If you'd like to leave a message in the guest book, please write below...always good to hear from you!
February 23rd 2013 Wales
Hi Colum,
What a great site! Glad to see you are super busy on the gig front, I'm looking forward to when you are playing around this area again so I that can catch the show and maybe bring some friends. It was a privilege to open for you before at the Tredegar House Festival Newport, I was chuffed.
Alan Coles
December 26th 2012 England
Hello Colum, it's the first time I've peeped at your blog page, loved the story of your newly aquired gate!
Marian
October 29th 2012 Germany
Dear Colum,
I had the pleasure to hear you in Munich.
And as you gave some translation assistance to the audience ... maybe you would like to sing one verse of your famous "Whatever you say, say nothing" in German next time.
Herzliche Grüsse, claus-peter lieckfeld
...
Was immer du sagst, sag garnichts,
wenn man dich fragt: was war?
Weil besser man sagt: >>Da war nichts
Und ich war garnicht da.<<
Sonst fragt man dich am Ende noch
Wieso weshalb warum
Dann schließ den Mund und dreh dich auf der Stelle einfach um.
October 7th 2012 Germany
Dear Colum!
Thank you so much for coming to the Sauerland. It was such a pleasure to attend your heart warming almost private concert at rische's in Drolshagen two days ago! We very much enjoyed listening to your songs and stories from Ireland and around the world. Your experiences prove that it is a matter of consciousness whether we are able to communicate with and learn from each other on whatever continent we live.
Hope to see you again!
Best wishes, Jutta
September 22nd 2012 Israel
"Will ye no come back again?"
I listened to and spoke to you at the Jacob's Ladder Festival in 200? and have been smitten ever since. Your observation and understanding of humanity is certainly a rare gift and together with your voice and musical talent is a thoroughly inspiring combination. Have 4 of your disks so far but would love to hear you "Live" again.
Paula ( the one born in Oamaru/NZ where the Blue penguins are.)
September 10th 2012 England
Wonderful to see you at Swanage, come back soon!
Bob Kirkpatrick
August 13th 2012 England
Hi Colum,
It was great to hear you play at Saltburn. It was an exceptional festival with really great music and craic. I didn't get to play my songs for you but I'll put a cd in the post some time. I played your Live in Concert album. Your performance is full of warmth and humanity.
Hope we'll bump into one another again sometime,
Best Regards,
David
July 23rd 2012 BC Canada
Thank you for bringing such joy to the folks at the Mission Folk Festival in BC Canada
You made us laugh, cry and sing.
Hope you made it home safe to Ireland again. My husband and I really enjoyed your music as did everyone else .
You are such a "peace ambassador from Northern Ireland"
May the road always be kind to you.
Shiela Simpson
July 24th 2012 BC Canada
Colum,
It was great to see you perform at the Mission Folk Music Festival this past weekend, and to chat with you too! You brought memories of home and my childhood flooding back through your words and songs. Thank you for that and the laughter! Keep it going please!
Cathy
July 9th 2012 Bristol
Dear Colum
I saw you this weekend at Priddy Folk Festival. I had never heard you before and was really delighted by your songs and story telling. Such gentleness and humour - a lift to my spirit and plenty to ponder on in the days to come.
Thank you,
Annie
July 2nd 2012 County Down
Saw you in concert in "An Riocht" recently for Fr. Nicky Hennitys Mombasa charity.
Could have listened to you all night and that was the feeling of everyone I spoke to.
Just loved "Going down to the well with Maggie". Loved all the songs and your great art of telling a story.
Long may you continue to bring such joy to people in such a lovely gentle manner.
Teresa
June 24th 2012 Australia
Are you planning to visit Australia again any time soon? We would love to see you here.
Joyce
May 30th, Carlow, Ireland
I have just seen your updated website, Colum, it looks really good, I love the photos at the top of each page with the song words....also very interesting blog, intend to visit again soon and read more!
Love
Mary
May 26th Hanau, Germany
Dear Colum,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you from good old Hanau from the Grimm-Sister. I hope you've had a great day. The last concert was very great. I enjoyed the atmosphere.
Hope to see you soon - next year?!
Love Andrea
May 8th 2012 Leicester
Congratulations Colum and Owen McFadden for the 'The First Irish LP' BBC 4 radio today. It made great listening especially the interviews with the folk, their character really came through and gave another dimension to the Irish culture. Great to hear Christy Moore perhaps we could get him to Fidders Green one year? We hope there will be a follow-up programme to bring us to the present day.
