Music with Eddie Rowley

IRISH folk legend Finbar Furey is getting direction from a group of young people in a film college as they shoot his new video, ‘I Remember You Singing This Song’.

In the past, he has been directed by Martin Scorsese in Gangs Of New York, where he had a minor role alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis.

But as I watch from the wings as Finbar works with students at the Institute of Art, Design & Technology in Dun Laoghaire, he looks genuinely excited and is very respectful of the crew.

Afterwards, the iconic singer tells me: “It’s great to see really smart kids like this being passionate about what they’re doing and, for me, it’s been a pleasure working with them.”

‘I Remember You Singing This Song’ is a classic love song and features on his latest album, Paddy Dear.

Finbar wrote all of the songs on the album, apart from ‘The Galway Shawl’ and the Jim Reeves hit, ‘He’ll Have To Go’, where he is joined by Sharon Shannon. His daughter, Aine, provides backing vocals on ‘The Taxi’s Waiting’. He also plays pipes, whistles, banjo and guitar on the tracks.

“These songs represent some of my years of roaming the world and how proud I am to be Irish,” Finbar says of the album. “We create a world for ourselves no matter where we roam, but Ireland will always be home no matter where we set up camp.

“This album is about the people who left Ireland and never came home.

“It’s a journey through Irish life and love and reflections down through the years, from great famine and despair to wonderful love, imagination, music and mystery.”

Finbar Furey’s current tour includes two dates at Dublin’s Vicar Street on May 4 and May 7.