# Oh, we'd be alright if the wind was in our sails. #
# We'd be alright if the wind was in our sails. #
# And we'll all hang on behind. #
#
>What happens if you ask the current generation of Irish musicians to
write songs about the port, its relationship with the city,
and the history of the port I suppose.
In the kinda cultural sense.
I think it's an honour,
for any Dubliner to be asked to write something about the Liffey
because it's been so much a part of our lives, you know?
The main artery through the city of Dublin.
The river that caused the city to be set up.
You know, they talk about the Liffey as the main artery of the city.
And they spoke about the heart, and the lungs,
and all of this,
so basically they were describing a human being.
Over the centuries really,
the port was moved from the centre of the city down to where it is now.
And there's a world down there that you honestly didn't know was there.
When you actually are in a little pilot boat up against this giant tanker,
you do really realise that there's a world there that is driving nearly everything that happens in the city.
Dublin Port has always been
really important to the lives of Dubliners.
But I think the river, in any city,
is a focal point of activity.
And so therefore, the river following through the city
is usually where the action is.
I walk into town most days,
walk up the Liffey,
but I really, really became very religious about walking up the Liffey
and going, 'Just keep walking by, it'll talk to ya.'
And I thought, 'Yeah, I can definitely write about that.'
It's been a wonderful thing to have such a sort of evocative subject
matter to write about.
The port, and the river and their place in our city.
#
We're trying to open up the port to people,
in a way that will mirror the connection they used to have in the past,
and hopefully will re-strengthen that bond.
There was a whole kinda connection between the communities and the port.
That was kind of being drawn away a bit, you know,
especially pre-2007 when the Celtic tiger days were in,
and people were seeing the port as maybe prime development site,
rather than a working port,
that fed the country.
It's a link that was very much alive about 100 years ago.
Over those 100 years or so,
the link between the port and the city has all but broken.
As the port has gradually moved eastwards,
a lot of operational social changes cam about.
People no longer have that intimate link with the port,
that they used to have.
A language that I would routinely use,
of economics, of finance, of business, it's-it's...
pretty boring to be honest, it's just not that inspiring.
When I come to work I see things and I take them for granted at times,
and at other times I see that these things are actually special,
and wouldn't it be great if other people could see it.
Starboard Home project comes within a context.
We've turned to design and the arts to remake that link.
And these have had very positive responses from the public,
the very people that we're trying to reach out to.
#
We went to the National Concert Hall.
They came up with this project of 12 songs or...
a song cycle of 12.
They came to the hall
with, you know, 'What do you think we could do with music?'
And it was a pretty simple notion,
I mean, Irish artists are great at writing songs.
And there's this long tradition around the sea shanty.
People have been writing songs about the ports and seas for years.
So we put the two of them together and said,
'What happens if you ask current generation of Irish musicians to write songs?'
#
So I asked Paul to kind of lead this up.
He's a great musician at creating...
kind of a family around a project.
And then we developed a wish list of artists,
from there.
And everyone said yes.
#
I spoke to lots of people and, and...
I think everyone involved had some story about the river or the port,
or you know, grew up by the river or the port,
or just felt like it had resonance in their lives.
So you've got Paul Cleary from The Blades,
'cause he's from Ringsend.
We got John Sheahan from The Dubliners for all the obvious reasons.
Declan O'Rourke, James Vincent McMorrow,
Cathy Davey,
Lisa O'Neill,
Duke Special,
Gemma Hayes.
Jape because, again Richie is pure Dublin.
There's a writer called Catriona Lalley,
she's gonna write a piece of prose.
And Colm Mac Con Iomaire,
because that traditional thing is important and obviously he's been
in The Frames.
So it's kind of multigenerational,
but it's also people who we felt would get the subject.
Actually it's be, (Sung) 'They've got the swing...'
Everyone came at it from their own place,
I didn't want to sort of impose a stylistic template on the thing either.
And when we got together in the studio,
we sort of concentrated on the palette.
