The Radio Ballads
The
Radio Ballads
Personal testimony and new songs tell stories of Northern Ireland’s conflict.
BBC Radio 2 · 2006Personal testimony and new songs tell stories of Northern Ireland’s conflict.
Tommy contributed songs and performances to Thirty Years of Conflict, part of the BBC Radio 2 Radio Ballads series made in 2006. The project brought recorded experiences into conversation with newly written music, following the documentary tradition established by Ewan MacColl and Charles Parker.
Voices and songs together
The credits name Tommy alongside fellow songwriters Karine Polwart, Jez Lowe and Julie Matthews. His contributions include Stone Throw, Sing It All Over, Bloody Sunday, Troubles, Music Starts to Play and Carry On. Performers included Cara Dillon and members of the Sands family.
A collaborative radio documentary
John Leonard and John Tams led the new series. Rather than presenting songs as a stand-alone concert, the ballads connected music with people’s accounts of their lives. The Charles Parker Archive’s 2007 report records a Bronze Community award for Thirty Years of Conflict at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.