Album Notes

This is Cynthia Bennett's long awaited "PC means politically charged" collection of traditional and original songs covering post-1798 Ireland. So what makes her CD different from all those you've heard? Finally, some recognition for the women who made, and continue to shape, Irish history! Cynthia Bennett uses her rich alto voice to tell Ireland's story from a woman's viewpoint--she is at times a young girl waiting for a soldier sweetheart, a mother walking among the dead in a Dublin street, a witness to the Easter Rising's carnage. Cynthia is the voice of Mother Ireland as she laments the destruction and partitioning of her home, mourns her dead, or begs for peace and justice. In the title song, she recognises heroic Irish women from ancient times like Brigid and Maeve, of the current era such as Constance Markievicz and Bernadette Devlin, and calls on Irish women everywhere to follow their example of strength and leadership. She weaves the Irish Proclamation of The Republic, read by Sligo actor Columb Mc Bride, into the haunting music of The Minstrel Boy, to bring listeners back to the GPO in 1916. Cynthia relates the death and legacy of Bobby Sands in Bobby's Own, and calls attention to the plight of Irish prisoners of war in Lisburn Reprise. If you love the touching ballads of the Irish struggle for nationhood, if you want to know what lies behind the Troubles, or if you think history's a dull list of names and dates, this CD is for you. You will be moved, inspired, and possibly incensed, but you will be changed.