Brian and Marion
March 9th 2012 Iona, County Antrim
Hear you're going to be in Ballymena soon - hopefully we'll see you at the Braid!
Iona Bailie
March 1st 2012 Erika and Philip, Australia
Hi Colum, I was captivated by you ay the National Folk Festival in Canberra a couple of years ago. The Night is Young is my number ons song.A song to be shared with many. Keep on journeying and resting, hopefully to Canberra again. Warm wishes, Erika
January 14th 2012 Sharon Aviv, Israel
Hello Colum,
What a beautiful website, well done and congratulations for the creative year ahead. I wish you a wonderful 2012 with lots of good surprises and new roads to new places. Love to all the family. Sharon
November 26th 2011 David Cunningham, Australia
Just been watching an old concert by Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem at the Olympia in Dublin and they sang one of your songs, "Whatever You Say Say Nothing", which I LOVE!
Already learned it and worked out the music but it prompted me to go further and visit your web site. To be honest, I'd never heard of you before but I hope you'll be in Australia soon because I'll be front and centre.
You do some brilliant stuff! I've got four of your songs on my "to do" list and apart from "Whatever...." my favourite is "The Mortgage Song"! Brilliantly funny and so topical. Looking forward to the reaction the first time I do it in public, and with that goes the usual acknowledgements to its source.
Please come out to Australia soon.
Slainthe, Dave Cunningham
November 25th 2011 Shiela, Co. Limerick Ireland
Colum, I attended your show at Friar’s Gate theatre this week and I wanted to say thank you. Your storytelling and your songs were a salve for a moment in time, for me. Best, Sheila
Aug 22nd 2011 Peter Murphy, New York
Please come and perform in NY. Love your songs!
Aug 5th 2011 Gabi, Germany
After one week at home, I think my soul is still in Irland ;-)).Thanks for a great concert in Castleblayney.
Glad that I now know an other part of the family ;-)).Hope to see you all soon. Gabi
July 30th 2011 Mirjam, Scottish Borders
Great new website :)) Hope to catch you in the not too far away future along the musical road x
June 23rd 2011 Sean Stanage Nottingham
Colum, it is great to see that you will be at Festival at the Edge in England this July. Bring plenty of CDs over: you'll go down a storm.
June 6th 2011 alan.jcoles England
Absolutely fantastic today Colum, thanks so much for sharing your gifts with us. The album is brilliant. Alan
May 31st 2011 Beverley Tanner
Can't wait to see you at the Tredegar House Folk Festival
April 6th 2011 famous.seamus.walsh, Co Clare
Delighted to see you in Sixmilebridge again. You mentioned the two blind musicians Dunne in your Buskers song. We have happy memories of the Dunne brothers here in Limerick. There were three of them, they were brothers, they were uncles to Mickey Dunne the piper and Christy Dunne the banjo player. If you heard two of them it was probably Michael and Christy. The third brother was named Hanta although he seems to have used the name Joseph, which seems to be how he is mostly remembered.
Paddy "Pecker Dunne" also seems to be related although exactly how I don't know.
The father of our present Mickey and Christy was also Paddy Dunne to add to the confusion and a great fiddler.
Not only did they keep the music alive they also recycled the names through the generations the better to confuse us!!!!
They are mostly remembered playing outside Roches Stores but both my brother Brendan and I remember them playing outside Woolworths which would have been a very busy shop then. This would have been in the middle 60's.
I mentioned a CD which I have of them playing at that time. The story there is that after the death of Brendan's father-in-law Frank [Frank Snaps] Goggin, some old reel-to-reel tape came to light with Frank singing and accompanied by the brothers, also of them playing, sometimes together and also some solo pieces. At that time they were housed in the Ballinacurra/Weston area and Frank would visit them there. They seem to have been living in pretty poor conditions at that time, sadly. On a happier note their music has now passed to two new generations of the Dunne family.
This material was put on CD and a copy was given to Mickey Dunne.
The University of Limerick in their NOMADS project did great work compiling the history of this and other musical traveling families.
A good site I was directed to is clarebannerman on you tube music which contains photos and even video of them.
