The Barleycorn (also written as The Barley Corn) was an

Irish traditional music Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there w ...

and rebel music band. The band, consisting of

Paddy McGuigan Patrick Joseph McGuigan (8 December 1939 – 17 March 2014), known as Paddy Joe McGuigan, was an Irish traditional musician and songwriter who played for some years with The Barleycorn folk group. He wrote a number of well-known Irish rebel songs ...

, Liam Tiernan, Brian McCormick and John Delaney, was formed in mid-1971 in Belfast. Other musicians joined over the years, while some of the original members left. Their first recording was "

The Men Behind the Wire "The Men Behind the Wire" is a song written and composed by Paddy McGuigan of the The Barleycorn, Barleycorn folk group in the aftermath of Operation Demetrius. The song was recorded by the Barleycorn in Belfast (produced by Billy McBurney) and p ...

", produced by Billy McBurney in Belfast and pressed in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

by Release Records in December 1971. After its release on 14 December the song shot into the Irish charts, selling far more copies than any other single until then released in Ireland, and remained in the charts for months. It reached no. 1 position in the Irish charts on 22 January 1972, where it remained for three weeks. After a gap of one week, it returned to no. 1 for two weeks on 15 February. Royalties from the recording were donated to families of the internees. They also had big success with a follow-up single called 'Sing Irishmen sing'. In the following year the band made its debut album in the United States on Rex Records, ''The Barleycorn in America''. Paddy McGuigan was the first to leave the band, despite arguably contributing the most to its success with his songwriting, in 1975. Liam Tiernan left the band in 1981 and emigrated to Boston where he started his own pub. John Delaney stayed with the group until 1995, when the group broke up. He emigrated to the United States. After the late Derek McCormack, "one of the finest voices of his generation", joined the band about 1982, the band undertook a change of direction to showcase his lyrical voice. The singer/guitarist Paddy Sweeney was in the group before going on to join the

Dublin City Ramblers The Dublin City Ramblers is an Irish folk band, originally formed by the name of The Quare Fellas in 1970. The band has had a long line of members and Sean McGuinness is the only current of the original line-up, that also included Patsy Watchorn ...

. Derek McCormack had previously been a member of Dermot O'Brien's band and later bass player with the Fureys. The Barleycorn released "

The Fields of Athenry "The Fields of Athenry" is a song written in 1979 by Pete St. John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his ...

" in 1982, reaching no. 7 in Ireland. Barleycorn became firm favourites when they were the resident bands at a pub on the Expo88 grounds in Brisbane, Australia. They were so popular the pub operator brought them back for the last weeks of Expo.per

Personnel

* John Delaney – vocals,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(1971–1995) * Brian McCormick – vocals, bass (1971–1982) *

– vocals, guitar, harmonica (1971–1975; died 2014) * Liam Ternan – vocals, guitar (1971–1981) * Paul Anderson – fiddle,

tin whistle The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. ...

(1975–1981) * Derek McCormack – vocals, bass, guitar (1982–1995; died 2004) * Paddy Sweeney – vocals, guitar (1981–1986) * Dennis O'Rourke – vocals, fiddle, guitar (1983–1990) * Maurice McCarthy – vocals, fiddle, guitar,

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

(1990–1995)

Discography

* ''Live in the Embankment'' (1972) * ''In America'' (1973) * ''The Winds Are Singing Freedom'' (1974) * ''For Folk Sake'' (1975) * ''Live in New York'' (1979) * ''Fields of Athenry'' (1982) * ''Song for Ireland'' (1987) * ''My Last Farewell'' (1988) * ''Green & Gold'' (1989) * ''Waltzing's for Dreamers'' (1990) * ''A Song for Ireland – The Very Best of the Barleycorn'' (2007)

References

External links

Derek McCormack singing with Barleycorn
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barleycorn, The Folk music groups from Northern Ireland Musical groups from Belfast Musical groups established in 1971