The Southern Star 

(Cork, Ireland)

(we have attempted to identify the songs listed by the writer)



Complimentary messages have been pouring in from many people from far away who 
attended the Finbar Wright concert at the Parish Church, Barryroe on Friday night, 
November 3. And some of the people who spoke to us were equally high in the praise 
of the local choir which performed with such a high degree of excellence. Patrons 
travelled from several parishes, – Timoleague, Kilbrittain, Courcey’s, Innishannon, 
Newcestown, Enniskeane, Dunmanway, Rosscarbery, Clonakilty, Bandon, Cork City, 
Dublin, a huge contingent from Ballinascarthy and we met a lady from Listowel and 
many more places. While many had seen Finbar Wright with the “Three Tenors” (The 
Irish Tenors) on television, they all had an ambition to see him in real life and 
they were not disappointed.



WHAT a night it was. The first Friday night of November 2006 will for long be remembered 
by the parishioners of Barryroe and the surrounding countryside as the occasion when the 
Barryroe Parish Church was packed to capacity for the Finbar Wright concert. The proceedings 
opened with a half-hour recital by the combined Barryroe and Courtmacsherry choirs and when 
Finbar mounted the podium in the high altar he received a fabulous welcome which reminded 
him that he was coming amongst his own. And when he introduced himself after his opening 
number, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’, he spoke about his early years staying with his cousins, 
the Barrys of Lislevane South and playing with the young fellows around Lislevane, many of 
whom were in the audience. His wide selection of numbers were highly appreciated but the 
audience burst into wild applause when he broke into the compositions of ‘Perry French’ 
and ‘Stephen Foster’. His contributions included ‘Old friends are best (?)’, ‘Little Bridget 
Flynn’, ‘Wonder Child’, ‘Beautiful Dreamer’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘Don’t fence me in’, ‘Cold Quarter (?Cole Porter?)‘, 
‘Good-Bye’ (?), ‘The Old Rustic Bridge’, ‘I love you as I never loved before’ 
(Sweet Sixteen), ‘[Only] fools rush in’, ‘South of the Border’, ‘Kathleen', ‘Galway Bay’, 
‘When Irish eyes are smiling’. How well his 
performance was appreciated can be gauged by the fact that applause from the audience brought 
him back on stage twice to perform extra numbers. Having thanked Parish Priest, Fr. Stevenson 
and the organisers, he went back to his roots and mentioned that his grandfather was Jack Barry, 
one of the many famous Jack Barrys of Barryroe. Backing Finbar on stage were Des Lacey, Tommy 
Donoghue, Gavin Murphy and Conor McGlinn. At the conclusion, Fr. Stevenson paid a glowing tribute 
to Finbar and his party, the joint choirs, the joint MC, all the stewards both outside and inside 
and in particular local postmaster, John Madden whose brainchild brought about the concert.