Phil Coulter
Encyclopedia
Phil Coulter is an artist with an international reputation as a successful songwriter, pianist, music producer, arranger and director. His success has spanned four decades and he is one of the biggest record sellers in Ireland
. The Derry
composer was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
(BASCA) in October 2009.
Coulter has won 23 Platinum Discs, 39 Gold Discs, 52 Silver Discs, two Grand Prix Eurovision awards; five Ivor Novello Awards, which includes Songwriter of the Year; three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards; a Grammy Nomination; a Meteor Award, a National Entertainment Award and a Rose d’or d’Antibes.
in Northern Ireland
where his father was a policeman
; one of few Catholic constables in the force. He grew up with his two brothers and two sisters.
Coulter's father, also called Phil, encouraged music in the house. He played the fiddle
whilst his wife played the upright piano
. The younger Coulter recalls this piano, made by Challen, as "the most important piece of furniture in the house".
“I always stayed away from the fiddle, having inflicted enough pain on my family with the piano,” he laughed. Coulter confesses that he came close to abandoning the piano at an early age. “The truth is I hated the piano at first. I’d love to say I was a natural but I wasn’t. I hated playing it and I hated my music teacher. My father, who was a canny man, told me, ‘We have to scrimp and save to pay for these lessons, you might as well give them up.’
“It wasn’t long before I gravitated back to the piano, trying to play the songs that I was listening to on the radio. I always wondered what my left hand was supposed to be doing though. But after two or three years at St. Columb’s College I began thinking of the piano as an extension of myself.”
One of Coulter's most popular songs, "The Town I Loved So Well
", deals with the embattled city of his youth
, filled with "that damned barbed wire" during the Troubles
. 'It is the one I anguished most over, the one which had to earn respect and perhaps the most auto-biographical tune I have ever written’ “The roots of that song go very, very deep, it took time for it to win respect and integrity. That song defines an era and a place that is very dear to my heart.”
. He later studied music and French at the Queen's University of Belfast
(QUB).
Coulter has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster
and Dublin Institute of Technology
.
music despite studying classical music. Coulter was also founder of the Glee Club, which staged music events for the university. By 1964, his final year at university, Coulter had already written a couple of hit songs in Ireland and he moved to London
, where his first job was as an arranger
/songwriter
with a music publisher in Denmark Street
. From here he was hired to work with name acts including Billy Connolly
, Van Morrison
, Jerry Lee Lewis
and Tom Jones
.
's 1967 Eurovision
-winning entry, "Puppet on a String
", which would go on to become an international hit with more than 100 cover version
s. They had a second hit the next year with a song for Cliff Richard
called "Congratulations
", which finished second at Eurovision. A Spanish documentary in 2008 however revealed that Cliff Richard had been robbed of victory after Gen Francisco Franco fixed the vote.
Seven years later Coulter found himself back on the Eurovision stage when he co wrote, together with Pierre Cour
, the song "Toi" for Luxembourg
: the song, which was performed by Coulter's future wife Geraldine, came fifth in Stockholm
. Coulter and Martin later wrote the song "Shine It On", which would finish third in the 1978 heat of A Song for Europe, performed by the Glaswegian performer "Christian".
The duo wrote numerous hit songs for a variety of popular singers in the 1960s and 1970s, including "My Boy" for Elvis Presley
and many of the Bay City Rollers
' hits: they also contributed incidental music to the 1967 Spider-Man television series
.
, which would have an influence on modern Irish music. Christy Moore
wrote:
In addition to writing hits for the Bay City Rollers, Coulter also wrote songs for several other teenybop
bands of the 1970s, including Kenny
and Slik
, and appeared as a production credit on "Automatic Lover" by Dee D. Jackson
.
Coulter produced, arranged and wrote most of the late Joe Dolan
1983 album, Here and Now. The album featured several hit singles, including the Irish Top Ten hit "Deeper and Deeper" which remained a staple in Dolan's live sets and was also one of the last songs he performed before he became ill on stage during what turned out to be his last ever show in Abbeyleix
. The album was released in South Africa
as "Yours Faithfully" where it went to number one within one week of release.
