''An Irish Christmas'' is a music album by Irish

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

Moya Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

. According to Moya, the idea for the album first came to her some time ago: "I've been involved in number of other people's Christmas projects in recent years," explains Moya, "but I wanted to capture a truly Celtic Christmas feeling." "It's always important to bring the meaning of Christmas to the fore. It is the essence of what I believe in and the album offers both celebration and reflection on that familiar theme."

Track listing

# "

Carol of the Bells "Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, which is based on the Ukrainian New Year's song " Shchedryk". The music for the carol comes from the song written by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in or before 1916; the English-la ...

" # " The Wexford Carol" # "

Deck the Halls "Deck the Halls" is a traditional Christmas carol. The melody is Welsh, dating back to the sixteenth century, and belongs to a winter carol, " Nos Galan", while the English lyrics, written by the Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, date to 1862. ...

" # " Do You Hear (What I Hear)" / "

Don Oíche Úd i mBeithil Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a village and hill station in Dang district, Gu ...

" # "

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", also known as "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", is an English traditional Christmas carol. It is in the Roxburghe Collection (iii. 452), and is listed as no. 394 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It is also known as "T ...

" # " Gabriel's Message # "

Joy to the World "Joy to the World" is an English hymn and Christmas carol. It was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts. It is usually sung to the American composer Lowell Mason's 1848 arrangement of a tune attributed to George Fride ...

# "I Still Believe" # " In the Bleak Midwinter" # "

Love Came Down at Christmas "Love Came Down at Christmas" is a Christmas poem by Christina Rossetti. It was first published without a title in ''Time Flies: A Reading Diary'' in 1885. It was later included in the collection ''Verses'' in 1893 under the title "Christmastide ...

" # " In Dulci Jubilo" # " Oíche Chiúin (Silent Night)" : Replaced on U.S. release with " What Child Is This?" and "

Angels We Have Heard on High "Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol to the hymn tune "Gloria" from a traditional French song of unknown origin called "", with paraphrased English lyrics by James Chadwick. The song's subject is the birth of Jesus Christ as narr ...

" respectively. In 2013, An Irish Christmas was re-issued and re-packaged with two new tracks: "Dia Do Bheatha", "We Three Kings", a reworking of "Codail A Leanbh" and "What Child Is This" which previously appeared only on the US edition of the album.

Promotional singles

# "Carol of the Bells"

Personnel

Band

– vocals, harp, keyboards * Paul Byrne – drums, bodhran, timpani, tubular bells, percussion * Fionan De Barra – guitars, bouzouki, keyboards, vocals *

Cormac De Barra Cormac de Barra is a harpist, singer and television presenter and is part of the Moya Brennan Band. Biography De Barra comes from a family of traditional musicians and singers from Dublin with roots in County Cork. He studied Irish harp with his ...

– harp, vocals *

Éamonn Galldubh Eamonn or Éamon or Eamon may refer to: *Eamonn (given name), an Irish male given name *Eamon (singer) (born 1983), American R&B singer-songwriter and harmonicist * ''Eamon'' (video game), a 1980 computer role-playing game for the Apple II *"Éamon ...

– Uilleann pipes, whistles, flute * Yoshinobi Izumi – electric bass * Sam Jackson – piano, keyboards *

Sinéad Madden Sinéad Madden (born in County Galway, Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter and fiddle player, best known as a member of the Moya Brennan band. She also teaches at Waltons New School of Music in Dublin.

– fiddle, vocals * Frances Mitchell – keyboards

Additional musicians

Máire Breatnach Máire Breatnach () is an Irish fiddle, violin and viola player. She also sings in Irish on some of her albums. Since the early 1990s, she has recorded five solo albums, participated in many collaborations, and developed didactic material fo ...

– viola, fiddle *

Anthony Drennan Anthony "Anto" Drennan (born on 1 November 1958) is an Irish guitarist and bassist noted for his involvement with the Corrs, Genesis and Mike + the Mechanics. Drennan is from a musical Irish family and was born in Luton, England; he and h ...

– electric and acoustic guitars, dobro * Úna Ní Chanainn – cello *

Tim Jarvis Timothy John Jarvis (born 7 May 1966) is an English and Australian explorer, climber, author, environmental activist, and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his numerous Antarctic expeditions, particularly his attempted Antarctic cros ...

– keyboards * Aisling and Paul Jarvis – vocals on "Oíche Chiúin"

Release details

* Ireland and UK: 18 November 2005

References

External links

Joy to the World video
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Christmas Moya Brennan albums 2005 Christmas albums Christmas albums by Irish artists Celtic Christmas albums