[opening theme music] [dramatic Celtic music] - I'm Mark Allen, a singer-songwriter with a guitar on my back.

Connecting with people, one musical conversation at a time.

♪ Traveling down this open road ♪ ♪ Just me and you and the Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ I hear the call we're gettin' close ♪ ♪ Around the bend, there's a signpost ♪ ♪ The places, the faces to the moon and its phases ♪ ♪ This melody keeps us alive ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel (always, always, always) ♪ I have guitar will travel ♪ [lively music] - Funding for "Have Guitar, Will Travel World" is provided by: - Test, one, two, one, two.

One, two, one, two.

Test, one, two.

- So this, is me.

I'm getting ready to play an Irish wedding, the week before St. Paddy's Day, here in Nashville.

Playing Irish music in Music City is something I've done for almost two decades a lot.

The American idea of St. Paddy's Day always seemed a little cartoonish to me.

Green beer and plastic shamrocks galore.

Like the leprechaun on a cereal box kind of Irish.

My first time in Ireland, was more than 30 years ago.

With a chance to visit with my dad's friend and his sons.

And even though I'm not Irish, I was hooked.

But life happened and I didn't get back.

I still explored Irish music and would learn tunes, but I had no real connection to what I was singing about or the history behind it.

So as I was working on this project, I got to know my friend Ian Mulvey from the village of Hope in the UK.

He had come along for the ride so to speak and help us on our crazy musical quest.

And though he lives in the midlands of England, his family is Irish on his dad's side.

And he grew up knowing nothing of his family in Bray, on the outskirts of Dublin.

We started thinking it would be cool to go back, and explore that history together.

It would also be my first time back in more than 30 years.

And a chance to learn more about the stories behind the songs I knew so well.

[cheering] [gentle music] [upbeat Celtic music] - Yeah, Cheers.

- Well.

- Cheers?

- To Steenie Mulvey, I guess.

- You don't know anybody in Ireland, basically.

- No, no, no, no.

I'm from the English side now.

My father's father came over and he was, um, he decided to settle in England.

- So his dad was Steenie's... ...son?

- So Steenie's son, also Stephen.

- Right.

[laughs] - Ironically enough.

- Looking through Ian's photos and clippings, I could see his great-granddad was a local hero from the town of Bray.

But I certainly had no idea just how much Steenie's story would set the stage for me to better understand the tragic events behind Ireland's struggle for independence.

- Well, as far as I knew, he was a good man.

I never knew him.

- How did you find out about him?

- Just through my father, really.

- The inspiration for this road trip struck a chord that was quite personal for Ian and me both.

In his case, the search for a relative and national hero, bearing his name.

And in mine, a deeper appreciation for the stories behind songs I've sung for years.

So together, we set off, to connect in a very real way with history, music, and the making of a nation.

- We're-we're just going to go through, um, like National Archives and stuff like that.

- Your great granddad- - Yep.

- Was born at number forty-four.

- Our first destination was the place that historically lies at the heart of every village, the local craft butcher, a traditional source of reliable food and information going back centuries.

In this case, we hit the jackpot when it came to learning more about Steenie.

This wasn't just local intel, it was family.

- He and I both- - Ha-ha, well- [laughing] - Related.

[both laughs] - Yeah, um.

[laughing] - After mapping cousins, second cousins, and cousins once removed, Ian, who is Stephen's second cousin, got the lowdown on Steenie's involvement in the Easter Rising.

- He fought first in Bolands Mill, right?

And then he was transferred across into a GP Gallivan.

- On Easter Monday 1916, Steenie, a member of the Irish Volunteers, walked thirteen miles north to Dublin in support of what became the first armed conflict in Ireland's battle for independence.

- We have a, um, a nice walkway named after Steenie, went down the river, then Mulvey road.

- So off we went in search of the family-named walkway, and along that route we discovered the People's Park, just across from where Steenie and his family grew up.

And at its center is a memorial with the proclamation of the Irish Republic.

The rallying cry for Steenie and all those who were determined to see Ireland become its own country.

It was dedicated at the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

It's Ireland's version of our Declaration of Independence.

From there, we followed the banks of the Dargle River, to the waterfront along the Mulvey Way Riverwalk, as dedicated by the Bray town council.

- Just walking down it, it just, like I said, it feels like home.

- And here it is right here, look.

Mulvey Way.

Just gonna say.

[background chatter] - There you are.

- What I began to sense in this young nation, far younger than even our own, was a real sense of civil confidence and determination that made me hear the lyrics I'd been singing with a very different ear.

I heard a call to action as strong as in any folk music I've known yet.

- Definitely needs a bit of polish.

