John Doc - The Fields of Athenry

johndoc.co.uk
The Songs of Ireland, taken from the definitive source! Originally uploaded in 2021 sourced from a cassette belonging to Bobby Reynolds, the last President of Cleland Miners Ian Watt reached out to me last year with these jewels from the distant past to share with you all, featuring songs that would be ever present throughout John Docherty's career when he was performing many a venue that he would become synonymous with.
In memory of Robert McCallum Reynolds and David King Taylor Shanks.
Listen to the rest of this album below:
• The Songs of Ireland
John Doc's rendition of the Irish ballad The Fields of Athenry, written by Pete St. John and recorded by many artists over the years, including The Dubliners, The Wolfetones and Danny Doyle among others.
The song has been seen as a sporting anthem, regularly heard from on the terraces in the late 1980s from supporters of the Galway county hurling team. The song was adopted by Republic of Ireland national football team supporters during the 1990 World Cup and subsequently by Celtic supporters in the early 1990s.
Celtic Football Club has a large following in Ireland and among people in Scotland of Irish descent. During the Great Famine in Ireland during the 1840s, 100,000 Irish famine victims emigrated to Glasgow. When Celtic's long-serving Irish goalkeeper Packie Bonner had a testimonial match in 1991, he invited Pete St. John to attend the event and speak to the crowd before the game. St John began by thanking Glasgow for looking after the famine victims, and then began to sing "Fields of Athenry", accompanied by thousands of fans. He later described it as one of the most memorable moments of his life.
The song's popularity, due in part to its use at sporting events, has helped to attract tourists to Athenry. In recognition of this, the town's officials invited Pete St. John to a civic reception and presented him with a mace and chain as a token of their appreciation.
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The website that was launched for The Doc serves two purposes - to celebrate the life and music of one of the finest voices to ever grace these shores, and to seek out any additional material that may still be out there of Doc, especially the master tapes of his officially released albums.
Thanks to founder of Nevis records and legendary Scottish songwriter Jim McLean, he amazingly gifted me the master tape of Doc's first album At The Carousel to digitize and share, and would have done likewise with the second master tape, but unfortunately, it wasn't in his possession. The master tapes of At The Carousel Volume II, At Hasties Farm and At Cowie Bowling Club are still out there somewhere, and if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of the master tapes or any information on the recordings itself, avenues I should seek out etc, it would be greatly appreciated. Names that may be of help are: Sam Plotnikoff, Graham Gordon, Billy Brown and Keith Mitchell. If anyone knows these gentlemen, please pass on the website listed above where they can reach out to me via the contact form should they have any information that would be of use.
Slainte!
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The Doc's officially released discography below:
At The Carousel:
• John Doc - At The Caro...
At The Carousel Volume II:
• John Doc - Together Again
At Hasties Farm:
• John Doc - Everybody K...
At Cowie Bowling Club:
• John Doc - Sweet Dreams
Sincerely Yours:
• John Doc - Yours (Quié...
Easy Listening:
• John Doc - Everything ...