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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.’
‘I’m for Gallipolli’ features Damien Dempsey on vocals representing Paddy Kavanagh, Fiach’s great-grandfather. The vocals were recorded in John Reynolds’ home studio in Enniskerry using the same microphone Sinéad O’Connor used for her iconic track ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.
The album begins with Jack escaping debt collectors by running into the River Poddle at Faddle Alley (a street in the Liberties that no longer exists) and into the tunnel that runs under Dublin Castle, Olympia Theatre and eventually spills out into the River Liffey on Wellington Quay.
He meets the love of his life lying in a rowboat and jumps in to introduce himself.
They climb on to the Ormonde Quay on the Liffey's northside and Jack spots a news headline quoting John Redmond, leader of the Irish Volunteers, urging Irishmen to sign up to 'fight for small nations' in World War 1.
From here, Jack is billeted in the Royal Barracks (Collins Barracks) and then Torquay. Before leaving Dublin he bids godbye to his darling Julia (voiced by Jenna Nicholls) and before leaving Britain he bids a farewell to his brother Paddy (voiced by Damien Dempsey).
Jack boards the SS River Clyde and heads for Gallipoli to fight in that ill-fated battle that decimated the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and many other batallions.
He was fatally injured soon after the fighting began and is buried in Alexandria, Egypt.
Born into a musical family, Fiach Moriarty began playing the violin at the age of five, teaching himself guitar when he was twelve, and then began writing songs. When he turned eighteen, Fiach attended Ballyfermot College in order to hone his craft, catching the attention of Chris White (Zombies) who was a guest at the college. Fiach first came onto the Irish music scene back in 2010 with his debut album So I, which RTÉ One made their Album of the Week. The album resulted in invitations to collaborate with Paul Brady and Eddi Reader, tours with Mary Black and Ray Davies of The Kinks, a deal with an LA publisher and tours in USA and Australia.
This was followed by Fiach’s second album, The Revolution, in 2015, which led to features on BBC, two appearances with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and tours of Ireland, France, Germany, UK and Switzerland.
In addition to his exceptional musical skills, Fiach is a passionate Irish language speaker, and in 2017 was a host and musician for Jingle Jangle, a six-part Virgin Media musical travel show which broadcast on TV3, alongside Fiachna Ó Braonáin from Hothouse Flowers and Jim Lockhart of Horslips. Fiach has recorded and performed with Harry Connick Jr., Marti Pellow (Wet Wet Wet), Mundy, Christy Dignam, Damien Dempsey, Úna Healy, Brian Kennedy, John Sheahan of The Dubliners, Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains, Declan O’Rourke, Duke Special, Mary Coughlan, David Geraghty (Bell X1), Wallis Bird and for a time also joined the Grammy-nominated Beoga as a band member, performing on Other Voices and touring internationally.
These days, Fiach writes and plays guitar with the trad-fusion group ALDOC and most recently joined the seminal Irish band Horslips as guitarist and lead singer, stepping in for the legendary Johnny Fean.
For more information contact Emma@orchestrate.ie
