Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey,

history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young,

and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Elements of this program may offend or upset some listeners.

The program was originally broadcast in 2007.

Music My castaway this week is the legendary musician Christy Moore.

His stature and influence in Irish folk music is unparalleled.

The heart of his music pulses with the folk tradition, but the lyrics roam into areas of deep cultural and political controversy. A passionate performer, he's the archetypal Irish poet and protest singer. In the late 70s, Special Branch raided the launch of his album H-block. His songs have been banned by both London and

Dublin courts, and as recently as 2004, he was held by police and questioned about his lyrics and

lifestyle. But not all the struggles he's dealt with have been political. By his own admission,

he wasted years, maybe even decades, boozing and binging on drugs. One drink, he has said,

is too many.

A thousand would not be enough.

Having cleaned up his act, he was then forced to confront the devastating legacy of his father's early death and how profoundly it had affected his life.

Christy Moore, the notion of the troubadour is a romantic one, you know, driven by music and idealism and openness to new experiences.

Would you regard yourself as a romantic?

Now that you've asked the question, perhaps I would regard myself in that way,

but I think a carrier of news, the old ballad singers used to carry the news.

They would sing the songs on the streets and sell their broadsheets.

And I think perhaps some of these songs carry my version of the news. So it's not so much romantic.

It's actually about doing a service, it's a job for the community to record things and let people see them and hear them.

It's probably a mixture of both those things.

...