Old Irish (sometimes called Old Gaelic^[1]) is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, by which time it had developed into Middle Irish. Old Irish is thus the ancestor of Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx.^[1] Broadly speaking, the grammar and sound systems of the modern languages are simpler than those of Old Irish.

Contemporary Old Irish scholarship is still greatly influenced by the works of a small number of scholars active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among them Rudolf Thurneysen (1857–1940) and Osborn Bergin (1873–1950). Their books are viewed as required material for any enthusiast of Old Irish even today.

Classification[link]

A still older form of Irish is known as Primitive Irish. Fragments of Primitive Irish, mainly personal names, are known from inscriptions on stone written in the Ogham alphabet. These inscriptions date from about the 4th to the 6th centuries. Primitive Irish is still very close to Common Celtic, the ancestor of all Celtic languages.

Sources[link]

Relatively little survives in the way of strictly contemporary sources. These are mainly represented by shorter or longer glosses on the margins or between the lines of religious Latin manuscripts, most of them preserved in monasteries in Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy, having been taken there by early Irish missionaries. Whereas in Ireland, many of the older manuscripts appear to have been worn out through extended and heavy use, their counterparts on the Continent were much less prone to the same risk, because once they ceased to be understood, they were rarely consulted.^[2]

The earliest Old Irish passages may be the transcripts found in the Book of Armagh and the Cambrai Homily, both of which are thought to belong to the early 8th century. Important Continental collections of glosses from the 8th and 9th century include the Würzburg Glosses (mainly) on the Pauline Epistles, the Milan Glosses on a commentary to the Psalms and the St Gall Glosses on Priscian's Grammar. Further examples are found at Karlsruhe (Germany), Paris (France), Milan, Florence and Turin (Italy). A late 9th-century manuscript from the abbey at Reichenau, now in St. Paul in Carinthia (Austria), contains a spell and four Old Irish poems. The Liber Hymnorum and the Stowe Missal date from about 900 to 1050.

In addition to contemporary witnesses, the vast majority of Old Irish texts are attested in manuscripts of a variety of later dates. Manuscripts of the later Middle Irish period, for instance, such as the Lebor na hUidre and the Book of Leinster, contain texts which are thought to derive from written exemplars in Old Irish now lost and retain enough of their original form to merit classification as Old Irish. The preservation of certain linguistic forms which were current in the Old Irish period may provide reason to assume that an Old Irish original directly or indirectly underlies the transmitted text or texts.

Phonology[link]

Consonants[link]

The consonant inventory of Old Irish is shown in the chart below. /N/, /Nʲ/, /L/, /Lʲ/, /R/, /Rʲ/ represent fortis sonorants whose precise articulation is unknown, but which were probably longer, tenser, and generally more strongly articulated than their lenis counterparts /n/, /nʲ/, /l/, /lʲ/, /r/, /rʲ/. Like Modern Irish, Old Irish exhibits contrasts between "broad" (velarized) and "slender" (palatalized) consonants.

Some details of Old Irish phonetics are not known. /sʲ/ may have been pronounced [ɕ] or [ʃ], as in Modern Irish. /hʲ/ may have been the same sound as /h/ and/or /xʲ/. /Nʲ/ and /Lʲ/ may have been pronounced [ɲ] and [ʎ] respectively. The difference between /R(ʲ)/ and /r(ʲ)/ may have been that the former were trills while the latter were flaps.

Vowels[link]

The inventory of Old Irish monophthongs is:

The distribution of short vowels in unstressed syllables is a little complicated. All short vowels may appear in unstressed final open syllables (an open syllable is one with no coda consonant), after both broad and slender consonants. The front vowels /e/ and /i/ are often spelled ae and ai after broad consonants, which might indicate a retracted pronunciation here, perhaps something like [ɘ] and [ɨ]. All ten possibilities are shown in the following examples:

In unstressed closed syllables (that is, those with a syllable coda), the quality of a short vowel is almost entirely predictable by whether the surrounding consonants are broad or slender. Between two broad consonants, the vowel is /a/, as in dígal /ˈdʲiːɣal/ "vengeance" (nom.). Between a slender and a broad consonant the vowel is /e/, as in dliged /ˈdʲlʲiɣʲeð/ "law" (nom./acc.). Before a slender consonant the vowel is /i/, as in dígail /ˈdʲiːɣilʲ/ "vengeance" (acc./dat.), and dligid /ˈdʲlʲiɣʲiðʲ/ "law" (gen.). The chief exceptions to this pattern are that /u/ frequently appears when the following syllable contained an *ū in Proto-Celtic (for example, dligud /ˈdʲlʲiɣuð/ "law" (dat.) < PC *dligedū), and that /o/ or /u/ frequently appears after a broad labial (for example, lebor /ˈLʲevor/ "book"; domun /ˈdoṽun/ "world").