In 2007, Coulter joined with Sharon Browne, one of the originators of the successful Celtic Woman
production, to collaborate on formation of a male version of that production called "Celtic Thunder
". A stage production at The Helix
in Dublin was released on DVD as Celtic Thunder: The Show and went to the top of the Amazon
and Billboard Top World Albums chart in 2008. Many of the tracks in the show, such as "That's a Woman" and "Heartbreaker", were written by Coulter.
, and remained in the chart for fourteen weeks. The follow-up album, Phil Coulter's Ireland reached #86 in the UK. He moved from London back to Ireland, where he established his music publishing company on the grounds of his house in Bray
, south of Dublin. Coulter's official website notes that he has some 23 platinum records
, 39 gold and 52 silver albums. He also keeps one of the walls of his office blank, "to remind me that there’s still room for a lot more."
In 2001 he was nominated for a Grammy Award
in the "New Age" category for his album Highland Cathedral. At the age of 67, he continues to be a popular performer in his native country and around the world in places such as The White House
and Carnegie Hall
.
Some of his most personal, famous and indeed most touching songs come from the loss of family members.
“‘The Old Man’ still haunts me when I play it in Derry,” he reflected. “I can still see my father’s face appear when I’m playing it there. These are my roots, my place, so the ghosts and memories come out of the woodwork when I play in Derry.”
Phil’s sister, Cyd, drowned in Lough Swilly. One year later he lost his brother, Brian to the same ‘Lake of Shadows.’
His struggle to come to terms with the loss and resulting emotions are captured in his songs ‘Shores of the Swilly’ and ‘Star of the Sea’. Furthermore, "Scorn Not His Simplicity
", pleads for tolerance and understanding of his son, who was born with Down's syndrome and died at the age of four.
“Those particular songs were written as much to help me come to terms with those tragedies as anything else. It is about keeping their memory alive for myself. That is the privilege of a songwriter, we can leave songs behind after we fall off the perch ourselves.”
Phil has six children with his second wife, Geraldine Branagan.
in order to protect Lough Swilly
from aquacultural destruction. After some deliberation, he concluded that work and family commitments would not allow him the time necessary to fill the political position. Some say that the passing of his priest brother Joseph at that time had a significant influence on his decision.
and is known to be a supporter of the club, having attempted to help the club with its financial problems in the early 2000s. He has also helped Derry City's local rivals, Finn Harps
, in their time of need.
In 1995, the Irish Rugby Football Union
commissioned Coulter to write a politically neutral anthem for the Ireland national rugby union team
, which represents both Northern Ireland and Ireland. The result was "Ireland's Call
", which is played alongside of, and in some cases instead of, Amhrán na bhFiann
. As well as being used by both the Ireland national rugby union team and the junior national teams, "Ireland's Call" has since also been adopted by the Ireland's national hockey
, cricket and rugby league
teams.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
composer was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors was founded in 1947.It represents its members within the industry, to the government and to the European Commission....
(BASCA) in October 2009.
Coulter has won 23 Platinum Discs, 39 Gold Discs, 52 Silver Discs, two Grand Prix Eurovision awards; five Ivor Novello Awards, which includes Songwriter of the Year; three American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers awards; a Grammy Nomination; a Meteor Award, a National Entertainment Award and a Rose d’or d’Antibes.
Early years
Coulter is from DerryDerry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...
in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
where his father was a policeman
Royal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
; one of few Catholic constables in the force. He grew up with his two brothers and two sisters.
Coulter's father, also called Phil, encouraged music in the house. He played the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
whilst his wife played the upright piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. The younger Coulter recalls this piano, made by Challen, as "the most important piece of furniture in the house".
“I always stayed away from the fiddle, having inflicted enough pain on my family with the piano,” he laughed. Coulter confesses that he came close to abandoning the piano at an early age. “The truth is I hated the piano at first. I’d love to say I was a natural but I wasn’t. I hated playing it and I hated my music teacher. My father, who was a canny man, told me, ‘We have to scrimp and save to pay for these lessons, you might as well give them up.’
