The inaugural RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards

The inaugural RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards recipients:

Best Original Folk Track "Along the Western Seaboard" - Declan O'Rourke

Best Traditional Folk Track "Bean Dubh A’ Ghleanna" - Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Best Folk Singer - Radie Peat

Best Emerging Folk Artist - Emma Langford

Best Folk Instrumentalist - Martin Hayes

Best Folk Group - Lankum

Best Folk Album Haven - We Banjo 3

Lifetime Achievement Award - Andy Irvine

Hall of Fame - Tom Munnelly and John Reilly

Here is Declan O'Rourke with his winner:

"Heavenly father could you hear the prayers I offer you today,
some of the people in the parish have been asking me to pray for them,
they have no strength to help themselves,
they need help fending for themselves,
and we do all we can do but there's so little that we can do,

and this is the worst winter I know of even worse than last,
the snow has stayed for too long on the ground and for the second year around,
now all across our little Island we give all our sweat and toil
and still the crops they have all rotted in the soil,

and all across the Western seaboard they await with open hands
for something to feed there children or a ship to foreign lands,
but there's nothing here to give them except for chicken feet and sand,
while Britannia rules the roost with iron hands

Lord what can we do now,
oh good Lord what can we do
when we need to feed so many and there's not even for the few,
Lord what can we do now,
Lord what can we do,
they are starving, they are freezing,
and their clothes have all worn through

Heavenly father your people need you more than ever now,
it is such a desperate situation that the nation's in somehow,
I can't see many pulling through because even if we had the food to feed them many have disease,
Lord I hope you hear our pleas,
they are scattered by the roadside,
in the towns and in the fields,
and there is not even food to work for,
nevermind beg, lend or steal,
and if we go by the predictions with starvation and eviction
some two million will be dead before we're through,

still all along the western seaboard they await with open hands
for something to feed their children or a ship to foreign lands,
for there's nothing here to give them except for chicken feet and sand,
while Britannia rules the roost with iron hands

Lord what can we do,
oh good lord Lord what can we do,
when we need to see so many but there's not even for the few,
Lord what can we do now,
Lord what can we do,
they are starving,
they are freezing,
and their clothes have all worn through,
they have no one else but you"