Dublin, Ireland

Our journey continues south, crossing a bit of County Meath again to Dublin, which is both the name of the city and it's surrounding county.  The Greater Dublin area is home to almost a quarter of the population of the Republic of Ireland, so no wonder it is home to many great musicians.  The obvious place to start would be the Dubliners' version of Molly Malone, arguably the anthem of Dublin, but it is too obvious really and there is too much other good music to get through, so I'll just put a picture of the statue of Molly Malone up.

A lot of the music coming out of Dublin predictably has distinctly urban influences. Kila have been playing their contemporary interpretation of traditional music since 1987, mixing it with elements of rock and world music.  This one is a collaboration with Japanese musician Oki Kano and can be found on the 2006 album Kila and Oki.  The track is called Ní Liom Féin

A more recently formed outfit, Lankum are, according to their own description 'a four-piece group from Dublin, Ireland with an alchemical ability to combine traditional folk roots with contemporary undercurrents to forge music that is dark, mysterious and transcendental.'  Many of their songs have social issues as their theme.  Now I always like a drinking song, even if this is a sad one: Drinking Song from the Tomb from their album Cold Old Fire:

*edit: We went to see them on the 12th of July this year at the Earagail Festival in Letterkenny, County Donegal.  I highly recommend you see them if you get a chance:

Former electrician Daoirí Farrell has made a name for himself with his beautiful traditional singing style culminating in him winning the BBC Folk Musician of the year award in 2017.  Here's a wee set together with Blackie O'Connor from Co. Clare on Uilleann pipes.  Blue Tar Road can be found on his album True Born Irish Man: 

Glen Hansard started playing music on the streets of Dublin and shot to international fame playing guitarist Outspan in the 1991 movie The Commitments.  This song McCormack's Wall is from the album Didn't He Ramble:

The next song by Dublin born duo Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne I got from a compilation Rough Guide to Irish Folk and laments the futility of wars.  The Men That God Made Mad:

Mary Black has been a fixture on the Irish music scene for over 25 years.  This song, The Holy Ground is off the 1993 album of the same name.

This post could go on for a quite a while, but with a tear in our eye we will depart Dublin with a song by John Doyle, Bitter the Parting from his album Wayward Son: 

As usual you can follow my journey on this map.  Next stop County Kildare