[@utopia3230]

You can't fight for Ireland's glory in a British regiment. Sorry!

[@utopia3230]

I suppose that's what they were told

[@patrickwilson8558]

Another way of looking at it, is the fear in Ireland at that time was conscription into the British Army. Perhaps he is actually challenging the Queen to try and conscript him into her army as then she would find out that he would fight for Ireland's freedom.

[@macspleen3628]

I think in the context of the song it makes sense. Rather take the soldiers wage than work yourself to death trying to get a spud out of the ground. I hear you though, seems contradictory

[@gibbano101]

the song is actually a loyalist labouring man song.

[@Horwitz86]

Ooo