December

December 1-7 ~~~ Dec 8-15 ~~~Dec 16-23 ~~~ Dec 24-31~~~ On this Date

December 3
1866 The birthday of Anna Johnston who, under her pen name Ethna Carbery, wrote the rebel song, Roddy McCorley.

Johnston was born County Antrim in Ireland in 1866. She died on April 21 1902. She was married to the Irish writer and folklorist, Seamus McMannis.

December 4
1947 Terry Woods was born on 4 December 1947 in Dublin. He is an Irish folk musician, and plays the mandolin and cittern (looks similar to a flat-backed mandolin, and was very popular in the Renaissance period).

He has been a member of the folk-rock groups The Pogues, Steeleye Span and Sweeney’s Men.

December 4
2009 Liam Clancy died on 4 December 2009. He was born on 2 September 1935. He was an Irish folk singer and actor from County Tipperary.

He was the youngest member of performing group The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem; the group was central to the folk revival on the 1960s.

He was a great singer regarded by Bob Dylan as the ‘greatest ballad singer ever.’
More information and videos of The Clancys and Tommy Makem.

December 5
1861 James Thornton was born 5 December 1861 in Dublin or Liverpool (no-one is sure). He emigrated with his family to America when he was seven and became an American citizen at the age of 70. He died 27 July 1938 in New York.

He was a much acclaimed songwriter and monologist (called a stand-up comedian today) of the Tin Pan Alley (pictured right) era.

He is primarily remembered today as the composer of the 1898 song, “When You Were Sweet Sixteen”.
Click here for more information and videos of his songs.

December 7
1984 After seeing TV news reports of the famine in Africa, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure formed the group Band Aid to raise money for the starving people of Africa.

They wrote and released the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’. It became the fastest selling single ever and raised £8million.