That the songs could breathe as the writers intended them to,
but that there was a coherence to what will be a record from start to finish.
I suppose that's been my job, to keep an eye on.
To maintain a sort of bird's eye view of the project.
Practice on your own without us.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a clash of cultures,
there's no doubt about that.
We are engineers, business people, they are more on the artistic side.
We would have been a little bit worried, to be honest with you,
because once we'd given the brief, we lose control.
So we would have looked at this project,
not knowing exactly what was to come out of it.
One of the key things was creating a house band for this.
a core, central band running through everything.
It just acts as musical glue.
...if the piano stops the rhythm of it or something.
>And I wanted it to be very broad in terms of stylistically,
you know both the kind of music that would be on the record,
and also that would spans the generations, you know,
that it would be sort of all welcoming and not to sort of limit it
to a particular kind of music and particular group of people.
# Violin music #
Every needed to speak to the subject in their place, you know,
be that traditional music, or electronic music,
or rock'n'roll.
#
(Applause)
Welcome. Welcome friends, how are ya?
Are you well? (Cheering)
My heart is racing, this is the second night of shows,
playing these brand new songs.
When we were asked to write about the bond between
the city of Dublin and its port and its river,
I think we found some spark from our own lives,
or from stories we'd heard.
And we nursed these sparks to song,
and part of why we were asked to this was that nobody really
gets to see it anymore, it's not part of the fabric of the city,
it's not part of our daily lives, it's...
it's out there.
It's been an incredible journey with this bunch of musicians,
and writers,
hopefully realising the idea we were asked to speak to.
That indelible bond between the city and its port.
Howyadoin?
(Applause)
I'm Paul Cleary of The Blades.
>Because I lived 50 yards from the river wall for my formative years,
from the time I was twelve to my mid-twenties.
I couldn't say no to something like that,
and it was something I knew about,
and as they say, 'Write about what you know.'
The song is basically about...
the Ringsend Regatta.
And there are two rowing clubs in Ringsend,
Stella Maris and St Patricks,
so the Stella and Patch are here. (Laughs)
Are you green or blue?
The Pats wear green and the Stella wear blue.
But you know they're the two rowing clubs,
and I mention Stella and Pat in the song,
that's who I'm referring to.
I also mention Larry and May,
and that's my parents.
My dad died in 2003,
and my mam's still going strong.
And you know, the reason I mention my mam and dad is because,
obviously when I think of Ringsend and the happy times I had there,
it's my mam and dad in the fullness of their health,
and you know, very much in love with each other.
And then I mention also alfresco drinking which is drinking in Ringsend Park.
(Laughter)
Anyway, it's all in this song,
I think I've told you more than I should have really.
It's called 'Kingfisher Blue'.
(Applause)
#
# Waking up with the seagulls crying, #
# the sound of Ray town is near. #
# Ducking, diving, death defying, #
# life is near. #
# In the sun, in the grass we're lying, #
# her eyes are kingfisher blue. #
# Music blasting and ever lasting, #
# month or two. #
# Stella and Pat, #
# fading from view. #
# Rowing away, #
# I miss you. #
# Later on, alfresco drinking, #
# in the playground we swing. #
# Glasses breaking, trouble making, #
# sirens sing. #
# Dancing slow to the walrus of love in 1975. #
# Temptations and examinations, we survive. #
# Larry and May, #
# fading from view. #
# Moving away, #
# I miss you. #
# Run river run. #
# Soon to return, #
though kingfisher blue, #
# I miss you. #
(Applause) Thank you.
#
Looking back on it,
it's extraordinary.
The conditions under which the men worked in the bell.
Diving bell that is.
# Down in the diving bell, #
# Far are men working alone. #
# Down in the diving bell. #
Like it was really very primitive...
considering the air pressure they'd be working under.
# Down in the diving bell. #
# Breaking through stone. #
Our job basically was shifting wood that was too high or too low.
But it was very fairly tough going.
You didn't want to be a soft character, you know.
# ...it flows, #
# to places we'll never know. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# The city it grows, #
# the city's expecting more. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# Down in the diving bell. #
They all took their jobs very serious.
