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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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..

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

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

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

Absolutely brilliantly..

Never heard this before... great stuff.

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! 🍀

What a great piece of film. Well done.Gorgeous

What a talent

Excellent

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

Incredible.

lovely

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

definitive version

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

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

Stirs the cockles of my heart

music and song from the one voice.

RIP

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

Galanta ar fad!

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

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

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.

Ar fheabhas.

He was a truly great singer though.

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

Brilliant I had shit rocks great song though

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

Ooo