Our Different Voices series continues this saturday with The Blackbird – The Life and Legacy of Delia Murphy.

It airs Saturday 12th March at 7am-8am and is repeated on Sunday 13th March at 9pm-10pm.

Her songs have been covered by the Wolf Tones, the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners, even The Pogues… Delia Murphy, the folksinger known affectionately as ‘Murphs’, almost single-handedly prompted the Irish Folk Revival and captured in song an expression of emerging Irish nationhood.

In this programme, Sean Street, whose Irish mother loved the music of Delia Murphy, embarks on a personal journey and presents a profile of one of Ireland’s most important singers: “I grew up haunted by the sound of this slightly cracked, off-kilter voice, coming, it seemed to me, from another age, and from another world to my Portsmouth naval upbringing.  Long after my mother’s death – and Delia’s – the music continues to haunt.”

Presented by Sean Street; Produced by Alan Hall

With contributions from Murphy’s grandchildren, Ronan and Garvan Browne and Carol Kiernan, her niece Carmen, her nephew Leo and her biographer Aidan O’Hara.

More about: Aidan O'Hara Alan Hall biographer Carmen Carol Kiernan Cork Delia Murphy Entertainment_Culture Folk music of Ireland Garvan Browne Genealogy ireland Kiernan Leo Murphy Portsmouth Presentation Brothers College Republic of Ireland Surnames the Clancy Brothers The Dubliners The Pogues