*This line drawing, 'Birds and bees', is by the wonderful Belfast artist Sheena Hughes who's a regular at the Hearth sessions.*

“Sing us a wee song Jack, would ye?” I asked Jack Warnock, a fantastic young traditional musician who’d joined us for the Hearth session. “No problem, what were you thinking?” he said. “Don’t mind”, I replied, “but please sing something in English and sing about the birds and the bees!” I felt a bit bad, but I wasn’t being facetious and I meant what I said. Let me explain…

Firstly, one of the sad things about life in Belfast these days is that the Irish language is used as a political football; it’s wrongly associated with one side of the community and wrongly seen as something you’re entitled to either own or reject, depending on where you’re from. Secondly, as a fan of Bob Dylan, I know well that good folk songs are often protest songs about politics and political systems. And in the context of a trad music session in East Belfast, these two points combine to create a big, fat, slippery banana skin.

You see, Hearth is located in a part of Belfast that’s traditionally thought of as a predominantly Protestant and unionist one. And yet trad music is typically thought of as a Catholic and nationalist thing. I know, it’s ridiculous! The fact that we’re even doing a trad session in East Belfast these days is, for me, a very positive sign of the times. And when I said to Jack about singing in English and about the birds and the bees, all I was asking was that he didn’t sing anything that could be construed as directly political or about the complicated identities and geopolitics that prevail in this little part of the world. Jack got it. He’s a big boy. He’s a musician, not a politician. He sang beautifully and he hushed the room.

When we started the Hearth sessions we’d a wee rule between us of “no politics and no politicians” (unless in a personal capacity). Sticking with this has worked pretty well for us so far, and I’m happy to stick with it for a bit more.

The video is of the aforementioned Jack Warnock, alongside the wonderful Maureen O’Donoghue (another Hearth regular), singing a beautiful song called the Longford Weaver.

More to come next week. It’s all about the music. It’s everyone’s music!

Join us at The Hearth session each Thursday evening 8pm - 10pm for a tune or sit back and enjoy - it's everyone's music

Everyone’s music #6 - The birds and the bees