{"id":236616,"date":"2026-01-09T20:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236616\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T20:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:27:15","slug":"president-praises-peggy-seeger-song-as-an-inspiration-to-women-everywhere-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236616\/","title":{"rendered":"President praises Peggy Seeger song as an inspiration to women everywhere \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a reunion of sorts for President Catherine Connolly<\/a> when she found herself among the traditional music fraternity at the launch of this year\u2019s TradFest<\/a> in Dublin. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s one of our own,\u201d said the broadcaster and musician Kieran Hanrahan, referencing the President doing a set dance during her presidential campaign. <\/p>\n

Connolly made much of her love of traditional Irish music and dance during her candidacy, and the gr\u00e1 was reciprocated. <\/p>\n

Many trad musicians backed her campaign, hosting Ceol for Connolly in Vicar Street three weeks before the election. <\/p>\n

Among the acts taking part in that event were Madra Salach (Dirty Dog), the young trad band from Dublin who are part of a new wave of Irish artists grounded in the Irish ballad tradition. They participated in the TradFest launch at the GPO. <\/p>\n

Connolly presented a lifetime achievement award to Peggy Seeger<\/a>, the fabled singer, songwriter and folklorist and a member of the Seeger family, which has had an incalculable impact on the American folk scene. <\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Connolly with (from left) Mair\u00e9ad N\u00ed Mhaonaigh, Sharon Shannon, Peggy Seeger, and Sib\u00e9al and R\u00f3is\u00edn N\u00ed Chasaide at the launch of the programme for TradFest 2026. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

The President singled out Seeger\u2019s 1971 track I\u2019m Gonna Be an Engineer, a satirical song on the limited expectations that women confront in their professional lives. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeggy, your music, spanning seven decades, has been and remains an inspiration to all of us,\u201d Connolly said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour song I\u2019m Gonna Be an Engineer captured in a lighthearted but profoundly impactful way the discrimination faced by women on every level. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Peggy Seeger: \u2018I met Bob Dylan before he was Bob Dylan. He came for my autograph\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that you have referred to this song as an albatross around your neck, and a song that you are repeatedly asked to sing, but it is a song worth endless repetition because of what it captures and how relevant it is, and I would like to say thank you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Seeger, a sprightly 90-year-old, is steeped in the transatlantic music tradition. She married the British singer-songwriter Ewan MacColl<\/a>, whose songs have been covered by so many Irish artists that he is almost an adopted Irishman. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust one thing to say about that song: I never wanted to be an engineer. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have remade it for lawyers,\u201d she said. \u201cI make it for whatever profession you are in; you are going to the top, ladies.\u201d <\/p>\n

Seegar\u2019s politics has been as prominent as her music all her life. She has been a strong critic of American foreign policy, along with being a lifelong feminist. She is not impressed with the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe founding fathers of the United States said they wanted a republic rather than a democracy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Music: 84 gigs to catch, including The Cure, CMAT \u2013 and one with \u20ac690 ticketsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, you would either have a criminal or an idiot \u2013 and we have a president that is all of those things. He doesn\u2019t know how to run the country. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping the American people will find out how awful he is. He has a way of convincing that everything is fake. When climate change is a hoax, what do you do?\u201d <\/p>\n

A lifetime achievement award was also presented in absentia to the singer Se\u00e1n \u00d3 S\u00e9. <\/p>\n

Seeger will sing at the event Transatlantic Women on the night of January 24th in the National Stadium. She will be joined on stage by musician Sharon Shannon, singer Eleanor McEvoy, dancer Edwina Guckian and musician Natalie N\u00ed Chasaide, among many others. <\/p>\n

More than 600 artists will feature in the 2026 programme, with venues in central Dublin, Fingal, and the South Dublin County Council area. <\/p>\n

As part of TradFest 2026, F\u00e9ile Barney presents a three-day celebration of the life and career of Dubliners founding member Barney McKenna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a reunion of sorts for President Catherine Connolly when she found herself among the traditional music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3656,969,93,120269,61,60,120268],"class_list":{"0":"post-236616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-catherine-connolly","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ewan-maccoll","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-tradfest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}