The inventory of Old Irish diphthongs is shown in this chart:

Phonological history[link]

The following is a summary of the phonological changes yielding (written) Old Irish forms from Proto-Celtic stated by Alexander Macbain.^[3] (The order is not chronological.)

• Intervocalic consonants are lenited: *s is lost, stops become fricatives (only written for ph th ch), *l *n *r become lax (unwritten).
• Geminate consonants resist lenition and become single.
• *φ is lost with compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel.
• *j is lost in all positions, with slenderisation of a preceding consonant, except that before a dropped final vowel it survives as e.
• *kʷ *gʷ lose their labialisation (yielding c g).
• Initial *w becomes f. Intervocalic *w is lost with vowel colouring. *w is lost after *t *s and sometimes *d (always when initial), and becomes b after a voiced coronal.
• *t *d drop out before *b *s which are retained as p s. *d is lost in *ndw > nb.
• *ld and *ll can both be reflected as either ld or ll, and similarly for *nd and *nn. *ln yields ll.
• Medial *s assimilates to a following sonorant.
• Medial *st yields s.
• *zg yields dg.
• *rs yields rr.
• *x is lost before *s (and survives before *t, written ch).
• Medial *tr *br *dr yield tha(i)r ba(i)r da(i)r respectively.
• The first element of medial clusters *nt *nk *φm, or any medial cluster formed of *φ *t *k *b *d *g plus *l *n *r excepting *tr *br *dr, is lost with compensatory lengthening of any preceding vowel. Compensatorily lengthened vowels develop as original long vowels (below). Such clusters after *s still lose their first member but cause no lengthening.
• Consonants before *e *i *j, excepting the *k in *nk, become slender. If the consonant is not initial this is indicated by a preceding i in spelling (unless the preceding vowel is already i or í).
• ī, and *ē from compensatory lengthening, both yield either é or í, and similarly for *ū and *ō. The corresponding short vowels also can exchange before a consonant plus optional *j and a back vowel.
• *e *i before a consonant plus *(j)u can additionally yield iu. *ō *ū before a velar plus *(j)u can additionally yield úa.
• Nonfinally, the outcomes of *ei are é ía; of *ai and *oi are áe ái óe ói; of *eu and *ou is úa; of *au are áu ó.
• *iwo gives eó or ía; *ewo gives eó; *eiwi gives é; *eiwo gives ía; *awi gives á or ó; *awo gives ó; *owi gives úa.
• *e *i can yield respectively eu iu after *wl.

Orthography[link]

As with most medieval languages, the orthography of Old Irish is not fixed, so the following statements are to be taken as generalizations only. Individual manuscripts may vary greatly from these guidelines.

The Old Irish alphabet consists of the following eighteen letters of the Latin alphabet:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

In addition, the acute accent and the superdot are used as diacritics with certain letters:

• The acute accent indicates a long vowel. The following are long vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú.
• The superdot indicates the lenition of f and s: ḟ is silent, ṡ is pronounced /h/
• The superdot is also sometimes used on m and n with no change in pronunciation, when these letters are used to mark the nasalization mutation: ṁ, ṅ.

A number of digraphs are also used:

The letter i is placed after a vowel letter to indicate that the following consonant was slender: ai, ei, oi, ui; ái, éi, ói, úi

The letter h is placed after c, t, p to indicate a fricative: ch, th, ph

The diphthongs are also indicated by digraphs: áe/aí, ía, uí, áu, óe/oí, úa, éu, óu, iu, au, eu

In word-initial position, when no initial consonant mutation has applied, the consonant letters have the following values; they are broad before back vowels (a, o, u) and slender before front vowels (e, i):

Although Old Irish has both a sound /h/ and a letter h, there is no consistent relationship between the two. Vowel-initial words are sometimes written with an unpronounced h, especially if they are very short (the preposition i "in" was sometimes written hi) or if they need to be emphasized (the name of Ireland, Ériu, was sometimes written Hériu). On the other hand, words that begin with the sound /h/ are usually written without it, for example a ór /a hoːr/ "her gold". If the sound and the spelling cooccur, it is by coincidence, as ní hed /Nʲiː heð/ "it is not".