- Yeah.

[laughs] Hahahahaha.

- As for Ian and I, being on Mulvey Walkway here in Bray, that call sounded ever closer around every corner we walked.

We felt more connected, each in our own way, to this seaside village.

I was now even more curious to learn about the role music and songs played in the birth of the nation we call Ireland.

[gentle plays] ♪ Come all ye young rebels, and list while I sing ♪ ♪ For the love of one's country is a terrible thing ♪ ♪ It banishes fear with the speed of a flame ♪ ♪ It makes you a part of the patriot game ♪ - Music and song definitely have the power to rally and unite people for a cause.

And the story of Ireland's independence is no different.

Songs become a way to memorialize the emotion behind an event that words alone don't always convey.

To learn more about the personal side of this struggle I was fortunate to meet up with Des Geraghty, someone who spent his life and career uniting and rallying people.

Born and raised in Dublin, Des, like James Connolly, has been an important figure in the Irish labor movement.

He's a renowned trade union leader, politician, writer, and advocate for workers' rights.

He grew up in the Liberties right in the heart of Dublin.

It's there, with his family's history in the labor movement, that he found his calling to help people and his love of music.

- You're from Dublin?

- Yeah, I am, yeah, from the Liberties, which is the heart of the city where I grew up.

- If I was to ask, you know, what passion brought you to this point in your life, on this journey?

- I suppose, uh, music was and songs were always important at home.

My mother sang, ah- when the family got together we would tend to sing songs, generally unaccompanied, guitars weren't common in our situation.

In a sense, that's the way we learned a lot of our history, was through songs and information.

And very often it was the history that you didn't get in school.

You know, for instance, the labour movement was not given extensive coverage in the traditional Irish schools.

People like James Connolly and Jim Larkin were almost ignored in history.

We heard about Patrick Pearse.

We heard about the 1916 rebellion.

But the social history of Ireland... we tend to get that from family, and friends, and, uh, songs and music were very important in that.

- Talk about the songs, were there any specific rallying cries?

- Well the first thing about the 1916 rebellion was often called, "The Poets Rising" because there were many of the leaders in fact many of the executed leaders, actually, were poets.

There was a lot of writing and, ah, uh, quite a number of songs.

♪ They told me how Connolly ♪ ♪ Was shot in the chair ♪ - They say the pen is mightier than the sword.

And I'm learning how those poems and songs got poets like rebellion leaders, Pearse and Connolly jailed and condemned to the firing squad.

So I went to the General Post Office, in downtown Dublin, to see the center of the conflict.

Dramatically different today, it's been restored and is still a working post office.

But in April of 1916, volunteers with the Irish Citizen Army, founded by James Larkin and James Connolly, proclaimed the Irish Republic.

And it's where Steenie Mulvey carried Connolly injured from the rubble of the battle.

By ending in surrender, the Easter Rising might have been seen as a bloody failure, but it rallied support and global sympathy for Ireland's fight for home rule until it achieved independence in 1922.

- There's a saying here in-in this country that, um, the-the winners of the war are, as it were, write the history, ah, but the people write the songs.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And so, in a way, if you want to get what the social, ah, history is you really go to the songs, and the poetry, and the music.

And it was an attempt to stamp out all the tradition and culture, but it's remained alive in the homes, maybe in the hearts of the ordinary people.

- Sure.

So all the little escapades of the ordinary daily life, they are reflected in the hundreds of songs.

And our music and our songs tend to be very locally rooted and therefore the identity, no matter how far away they are- it's with the home space, the home ground.

- Right.

- And even our traditional tunes usually have a name that's an a, a local association.

- Yeah.

- Whether it's County Clare or Galway or [crosstalk] Ferry or Donegal.

So that's almost a binding thing with the land.

And I think it's really the thing that bound the Irish people together over many years, even the diaspora, into the United States and carry the songs and music all over the world.

So it was part of global reach in a way because of emigration.

- And there's another connection between Ireland and America, our labor movements, people organizing, in the name of workers' rights, like James Connolly, Jim Larkin, and Des Garrity.

- The tradition of the labor movement was very strong.

My father worked in England for quite a while, and we tend to follow socialism rather than nationalism in the sense that we would share our-our views with English working class people, Scots, Welsh, or people from all over the United States.

Curiously enough, and five, the five of us, five boys, and each of us have been actively involved in the trade union movement.

- So I'm realizing at this moment, how the history of labor and social struggles in Ireland and the U.S. are so entwined.

And being here with Des, how much music is a part of that history.

- And I say to people very often that our tradition, and our music, is closer to the future than it is to the past.

- Yeah.

