I think your Stryder post was a bit rough.
Oh, I agree, but they were just a bunch of local kids really and they were certainly no worse than U2.
As for Rory - no, you're wrong. Rory was exceptionally gifted.
Mary O'Hara i
I grew up listening to her literally every day and can thus sing her repertoire verbatim - my sister's harp teacher Máirín Ní Shéaghdha had been Mary O' Hara's teacher and Mary's repertoire of early Irish songs was acquired from that wonderful lady. Mary O' Hara learned her phrasing and arrangements for both harp and singing from her though she never acknowledges that and claims the arrangements as her own.
O'Hara's voice was beautiful, though her style was unfortunately tainted with 'the drawing room' due to the intervention of Sister Angela, an ancient nun who taught singing at Sion Hill Dominican Convent where Mary (and indeed my own sister) was a pupil. Máirín Ní Shéaghdha, (Mrs Ferriter,after her marriage) absolutely deplored Sr Angela's influence on the singing but anyway ............ when I met Sr Angela she would have been about ninety and she was still teaching in the school. Usually nuns loved me, but she was one of the few who didn't! Fortunately I never had to learn singing from her.
My mother and Mrs Ferriter had many a long conversation - with me sitting in the corner - about Mary O'Hara's singing and the agreement was that her phrasing was superlative. It was her breath control that set her apart but her tone was considered a bit shrill. Farewell but Whenever is a good choice to show the breath control. Beautiful phrasing.
Incidentally my mother who was a singer won the Thomas Moore Cup at the Feis Ceoil. It was awarded for the best interpretation of Thomas Moore songs. I don't know which ones she sang but there's a photo of her with the cup and a rose :) The winner was always given a rose to represent The Last Rose of Summer. I remember her singing that and Silent O'Moyle, which Mary O'Hara also recorded.
My sister sang all of Mary's songs and followed in her footsteps winning every competition for harp and voice under 18s by the time she was fifteen. She gave it up when she was sixteen but returned to senior competition for a year or two later on. Won everything again and stopped again! She still plays though.
Incidentally "Is Ar Eirinn Ni N-Eosphainn Ce Hi" is what Mrs Ferriter would call one of 'the big songs'. This is a song that she would only allow pupils to attempt when they reached a certain level of accomplishment in both voice and harp, which most of them never did. Another one is 'Jimmy Mo Mhíle Stór'.
You might like this.