Both the men that were at the end of a shovel,
along with the man who was doing the technical end of it.
# Down in the diving bell, #
# you don't eat, sleep, nobody's speaking. #
# Down in the diving bell. #
When you do a thing on a regular basis
you're taken for granted then.
That everything will be just so-so.
# The river it flows, #
# to places we'll never know. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# The city it grows, #
# the city's expecting more. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# When I lay down in the cold hard ground, #
# will I regret it all? #
# When I lay down in the cold hard ground, #
# will I regret it all? #
# The river it flows, #
# to places we'll never know. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# The city it grows, #
# the city's expecting more. #
# So deeper we go, #
# as the boats return home. #
# I know you read it but it's time we said it, #
# there's not enough to go round. #
# I know you read it but it's time we said it, #
# there's not enough to go round. #
# I know you read but it's time we said it, #
# there's not enough to go round. #
# I know you read but it's time we said it, #
# there's not enough to round. #
Thank you.
(Applause) Enjoy the rest of your night.
#
I just started to look into the history of it
and the history of the Liffey
and read poetry and,
they talk about the Liffey as the main artery of the city
and they spoke about the heart,
and the lungs and all of this,
so basically they we're describing a human being.
So I decided to write a song where Dublin,
basically I made it human
and into a woman who had sort of been through hard times and good times.
It was just the idea that the docklands, it sort of has a life of its own
and it goes on even when Dublin is asleep.
And that's kind of where I started off,
and then the idea that Dublin in a way has been through so much
that I use the imagery of waves hitting on a rock,
and eventually smoothing that rock down
until it became something beautiful.
And that's how I describe Dublin.
And also the idea being a girl, a woman that,
that she went through...
...I say a 'brutal sweet sixteen'.
#
# Still morning caught in the rapids,
# ships bringing stories of cities and heat.
# Dim light burn near, Alexandra Docks,
# watch men whistle while Dublin she sleeps.
# Here friendship's a hard one,
# once rooted, they're lifelong,
# her buoys will guide you sorrow can't rest.
# Sure in the shallows, tired of the conflict,
# time smoothens the rock, she's now at her best.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken,
# she's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant. #
#
# Footsteps have awoken,
# on Ha'Penny Bridge.
# Poets and thieves they fight for her heart.
# There's something about her,
# kiss like a lover,
# Anna Liffey take our hopes with thee.
# Eastbound, to new worlds and out to the sea.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant.
#
# Dublin you no beauty queen,
# but there's a fire in your belly,
# that burns brightly beyond north wall quay.
# You have nothing to be sorry for,
# the wounds of a brutal sweet sixteen.
# A brutal sweet sixteen.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant,
# unbroken.
# She's radiant.
#
# She's radiant. #
#
(Applause)
Thank you so much. I'm Gemma Hayes and it was a pleasure to be here tonight. Thank you!
Say hello to Colm Mac Con Iomaire, folks.
(Cheering and applause)
Howya!
So it's a complete pleasure and delight to work on this project
and get to spend some time with all of these fine musicians and people/.
The tune we're gonna play is called 'From the Mountain to the Sea'.
There's a lovely Zen, sean fhocal which goes,
'eist le ceol na habhann agus glacfaidh tu breac.'
Which is, 'listen to the sound of the river, and you'll catch a trout'.
Yeah so we'll play it for you.
(Instrumental)
#
(Applause)
WOMAN: 19th Century reports of shipwrecks in Dublin Bay,
mention cargos of tobacco, ingots, tar, porter,
malt, deer skins teas and silks,
all transported in casks and hogs heads.
The names of the ships that dock in the port reek of magic and music
and far off lands.
'Epsilon', 'Ulysses', 'Vespartine',
'Seven Seas Voyager', 'Silver Whisper',
'Saga Sapphire'.
They're like words from old songs, lines from old poems.
They speak of quests, voyages,
expeditions, all measured in fathoms and leagues.
