Since the earliest days of the GAA, the ballad maker has played a significant role in the lives of players and supporters of our games. While the local and national newspapers chronicle the cold facts and figures of the various matches, it is to the ballad maker we look for the grass root detail and importance of the contest. And here he doesn’t disappoint, as he gives us the local, often partisan, version of events. The ballad maker has the ear of the locals, knows that extra tit bit of knowledge, rumour or gossip that adds flavour and spice to his compositions.
The ballad gives emotional insight to the vital role played by Gaelic games in Irish society. The ballad maker is the mouthpiece of the grass root Gael, who passionately breathes and lives our games. He has his finger on the local pulse; he recognises the social significance of local events, which he faithfully records with an extra flair borne on an intimate local insight.
Toady’s competing counties, both Limerick and Clare, have a rich heritage and tradition of both ballad making and ballad singing.
To a ‘Banner’ supporter, no doubt, The Lament for Tommy Daly, written by Bryan MacMahon, stands out. It is one of the greatest of all sporting songs and a most evocative tribute to a hurler, who many have considered the greatest of all goalkeepers. It is sung to the well-known traditional air: ‘Down Erin’s Lovely Lee’ or ‘She lives beside the Anner’.
‘But whenever Clare does battle, and whoever guards the goal,
When e’er the citadel is saved, the proud, the noble, soul
Of sterling Thomas Daly they shall recall and say:
‘God rest you, Thomas Daly, on your wing-swept hill today!’
On Shannonside, they too have their heroes. After Limerick’s 1940 All-Ireland victory over Kilkenny, Tommy Power from Effin, took pen in hand and celebrated his county’s great win with the ballad: ‘Mick Mackey and his Men’. Sung to the air: ‘Oh, Limerick is Beautiful’, it rouses the cockles of many a Limerick heart.
‘We followed you through Munster, and we shouted for your fame;
In Dublin’s far-famed pitch we stood, that bears a glorious name;
We jumped for joy, each man and boy, each maid and matron, when,
We saw the sheen of the White and Green of Mick Mackey and his men’.
Ballad makers and singers are part of our Gaelic heritage as is the story of Gaelic games.
