The Great War Roadshow celebrates the unquenchable spirit, wry humour and irrepressible melodies of a lost generation, a hundred years after their elders sent them in their millions to fight an immoral war. World War 1 (1914-1918) saw 210,000 Irishmen serving in the British forces. 35,000 Irish died. In this, the centenary of The Great War, historian, broadcaster and MC on the night Dr. Myles Dungan presents an evening of songs and music of The Great War, featuring The Brook Singers, with soloists Sadhbh Burt Fitzgerald, Jonathan Creasy and Brendan MacQuaile.
The show tells the story of each of the songs, how and why they came to be composed, who sang them, what the men in the trenches thought of them and how they retaliated with music which chimed with their own experience rather than the dictates of a music industry anxious to collaborate in boosting the war effort while making a lot of money in the process. Included in the programme for the night are standards such as … ‘It’s A Long Way To Tipperary’, ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’, ‘Keep The Home Fires Burning’, ‘Roses Of Picardy’, as well as subversive and witty ripostes like … ‘The Recruiting Sergeant’, ‘Salonika’, ‘Hush Here Comes A Whizzbang’ and ‘When This Lousy War Is Over’.
