The Great Northern (Sacred) Songbook

Earlier this year, Radio Ulster held a public vote to find the ten most popular songs written by Northern Ireland artists. You can find out more here on the BBC Northern Ireland website. The winner was the 2001 song 'Shining Light' by Downpatrick rock trio Ash - a great piece of guitar pop and I think a worthy winner.

The lyrics of 'Shining Light' have occasional oblique Biblical references - 'a constellation once seen over Royal David's city' and so on (read them here and pick out the references for yourself). I'm not saying that 'Shining Light' is a gospel song, but it made me wonder what the top ten Northern Ireland / Ulster written gospel songs would be. So in a few days time I'm going to post here my own top ten Great Northern (Sacred) Songbook - readers suggestions are very welcome.

To be continued...

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry; below is the video of 'Shining Light':