Philomena Begley

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Philomena Begley is an Irish country music singer from Pomeroy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

Philomena Begley modestly says, "When I started out I did not even think I would be singing with The Old Cross Ceili Band. It was just by chance that friends of mine dared me to go up from the audience and sing with the band at a Ceili in Pomeroy Co Tyrone. Afterwards the boys asked me to stay for a few local gigs and then they kept me."

After a few years, in the 1970's this band became The Country Flavour. They kept this name for about 12 years before Philomena formed the Ramblin' Men in 1974. She regularly toured with Ray Lynam in 1975 and they recorded many duets together and had huge successes with some of them. Probably their most popular being "My Elusive Dreams" which is mentioned in The Pogues' song, "A Pair of Brown Eyes".

Begley had a huge hit with her version of Billie Jo Spears' hit song "Blanket on the Ground" which took her to the top of the charts in Ireland. "We were coming home from dance date late one night in 1975 when we heard Billie Jo Spears singing "Blanket on the Ground" on a radio programme on the American Forces Network", she related. Her manager at the time, Tony Loughman, thought it had hit potential so he got her a copy of the song from America.

"Tony knew someone in America who could get the song over to us quickly and as soon as it arrived I went straight into the studio and recorded it. We were so busy on the road that it had to be recorded during the only available spare time we had and that was before a dance date on the night that we got the song."

"Anyway it was a lucky break for us that we got the song released over here (Ireland) before Billie Jo even had it released in England. So you could say I got a few steps ahead of her when laying the Blanket on the Ground on this side of the Atlantic," quips Philomena, "Some years afterwards I got to meet her and she laughed and said "are you the B**** that recorded my song?!" She told me then that she was over here to promote the song and she was sitting in a cafe in Derry when she heard it on a jukebox. She could not believe that someone had it out here before she had got a chance to promote it. We had a good laugh about it all and I asked her "sure isn't that my song now?".

Philomena has also released her own "Countrified" version of the ABBA song "The Way Old Friend's Do". This has now become very popular among Irish Country singers and many have also covered this classic in more recent times but Phil was the first. Her version even almost had her competing with ABBA in the British Hit Parade! When asked what led to her recording the song Philomena answers, "My brother Kieran bought an ABBA album which included "The Way Old Friends Do" and I just kept playing it and playing it. I got the idea to put a wee Country feel to it and we tried it out with amazing success. It went down really well especially with audiences all over the UK and I would finish off the theatre show with that song and get all the audiences to join hands and the reaction just went from strength to strength."

Philomena Begley later toured with her own band "Shotgun" in the 90's and is still performing and recording today. She has truly earned her title of Ireland's Queen of Country! Even Daniel O'Donnell, Ireland's current international superstar singing sensation says Philomena Begley is one of the stars who inspired him to go into show business and he has even named her as his favourite Irish artist.

[edit] Current Discography

• THE PHILOMENA BEGLEY COLLECTION:

Village In County Tyrone HHCD 231

Once Around The Dance Floor HHCD 232

Red Is The Rose HHCD 233

The Way Old Friends Do HHCD 234

• The Way Old Friends Do PADDY CD 10
• Ireland's Country Queens "The Way Old Friends Do" (With Margo O'Donnell) PADDY CD 17
• My Elusive Dreams (With Ray Lynam) PLATCD 746