The third evening of Gael Force offered up a variety of "Celtic" goods ranging from the insufferably twee (Eleanor Shanley) and the mind-numbingly boring (James McNally) to the exemplary and illuminating (Christy Moore).
As all Gael Force concerts are being televised for broadcast on America's PBS, you would expect a veneer of earnest studiousness, which is precisely what we got from the support acts. Christy Moore, however, had little time for the constraints of the TV cameras, providing instead a rare insight into the nature of the singer/ songwriter. His choice of material, for example, seemed to reflect more the target PBS audience than those sitting in the Point - even if all the songs went down a proverbial storm.
Moore focused on topics that most singer/songwriters would shy clear of. While others sing of love and love lost, Christy sings of political, social and moral corruption. There are few cliches in what he sings and when he nails a topic on the head, as in Veronica, it resounds with a fury it is impossible to escape from. Pointed, humorous and occasionally scabrous, Moore's songs (some of which are written by others, it must be said) are reminders of the art of protest through song. Moore of this, please!