Keep up the good work
SEAMUS
March 31st 2011 Matt Ryan, Ireland
Hello Colum, Just a quick note to say how much we enjoyed your show in Croc An Oir on Saturday last. My wife and I are both agreed, it was the best nights entertainment we’ve had in years. The characters you speak and sing about are so vivid I felt I knew them personally, they certainly travel with you. I picked up some of your CD’s on the night and we have been listening to them continuously since. Also, my daughter gave me a present of your book for my birthday, it’s a beautiful work. Once again, thanks for a great show and we will be on the look out for future visits to the Tipperary area. Regards, Mattie and Margaret Ryan. Thurles.
March 17th 2011 bigalguitarpicker
Hi Colum, I'm the singing chef ( Boy how I've avoided that name down the years!) who ye met at the Silent Valley long ago, and then later in the restaurant beside Moira Roundabout. Did Barney ever get the solo album out? I think I told ye I worked for Patsy Mooney in Cupids, (fed your ones!) I was scouring through YouTube looking for Brendan Monaghan, the Uilleann piper from Dromore, and the only hit I found was him playing with yez about 25 years ago. It had to be that long ago, cos he's skinny in the video, and like me, skinny isn't there any more! Best wishes, Alex.
March 16th 2011 windyridge Leicester
Just poppped onto your page to have a listen to your radio programme (second time this week) Colum, Wow, loved the new site and ahh the photographs can't wait to be back in Rostrevor. All the best to you and yours. Marian and Brian
Jan 24th 2011 Mark, South Africa
Dear Colum, My name is Mark Lagan, I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm born and bred South African but my dad is from The Rock, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. I came to your music recently via a cd my aunt Deridre Eastwood ( she is a potter and artist and lives in Cookstown) sent. Your live cd is wonderful and the stories and songs you tell and sing are so fitting for our country too. Like Ireland, South Africa has been split on ridiculous lines and we are a nation trying to come to terms with transformation. We are also a nation of great hope. I know you travel a lot and you may have already been here - but if not really think you should come. You would be welcome in our house any time. Kind wishes, Mark
Jan 12th 2011 Anne, Germany
Dear Colum,
What a great new website!
I love the few words of songs on the pictures. Of course I all sing it instead of simply reading it.
And be sure I'll be back here soon.
Warm winter-hug
Anne
Jan 1st 2011 Martin, London
Like the new site, look forward to see some more UK dates, when you coming back to London? Keep up the good work! Martin
Hi Colum,
What a great site! Glad to see you are super busy on the gig front, I'm looking forward to when you are playing around this area again so I that can catch the show and maybe bring some friends. It was a privilege to open for you before at the Tredegar House Festival Newport, I was chuffed.
Alan Coles
December 26th 2012 England
Hello Colum, it's the first time I've peeped at your blog page, loved the story of your newly aquired gate!
Marian
October 29th 2012 Germany
Dear Colum,
I had the pleasure to hear you in Munich.
And as you gave some translation assistance to the audience ... maybe you would like to sing one verse of your famous "Whatever you say, say nothing" in German next time.
Herzliche Grüsse, claus-peter lieckfeld
...
Was immer du sagst, sag garnichts,
wenn man dich fragt: was war?
Weil besser man sagt: >>Da war nichts
Und ich war garnicht da.<<
Sonst fragt man dich am Ende noch
Wieso weshalb warum
Dann schließ den Mund und dreh dich auf der Stelle einfach um.
October 7th 2012 Germany
Dear Colum!
Thank you so much for coming to the Sauerland. It was such a pleasure to attend your heart warming almost private concert at rische's in Drolshagen two days ago! We very much enjoyed listening to your songs and stories from Ireland and around the world. Your experiences prove that it is a matter of consciousness whether we are able to communicate with and learn from each other on whatever continent we live.
Hope to see you again!
Best wishes, Jutta
September 22nd 2012 Israel
"Will ye no come back again?"
I listened to and spoke to you at the Jacob's Ladder Festival in 200? and have been smitten ever since. Your observation and understanding of humanity is certainly a rare gift and together with your voice and musical talent is a thoroughly inspiring combination. Have 4 of your disks so far but would love to hear you "Live" again.
Paula ( the one born in Oamaru/NZ where the Blue penguins are.)
September 10th 2012 England
Wonderful to see you at Swanage, come back soon!
Bob Kirkpatrick
August 13th 2012 England
Hi Colum,
It was great to hear you play at Saltburn. It was an exceptional festival with really great music and craic. I didn't get to play my songs for you but I'll put a cd in the post some time. I played your Live in Concert album. Your performance is full of warmth and humanity.
