Songs for Ireland

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day—a celebration that, as far as I can tell, is Irish-American rather than Irish in origin—I’ve been thinking about a quote from G.K. Chesterton:

For the great Gaels of Ireland

Are the men that God made mad.

For all their wars are merry

And all their songs are sad.

Not entirely true, of course, although I guess I can see why it might look that way at times. Because a lot of the songs are about the bitterness and misery of war, and the men (almost always the men) who are consumed by it.

A prime example of that is “The Patriot Game”, which was written by Dominic Behan, brother of the larger-than-life playwright Brendan Behan. (The Behan boys were also nephews of Pedar Kearney, who wrote the lyrics to what’s now the national anthem of Ireland. Think about a nation whose national anthem is called “The Soldier’s Song”.) Here's Behan himself to sing it.

Mary Black’s “Song for Ireland” is an impressionistic survey of the country. But even this captures the disconnect between the dream and waking views.

Since this is, as I wot, an Irish-American holiday, I’ll give you another viewpoint: Cherish The Ladies’ “The Back Door”. For so many years, this was the future of Ireland: its best and brightest slinking into other countries to make a living on the grey economy.

It has other resonances, too. I can’t tell you what the cry, “I want my own bed, my own kitchen” has meant to me over the years.

Finally—one of my earliest experiences of Irish music was of course the Clancy Brothers (and Tommy Makem, although I wasn’t that wild about him). And one of their signature pieces was this one. If you’re summing up a life, of any nationality, there couldn’t possibly be a better one than “The Parting Glass”. If there’s a wake at the end of my run, someone better be singing this.

Sláinte bha!