Thomas McCarthy
Thomas McCarthy is a singer from an Irish Traveller family in Birr, County Offaly. From a considerable dynasty of traditional singers, song-makers and musicians, Thomas grew up surrounded by the singing of his late mother, her father and aunts and uncles and now lives in London.
Having spent his life learning the songs of his family, in 2008 Thomas sang publicly for the first time at the folk club at London's Cecil Sharp House. By the following year, he had sung at the most prominent folk festivals and clubs in Ireland and England, appeared on BBC Radio, and has since shared a stage with many well known performers including Christy Moore, Lou Killen, Sam Lee, Chris Coe, The London Lasses and the Copper Family and has won the praises of many other respected musicians besides.
Round Top Wagon, produced by Ron Kavana, is Thomas’s first album and contains songs passed down through his family as well as songs composed by his grandfather and himself.
‘The greatest Irish traditional singer
in fifty years’
Joe Power, Conneries’ Singing Club,
Waterford
‘I was immediately blown away by his
beautifully controlled yet profoundly
moving performance,
the likes of which I hadn't heard
since Joe Heaney in the 60s.'
Ron Kavana, singer,
song-writer and record producer
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Background photograph courtesy of Peter Laban.
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Listen to Thomas on The Verb on BBC Radio 3 with Sam Lee and hosted by Ian McMillan on the 25th of September, 2009.
Thomas’s late mother, Mary McCarthy, singing Young Willy on the 7th March 2009 at The Cellar Upstairs folk club, London, two days after her 76th birthday. Photo courtesy of Tom Paley
Thomas’s repertoire contains many very rare and ancient songs that were passed onto him from his mother, Mary McCarthy (pictured right), who passed away in 2010. She in turn had been given them by her father John McCarthy, a renowned singer and song-maker, who collected songs from all over Ireland on his travels to fairs and from the many people who passed through his home in Birr, Co. Offaly. Other sources of songs have been uncles and aunts and cousins as well as many people from outside of the Traveller community such as his uncle through marriage, Tommy Ryan, who gave Thomas many songs from his native Tipperary such as The Battle of Aherlow.
Click HERE to buy Thomas McCarthy’s album ‘Round Top Wagon’
Jerry O’Reilly, Thomas and his mother Mary at
The Góilín, Dublin, on the 5th March 2010,
Mary’s 77th birthday. Photo: Seán Feehan
‘Irish Traveller songs were all but forgotten – until he stepped up’. The Guardian, March, 2011.
Read the full article here.