- Because it actually is the way-the way we live together, how we relate to each other, and how we enjoy life together, I now believe music is actually the-the-the real language of the heart.

You know, it's-it's the way we convey feelings and emotions far more than verbally.

I don't believe you can put walls around music.

- No.

- [laughs] I don't think you should.

- Des Garity has spent his life laboring to bring down walls and barriers on behalf of others.

And also bringing people together through his love of music has been his life's passion.

And Des is right.

You can't put walls around music, poetry, or idealism.

Nor could the walls of Dublin's Kilmainham Jail.

Since construction began in 1787, Kilmainham has held thousands of men, women, and children, throughout Ireland's long struggle to become a sovereign nation.

Its deceptively beautiful architecture belies the horrors of being incarcerated here.

The Easter Rising leader and poet, Patrick Pearse, as well as thirteen other leaders of the rebellion, spent their last days here.

It was in this yard where they faced the firing squad.

James Connolly was too wounded and weak to stand, and was carried through these doors, from his hospital room, tied to a chair, then shot.

These revolutionaries were teachers, writers, poets, and musicians, whose ideals of a free Ireland, lived on in art, music, and song.

One of these martyrs was trade unionist and musician, Éamonn Ceannt.

A world-renowned Uilleann piper and a founder, of the Dublin Piper's Club.

The uilleann pipes are often described as the sound of Ireland.

- A lot of people describe the sound of Uilleann pipes as the sound of Ireland.

So, we try to share the sound of Ireland through, you know, different programs in relation to access education, performance, and preservation.

- And this is what brought me to the Pipers Club here in Dublin to meet its president and musician, Gay McKeon.

Like Éamonn Ceannt, Gay's dedication as a musician plays a pivotal role in keeping Irish music and language alive.

The origin of the Pipers Club, dates back to the early 1900s.

It was disbanded multiple times due to the threat it posed to the British in its effort to maintain a distinct Irish national identity.

Despite the Uilleann pipes' native sound being associated with rural Ireland, it's actually here in inner-city Dublin that famous musicians and craftsmen fought censorship.

- So how old were you when you first started playing?

- I was, 10 years of age.

I had been learning classical piano for about a year, and, eh, I ran out of teachers.

[chuckles] And my father was a very- a good friend of a-a-a great piper, pipe maker and teacher called Leo Rowsome, that's him there.

- Oh wow.

- Eh, and there, I went along to his classes one Saturday night, on Thomas Street beside Guinness Brewery, and, eh, he said, "Would you like to try the pipes?"

and I said, "Um, maybe I'll give it a go.

And it turned out he was just a magical teacher, and, eh, he captured my- you know, he-he was, he was really kind to me, you know so.

So I was 10 years of age, so I-I kind of grew up with this and, they are awesome, my teacher was a huge influence.

He would have taught people like, Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains, and Liam O'Flynn, and lots of other really, eh, people that are probably my peers and older than me.

But I-I was lucky, ah, so I came to it and I just fell in love with the sound, you know, just got in- it gets into your bones, you know, gets into, you know- - Yeah.

I could see that.

- Yeah, yeah, it just becomes part of you, yeah.

So, when you start with the Uilleann pipes you start with the bellow, bag, and-and chanter.

The chanter is what we play the melody on so you don't have this, eh, extra bit here, where drones and regulators.

Eight bars of a melody it's just- on the chanter, it sounds like this.

[plays Uilleann pipes] - So that's the first of the three elements.

Then we have the drones, the three drones- the tenor- [plays Uilleann pipes] They're all tuned to the bottom notes on the chanter.

- Okay.

- So that's the tenor.

[plays Uilleann pipes] The middle one here is the baritone.

- Right.

- And the longest one is the deepest, it's the bass.

[plays Uilleann pipes] So if I play that tune with the melody on the chanter- I can't leave it with the drones.

and then the right- and add in the right length, it sounds like this.

[plays Uilleann pipes] [plays Uilleann pipes] - So it's like a mini orchestra, [Yeah, amazing.)

if you like a- pressing on the bag and then using your wrist playing with your fingers to play the melody and using your wrist to-to play the chordal, or the-the harmonic accompaniment.

- Yeah, yeah, wow.

- Hm, so.

- That's- - That's so cool.

- That's the Uilleann pipes for you, eh.

- So what was the first tune you ever learned?

Yeah, so the first tune I would have learned and I now teach to students it's ah, ah, it's-it's it's a well-known tune.

It's called, um, "Fáinne Geal an Lae," "The Dawning of the Day."

- Okay.

- It's also the melody to a-a poem, the words to a poem called, ah, eh, "Raglan Road".

- Well, begin.