Hope we'll bump into one another again sometime,
Best Regards,
David
July 23rd 2012 BC Canada
Thank you for bringing such joy to the folks at the Mission Folk Festival in BC Canada
You made us laugh, cry and sing.
Hope you made it home safe to Ireland again. My husband and I really enjoyed your music as did everyone else .
You are such a "peace ambassador from Northern Ireland"
May the road always be kind to you.
Shiela Simpson
July 24th 2012 BC Canada
Colum,
It was great to see you perform at the Mission Folk Music Festival this past weekend, and to chat with you too! You brought memories of home and my childhood flooding back through your words and songs. Thank you for that and the laughter! Keep it going please!
Cathy
July 9th 2012 Bristol
Dear Colum
I saw you this weekend at Priddy Folk Festival. I had never heard you before and was really delighted by your songs and story telling. Such gentleness and humour - a lift to my spirit and plenty to ponder on in the days to come.
Thank you,
Annie
July 2nd 2012 County Down
Saw you in concert in "An Riocht" recently for Fr. Nicky Hennitys Mombasa charity.
Could have listened to you all night and that was the feeling of everyone I spoke to.
Just loved "Going down to the well with Maggie". Loved all the songs and your great art of telling a story.
Long may you continue to bring such joy to people in such a lovely gentle manner.
Teresa
June 24th 2012 Australia
Are you planning to visit Australia again any time soon? We would love to see you here.
Joyce
May 30th, Carlow, Ireland
I have just seen your updated website, Colum, it looks really good, I love the photos at the top of each page with the song words....also very interesting blog, intend to visit again soon and read more!
Love
Mary
May 26th Hanau, Germany
Dear Colum,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you from good old Hanau from the Grimm-Sister. I hope you've had a great day. The last concert was very great. I enjoyed the atmosphere.
Hope to see you soon - next year?!
Love Andrea
May 8th 2012 Leicester
Congratulations Colum and Owen McFadden for the 'The First Irish LP' BBC 4 radio today. It made great listening especially the interviews with the folk, their character really came through and gave another dimension to the Irish culture. Great to hear Christy Moore perhaps we could get him to Fidders Green one year? We hope there will be a follow-up programme to bring us to the present day.
Brian and Marion
March 9th 2012 Iona, County Antrim
Hear you're going to be in Ballymena soon - hopefully we'll see you at the Braid!
Iona Bailie
March 1st 2012 Erika and Philip, Australia
Hi Colum, I was captivated by you ay the National Folk Festival in Canberra a couple of years ago. The Night is Young is my number ons song.A song to be shared with many. Keep on journeying and resting, hopefully to Canberra again. Warm wishes, Erika
January 14th 2012 Sharon Aviv, Israel
Hello Colum,
What a beautiful website, well done and congratulations for the creative year ahead. I wish you a wonderful 2012 with lots of good surprises and new roads to new places. Love to all the family. Sharon
November 26th 2011 David Cunningham, Australia
Just been watching an old concert by Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem at the Olympia in Dublin and they sang one of your songs, "Whatever You Say Say Nothing", which I LOVE!
Already learned it and worked out the music but it prompted me to go further and visit your web site. To be honest, I'd never heard of you before but I hope you'll be in Australia soon because I'll be front and centre.
You do some brilliant stuff! I've got four of your songs on my "to do" list and apart from "Whatever...." my favourite is "The Mortgage Song"! Brilliantly funny and so topical. Looking forward to the reaction the first time I do it in public, and with that goes the usual acknowledgements to its source.
Please come out to Australia soon.
Slainthe, Dave Cunningham
November 25th 2011 Shiela, Co. Limerick Ireland
Colum, I attended your show at Friar’s Gate theatre this week and I wanted to say thank you. Your storytelling and your songs were a salve for a moment in time, for me. Best, Sheila
Aug 22nd 2011 Peter Murphy, New York
Please come and perform in NY. Love your songs!
Aug 5th 2011 Gabi, Germany
After one week at home, I think my soul is still in Irland ;-)).Thanks for a great concert in Castleblayney.
Glad that I now know an other part of the family ;-)).Hope to see you all soon. Gabi
July 30th 2011 Mirjam, Scottish Borders
Great new website :)) Hope to catch you in the not too far away future along the musical road x
June 23rd 2011 Sean Stanage Nottingham
Colum, it is great to see that you will be at Festival at the Edge in England this July. Bring plenty of CDs over: you'll go down a storm.