“It wasn’t long before I gravitated back to the piano, trying to play the songs that I was listening to on the radio. I always wondered what my left hand was supposed to be doing though. But after two or three years at St. Columb’s College I began thinking of the piano as an extension of myself.”
One of Coulter's most popular songs, "The Town I Loved So Well
The Town I Loved So Well
"The Town I Loved So Well" is a song written by Phil Coulter about his childhood in Derry, Northern Ireland. The first three verses are about the simple lifestyle he grew up with in Derry, while the final two deal with the Troubles, and lament how his placid hometown had become a major military...
", deals with the embattled city of his youth
Adolescence
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
, filled with "that damned barbed wire" during the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
. 'It is the one I anguished most over, the one which had to earn respect and perhaps the most auto-biographical tune I have ever written’ “The roots of that song go very, very deep, it took time for it to win respect and integrity. That song defines an era and a place that is very dear to my heart.”
Education
Coulter spent his secondary school years at St. Columb's CollegeSt. Columb's College
St. Columb's College is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland and, since 2008, a specialist school in Mathematics and Computing...
. He later studied music and French at the Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University of Belfast
Queen's University Belfast is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university's official title, per its charter, is the Queen's University of Belfast. It is often referred to simply as Queen's, or by the abbreviation QUB...
(QUB).
Coulter has received honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
and Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology
Dublin Institute of Technology was established officially in 1992 under the but had been previously set up in 1978 on an ad-hoc basis. The institution can trace its origins back to 1887 with the establishment of various technical institutions in Dublin, Ireland...
.
Beginnings of a career in music
He started his first band at Queen's University, playing early rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
music despite studying classical music. Coulter was also founder of the Glee Club, which staged music events for the university. By 1964, his final year at university, Coulter had already written a couple of hit songs in Ireland and he moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where his first job was as an arranger
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
/songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
with a music publisher in Denmark Street
Denmark Street
Denmark Street is a short narrow road in central London, notable for its connections with British popular music, and is known as the British Tin Pan Alley. The road connects Charing Cross Road at its western end with St Giles High Street at its eastern end. Denmark Street is in the London Borough...
. From here he was hired to work with name acts including Billy Connolly
Billy Connolly
William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...
and Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
.
Songwriting partnership with Bill Martin
In the late 1960s Coulter formed a long-lasting writing partnership with Bill Martin. They wrote Sandie ShawSandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest...
's 1967 Eurovision
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
-winning entry, "Puppet on a String
Puppet on a String
"Puppet on a String" is the name of the Eurovision Song Contest-winning song in 1967 by British singer Sandie Shaw. It was her thirteenth UK single release....
", which would go on to become an international hit with more than 100 cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s. They had a second hit the next year with a song for Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
called "Congratulations
Congratulations (song)
"Congratulations" is a song written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter as the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 on 6 April with Cliff Richard performing....
", which finished second at Eurovision. A Spanish documentary in 2008 however revealed that Cliff Richard had been robbed of victory after Gen Francisco Franco fixed the vote.
Seven years later Coulter found himself back on the Eurovision stage when he co wrote, together with Pierre Cour
Pierre Cour
Pierre Cour was a French songwriter who wrote songs for several generations of artists. He wrote a number of successful songs in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
, the song "Toi" for Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
: the song, which was performed by Coulter's future wife Geraldine, came fifth in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. Coulter and Martin later wrote the song "Shine It On", which would finish third in the 1978 heat of A Song for Europe, performed by the Glaswegian performer "Christian".
The duo wrote numerous hit songs for a variety of popular singers in the 1960s and 1970s, including "My Boy" for Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and many of the Bay City Rollers
Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop band who were most popular in the 1970s. The British Hit Singles & Albums noted that they were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since The Beatles' and one of the most screamed-at...
' hits: they also contributed incidental music to the 1967 Spider-Man television series
Spider-Man (1967 TV series)
Spider-Man is an animated television series that ran from September 9, 1967 to June 14, 1970. It was jointly produced in Canada and the United States and was the first animated adaptation of the Spider-Man comic book series, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko...
.
Sideman and producer
As well as writing hit singles, Coulter produced three ground-breaking albums with PlanxtyPlanxty
Planxty is an Irish folk music band formed in the 1970s, consisting initially of Christy Moore , Dónal Lunny , Andy Irvine , and Liam O'Flynn...