Who hasn't dreamt of stowing away on a ship,
ignoring the brute facts of hunger and sea sickness?
Who hasn't dreamt of taking to the seas?
The city skirting canals are silent now
but if you squint your eyes, and pause your mind,
you can picture the canal barges bringing goods from the port,
up the Royal and the Grand.
Let your mind meander and glut yourself on the sea tales and river stories
written into port waters.
And then, when all imagining is done,
creep into a quiet corner of a large ship,
make like a stowaway and take to the seas.
(Applause)
#
We're loading and discharging containers,
which are going directly to West Africa,
not being transhipped anywhere.
And then we also have other cars, like second hand cars and equipment
being exported out of Ireland for Nigeria.
You need to have that feeling of being part of a port.
I've always had this feeling when I'm in the port,
thinking of all my...the people that went before me,
my great grandfather, his brothers
and all the siblings after that.
I've always imagined that their voices are still around the port
and when I have a walk around the port,
I get this great sense, great feeling that I actually belong here.
And I believe it's that sense of voices of past that has that feeling.
I love this port.
I just absolutely love this port.
#
When Gary Sheehan in the National Concert Hall asked if I'd be involved in this
and write a song about the Liffey.
Say hello to Cathy Davey!
I did have a song that's all about the Liffey.
It means a lot for most of us growing up.
It's very exciting when you get to your teens
and you start to get your own independence,
everyone heads towards the centre of town and inevitably towards the Liffey
and the freedom of discovering yourself,
forging friendships and everything.
It always happens around there, the city centre and the river.
# I keep on moving,
# if I don't keep on moving,
# my head hurts so, I keep on moving.
# If I don't keep on moving,
# my head hurts,
# my head. #
(Vocalises)
# Won't be the best you ever done,
# won't be the worst I've ever done.
# Won't be the best you've ever done
# won't be the worst I've ever done.
# What else, what else?
#
(Instrumental)
#
Thank you!
(Applause)
I grew up in Lucan
and we used to fish in the Liffey there.
Then having moved into the city,
I lived in Christchurch for a while
and Smithfield,
so the river was always part of my experience of life I suppose.
Having visited the port more recently for this project,
and being in a band coming in and out a bit over the years,
you see the world in wide screen a little more,
there's a cinematic quality to that coming and going.
Everything is very sort of large and slow and looming,
and has a certain, yeah again cinematic quality
and the idea of the open sea, that sense of promise,
and these ships with exotic names
sort of evocative for instrumentation.
You're sort of realising that in song,
I had this notion that these great behemoths
that cross the oceans
and moving so slowly and,
they have a certain sadness to them,
they had sort of personalities!
And their dance with the cranes at port,
it was quite mesmerising.
I found there was something really beautiful about it so
hence...'Steel Ballet'.
#
# Frothy kisses.
# leave them in her wake.
# Frothy kisses.
# See them from space.
# Sail on, sail, sail on, sail on
# cross the ocean.
# A lonely giant
# all slow motion.
# Here they come...
# ...to meet the swinging crane.
#
# Blue and orange.
# Yellow and red.
# Birds of paradise
# bringing us our coffee and steel and television sets
# all this stuff we need and all we don't.
# All this giants.
# Here they come,
# to the swinging cranes.
# Like a steel ballet.
# And no one sees
# these gears of trade.
# The show goes on,
# ah the steel ballet.
(Vocalises)
#
# The show goes on,
# the show goes on,
# the show goes on.
#
(Applause)
#
I started in 1968. I came her eon summer holidays.
I never went back to school and I stayed here,
I'm 43 years here.
I got the brother a job, he's the same, he was on the cranes before me.
And I've another brother who's left since,
he was a crane driver as well, there was three of us here,
three brothers, all crane drivers.
And the one that's left is the best crane driver!
Driving cranes I like, you're up on your own and it's quiet
and you're your own boss and it's easy going.
It's not strenuous and it's not dangerous.
No, it's nice, peaceful.
#
Too late
to recoil
weakened by your great weight.
