We have a great video premiere to share with you today from Rich McMahon. Ten Thousand Miles From Dublin features on his latest album ‘Songs of Exile, Love & Dissent’ which was produced by Mercury and BBC Folk Award nominee Gerry Diver. The video was filmed, directed and edited by Rich with contributions from Rory Haughney. Rich was kind enough to provide some words about the song and film below.
The traditional emigration song seemed passé in Ireland until the worldwide recession hit in 2008. In recent years a new generation of economic migrants has left Ireland for Australia, including my own sister, her partner and their young son. The song ‘Ten Thousand Miles from Dublin’ is my attempt to address the personal and political circumstances behind this latest wave of emigration from Ireland.
The accompanying video was filmed on my visit to New South Wales in January 2015. My sister had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and her partner was working many miles away in Queensland. The video is my attempt to chronicle their life in Australia, to convey that sense of a double-migration, in which the narrator is not only forced to move from his homeland, but also to spend weeks away from his partner and child in a remote location in order to earn enough money to survive.
The song is critical of the political and financial system that allowed such a thing to happen, and the images in the video illustrate perhaps that it is not a set of problems restricted to Ireland, but to the world in general.
Rich is currently on tour promoting his album. Tour Dates below:
Tour Dates
March
20 – Penn Bowling Club (Irish Folk Set) – nr Wolverhampton
21 – Quatt Village Hall (Beyond Borders Show) – Shropshire
22- Patshull Park (Irish Folk Set) – Shropshire
23 – Warwick Folk Club (with Mad Jocks & Englishmen) – Warwick Arms Hotel, Warwick
29 – Flan O’Brien’s (‘Exile’ Tour Preview Show) – Walsall
April
04 – The Bull’s Head (‘Exile’ Tour Preview Show) – Chelmarsh, Shropshire
05 – The Swan Inn (‘Exile’ Tour Preview Show) – Staunton, Gloucestershire
06 – The Market Vaults, Stafford (‘Exile’ Tour Preview show) – Stafford
07 – The Whiskey Jar (Singers’ Night) – Manchester
08 – Otley Folk Club (Singers’ night) – W. Yorkshire
08 – Flanagan’s Apple (‘Exile’ Tour Preview Show) – Liverpool
11 – The Old Wagon & Horses (‘Exile’ Tour Preview show) – Kidderminster
24 – Dinedor Village Hall (Beyond Borders Show) – Hereford
26 – Katie Fitzgerald’s (‘Exile’ Tour preview show) – Stourbridge
June
13 – Croc an Oir (Exile, Love & Dissent Tour) – Tipperary, Ireland
15 – Whelan’s (Song Cycle) – Dublin
17 – Bruxelles (Zodiac Sessions) – Dublin
July
01 – Nuneaton Folk Club (with The Dubliners’ Sean Cannon) – The Crown Inn, Nuneaton
Songs of Exile, Love & Dissent is Out Now
Order via Amazon
http://www.richmcmahon.com/