[Uilleann pipes playing] [Uilleann pipes playing] - The-the melody goes back how-how long?

- Well, they did- I don't know- centuries, I guess.

[crosstalk] - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We-we-we some, we know- we might know.

There's lots of collections of tunes made in the 1800s and prior, you know, so, Harper's and Piper's composed nearly all the tunes.

So "Raglan Road," wasn't that written by Luke Kelley?

- Well, no, it-it wasn't him.

He sang it, yeah.

[crosstalk] He sang it brilliantly, beautifully.

The-the-the, um, poet was, ah, Patrick Kavanagh, - Okay - Monaghan.

- And they used the melody, eh, the melody of-of, ah, "Fáinne Geal an Lae" "The Dawning of the Day."

- Yeah.

- I hear soundtracks to films like "Braveheart" I think of, eh, bagpipes but when they-they dig down- when they research, find that the Uilleann pipes are- "Titanic" for example.

Ah, so that's where people hear them, and, eh, they're attracted to the sound.

- There's a, there's a distinctness to it that- - Yeah.

- That definitely stands out in my-my ear, of course, between that, and the-the traditional Scottish bagpipes.

- Yeah, yeah, well this- - You know.

It's got, most European countries have some form of mouth-blown bagpipe.

- Right.

- And the precursor to this instrument would have been the mouth-blown, eh, eh, bagpipe used at sporting and military occasions.

But what was interesting about the rising of that your dealing pipers from, eh, you know, the different, um, different sides of- [laughs] - Yeah.

- Okay so, Uilleann piping has been free of any kind of class, or politics, or religious divides.

In fact, it's always been, ah, embraced, all the different, um- [clears throat] beliefs and faiths, and all of that.

And political beliefs and faiths- - Yeah.

- Must be- I'm trying to think he might have played something- Oh yeah.

'Cause he might have played something like this.

[Uilleann pipes playing] [Uilleann pipes playing] So, um, there's a great community in the Uilleann Piper world, you know, a very, very, ah, and uh, com- you know, great sense of camaraderie and-and-and support, you know.

(Yeah.)

We don't tend to- and we don't, we don't really go in for competition or anything like that, eh, it's not a big thing.

It's really just try to listen and observe, and celebrate other players, rather than saying, "I'll beat him" or "I beat her" or "She beat me," you know, (Right.)

that's not an issue, you know.

It's just, ah, live and let live at it's best, you know.

[laugh] - Well, that's yeah- - Yeah, yeah.

- [inaudible] - That's just what all it should be for us to do - Yeah, yeah.

- What resonates with me about Irish music, and the Irish musicians I've met, is that it's all about inclusivity.

My exploration into even the most painful parts of Irish history taught me that you don't have to be Irish to have an Irish spirit.

[Uilleann pipes playing] [band playing and singing] Well, that Irish spirit carried me down to the Harbour Bar in Bray for a Sunday afternoon jam.

I was invited down to sit in and play at a non-traditional session, but it was really a hybrid, including banjo, flute, harmonica, and penny whistle.

So there were plenty of traditional Irish sounds bouncing around the packed bar.

If it was the worst day since yesterday, I would have loved to see what the best day was.

'Cause it was a great way, to come full circle, from my Irish gig back in Nashville.

Ian's new Irish family was out in full-force, this warm Sunday afternoon.

He had plenty of cousins to meet and share stories about their great grandfather, Steenie, a local hero of Irish independence.

His face was all smiles and excitement as they hung out as a family, even if only knowing each other for less than 48 hours.

That Irish inclusivity was as generous as somebody buying the next round of Guinness.

Having the freedom to grow, to evolve, and the freedom to honor old stories with new music, it's the soul behind the music.

Weaving that history into songs, which seemingly all Irish and would-be Irish know, is the golden thread tying the past to the present.

From following Ian's remarkable family history with the Easter Rising to Des Garrity's passionate devotion for the labor movement and Gay McKeon's love of playing and preserving the sound of Ireland, my sense of the Irish spirit is now so much deeper, and I want to know more.

So I'll count on the luck of the Irish for that.

May you have all the happiness and luck that life can hold.

And at the end of your rainbows, may you find a pot of gold.

May you live as long as you want with smooth sailing up ahead.

And may you get to heaven before the devil knows you're dead.

[upbeat music] Music has always been my lighthouse, and was certainly the beacon that drew me to this magical place.

Here in Ireland, the real gold, lies in the hearts of the people, and the music they make.

And now, my guitar and I set out searching for the next bright light on the horizon.

Letting the musical conversation, be our guide.

[upbeat theme music] [upbeat theme music] - Funding provided by... [outro theme music]