You fell in the night.
#
Cool, Liffey water
that nursed leaf, root and shoot
now cradles its fruit.
#
(Applause)
women of Sheriff Street.
Which was filmed in the 60's.
In that, I could see a lot of women talking about
their husbands being out of work.
That he's down and he doesn't know what to do.
That's really where..
I know I'm writing form the man's perspective in this but
I ran with that because I could see the reflection in the wives,
in the eyes of the wives.
The impact that this being laid off had on everyone.
So I wrote from one man's point of view.
He's coming home and he's trying to tell his wife that
the work is gone and he cannot see into the future,
how he's going to make a living.
I wanted to introduce some birds into it as well.
Because I'm mad about birds.
In Irish mythology, if a cormorant appears
it can often be in your darkest hour.
It's come to help you and to bring you on to the next place.
So my man here in this song, he's wishing to the river
and he's wishing to the birds and he's wishing to his wife
and to everything that he knows and trusts.
Please change my situation.
'Cos these machines have ruined my life.
This is called "Rock The Machine".
(music)
# I'm losing will, love
# My hands are soft as cotton gloves.
# Machines eating up my job.
# My meaning, my cause.
# Machine with the strength of a hundred men.
# Can't feed and clothe my children.
# Can't greet a sailor coming in.
# Oh know of desperation.
# I shovel coal at Spencer's Dock.
# I took you dear, into wedlock.
# And you did bear us a beautiful flock.
# We will rock the machine down on the dock.
# We will rock the machine until it stops.
# Oh lo, Liffey, show me gold.
# And like a heron I will go.
# Roaring Liffey when you're high
# like a cormorant I will die.
# When the cold wind blows I will rise.
# We're going off to win back time.
# We're holding off to win back time.
# We'll rock the machine until it does.
# Today dear, I'm unemployed.
# Before I spoke, you read my eyes.
# I feared or nothing or no-one.
# But I feel old and I'm so young.
# I miss the graft, I miss the boys.
# I plead for purpose in the void.
# Time is inward, ticking tighter.
# I wish my load was a mountain lighter.
# I shovel coal at Spencer's Dock.
# I took you dear, into wedlock.
# and you did bear us a beautiful flock.
# We'll rock the machine down on the dock.
# We will rock the machine until it stops.
# Oh low, Liffey, show me gold.
# Like a heron I will go.
# Oh roaring Liffey, when you're high
# like a cormorant, I will die.
# I will rise.
# We're going off to win back time.
# We're holding off to win back time.
# We will rock the machine until it dies.
# We will rock the machine down on the docks.
# We will rock the machine until it stops.
(applause)
It was inevitable that I would become a docker.
# Here come the button men.
My father and grandfather and his father were dockers.
He took sick and he handed over the button.
We had a button system in those days.
It meant that the eldest son or the only son of any family
could take over the workload of the father.
He would be the natural breadwinner as it was called then.
The year was 1963.
I was 17 years of age.
# Ropes who bind to sea and river
# backs who've buoyed these 40 years.
# Call your sons
# to join the ones
# who clamber on the old frontiers.
# Drays to load with unmade diamonds.
# Wheels to draw this cold coral.
# Hear the call
# from Southpool Wall.
# And back to reach the Royal Canal.
# Ghosts upon the shovelled coal.
# Loyalty and labour.
# Stubborn pride.
# Yearning for home.
# Fall upon the ballast.
# Father, brother, neighbour.
# Down to the quay.
# Hauliers, casuals,
# men of union.
# Bellow, bark and laugh and yell.
# Days will end
# with need for bread.
# 16 tonnes of black dust.
# Ghosts upon the shovelled coal.
# Stubborn pride.
# Yearning for home.
# Fall upon the ballast.
# Father, brother, neighbour.
# Down to the quay.
They would tell me exactly where to go to stand in for any particular reed.
You'd a better chance of getting a decent week's wages.
The first couple of weeks were terrifying.
Within a matter of months,
I was accepted as one of them.
