Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
posted
Erin Go Bragh! Here is a very funny column by one of my favorite writers that explains what all the fuss is about. Ann-OH
Irish music sustains us through tragedy and joy
By Regina Brett
Oh, the angst of the Irish.
The poet Yeats described it best: "Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy."
I've been listening to Irish music for weeks in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day.
My CD of the New Barleycorn live at the public house is nearly worn out.
Last week my grandson, who just turned 5, and his 2 1/2-year-old sister were in the back seat of my car. "Play Irish music!" they ordered from their car seats.
I obliged, since we're Irish and that's the only thing in the CD player for the month of March.
Usually Asher wants only one song over and over. "Wild Rover." The two of them love to sing along, And it's no, nay, never.
Every so often Ainsley screams out the forbidden lyric," Like hell!" which is a bit unnerving coming from a child you just picked up from finger-painting at pre-school.
I skip over the song, "Whiskey in the Jar." I don't want them singing that during show and share.
My grandkids used to just listen to the songs, then they started singing along. We're at a new phase. They want to know the meaning of the lyrics. Yikes.
"The Mermaid" comes on. "What is this song about?" Asher asks.
"It's about a ship," I tell him.
Three times around, spun our gallant ship, and three times around spun she. Three times around, spun our gallant ship and she sank to the bottom of the sea.
The little landlubber in the back is troubled.
"What happened to the people on the ship? Did they sink?" he asks.
"They sank, but they had diving masks on and swam to the top," I lie.
On to "The Irish Rover." We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags, we had two million barrels of bones. We had three million sides of old blind horses hides, we had four million barrels of stones. We had five million hogs, six million dogs...
"How many dogs?" Asher asks, trying to do the math.
"It's a song. It's just pretend. They're just telling a made-up story," I explain.
The ship struck a rock, oh, Lord what a shock, and nearly turned right over. Turned nine times around and the poor old dog was drowned. I'm the last of the Irish Rover.
Thank goodness the singer's brogue is too thick for the kids to understand those words about the dog dying.
Then I hear a sad question from the back of the car. "Why do all the ships sink?" Asher asks.
Because it's an Irish song, I want to say, but I don't. "See, Ireland is an island, so a lot of the songs are about ships, and uh..." I mumble.
I skip to "McIntyre." They'll love yelling out the name in the chorus.
And there was Brown, upside down, lickin' up the whiskey on the floor. "Booze, booze" the firemen cried as they came knockin' at the door. Don't let them in till it's all mopped up. Somebody shouted, "McIntyre!'"
Asher looks scared. "Why is the pub on fire? Who set the fire?"
At least he didn't ask about the whiskey. I dodged one bullet. I skip around to find a safe tune. Ah, "The Unicorn Song."
There was green alligators and long-necked geese, some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees. Cats and rats and elephants, as sure as you're born, the loveliest of all was the unicorn.
Sweet, right? Until the unicorns die.
Noah is loading up the ark and the unicorns miss the boat. The ark started moving, and drifting with the tide. The unicorns looked up from the rocks and they cried. The waters came down and sort of floated them away, and that's why you never see a unicorn to this very, very day.
Oh, Lord. And people wonder why the Irish drink.
As Sigmund Freud once said of our people: "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."
posted
Lotsa St Paddy's Day fun around these parts...
I saw a large long squiggly green balloon in front of a bar and thought, ah, they have a large drunken green spirochete celebrating there!
Posts: 13116 | From San Francisco | Registered: May 2006
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Ann-OH
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 2020
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