Hello, I'm Kristi Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

The program was originally broadcast in 1981, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

On our Desert Island this week is the Irish singer Mary O'Harder. Mary, to you, apart from

the loneliness, what would be the most frightening thing about being on a desert island?

Well, may I say for a story that I wouldn't be frightened of the loneliness?

I would probably be very happy because I have within me the resources that make it easy for me

to be alone by myself for any length of time, so that wouldn't be a thing that would put me off at all.

Is there anything that would worry you particularly in the situation?

Well, I'd probably spend a great deal of my time making massive acts of self abandonment

to find providence, to either, you know, to get me out of it or to arrange things that

would be livable. What would you want music to do for you?

Tell you up, remind you of the past, inspire you? Inspire me, I think, would be its main function

to recreate me to be a means of recreation. Where do we start? What's the first one you chose?

Well, the first one is music by Sean O'Rietha, who was one of our

greatest Irish composers who died in the last few years. And it's from Misha Era, which is

film music that you wrote from Misha Era. And this particular piece from it is called

Cochrane, which means Scalic, and it means victory. And the reason I've chosen it is because

it's based on one of our greatest, what you might call, classic folk songs, Rojín du.

It dates from about this 17th century. It's very beautiful, the words and the music.

And

an excerpt from Sean O'Rietha's film music to the film, Misha Era, played by the radio

era and symphony orchestra. What part of Ireland do you come from, Erie?

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