But they were also very kind and they taught you an awful lot,
in a very short time.
The work was hard, it was different.
It was different every day.
Every day was absolutely totally different environment.
Some of the days were crazy busy.
Others were relaxed.
All in all, it was a terrific place to work.
# (music)
# One thousand, two thousand.
# Here come the button men.
# One thousand, two thousand.
# Here come the button men.
# One thousand, two thousand.
# Here come the button men.
# One thousand, two thousand.
# Here come the button men.
# One thousand, two thousand.
# Here come the button men.
# Down to the quay.
# Go down to the quay.
(applause)
As a Dubliner, I suppose some of the early memories would've been
going off to gigs in Liverpool with the boys. Ronnie, Luke and Ciaran and Barney..
Walking down through the docks onto the boat.
The feeling of homecoming on the way back and
seeing the various spires of the churches of Dublin
and making them out as the boat came back into the docks.
I went back to the source in my mind.
With the water gurgling up through the rocks
in the bogs of Wicklow.
Then meandering down in Kildare and into the city.
My opening image was the bog giving birth to the river, if you like.
Then I took it on its journey down through the city.
From my own childhood, I remember the Guinness tug boats from
St. James' Gate,
going right down under all the bridges.
Loading the hogs heads onto the Guinness boats
at Custom House Quay.
I actually remembered all the names of the boats.
I was fascinated as a kid with those beautiful names.
I often stopped and watched the little cranes
from the boats loading the barrels.
In the womb of a Wicklow bog
you gurgled into life.
Waking the stillness with water music.
Rippling over rocks,
you scattered grace notes to the wind.
Fearless over falls,
you rumbled with thunder timpani.
Meandering through moorlands,
of Wicklow and Kildare,
you sing with the skylark,
cry with the curlew.
Heading the call of the sea,
you flow eastward, casting a lifeline to a city.
You divide us north and south
But we have bridged you.
O'Connell, O'Casey, O'Moore, O'Donovan Rossa.
Butt, Beckett, Grattan, Talbot.
Ha'penny, Heuston, Hackett.
Joyce, Anna Livia.
Island, Eastlink.
# (plays softly)
#
You mothered Viking and Norman.
Faced the invader.
Wept with the vanquished,
shivered with shock waves of '16.
Mingled their tears with the foggy dew.
Washed blood and history out to sea.
From James's Gate you escorted brewery tugboats
to ladies in waiting at Custom House Quay.
Gwendoline, Grainne, Patricia, Miranda.
Long gone flotilla of hogs heads bound for Liverpool.
Trio of tributaries,
Poddle, Dodder and Camac.
Augment your symphony with rhythms of the city.
In party mood, your docklands have donned a see-through look.
Giddy at night with glass and glitter.
Tilting a beer can to an Anglo-Irish skeleton.
Versified by Carney.
Sung by Dubliners.
Framed by Jack B. Yeats.
Danced by Whelan.
Personified by Joyce.
Forever reflecting our mood.
Forever re-writing your song.
Anna Livia, you're a belle.
Flow on. Flow on.
#
I feel firstly very proud of what we've made.
Having made the record, the most important thing
for me was that it be good.
That it would be good music.
That it would have an emotional impact.
Everything new that you come to and you write about,
you're going to look at it different from then on.
I love hearing everyone else's songs.
Individual perceptions.
There's a lot to write about.
When you give something that amount of focus,
and you look into it and you look into the history of it,
all of a sudden it comes to life.
There's hardship there but there's also a romantic idea as well.
Culture is a great way of examining where we are,
where we've come from and where we're going.
Starboard Home is just one lens to look at that.
I think what the artists have tapped into are
timeless themes of the port, the city and the Liffey.
They aren't going anywhere any time soon.
I think likewise, the pieces they produced will stand the test of time.
A modern song cycle.
It's been fertile ground for song writing forever.
Hopefully this will add that that canon of songs
that have been around forever.
# (music)
(applause)
Thank you.
(cheering and applause)
Subtitles: RTE 2019.
,.