Fiach Moriarty releases his new album Liberties on 18 October, with lead track ‘Travelling Man’. Liberties is a concept album about Fiach’s great-granduncle Jack Kavanagh from Francis Street in Dublin’s Liberties. Fiach explains, ‘Like many men from the Liberties area of Dublin, Jack joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and fought in World War I. While there are specifics about Jack in the album, I see him as a Liberties everyman, representing the men of that area at that time that followed the same path to fight in an Imperial War during a time of great economic hardship.’
‘Jack Kavanagh was a bit of an enigma in our family,’ Fiach continues. ‘My grandmother often told me about him but my mother and her siblings had never heard of him. During Covid I signed up to Ancestry.com and discovered all about Jack through his army records. I pieced this together with stories my grandmother had told me about him. I wrote the album chronologically as I wanted to try to accurately track his life from the Liberties to Gallipoli. I included as much information about Dublin at that time to paint a picture of what it was like for a young man in Dublin in those turbulent times.’
‘Travelling Man’ charts Jack’s trip from Bristol to Gallipoli. The Dublin Fusiliers are in high spirits, singing and drinking as they travel down the coast of France, enjoying the French music, food and culture before entering the Mediterranean Sea and steering towards the dreaded Dardanelles strait that lead into the Arena of War. Mick Flynn, formerly of Cafeì Orchestra, performs accordion on this upbeat track.
Album launch shows:
Fri. 18 Oct Club d’Art – Carlow 8pm, Tickets €20
Sun. 20 Oct Whelan’s, Dublin 8pm, Tickets €15
Sun. 3 Nov Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire (supporting Lisa Lambe)
Sat. 23 Nov British Library, London 10pm, Tickets £24
Fri 20 Dec Set Theatre (supporting The Stunning) SOLD OUT
Sat 21 Dec Set Theatre (supporting The Stunning) SOLD OUT
Thurs 23 Jan Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast. 8pm, Tickets on door
Sat 25 Jan United Arts Club, Dublin
Fri 7th Feb Áras Chrónáin, Dublin 8pm, Tickets ondoor
Sat 15 March Wexford Opera House (Hothouse Flowers)