Growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of what is now known as “the troubles”, was an education in itself. Walking the tightrope of political correctness at a young age is basic education for any child there, of any background. There are certain things you quickly learn to say and where not to say them, especially in a city where saying Derry or Londonderry immediately branded you for what your heritage was, and for the most part, which side of the city’s bridge you lived on. In so many subtle ways the national musical heritage of Ireland, at least in the north, was practiced with caution! Singing certain songs, particularly rebel songs, could make you a person of sudden interest to the authorities, whom, even though not in attendance in your audience on any given night, had ways of finding out who were.

Perhaps because of this restrictive upbringing, upon reaching the freedom of the U.S.A., I quickly learned as many of the rebel songs as possible! I was amazed at how many Americans of Irish ancestry knew them word for word. At the time I recorded the original Rebel Heart, many of the songs were already disappearing from the Irish Music scene.

Once while walking behind the stage, with my son Christopher in his stroller, at the Buffalo Irish Festival; I was accosted by three men, visitors to New York and traveling with a soccer team from Mississauga, Ontario who told me to “…stop singing that Fenian s*it!”, and “If you come to Toronto to sing we’ll run you out of the place!”. I might add that these brave boys were ex-British army, having served in my home province of Ulster, and I was due to sing in Toronto the very next weekend.

I was unhurt but shaken by the ugliness of the event. Fellow musicians were shocked and a few chose to speak out from the microphone and condemn the incident. I made a silent vow that no one would EVER stop me singing my country’s music again! I went to Toronto and yes, I sang Rebel songs there!

I once read a quotation which appears on the original cover of Rebel Heart II, it says “I am a Gael, and the son of a Gael, and I find no cause but for pride in that”. I have always felt that way about being Irish!

Rebel Heart I and Rebel Heart II were, and are, about singing songs of heritage and struggle, something our tiny country has in abundance. They are not and never were meant to be a political statement of any sort for me. To anyone who would deny me the right to sing them: I will be damned first!

Fiona Molloy

O9/03/03