Carrigaline’s own Máirtín de Cógáin, who recently won Just Plain Folks Celtic Songwriter of the year 2020, has released a new single the “Princess of Queens.”
It is a beautiful story of love at first sight when two strangers meet their grágeal (bright love) and never let go. It’s a song full to the brim with romance and dreams. Máirtín wrote this song after hearing how his wife’s (Mitra) Grandparents met in 1950s New York.
It all came together serendipitously when asked to contribute a song for a concert produced by Tune Supply (www.TuneSupply.com) to celebrate St. Valentine’s day. This concert full of heavy hitters, over seventy performers, from the folk scene’s young and old, notably Mick Moloney (Sweeney’s Men), Eimear Arkins (Comhaltas Champion) & Done Carroll (Finnegan’s Wake). To back his song de Cógáin paired with Gabriel Donohue, of the Chieftains, who played on guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and bodhrán. Gabriel is no ordinary Galwegian, he also mixed and mastered the sound at his own Cove Island Recording Studio making it a perfect track for release to radio.
The wonders of modern technology. To say Máirtín could record his part in San Diego and Mr. Donohue in Maine, over three thousand miles away, from their respective homes while in lockdown, is remarkable. The result gave our local man the impetus to let the song out to the world.
It was officially launched on New York’s biggest Irish Radio show WFUV’s Ceol na nGael on February 14th matching a lengthy interview with Máirtín. This is a song with a catchy chorus that anyone who is in love or still looking for love can connect with. You can buy your own copy of the single today online at mairtin.Bandcamp.com and support another Carrigaline artist.