After a vowel or l, n, or r the letters c, p, t can stand for either voiced or voiceless stops; they can also be written double with either value:

After a vowel the letters b, d, g stand for the fricatives /v, ð, ɣ/ or their slender equivalents:

After m, b is a stop, but after d, l and r it is a fricative:

After n and r, d is a stop

After n, l, and r, g is usually a stop, but it is a fricative in a few words:

After vowels m is usually a fricative, but sometimes a (nasal) stop, in which case it is also often written double:

The digraphs ch, ph, th do not occur in word-initial position except under lenition, but wherever they occur they are pronounced /x/, /f/, /θ/.

The letters l, n, and r are written double when they indicate the tense sonorants, single when they indicate the lax sonorants. (But the tense sonorants are usually written single in word-initial position.)

Syntax[link]

Old Irish follows the typical VSO (verb-subject-object) structure shared by most Insular Celtic languages (even though other orders are possible, especially under Bergin's Law). Verbs are all fully conjugated, and have most of the forms typical of Indo-European languages, i.e. present, imperfect, past, future and preterite tenses, indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative moods, and active and passive voices. The only verbal form lacking in Old Irish is the infinitive, this covered, as in the modern Gaelic languages, by the verbal noun. Personal pronouns, when used as direct objects, are prefixed to the verb with which they are associated (after other prefixes, and therefore are often referred to as infixes). Prepositions have the same status as the Latin prepositions, including the property of being verb prefixes.

Morphology[link]

Nouns[link]

Old Irish had three genders, namely, masculine, feminine and neuter; three numbers, namely, singular, dual and plural, with the dual being attested only to a limited degree with somewhat distinct forms, though it is almost always preceded by the cardinal dá, meaning "two" (and as such has been retained in the modern Gaelic languages); and five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive and dative). Thurneysen had fourteen classes of noun, defined by the morphological marking on the stem, with seven vocalic stems and seven consonantal stems (including one class of irregular and indeclinable nouns). The full range of case is only evident in the noun phrase, where the article causes noun initial mutation, and where the initials of following adjectives are mutated according to the underlying case ending, thus in fer bec "the small man", nominative, differs from the accusative in bfer mbec, though at times such mutations were not written. In the following H shows lenition, N shows ellipsis of the following adjective, and h shows prefixing of h to following vowel initial adjectives. (These mutations are related to the form of the case ending in Common Celtic. Endings with a final vowel triggered lenition; those with a final nasal consonant triggered ellipsis; and those with a final /s/ triggered prefixing of h. For the most part, the endings that can be reconstructed by these mutations agree with the corresponding forms in Sanskrit, Ancient Greek and/or Latin.)

Verbs[link]

Verbs stand initially in the sentence (preceded only by some particles, forming a "verbal complex", and very few adverbs). Most verbs have, in addition to the tenses, voices, and moods named above, two sets of forms: a conjunct form, and an absolute form. The conjunct form typically consists of one or more preverbs (particles, some of which are prepositions in origin; compare a-, e-, in-, etc. in Latin verbs), followed by a verb stem, which can be either suffixed for tense, person, mood and aspect (often portmanteau suffixes), or where these can be shown by vowel changes in the stem (e.g. as·beir present "says", as·rubart past "said", as·béra future "will say"). Personal pronouns as direct objects are infixed between the preverb and the verbal stem. Before this core "verb phrase" are placed various other particles that modify the verb's meaning (including the negative) or indicate certain special sentence structures. The absolute form is used when no infixes are necessary, and any other necessary elements are given in another part of the sentence. In an overall sense, the verb structure is agglutinative. A single verb can stand as an entire sentence in Old Irish, in which case emphatic particles such as -sa and -se are affixed to the end of the verb.

