Narrative singing in Ireland

the long version

Narrative Singing in Ireland is a definitive account of Irish traditions of singing as a storytelling art. Of interest to scholars and general readers, this book examines the varied associations of song and story in Ireland and why people sing as they do. It ranges from ballads in English, through Irish heroic songs - of Fionn mac Cumhaill, Deirdre, the Big Fool and others, sung from earliest times to the present - to ballads of European tradition with the lyric songs of Irish.