, which would have an influence on modern Irish music. Christy Moore
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
wrote:
"With no competition he gave us a shite contract and we signed everything away. All that said, 30 years on this album sounds good. He produced it well and ... (he had) the foresight and wherewithal to record the band at a time when no one else was listening.
In addition to writing hits for the Bay City Rollers, Coulter also wrote songs for several other teenybop
Teenybopper
The term teenybopper was invented by marketing professionals and psychologists, later becoming a subculture of its own. The term describes a young teenager, particularly a girl, who follows adolescent trends in music, fashion and culture. The term was introduced in the 1950s to refer to teenagers...
bands of the 1970s, including Kenny
Kenny (band)
Kenny were a mid-1970s English pop and glam rock band.-Career:Kenny emerged from a North London band called Chufff. Songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter wrote the bulk of the successful songs for them. In the event, stardom was to prove extremely fleeting...
and Slik
Slik
Slik were a Scottish pop group of the mid 1970s, most notable for their UK no.1 hit "Forever and Ever" in 1976. Beginning with glam rock and changing their style to soft rock/bubblegum...
, and appeared as a production credit on "Automatic Lover" by Dee D. Jackson
Dee D. Jackson
Dee D. Jackson is a musician and singer. In the 1970s, she worked as a film producer in Munich, Germany, before moving into music, working with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey.-Career:...
.
Coulter produced, arranged and wrote most of the late Joe Dolan
Joe Dolan
Joseph "Joe" Francis Robert Dolan was an Irish entertainer, recorder and singer of easy listening songs...
1983 album, Here and Now. The album featured several hit singles, including the Irish Top Ten hit "Deeper and Deeper" which remained a staple in Dolan's live sets and was also one of the last songs he performed before he became ill on stage during what turned out to be his last ever show in Abbeyleix
Abbeyleix
Abbeyleix is a town in County Laois, Ireland about from Portlaoise and located on the N77 national secondary route. Formerly the N8 National Primary Route ran through the centre of the town, making Abbeyleix an infamous bottleneck on the Dublin-Cork corridor with up to 15,000 vehicles passing...
. The album was released in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
as "Yours Faithfully" where it went to number one within one week of release.
In 2007, Coulter joined with Sharon Browne, one of the originators of the successful Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman
Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...
production, to collaborate on formation of a male version of that production called "Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder
Celtic Thunder is a singing group composed of male soloists who perform both solo and ensemble numbers. Celtic Thunder debuted in August 2007 at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland...
". A stage production at The Helix
The Helix
The Helix is a building on the Dublin City University campus between Glasnevinand Whitehall on Dublin's Northside, originally planned to be called the Aula Maxima. It was completed in 2002, and it is described as a "performance space" and holds concerts, university conferring ceremonies and...
in Dublin was released on DVD as Celtic Thunder: The Show and went to the top of the Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and Billboard Top World Albums chart in 2008. Many of the tracks in the show, such as "That's a Woman" and "Heartbreaker", were written by Coulter.
Solo success
In 1984 Coulter launched himself as an artist in his own right and began by releasing a solo instrumental album called Classic Tranquility. His follow-up, Sea of Tranquility, became the second-best selling album of all time in Ireland. It peaked at #46 in the UK Albums ChartUK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
, and remained in the chart for fourteen weeks. The follow-up album, Phil Coulter's Ireland reached #86 in the UK. He moved from London back to Ireland, where he established his music publishing company on the grounds of his house in Bray
Bray
Bray is a town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is a busy urban centre and seaside resort, with a population of 31,901 making it the fourth largest in Ireland as of the 2006 census...
, south of Dublin. Coulter's official website notes that he has some 23 platinum records
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
, 39 gold and 52 silver albums. He also keeps one of the walls of his office blank, "to remind me that there’s still room for a lot more."
In 2001 he was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
in the "New Age" category for his album Highland Cathedral. At the age of 67, he continues to be a popular performer in his native country and around the world in places such as The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
.