See also[link]

• Early Irish literature
• Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Auraicept na n-Éces
• Goidelic substrate hypothesis

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Green, Antony (1995). Old Irish Verbs and Vocabulary. Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Press. ISBN 1-57473-003-7. 
• Lehmann, R. P. M.; W. P. Lehmann (1975). An Introduction to Old Irish. New York: Modern Language Association of America. ISBN 0-87352-289-3. 
• McCone, Kim (1987). The Early Irish Verb. Maynooth: An Sagart. ISBN 1-870684-00-1. 
• McCone, Kim (2005). A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader. Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland. ISBN 0-901519-36-7. 
• O’Connell, Frederick William (1912). A Grammar of Old Irish. Belfast: Mayne, Boyd & Son. http://www.archive.org/details/grammaroldirish00oconuoft. 
• Quin, E. G. (1975). Old-Irish Workbook. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0-901714-08-9. 
• Stifter, David (2006). Sengoidelc: Old Irish for Beginners. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-3072-7. 
• Strachan, John (1949). Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses. Revised by Osborn Bergin (Fourth ed.). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0-901714-35-6. http://www.archive.org/details/oldirishparadigm00strauoft. 
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1993) [1946]. A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 1-85500-161-6. 
• Tigges, Wim; Feargal Ó Béarra (2006). An Old Irish Primer. Nijmegen: Stichting Uitgeverij de Keltische Draak. ISBN 90-806863-5-2. 

External links[link]

For a list of words relating to Old Irish, see the Old Irish language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language MacBain, Alexander Gairm Publications, 1982
• Old Irish dictionary
• Old Irish Online from the University of Texas at Austin.
• eDIL (digital edition of the Dictionary of the Irish Language)

v t e  Isle of Man Manx linguistics Primitive Irish Old Irish Middle Irish Manx language

Look up old or olde in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Old or OLD may refer to:

Age[link]

• Old age or, by extension, a description or nickname for someone or something that has endured and become comfortable or widely familiar.

Places[link]

• Old, Baranya, Hungary
• Old, Northamptonshire, England
• Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base in Old Town, Maine, United States (IATA code)

People[link]

• Old Boys and Old Girls, former pupils of schools in Britain, some schools in Australia, New Zealand and other British Commonwealth countries

Surname[link]

• Alan Old (born 1945), English rugby union player
• Ashley George Old (1913–2001), British artist
• Chris Old (born 1948), English cricketer
• Lloyd J. Old (born 1933), cancer researcher
• Richard Old (1856–1932), English woodcraftsman and model maker
• Steven Old (born 1986), New Zealand footballer
• William Erwood Old, Jr. (1928–1982), American malacologist

Music[link]

• Old (album), an album by Starflyer 59
• "Old" (song), a song by Machine Head
• OLD (band), a grindcore/industrial metal group

Acronyms[link]

• Oxford Latin Dictionary
• Over-Locknut Distance (or Dimension), a measurement of bicycle hubs and frames

See also[link]

• List of people known as the Old
• All pages beginning with Old

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up irish in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Irish may refer to:

• Irish cuisine
• Ireland, an island in north-western Europe, on which are located:
  • Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom
  • Republic of Ireland, a sovereign state

• Irish language, a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland and by communities worldwide
  • Irish (Junior Cert), a subject of the Junior Cycle examination in Secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland
• Irish people, people of Irish ethnicity, people born in Ireland, people who hold Irish Citizenship
• Irish (name), a first or last name

See also[link]

• Irish nationality law, determining who can become an Irish citizen
• Irish related topics, list of articles related to Ireland

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since August 2011. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since April 2012. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since April 2011.

Snatam Kaur
September 10, 2007, Snatam Kaur in Hockley, Birmingham, England.
Background information
Born	1972 Trinidad, Colorado
Genres	Mantra, Meditation, New Age, Female Vocalists
Occupations	Musician
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Spirit Voyage Records
Website	http://www.snatamkaur.com

Snatam Kaur Khalsa (Punjabi: ਸਨਾਤਮ ਕੌਰ ਖਾਲਸਾ, born 1972 in Trinidad, Colorado), is an American singer and songwriter. She lives in Santa Cruz, California. Kaur performs Indian devotional music, kirtan, and tours the world as a peace activist. The name "Kaur", meaning "princess", is shared by all female Sikhs.

