The Wexford Carols with Caitriona O’Leary
Folk on Foot
Matthew Bannister
4.8 • 526 Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2022
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A festive episode featuring the Wexford Carols sung by the beautiful voice of Caitriona O’Leary. The carols came out of the persecution of Catholics in Wexford in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and were written by Bishop Luke Waddinge and Father William Devereux. Caitriona takes Matthew Bannister to the Franciscan church where Bishop Waddinge is buried and to St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy where the area’s most famous carol was collected. We also meet the retired fisherman Dixie Devereux whose father sang the carols every Christmas for 62 years – and who is now passing on the tradition to his own son. A fascinating story with gorgeous music creating an atmospheric, seasonal experience.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We have come on a pilgrimage, a Christmas pilgrimage, to the Republic of Ireland, to the |
| 0:08.0 | south-east corner, just about a hundred miles south of Dublin, to the town of Wexford. |
| 0:15.0 | And this is the home of traditional carols that have been handed down for hundreds of years, |
| 0:20.0 | from ear to mouth and mouth to ear. |
| 0:23.6 | And we're going to hear some beautiful versions of them by a brilliant singer called Katrina O'Leary, |
| 0:29.6 | who's recorded them with a bunch of top artists. |
| 0:33.6 | But we're also going to go and find the tradition bearers. |
| 0:36.6 | We're going to find the people who have handed these on |
| 0:39.6 | and who learned them from their own fathers, |
| 0:42.2 | who learned them from their fathers. |
| 0:44.1 | So this is a festive edition of Folk on Foot in Wexford. |
| 0:49.1 | And here come the Wexford carols. |
| 1:10.6 | Music Come the Wexford Carols. Katrina, how lovely to see you. |
| 1:12.1 | Well, thank you. It's great to be here in Wexford and you're looking incredibly glamorous. |
| 1:16.9 | Oh, thank you so much. With a sort of pink, ruffled outfit and a wonderful striped suit |
| 1:23.7 | and a hat, very festive. I do love to dress up for occasions. |
| 1:29.5 | And we're here in Wexford to celebrate the Wexford carols. |
| 1:33.1 | What first drew you to them? |
| 1:36.0 | I think that I first encountered them when I was a child. |
| 1:40.0 | We lived in Limerick. |
| 1:41.0 | I've lived all over Ireland, but we lived in Limerick at that time. |
| 1:44.0 | And my parents brought us to Midnight Mass at Glenstall Abbey, where Noreen Nureen, the singer, often sang with the monks of Glenstall. And a few years later, in the mid-90s, they released, or she released an album with them called The Darkest Midnight and... |
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