Turbulent Priest – Frank McNally on John Ball, the Peasants’ Revolt, and the last of the English Villains

An Irishman’s Diary

Cross-Border Beethoven – Frank McNally on a surprise connection between Beethoven and Big Tom

An Irishman’s Diary

The Mary Wallopers: ‘Folk was never supposed to be safe’

The Dundalk ballad band are tapping into the political power of folk, punk and hip-hop

Steve Coogan: ‘Come Out, Ye Black and Tans is two fingers to the British’

‘The whole history between the British and the Irish runs through me’, says Coogan

Come Out Ye Drunken Dads – Frank McNally on the curious reinvention of a spoof rebel song

Fintan O’Toole: It is time for Sinn Féin to come in from the cold

A real democratic alternative has to include the biggest party of radical change

Manhattan Transfer – Frank McNally on the surprise origins of a classic Irish drinking ballad, Finnegan’s Wake

Come Out Ye Black and Tans: Think you know what it’s about? You probably don’t

It has been on Alan Partridge and a Brady’s ham ad. So what does the rebel song mean?

The emigrant songs sung by the Irish men who built Britain

Homesickness is set against the gritty background of labouring life in 1960s London

Balladeer who got to the heart of the song

Jim McCann: October 26th, 1944 - March 5th, 2015

Dubliners singer Jim McCann dies at the age of 70

McCann also had a successful career as a solo artist and a member of the Ludlow Trio