Early life and education[link]

Her family moved to California when Snatam was two, living in Long Beach and Sacramento. When Snatam was six, the family went to India where her mother studied kirtan. Snatam lived on a ranch near Bolinas, California until 8th grade and then moved to Mill Valley in 1986. During her childhood, she played kirtan with her mother in Sikh temples and at Sikh religious ceremonies. She attended Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. While at Tam High, she played violin in the school orchestra and began songwriting. Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead coached Kaur and her classmates before they performed her song Saving the Earth at an Earth Day concert in San Francisco on April 22, 1990.^{[citation needed]}

Snatam was also active in social and environmental causes while in high school, serving as president of the social action club known as, "Students for Justice," in her senior year. The club started a campus recycling program and organized environmental awareness programs. The club also led the effort to change the school mascot and sports team names from the Indians to the Red Tailed Hawk in 1989 and 1990 due to a speech given at the school by Sacheen Littlefeather.^{[citation needed]}

After graduating from Tam, Snatam attended Mills College in Oakland, California, receiving a bachelors degree in biochemistry. She then returned to India to study Kirtan under her mother's teacher, Bhai Hari Singh. In 1997, Kaur began a career as a food technologist with Peace Cereals in Eugene, Oregon.^[1]

Snatam's music[link]

In 2000, Kaur signed with Spirit Voyage Records—the founder of which, Guru Ganesha Singh, became her manager and guitarist. Her professional collaboration also includes New Age music producer Thomas Barquee. Titles of Kaur's CD's include: Prem, Shanti, Grace, Anand, and Liberation's Door.^[1]

Discography[link]

The Celebrate Peace Tour[link]

Snatam spends much of the year on the road, singing and teaching yoga wherever she’s invited.

Her Celebrate Peace world tour includes stops at schools, hospices, juvenile detention centers, and other facilities where her music can help to heal and inspire. “We reach out to children through our free Children’s Peace Hour, which serves many children in underprivileged communities.” Snatam is a Peace Ambassador working through a United Nations NGO (non-governmental organization) called the 3HO Foundation (the three H’s stand for “happy, healthy, holy”). Snatam uses her public programs as an opportunity to educate audiences about the importance of mutual understanding and respect in these troubled times.

On tour, Snatam is joined by her longtime musical partner GuruGanesha Singh who exudes joy and warmth with his guitar and vocals. She also travels with her husband Sopurkh Singh who serves as her manager, and their new baby daughter Jap Preet Kaur.^[1]

Kundalini yoga[link]

Snatam offers Yoga training via her “Creating Inner Peace through Kundalini Yoga and Meditation” workshops. These classes provide instruction in the technology of Kundalini as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Chanting is an essential part of the Kundalini Yoga practice.^[1]

Sikh influence[link]

Sikhism is a world religion that began in India in the mid-fifteenth century with the master Guru Nanak (1469-1539 C.E.). The essence of being a Sikh is that one lives one’s life according to the teachings of the Sikh Gurus, devoting time to meditating on God and the scriptures, chanting, and living life in a way that benefits other people and the world.^{[citation needed]}

Snatam’s own teacher, Yogi Bhajan (1929-2004), was influential in helping promote the Sikh tradition in the West.^{[citation needed]}

Sikhism is based on the Shabad Guru. On Kaur's official website she explains, “Shabad is the sacred energy or recitation of sound, and Guru means the living teacher. For Sikhs, our living Guru exists within the sacred words of our tradition. As part of our daily practice we take a sacred divine reading from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, which is a collection of writings from enlightened teachers and sages in India. It includes the Sikh Gurus, but also incorporates saints from other traditions.” ^[1]

Personal life[link]

Snatam lives in Santa Cruz, California with her husband Sopurkh Singh Khalsa, whom she married in January 2006, and their daughter Jap Preet Kaur.

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Snatam Kaur discography at Music City

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

Foster and Allen are a musical duo from Ireland consisting of Mick Foster and Tony Allen.

History[link]

Foster and Allen began back in the 1970s when Foster and Allen were playing in country music bands around Ireland. In 1975, they formed a small group and went over to the UK to work the Irish music venues on a short tour.

They had at this stage the idea of working together as a duo, playing easy listening music with traditional Irish instrumentals. When their UK tour finished they decided to let the band return to Ireland whilst they stayed behind to try to break into the public eye. They played several venues in the London area and the reaction was favourable; they decided to remain as a duo, and Foster and Allen was formed.

After a time working around the circuit in the UK and Ireland, they released their first single, "The Rambles of Spring". This made an impact on the Irish market and Foster and Allen were soon in demand for cabaret venues all over Ireland and, to a lesser extent, the UK At the end of 1978, Foster and Allen released the single, "A Bunch of Thyme" in Ireland, and it entered the Irish chart and became their first #1 single. It is also one of the first blues songs to become a hit in Ireland, and is a melodic cousin of "Careless Love" and "Worries on my Mind".

