Trad stalwart Gerry Diver gives an Irish release on February 3 to Speech Project, a genre-straddling album, which includes exclusive spoken word contributions from Shane MacGowan, Damien Dempsey, Christy Moore, Martin Hayes and Danny Meehan and archive interviews from the great Joo Cooley.

Born in Manchester to Irish parents, Weever studied at UCC under Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and then went on to form Sin é who signed to Paddy Moloney’s world music label, Wicklow Records.

Since then he’s been a member of Shane MacGowan’s band The Popes, recorded with the likes of Van Morrison and Laurie Anderson and produced hotly-tipped UK folkster Lisa Knapp and former Beautiful South man Paul Heaton.

Old Time Musicians - Music Video from Gerry Diver on Vimeo.