One of my saddest moments in recent months was being told of the passing of the brilliant traditional singer, Mick Quinn of Mullaghbawn. Being an amateur fiddle player and lover of sean-nos song, I had the honour to meet Mick at a singers' festival in Sligo last year and to share with him my rendering of the The Boys of Mullaghbawn, taught to me by the excellent songster, Kathleen O'Sullivan. The Boys of Mullaghbawn tells the sorrowful tale of harsh and capricious judicial process and punishment by transportation, and this song has thus been much in my head these past days in hearing of the extraordinary decision to prosecute Pastor James McConnell on account of polemical comments by him...
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