{"id":593913,"date":"2026-07-19T18:59:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/593913\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T18:59:37","slug":"ive-put-all-my-savings-into-this-wolfe-tones-legend-brings-new-musical-about-the-great-famine-to-the-stage-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/593913\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve put all my savings into this\u2019: Wolfe Tones legend brings new musical about the Great Famine to the stage \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wolfe Tones legend Brian Warfield has invested all his savings in a new musical about the Great Famine.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1823, the show follows star-crossed lovers Se\u00e1n and Siobh\u00e1n, 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"‘I’ve<\/a>\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Initially staged last year on a budget of around \u20ac200,000, the production was, he said, relatively modest for a musical of its size.<\/p>\n

\"LordLord 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. <\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>\u201cNo matter what answer you give, it\u2019s not going to satisfy them\u201d – Wolfe Tones frontman reflects on 60 years as band bows out<\/a><\/p>\n

Determined to develop it further, he used proceeds from the sale of a holiday home, money earned from The Wolfe Tones\u2019 farewell shows and his personal savings to fund its return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put it together last year as a try-out and it worked pretty well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a lot of money to put it on, but this year we thought we would bring it up to another level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t mind. This one is for Ireland. It is the story of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>\u2018We still have the fire\u2019 – No sign of retirement for The Wolfe Tones as they announce yet more Irish dates<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheThe Wolfe Tones’ ‘retirement’ has been a long goodbye <\/p>\n

\n

All my savings and everything else went into this musical because nobody wanted to invest. But I don\u2019t mind. This one is for Ireland<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Brian Warfield<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He believes Irish history has never received the same major theatrical treatment as the stories told through productions such as Les Mis\u00e9rables and Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody else\u2019s story is out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have Les Mis, Hamilton and Oklahoma!, but there is no Irish show out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>The Wolfe Tones and Celtic Symphony: Why is the song contentious?<\/a><\/p>\n

\"CastCast of Celtic Exodus. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost millions of our people through death and emigration, and I wanted to tell that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rather than telling the story solely through historical events and statistics, Brian placed the relationship between Se\u00e1n and Siobh\u00e1n at its centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing is trying to tell that story and make it accessible to people, because I didn\u2019t want it to be all gore,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what I did was tell the story through two people in love.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are inclined to look back at episodes in history like this as statistics. You don\u2019t see them as real people, but they were exactly like you and me. We are their descendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey loved their music, they loved dancing, they loved the craic and they loved going out and having a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have money, they didn\u2019t have much land, they didn\u2019t have much of anything, but they still found happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian admits he continues to be moved by the production despite having written its story and music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I watch it, I laugh and I cry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Wolfe Tones playing at Falls Park in 2019 for Feile An Phobail <\/p>\n

\u201cI am a very sensitive guy. I used to cry at movies and my family would point at me and say, \u2018Look, he\u2019s crying\u2019, to embarrass me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I was always sensitive to sorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

That emotional journey is carried by 20 original songs, written from the perspectives of the musical\u2019s characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real mix of songs in there,\u201d Brian explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are ones that are quite funny, like the one where Siobh\u00e1n\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen there\u2019s 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\u2019s really heartfelt and emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think the audience will hopefully get to experience a whole spectrum of emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt squeezes in everything that was happening at the time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe workhouses, public works, the food depots, the evictions. It tells the story, and I\u2019m very happy with that piece of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>\u2018He belonged to Belfast\u2019- Why people are gathering to retrace the last steps of Henry Joy McCracken, martyr of the 1798 Rebellion, through the streets of his home city this weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheThe Wolfe Tones performed at the 2023 F\u00e9ile an Phobail concert in the Falls Park. Picture Mal McCann <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a songwriter, once I research and know what I am writing about, I have no problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife is not too happy with me,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the other guys\u2019 wives have their husbands retired, so she says, \u2018When are you retiring? When are we going on holiday?\u2019<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Wolfe Tones performing at Belfast’s F\u00e9ile an Phobail in 2023. Picture by Mal McCann <\/p>\n

\u201cBut God bless her, she has been very patient with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the production prepares to open at Dublin\u2019s Mansion House, Brian hopes audiences of all ages will leave with a stronger understanding of the people whose lives were transformed by the Famine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, like The Wolfe Tones, it will have an audience from nine to 90,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other Irish story out there like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts the history into the perspective of human beings, rather than a history book filled with pages of statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were human beings who were enjoying life. Little though they may have had, they had a great time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were exactly like us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic Exodus – The Musical will run at Dublin\u2019s Mansion House from July 22 to August 20. For tickets and additional information visit <\/b>celticexodusmusical.com<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wolfe Tones legend Brian Warfield has invested all his savings in a new musical about the Great Famine.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[20992,52,18,117,19,17,4512,120527],"class_list":["post-593913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-celtic","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-musicals","tag-wolfe-tones"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116948183921136311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}