Liam Weldon

Liam Weldon (15 October 1933 - 28 November 1995) was a singer and songwriter in the Irish folk tradition.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Liam like many people in inner city Dublin at that time, was moved out of the developing city to Ballyfermot, County Dublin.

Liam had a lifelong interest in the songs of the Irish Travellers and his own songs reflected a strong awareness of poverty, disadvantage and exploitation. His personal ballad style had features of other genres, but the precision of intent in his abrasive lyrics was unmistakable.

Six years working in England from the age of sixteen tempered his social awareness, but yet his lyrics often have deep lyric sensitivity. He sang first at the Central Bar in Aungier St., Dublin, and with his wife Nellie ran gigs and clubs through the 1970s.

[http://homepage.eircom.net/~fidil/Tribwebarticles99/990627.html]

He organised the Pavees Club in Slatterys on Capel Street and sessions in the Tailor's Hall and the Brazen Head. He was member of the group 'Sixteen Ninety-One', singing and playing bodhran often said to be the precursor of the Bothy Band, along with Tommy Peoples, Triona Ní Dhómhnaill, Peter Browne and Matt Molloy.

Liam is best known for his songs 'Dark Horse on the Wind' and 'The Blue Tar Road'.

'Blue Tar Road' indicts the Irish people for their indigenous racism implicit in the eviction of Traveller families by Dublin Corporation at Cherryorchard, County Dublin

'Dark Horse on the Wind', from 1966, criticised the 1916 commemorations in the face of what he saw as the failures represented by emigration and poverty:

"In the ashes of our broken dreams,
We've lost sight of our goal,
Oh rise, rise, rise, dark horse on the wind."

Dublin singer Frank Harte regarded Liam Weldon as someone who gave Dublin people an awareness of the culture of the city they occupied, and for Christy Moore he was "one of the great singers". Liam Weldon had other standards too - about performance, and in Harte's memory "he never tolerated anything but silence for a song."

A collector too, he was noted by Tom Munnelly (born May 25, 1944; died August 30, 2007), folk song collector and archivist, of the UCD Dept. of Folklore as "the only urban-based singer with a genuine interest in the lives and song of the Travellers". His songs are sung by singers such as Mick Flynn, Kevin Mitchell and Tim Lyons. Perhaps his power as a singer is summed up best by close friend Colm Keating who recalls the intense silence which he generated at the Ballyfermot Phoenix Folk Club while singing Patrick Galvin's James Connolly, when "the dishwasher filling up sounded like a waterfall".

Discography

*"Sixteen Ninety-One: Irish Folk Songs", 1973 (Arfolk, France)
*"Dark Horse On The Wind", 1976 (Mulligan, Ireland)(also on CD)
*"Liam Weldon with Pol Huellou", 1989 (cassette only, Goasco)and...
*"Séan Howley, Liam Weldon, Brian O’Donohue - Elixir" (on Goasco, no further information available)

ee also

*Traditional Irish Singers