Folk legend Peggy Seeger has told RTÉ Entertainment that she will be celebrating her 87th birthday while on tour in Ireland in June.
The big day is on 17 June, when 'Folk's First Lady' will be playing in Kilkenny with her son and fellow musician Calum MacColl.
They are touring Ireland in support of her most recent album First Farewell - Mojo Magazine's Folk Album of the Year in 2021.
The shows come 66 years after Seeger's first visit to these shores.
"My first visit was in 1956," she recounted to RTÉ Entertainment. "I was green-as-grass 21-years-old, wet behind the ears and ready for anything - and plunged headlong into everything! Me Da [folklorist Charles Seeger] was still in control of his offspring back then and what a wonder it all was!
"I met Sarah Makem [fellow singer and the mother of Tommy and Jack Makem] and the whole Clancy family. We travelled to the home of Paddy Tunney [singer]. His first child was only six months or so old, and I learned how a vigorous physical lullaby can put a child to sleep.
"We visited villages that still had muddy streets, wooden-wheeled carts, below-street-level entrances and half doors, with women leaning on the lower half, greeting every passer-by.
"I am North American middle-class by birth and going to Ireland in 1956 was like entering a fairy tale. I was thoroughly entranced and still regard Éire as my real introduction to the 'Olde World', as we call it in the USA."
Of her plans for her birthday, Seeger said: "I only have one plan, which is turn 87. At some point I will buy myself something special... maybe a small room fountain for hydrolysing my house, which is really too dry for the instruments.
"I don't find touring tough because I have a superb team who do everything for me. Almost everything. Our tour manager, sound engineer and my son Calum lift, carry, set up all of the tour merch, sound equipment, instruments, suitcases, travelling kitchen. All I have to do is sing and take care of myself. What could be tough about that?"
When asked by RTÉ Entertainment if she had celebrated any other birthday in Ireland, Seeger replied: "I don't think so... I would have remembered!"
As for her favourite piece of birthday wisdom, she concluded: "Birthdays are a good thing to have. It's bad luck if you don't have them!"
Peggy Seeger and Calum MacColl play:
2 June Hawks Well Theatre, Sligo
3 June Townhall Theatre, Cavan
4 June Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge
6 June St John's Arts Centre, Listowel (afternoon concert)
7 June St John's Arts Centre, Listowel (evening concert)
8 June Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick
9 June Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
11 June Róisín Dubh, Galway
12 June Doolin Folk Festival, Doolin
15 June Séamus Heaney Homeplace, Bellaghy
16 June Black Box, Belfast
17 June Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
18 June Source Arts Centre, Thurles
19 June The White Horse, Ballincollig
