The Diviners commemorate the 400th anniversary of one of the strangest events in Cork City’s history.
This new folk song, which is described as a dark, compelling narrative written by Ciarán Ruby is a love story set against the backdrop of a real historical event.
Over the course of three days in October 1621, two vast armies fought in the skies above Cork City, Ireland.
Recorded in a pamphlet of the time as ‘The Wonderfull Battell of Starelings’, witnesses spoke of streets littered with dead and dying birds, beaks and talons impaled in each other.
Seen by citizens as a portent of ill things to come, the following year Cork burnt to the ground in a fire caused by a lightning strike.
400 years later, for the anniversary of this strange war of the birds, The Diviners are proud to release ‘Battle of the Starlings’.
‘Battle of the Starlings’ features folky instrumental melodies that are both haunting but also uplifting as The Diviners deliver stirring vocals, in part due to the beautiful lilt of the Irish accent.
The song is both powerful and moving, which imagines a couple on their wedding day who bear witness to this terrifying conflagration.
