Radie Peat of the Dublin band Lankum is a powerful singer in a matchless band:
Hares on the Mountain
What Will We Do If We Have No Money
Katie Cruel
Live at WGBH: Wild Rover, Rocky Road to Dublin, Bear Creek
Hunting the Wren
from the comments of viewers:
Wrens were desperate women of Ireland who during the famine had no other way to live besides prostituting themselves to English soldiers. They lived outdoors in literal burrows roofed over with gorse. They clubbed together as a band for protection because they were treated with such derision by everyone else.
Sharp is the wind Cold is the rain Harsh is the livelong day Upon the wide open plain By Donnelly's hollow Under sod, gorse and furze There lies a young wren oh By the saints she was cursed The wren is a small bird How pretty she sings She bested the eagle When she hid in its wings With sticks and with stones All among the small mounds They come from all over To hunt the wren on the wide open ground They flock round the soldiers In their jackets so red For barrack room favours Pennies and bread The soldier is rough In anger or fun And he causes much bloodshed With his big musket gun They’re birds of the earth The beasts of the field By spite and by fury Are people revealed Attacked in the village Spat on in town They come from all over To hunt the wren on the wide open ground The wren is a small bird Though blamed for much woe Her form is derided Wherever she goes With cold want and whisky She soon is run down Her body paraded On a staff through the town Her head for her ceiling The sod was her floor She chose the cold open plain Cold open plan o'er The dark workhouse door With two broken wings And feathers so brown They come from all over To hunt the wren on the wide open ground