Mary Black is woven into the fabric of Irish society.
Her pioneering album No Frontiers was an outstanding and ground breaking work that still resonates with Irish people today.
It's wonderful to see the legacy of the album now. At my gigs I would see people my own generation but now I also see those younger men and women who have had the music passed down to them or have discovered it themselves and it's a very emotional experience.
And Mary herself has passed the musical gift down to her own offspring, the ever present and super talented Danny O'Reilly of The Coronas and the wonderful and uniquely talented Roisin O. The podcast also contains a wonderful version of the title track which includes her daughter Roisin.
Mary spoke to Fergal D'Arcy on our very specially show Fergal D'Arcy's Very Irish Christmas dedicated to the some of the best and most enduring figures in Irish music.
Released in 1989 at the height of the Irish emigration it struck a real note with the Irish diaspora dispersed throughout the world.
It spent 56 weeks in the Irish Top 30 and remains one of the best selling Irish albums ever.
