Moving Hearts: The Quiz

Answer: 1981

"Moving Hearts" contained the tracks, "Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette", "Irish Ways and Irish Laws", "McBride's", "Before the Deluge", "Landlord", "Category", "Faithful Departed", "Lake of Shadows" and "No Time for Love".

Answer: A fusion of rock music, jazz and traditional Irish music

The band combined traditional instruments such as bodhrán (Moore), bouzouki (Lunny) and uilleann pipes (Davy Spillane), with the more recognisably rock instruments of bass, drums and saxophone.

Answer: Planxty

Moore and Lunny, together with Andy Irvine and Liam O'Flynn, formed Planxty in 1972. The four had worked on Moore's solo album, "Prosperous", and the group was a natural progression. Donal Lunny left the band in 1973 and went on to join the Bothy Band. Christy Moore left the following year. Although Planxty enjoyed considerable success in Europe, they disbanded in the mid-seventies.

The original line-up of Planxty reformed in 1979 and, was sufficiently well regarded in Ireland, to be invited to perform, during the interval, at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest.

Answer: Riverdance

"Riverdance" was written by Irish composer, Bill Whelan and was originally performed during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest. Whelan had previously written "Timedance", itself performed at the 1981 contest by Planxty. Such was the reception to the piece, that a show was developed that premiered in Dublin at the beginning of 1995, before embarking on an international tour.

Whilst Van Morrison is not the correct answer, Moving Hearts do appear on his 1984 album, "A Sense of Wonder".

Answer: Jackson Browne

"Some of them were angry,
At the way the earth was abused,
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power.
And they struggled to protect her from them,
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour.
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived,
In the naked dawn, only a few survived;
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge,
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge."

"Late for the Sky" was nominated for a Grammy in 1975.

The early 1980s were a time of heightened awareness of the threat to the world posed by nuclear weapons and the apocalypticism of "Before the Deluge" (not specifically referring to nuclear weapons) sits alongside other Moving Hearts songs such as "Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette" and "Remember the Brave Ones".

The debut album also contains a cover of "Faithful Departed", written by Phil Chevron (aka Philip Ryan) of the Pogues and the Radiators From Space.

Answer: Irish Ways and Irish Laws

"Irish Ways and Irish Laws" was written by John Gibbs. Sinead O'Connor's version is found on a 1991 CD single, accompanying "Silent Night".

Christy Moore dropped his support for the armed struggle following the IRA's bombing of Enniskillen in 1987.

Answer: Brother

Barry Moore (aka Luka Bloom) is Christy's younger brother. When launching what has been a successful career as a singer and musician, he chose to set aside his birth name so as to avoid comparison with Christy. The pseudonym, under which he writes and performs, is constructed from a Suzanne Vega single ("Luka") and the main character in a James Joyce novel ("Ulysses").

"Dark End of the Street" (1982) contained the tracks, "Remember The Brave Ones", "Dark End Of The Street", "All I Remember", "Let Somebody Know", "What Will You Do About Me?", "Downtown", "Allende", and "Half-Moon".

Answer: Salvador Allende

"But the dollars like swallows, they fly to the south
Where they know they've something to gain
Allende is killed
And the trucks are soon rolling again

It's a long way from the Heartland to Santiago Bay
Where the good doctor lies with blood in his eyes
And the bullets read US of A"

"Song for Allende" was written by American singer-songwriter, Don Lange. Salvador Allende, democratically elected president of Chile, died in a 1973 CIA backed army coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Answer: The Storm

"The Storm" was released in 1985. It was followed, in 1986, by a live album, "Live Hearts", although this concert recording comes from 1983. From this point, Moving Hearts effectively disbanded, coming together only very occasionally for live appearances.

Answer: 2008

Such is the reputation of Moving Hearts in Ireland that, despite having produced no new music for over two decades, the band were nominated in the Traditional/Folk category of the 2008 Meteor Music Awards (Ireland's national awards). The present incarnation is, again, without Christy Moore.