- Culture
- 30 Sep 22
Patrick Kavanagh Almost Everything… has outsold Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, becoming the only poetry album to ever top the Irish chart.
Patrick Kavanagh Almost Everything…, released on September 23rd on Claddagh Records, is officially No. 1 in the Irish Compilation Charts.
According to today’s official chart figures, the LP has also become the highest charting compilation album of the year and the first poetry album ever to top the Irish charts.
The album, available on LP and double CD, sold more units than the rest of the Top 10 Compilation Chart albums combined. The accolade comes 55 years after Patrick Kavanagh’s death.
Although ineligible for inclusion in the Official Artist Charts, owing to the fact that one part of the album features new readers of the seminal poet's work, Patrick Kavanagh Almost Everything… still outsold this week’s No. 1 album, Harry Styles Harry’s House, in Ireland.
Originally released on Claddagh Records in 1964, Patrick Kavanagh Almost Everything… is a double album, which features the only recording of the revered poet reading his most celebrated works.
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Now remastered and reimagined, this new two-part album features the original recordings and Kavanagh’s poetry read by Bono, Hozier, Imelda May, Liam Neeson, Jessie Buckley, Aidan Gillen, Lisa McGee, Lisa Hannigan, President Michael D. Higgins, Evanna Lynch, Sharon Corr, Kathleen Watkins, Christy Moore, Rachael Blackmore and Aisling Bea set to a stunning music composition.
The music on this record was recorded by Cormac Butler - producer extraordinaire, songwriter and mix engineer of Faction Records. Cormac has an extensive and wide-ranging discography from All Tvvins and James Vincent McMorrow to Sorcha Richardson, The Academic, Gavin James and The Coronas.
Spoken word albums with Patrick Kavanagh, Samuel Beckett, Austin Clarke, John Montague, Thomas Kinsella and Seamus Heaney have also been released on Claddagh Records, which was set up in by the Hon. Garech Browne (19) and his friend, Ivor Browne - both students of uilleann piper Leo Rowsome.
Watch Liam Neeson read 'Memory Of My Father' below.