Songbirds - the First Ladies of Irish Song

Fil Campbell · Post by **Fil Campbell** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 10:50 am

Hello everyone.
I'm writing to let you know that I am presenting a television show in Ireland which goes out later this month celebrating the lives and songs of 5 Irish women singers and one of those we have profiled is Ruby. It has been a wonderful journey getting to know her and the other women. Ruby's is the first programme in the series and will be shown on RTE1 on Sunday 20th November at 7.30pm. Viewers in Northern Ireland can see it on Sky channel 267.

We are hoping to secure a British channel to show it next year, but in the meantime a DVD of the series (6 programmes in total) will be available from December 9th at www.songbirds.tv which will be live tomorrow.

The programme includes archive footage, interviews and songs. The other singers we have featured are Mary O'Hara, Bridie Gallagher, Delia Murphy and Margaret Barry. In each programme I am joined by some of Ireland's top folk musicians to perform a couple of songs from each of the singers' repertoires. Those songs are now available on a CD which accompanies the series.

I hope you enjoy the programme and that you feel we've done her justice. I am indebted to Tim and Julie, Bernie and to Gerald Lawrence for all their help and contributions.

Best Wishes
Fil Campbell
P.S. I met Ruby in the mid 80s and have always loved her singing.

Jk · Post by Jk » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:06 am

Hello Fil, thank-you for your information about the TV show, I will get a friend in Ireland to record it for me, if he has sky of course. I did not realize we had a lady singer amongst our members. There is another Irish lady who I like, and has recorded a few of Ruby’s songs, she has a lovely voice, her name is Elaine Wood, do you know her. For any member who would like to look at the tracks from Elaine’s albums you can view them at http://www.spiderwebz.co.uk/elainewood/ ... pening.htm

Fil Campbell · Post by **Fil Campbell** » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:24 am

Hello John
It will be on ordinary terrestrial TV as well on RTE 1.
Fil

Jk · Post by Jk » Sun Nov 06, 2005 6:29 am

Thanks for that Fil

Graham Bunn · Post by **Graham Bunn** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:45 am

I have been very fortunate in obtaining a copy of "First Ladies Of Irish Song" The Ruby Murray Story.

To all concerned with this programme congratulations as it was a very fitting tribute to a lovely lady.

It's such a shame that very little of Rubys early singing career was documented upon film but I enjoyed again the clips from "A Touch Of The Sun" and her Wogan appearance.

It was also nice to see clips of Tim and especially Julie who always seem to keep a very low profile.

There was a shock in store for me the programme has relied a lot upon photographic material and suddenly I was looking at photographs that I had supplied to the website being shown upon the T.V programme so perhaps your photos could also be included.

The half hour tribute was over far too quickly but it was very well done and very enjoyable

Best Wishes

Fil Campbell · Post by **Fil Campbell** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 5:42 am

Hello Graham
Thank you so much for your kind comments about the Songbirds presentation on Ruby. We've had a great response to the programme and to the series in general.
I had spoken to Gerald about using some of the photos from the website and we credited the website as a source both on the programme and on the DVD and CD and songbirds website.
Best Wishes for a lovely Christmas
Fil