It was not until 1982 that this single was released in the UK. It was played by all the radio stations in Britain, and peaked at #18 in the UK Singles Chart.^[1] At the time, Foster and Allen were in the United States on a tour. They were contacted and told to fly back to the UK to appear on BBC Television's Top of the Pops.

Demand for Foster and Allen's services at venues all over Ireland and the UK increased at this point. They released another single, "Old Flames", which peaked at #51 in the UK chart.^[1] They undertook their first concert tour of the UK in 1983, and this tour was boosted by the release of another single "Maggie". This reached #27 in the UK Singles Chart,^[1] and along with A Bunch Of Thyme, became the signature tunes for the duo. Since then they have toured the UK twice each year.

In addition to the UK tours, Foster and Allen have toured the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They had five #1 hits in Australia and New Zealand. They have also appeared on numerous TV shows in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, as well as Australia, US and Canada, and they have had their own TV series on RTE Television in Ireland.

In the early days, Mick Foster and Tony Allen performed on stage as a duo, but in 1982 (when the concert tours started) they added a band to their show thus giving a much fuller sound to their program. On the recording front, Foster and Allen have to date released twenty seven albums, all of which entered the UK Albums Chart.^[1]

As well as the albums, they have released thirteen videos. The video "Souvenirs and Memories" reached #3 in the UK video chart around Christmas 1991, the "By Request" video went straight into the #1 spot in 1993. Their latest DVD/Video release "After All These Years" became Top 10 in the UK. To date, Foster and Allen have achieved album and video sales in excess of 19 million worldwide.

Foster and Allen celebrated their 30th Anniversary together in the music industry, with the release of their album, Foster and Allen Sing The No. 1's, which was a Top 30 hit in the UK Albums Chart during Christmas 2005.^[1] This brought the sales of their last three albums in the UK and Ireland to over 500,000 units.

The duo completed their 'World Concert Tour – 2005/2006' which took them on tour to the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, US and Australia. The duo toured Australia again in June 2010.

In 2011, the High Court ruled they must pay around €3 million each to Revenue.^[2]

Tony Allen[link]

Allen was born on 24 February 1952, the youngest of a family of nine children. He was keen on music from an early age, and was encouraged by his parents and teachers. His father, Patrick, was a fiddle player while his mother was a singer. Allen started playing the accordion after one of his brothers brought him an accordion home from England. It was not long before he joined the Mary Landers (a local band) and, in turn, joined the Kieran Kelly Band replacing Brendan Shine. In 1973, along with his brother, Tom, Allen was part of Doc Carroll's Nightrunners Showband. It was another Athlone man, Kevin Sheerin, who recommended Allen for the job in this band. They used to play mostly around the Midlands and a residency in the Irish Club, Parnell Square, Dublin every Tuesday night.

Allen opened a recording studio in Moate, Roseland Studios, and most major acts in Ireland record their albums there. He is motivated by music, and with having the studio, he is now directing his interests into the technical side of the business.

Mick Foster[link]

Foster was born in 1947 in County Kildare, in sight of the Curragh. He now lives in Mullingar, and has a small farm where he spends all his time, when not touring, looking after his horses. He has three daughters; Denise, Louise and Sandra, and one son; Jackie. He has two grandchildren by Jackie; Daniel (born 1986) and Sarah (born 1990) who appeared with him in the video The Little Unicorn.

Foster was taught to play the accordion by a Westmeath nun and Frankie Gavigan. Other influences on his playing included Jimmy Shand and Will Starr. He has recorded a tribute to the latter, entitled The Old Button Box and has claimed that that his accordion would probably be the last thing he would be prepared to give up.

Contemporary influence[link]

Foster and Allen have been mimicked by the Irish comedy puppet duo, Podge and Rodge. The characters are called "Fester and Ailin'" and have been seen on Irish television satirically arguing with Foster and Allen with each claiming the other copied their act. Fester and Ailin' claim to be the originals with Fester claiming "(he) came out of the womb with that accordion on (him)". Fester and Ailin' also claimed that Foster and Allen's song "Bunch of Thyme" was a stolen copy of their original work, "Bunch of Lesbians". Fester and Ailin's other songs include "Tropical Diseases", "The Monkey Song" and "Doing the Wife's Sisters on the Sly".

They are also the inspiration for Vic and Bob's deranged folk duo, Mulligan and O'Hare, though Mulligan (Vic) also bears a striking resemblance to Terry Wogan.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Discography at MusicBrainz
• lyrics and chords
• Foster and Allen's website with forums