Wolfe Tones legend Brian Warfield has invested all his savings in a new musical about the Great Famine.
Brian began working on Celtic Exodus – The Musical more than 30 years ago, but the demands of touring the world with the band meant the project remained on the back burner until the Irish folk group announced their initial plans to retire in 2023.
Beginning in 1823, the show follows star-crossed lovers Seán and Siobhán, whose hopes of a future together are threatened when the potato crop fails, plunging their village into starvation and a desperate struggle to escape eviction and reach America.
Speaking to The Irish News, Brian said the scale of his ambition for the production had required him to invest everything he had earned and saved.
Initially staged last year on a budget of around €200,000, the production was, he said, relatively modest for a musical of its size.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Ray McAdam with Brian Warfield and Larry Bass pictured with the cast at the launch of Celtic Exodus-The Musical written by Brian Warfield which opens for a historic four week run in the Mansion House, Dublin from 22nd July – 20th August 2026.
Determined to develop it further, he used proceeds from the sale of a holiday home, money earned from The Wolfe Tones’ farewell shows and his personal savings to fund its return.
“We put it together last year as a try-out and it worked pretty well,” he said.
“We didn’t have a lot of money to put it on, but this year we thought we would bring it up to another level.
“I had sold a holiday home and I had made a bit of money from the shows we had done with The Wolfe Tones, so all my savings and everything else went into this musical because nobody wanted to invest.
“But I don’t mind. This one is for Ireland. It is the story of Ireland.”
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All my savings and everything else went into this musical because nobody wanted to invest. But I don’t mind. This one is for Ireland
— Brian Warfield
Having spent more than six decades singing about Irish history with The Wolfe Tones, Brian sees Celtic Exodus as a continuation of that work in a different form.
He believes Irish history has never received the same major theatrical treatment as the stories told through productions such as Les Misérables and Hamilton.
“Everybody else’s story is out there,” he said.
“You have Les Mis, Hamilton and Oklahoma!, but there is no Irish show out there.
“We are a nation of singers and storytellers, and I wanted to let people know what happened to the Irish people and why there are so many Irish people scattered all over the world.
Read more: The Wolfe Tones and Celtic Symphony: Why is the song contentious?
Cast of Celtic Exodus.
“We lost millions of our people through death and emigration, and I wanted to tell that story.”
He explains that one of his greatest challenges was depicting the devastation of the Famine in a way that respected the tragedy while still engrossing and entertaining an audience.
Rather than telling the story solely through historical events and statistics, Brian placed the relationship between Seán and Siobhán at its centre.
“The hardest thing is trying to tell that story and make it accessible to people, because I didn’t want it to be all gore,” he explained.
“So what I did was tell the story through two people in love.
“We are inclined to look back at episodes in history like this as statistics. You don’t see them as real people, but they were exactly like you and me. We are their descendants.
“They loved their music, they loved dancing, they loved the craic and they loved going out and having a good time.
“They didn’t have money, they didn’t have much land, they didn’t have much of anything, but they still found happiness.”
Brian admits he continues to be moved by the production despite having written its story and music.
“When I watch it, I laugh and I cry,” he said.
The Wolfe Tones playing at Falls Park in 2019 for Feile An Phobail
“I am a very sensitive guy. I used to cry at movies and my family would point at me and say, ‘Look, he’s crying’, to embarrass me.
“But I was always sensitive to sorrow.”
That emotional journey is carried by 20 original songs, written from the perspectives of the musical’s characters.
“There’s a real mix of songs in there,” Brian explains.
“There are ones that are quite funny, like the one where Siobhán’s father wants her to agree to an arranged marriage and he sings about how love is just vanity, abstract and illusionary, and how, as time goes by, it fizzles out and dies.
“Then there’s another one about a mother whose children have emigrated and left her behind. She sings about them being gone and calls on them to come home. It’s really heartfelt and emotional.
“So I think the audience will hopefully get to experience a whole spectrum of emotion.”
Brian will also make a cameo appearance as a reporter for the Illustrated London News, delivering an account of the conditions facing people in Ireland in January 1847 through a five-minute poem.
“It squeezes in everything that was happening at the time,” he said.
“The workhouses, public works, the food depots, the evictions. It tells the story, and I’m very happy with that piece of work.”
The Wolfe Tones performed at the 2023 Féile an Phobail concert in the Falls Park. Picture Mal McCann
Although writing for a theatrical narrative differed from composing hits such as Celtic Symphony, A Nation Once Again and Streets of New York, Brian said his process continued to revolve around extensive research.
“As a songwriter, once I research and know what I am writing about, I have no problem,” he said.
Although he admits none of it would have been possible without the support of his wife, who has given him the freedom to pursue the musical after more than six decades on the road.
“My wife is not too happy with me,” he joked.
“All the other guys’ wives have their husbands retired, so she says, ‘When are you retiring? When are we going on holiday?’
The Wolfe Tones performing at Belfast’s Féile an Phobail in 2023. Picture by Mal McCann
“But God bless her, she has been very patient with me.
“A new episode has opened up and I am excited, but I have to thank her for bearing with me and giving me the rope to go out there and do a little bit more.”
As the production prepares to open at Dublin’s Mansion House, Brian hopes audiences of all ages will leave with a stronger understanding of the people whose lives were transformed by the Famine.
“I think, like The Wolfe Tones, it will have an audience from nine to 90,” he said.
“There is no other Irish story out there like this.
“It puts the history into the perspective of human beings, rather than a history book filled with pages of statistics.
“These were human beings who were enjoying life. Little though they may have had, they had a great time.
“They were exactly like us.”
Celtic Exodus – The Musical will run at Dublin’s Mansion House from July 22 to August 20. For tickets and additional information visit celticexodusmusical.com.