Back home in derry
 

Hi everyone, I've been reading with interest the comments on Back home in Derry by Bobby Sands ,and I thought I might help . I shared a cell in HBlock 3 with Bobby during the no wash protest. I remember Bobby writing the song for all the Derry men in the wing .He was a fan of Gordon Lightfoot and borrowed the air and sang it out the door as we were not allowed out of the cells.Christy Moore got the song from a Derry man called Ferguson, a couple of nights later I first met Christy and gave him McIlhatton. Thats how it happened, Colm Scullion, BallyScullion.

Re: Back home in derry
 

Oh boy a new twist.....I appreciate you taking the time to help clarify....

Let's see if I have it right.....

1) Bobby Sands wrote a poem and put it to the music of TWOTEF

2) Christy Moore was introduced to the song by a fellow named Ferguson

3) (I'm not sure where McIlhatton fits in. But you introduced Moore to it while he was staying at your place)

Re: Back home in derry
 

Colm, interesting (and first hand!) stuff...who needs google

Christy must be referring to you in this quote from his homepage:

"I was playing in Derry and staying with The Barrett Family. After my gig we were gathered in Chamberlain St having a banter and drinking tea when a bit of singing broke out. A lad, just home from The Blocks, sang these verses and subsequently wrote out the words for me. At the time the name Bobby Sands was not known to the world as it is today. The following night I played in Bellaghy where the same process took place when I stayed with Scullion. Later on he "sang" McIlhatton for me and told me it had been written by Bobby Sands with whom he had shared a cell while "On the Blanket". The name was becoming known to me.
He used the air of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald from Gordon Lightfoot, an air which I suspect has earlier origins. My version of Bobby's song is shorter than the original"

Re: Back home in derry
 

That about covers it .I had 3 songs and a poem, the poem he wrote after i'd told him a story of a local united irishman.I offered christy TWOTEF but he had received it the previous night so I gave him Mcelhatton and sad song for susan. 28 years dead tuesday past,