Inspiration
It has not always been ‘awards and accolades’ for Ireland’s most accomplished composer. His personal life has provided enough heartbreak and inspiration for several songwriters.Some of his most personal, famous and indeed most touching songs come from the loss of family members.
“‘The Old Man’ still haunts me when I play it in Derry,” he reflected. “I can still see my father’s face appear when I’m playing it there. These are my roots, my place, so the ghosts and memories come out of the woodwork when I play in Derry.”
Phil’s sister, Cyd, drowned in Lough Swilly. One year later he lost his brother, Brian to the same ‘Lake of Shadows.’
His struggle to come to terms with the loss and resulting emotions are captured in his songs ‘Shores of the Swilly’ and ‘Star of the Sea’. Furthermore, "Scorn Not His Simplicity
Scorn Not His Simplicity
"Scorn not his Simplicity" is a song written by the Irish musician and songwriter Phil Coulter and performed on his albums Classic Tranquility and The Songs I Love So Well....
", pleads for tolerance and understanding of his son, who was born with Down's syndrome and died at the age of four.
“Those particular songs were written as much to help me come to terms with those tragedies as anything else. It is about keeping their memory alive for myself. That is the privilege of a songwriter, we can leave songs behind after we fall off the perch ourselves.”
Phil has six children with his second wife, Geraldine Branagan.
Politics
In 2002, Coulter was encouraged by the Save the Swilly organisation to run for DáilDáil Éireann
Dáil Éireann is the lower house, but principal chamber, of the Oireachtas , which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote...
in order to protect Lough Swilly
Lough Swilly
Lough Swilly in Ireland is a glacial fjord or sea inlet lying between the western side of the Inishowen Peninsula and the Fanad Peninsula, in County Donegal. Along with Carlingford Lough and Killary Harbour it is one of three known glacial fjords in Ireland....
from aquacultural destruction. After some deliberation, he concluded that work and family commitments would not allow him the time necessary to fill the political position. Some say that the passing of his priest brother Joseph at that time had a significant influence on his decision.
Sport
Coulter is a former president of Derry City Football ClubDerry City F.C.
Derry City Football Club is a professional football club based in Derry, Northern Ireland. It plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division...
and is known to be a supporter of the club, having attempted to help the club with its financial problems in the early 2000s. He has also helped Derry City's local rivals, Finn Harps
Finn Harps F.C.
Finn Harps Football Club are a professional Irish football club playing in the First Division of the League of Ireland. The club was founded in 1954 and elected to the league in 1969. They hail from Ballybofey, County Donegal and play their home matches at Finn Park. The club's colours are blue...
, in their time of need.
In 1995, the Irish Rugby Football Union
Irish Rugby Football Union
The Irish Rugby Football Union is the body managing rugby union in Ireland. The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where Irish rugby union international matches are played...
commissioned Coulter to write a politically neutral anthem for the Ireland national rugby union team
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...
, which represents both Northern Ireland and Ireland. The result was "Ireland's Call
Ireland's Call
Ireland's Call is a song commissioned by the Irish Rugby Football Union for use at international Rugby Union fixtures.It has since also been adopted by the Irish Hockey, Cricket, Rugby League and A1GP teams.- Overview :...
", which is played alongside of, and in some cases instead of, Amhrán na bhFiann
Amhrán na bhFiann
is the national anthem of Ireland. The music was composed by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney, and the original English lyrics were authored by Kearney. It is sung in the Irish language translation made by Liam Ó Rinn. The song has three verses, but the national anthem consists of the chorus only...
. As well as being used by both the Ireland national rugby union team and the junior national teams, "Ireland's Call" has since also been adopted by the Ireland's national hockey
Ireland national field hockey team
Ireland national field hockey team represents Ireland at men's international field hockey. It is organised by the Irish Hockey Association. Usually the team represents the entire island of Ireland and plays under a special flag. The exception is Olympic hockey, where the team represents only the...
, cricket and rugby league
Ireland national rugby league team
The Ireland national rugby league team, known as the Wolfhounds, represent the island of Ireland in rugby league football. The team is organized by Rugby League Ireland and are accredited as an affiliate member of the Rugby League International Federation...
teams.