I also adore language, and languages, and I'm particularly attracted to languages that are or have been near to extinction. I love hearing stories of the languages experiencing a revival or renaissance. So, of course, I happen to have a pretty intense interest in Celtic languages. Still learning Welsh. Irish is on my list.
All of this means that when I discovered Seo Linn last year, I was in heaven - folk music sung in Irish? GET IT IN MY EARS, RIGHT MEOW! (For the record, Seo Linn is a bilingual band. They sing in English and Irish both)
Anyway, I made a point of sharing their version of Óró 'Sé Do Bheatha 'Bhaile when I heard it.
They've recently dropped another modern take on an old Irish folk tune, and once again, I am in love with the music.
For me, this turns the song from the lament of a mourning widow (or young woman who never got the chance to marry her love) into something broader - the lament for an entire people, a lament for the oppressed (fuck colonial Britain. Seriously).
It was such a small little detail, but it shifted the entire song.
Anyway, enjoy. I certainly have been.
Ciao!