June 6th 2011 alan.jcoles England
Absolutely fantastic today Colum, thanks so much for sharing your gifts with us. The album is brilliant. Alan
May 31st 2011 Beverley Tanner
Can't wait to see you at the Tredegar House Folk Festival
April 6th 2011 famous.seamus.walsh, Co Clare
Delighted to see you in Sixmilebridge again. You mentioned the two blind musicians Dunne in your Buskers song. We have happy memories of the Dunne brothers here in Limerick. There were three of them, they were brothers, they were uncles to Mickey Dunne the piper and Christy Dunne the banjo player. If you heard two of them it was probably Michael and Christy. The third brother was named Hanta although he seems to have used the name Joseph, which seems to be how he is mostly remembered.
Paddy "Pecker Dunne" also seems to be related although exactly how I don't know.
The father of our present Mickey and Christy was also Paddy Dunne to add to the confusion and a great fiddler.
Not only did they keep the music alive they also recycled the names through the generations the better to confuse us!!!!
They are mostly remembered playing outside Roches Stores but both my brother Brendan and I remember them playing outside Woolworths which would have been a very busy shop then. This would have been in the middle 60's.
I mentioned a CD which I have of them playing at that time. The story there is that after the death of Brendan's father-in-law Frank [Frank Snaps] Goggin, some old reel-to-reel tape came to light with Frank singing and accompanied by the brothers, also of them playing, sometimes together and also some solo pieces. At that time they were housed in the Ballinacurra/Weston area and Frank would visit them there. They seem to have been living in pretty poor conditions at that time, sadly. On a happier note their music has now passed to two new generations of the Dunne family.
This material was put on CD and a copy was given to Mickey Dunne.
The University of Limerick in their NOMADS project did great work compiling the history of this and other musical traveling families.
A good site I was directed to is clarebannerman on you tube music which contains photos and even video of them.
Keep up the good work
SEAMUS
March 31st 2011 Matt Ryan, Ireland
Hello Colum, Just a quick note to say how much we enjoyed your show in Croc An Oir on Saturday last. My wife and I are both agreed, it was the best nights entertainment we’ve had in years. The characters you speak and sing about are so vivid I felt I knew them personally, they certainly travel with you. I picked up some of your CD’s on the night and we have been listening to them continuously since. Also, my daughter gave me a present of your book for my birthday, it’s a beautiful work. Once again, thanks for a great show and we will be on the look out for future visits to the Tipperary area. Regards, Mattie and Margaret Ryan. Thurles.
March 17th 2011 bigalguitarpicker
Hi Colum, I'm the singing chef ( Boy how I've avoided that name down the years!) who ye met at the Silent Valley long ago, and then later in the restaurant beside Moira Roundabout. Did Barney ever get the solo album out? I think I told ye I worked for Patsy Mooney in Cupids, (fed your ones!) I was scouring through YouTube looking for Brendan Monaghan, the Uilleann piper from Dromore, and the only hit I found was him playing with yez about 25 years ago. It had to be that long ago, cos he's skinny in the video, and like me, skinny isn't there any more! Best wishes, Alex.
March 16th 2011 windyridge Leicester
Just poppped onto your page to have a listen to your radio programme (second time this week) Colum, Wow, loved the new site and ahh the photographs can't wait to be back in Rostrevor. All the best to you and yours. Marian and Brian
Jan 24th 2011 Mark, South Africa
Dear Colum, My name is Mark Lagan, I live in Cape Town, South Africa. I'm born and bred South African but my dad is from The Rock, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. I came to your music recently via a cd my aunt Deridre Eastwood ( she is a potter and artist and lives in Cookstown) sent. Your live cd is wonderful and the stories and songs you tell and sing are so fitting for our country too. Like Ireland, South Africa has been split on ridiculous lines and we are a nation trying to come to terms with transformation. We are also a nation of great hope. I know you travel a lot and you may have already been here - but if not really think you should come. You would be welcome in our house any time. Kind wishes, Mark
Jan 12th 2011 Anne, Germany
Dear Colum,
What a great new website!
I love the few words of songs on the pictures. Of course I all sing it instead of simply reading it.
And be sure I'll be back here soon.
Warm winter-hug
Anne
Jan 1st 2011 Martin, London
Like the new site, look forward to see some more UK dates, when you coming back to London? Keep up the good work! Martin
